Brian Minhinnick's page

DM hasn't actually seen the complete character yet. Even without the bloodline mutations, if he decides those are too much, I'll still be plenty powerful to keep me happy.

In any case, thank you all for the discussion and education, it has been very enlightening.

Sweet, thanks again!

Only thing I’m not clear on now is why I’d need special permission from the DM to take bloodline mutations instead of powers.

For one thing you're missing the +1 per die which the orc bloodline gives you and the additional +1 per die which blood havoc gives you. Though I'm not sure you qualify for blood havoc, generally it's only the unmodified bloodlines which other classes can access.

Ah, per die! Derp, read it as a flat bonus for some reason.

What do you mean by unmodified bloodlines? Isn't gaining the bloodline from the archetype the same thing as having it as a sorc?

So 3x 5d6+20
Empowered 3x 5d6+30
Intensified empowered 3x 9d6+30?

I'm only seeing caster level 18...someone upthread was saying I could get it up to 20. 13 from class+1 orange prism+1 bloodmage initiate+2 spell spec+1 varisian tattoo = 18. Where are the other two caster levels coming from?

Okay, here is my final build I think:

Master Blaster
Male blood arcanist 13
N Medium aberration (orc)
Init +1; Senses darkvision 90 ft.; Perception +15
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 13, touch 11, flat-footed 12 (+1 Dex, +2 natural armor)
hp 80 (13d6+26)

Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +10
Immune Fear

Weaknesses light blindness (negated by Lenses of Darkness)
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 20 ft.

Special Attacks arcane reservoir (16/16), arcanist exploits (greater metamagic knowledge, metamagic knowledge, potent magic (spend 1 point, caster level +2), metamixing, consume spells

Bloodline:Orc

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 13th; concentration +16)
1/day alter self

Typical Arcanist Spells Prepared (CL 14th; concentration +22)
0 - acid splash, daze, detect magic, detect poison, light, mage hand, mending, message, prestidigitation
1st (6/7) - blood money x2, magic missile, mage armor, vanish, windy escape
2nd (4/6) - defending bone, false life, glitterdust, mirror image, web
3rd (6/6) - empowered battering blast x3, beast shape 1, heroism, slow
4th (6/6) - intensified empowered battering blast x2, confusion, dimension door x2, stoneskin
5th (4/6) - animal growth, life bubble, overland flight
6th (4/4) - dazing empowered battering blast x2, greater heroism, true seeing

(-2 final spell level for metamagic battering blast. +4 caster level for battering blast, +2 for other evocations. )
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 8, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 28, Wis 8, Cha 16
Base Atk +6; CMB +5; CMD 16

Traits: Magical Lineage (Battering Blast), Metamagic Master (Battering Blast)

Feats Bloodmage Initiate (Evocation), Dazing Spell, Empower Spell, Greater Spell Penetration, Intensify Spell* (GMK), Spell Focus (evocation), Spell Penetration, Spell Specialization (Battering Blast), Varisian Tattoo (Evocation)

Skills Acrobatics +17, Fly +15, Knowledge (arcana) +25, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +13, Knowledge (local) +25, Knowledge (nature) +13, Knowledge (planes) +25, Knowledge (religion) +13, Linguistics +25, Perception +15, Perform (sing) +10, Sleight of Hand +7, Spellcraft +25, Use Magic Device +19

Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Celestial, Common, Elven, Giant, Orc, Thassilonian, 16 more

SQ arcane focus, versatile evocation

Combat Gear extend metamagic rod, lesser extend metamagic rod, scroll of arcane sight, dispel magic (CL 15th), greater infernal healing, teleport (CL 15th), true seeing; Other Gear cloak of resistance +3, headband of vast intelligence +6, lenses of darkness[ARG], orange prism ioun stone, ring of sustenance, arcanist starting spellbook, 74 gp

--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Bloodline Arcana You gain the orc subtype, including darkvision 60 feet and light sensitivity. If you already have darkvision, its range increases to 90 feet. Whenever you cast a spell that deals damage, that spell deals +1 point of damage per die rolled.

Blood Havoc Whenever you cast an arcanist spell that deals damage, add 1 point of damage per die rolled. This benefit applies only to damaging spells that belong to schools you have selected with Spell Focus or that are bloodline spells for your bloodline.

Fearless (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain a +4 bonus on saving throws made against fear and a +1 natural armor bonus. At 9th level, you lose your light sensitivity, gain immunity to fear, and your natural armor bonus increases to +2.

Blood Intensity Whenever you cast an arcanist spell that deals damage, you can increase its maximum number of damage dice by an amount equal to your Strength or Charisma modifier, whichever is higher. This otherwise functions as —and does not stack with—the Intensified Spell feat. You can use this ability once per day at 3rd level and one additional time per day for every 4 caster levels you have beyond 3rd, up to five times per day at 19th level.

Arcane Focus (Ex) +2 to concentration checks to cast arcane spells defensively.

Arcane Reservoir +2 DC or CL (16/day) (Su) Pool of points fuel exploits, or can expend to add +2 CL or DC while cast spell.

Consume Spells (3/day) (Su) As a move action, expend a spell slot to add its spell levels to arcane reservoir.

Greater Metamagic Knowledge When preparing spells, can exchange bonus MM feat for another that qualify for.

Greater Spell Focus (Evocation) +1 to the Save DC of spells from one school.

Light Blindness (Ex) Bright light blinds for 1 rd, then dazzled as long as remain in it.

Metamixing (Su) The arcanist can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir to add a metamagic feat that she knows to a spell as she casts it without affecting the casting time (though using a higher-level spell slot as normal). She can use this ability to add a metamagic feat to a spell that she prepared using a metamagic feat, although she cannot add the same metamagic feat to a given spell more than once.

========================================================================

I plan on using the rods to do extended mage armor, defending bone, false life, overland flight and life bubble each day.

So...I don't really understand intensify and empower exactly. A normal battering blast for me should be doing...

3x 5d6+2 right?
empowered = 3x 5d6+3
intensified empowered = 3x 9d6+3

Clearly this is not as much as people were posting upthread. What am I missing?

While the Tarrasque talk is interesting, that's not the goal of this thread. The goal is to make a blaster who is going to kick butt for the rest of book 5 and book 6 of RotRL.

Here is mark II of the build:
Master Blaster
Male blood arcanist 13
N Medium aberration (orc)
Init +1; Senses darkvision 90 ft.; Perception +15
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 13, touch 11, flat-footed 12 (+1 Dex, +2 natural armor)
hp 80 (13d6+26)

Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +11
Immune Fear

Weaknesses light blindness (negated by Lenses of Darkness)
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 20 ft.

Special Attacks arcane reservoir (16/16), arcanist exploits (greater metamagic knowledge, metamagic knowledge, potent magic, metamixing, consume spells

Bloodline:Orc

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 13th; concentration +16)
1/day alter self

Blood Arcanist Spells Prepared (CL 13th; concentration +22)
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 8, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 28, Wis 8, Cha 16
Base Atk +6; CMB +5; CMD 16

Traits: Magical Lineage (Battering Blast), Metamagic Master (Battering Blast)

Feats Bloodmage Initiate (Evocation), Dazing Spell, Empower Spell, Greater Spell Focus (evocation), Quicken Spell* (GMK), Spell Focus (evocation), Spell Penetration, Spell Specialization (Battering Blast), Varisian Tattoo (Evocation)

Skills Acrobatics +17, Fly +15, Knowledge (arcana) +25, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +13, Knowledge (local) +25, Knowledge (nature) +13, Knowledge (planes) +25, Knowledge (religion) +13, Linguistics +25, Perception +15, Perform (sing) +10, Sleight of Hand +7, Spellcraft +25, Use Magic Device +19

Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Celestial, Common, Elven, Giant, Orc, Thassilonian, 16 more

SQ arcane focus, versatile evocation

Combat Gear lesser extend metamagic rod, lesser maximize metamagic rod; Other Gear cloak of resistance +4, headband of vast intelligence +6, lenses of darkness, lesser dazing metamagic rod, ring of sustenance, 12,239 gp

--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Bloodline Arcana You gain the orc subtype, including darkvision 60 feet and light sensitivity. If you already have darkvision, its range increases to 90 feet. Whenever you cast a spell that deals damage, that spell deals +1 point of damage per die rolled.

Blood Havoc Whenever you cast an arcanist spell that deals damage, add 1 point of damage per die rolled. This benefit applies only to damaging spells that belong to schools you have selected with Spell Focus or that are bloodline spells for your bloodline.

Fearless (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain a +4 bonus on saving throws made against fear and a +1 natural armor bonus. At 9th level, you lose your light sensitivity, gain immunity to fear, and your natural armor bonus increases to +2.

Blood Intensity Whenever you cast an arcanist spell that deals damage, you can increase its maximum number of damage dice by an amount equal to your Strength or Charisma modifier, whichever is higher. This otherwise functions as —and does not stack with—the Intensified Spell feat. You can use this ability once per day at 3rd level and one additional time per day for every 4 caster levels you have beyond 3rd, up to five times per day at 19th level.

Arcane Focus (Ex) +2 to concentration checks to cast arcane spells defensively.

Arcane Reservoir +2 DC or CL (16/day) (Su) Pool of points fuel exploits, or can expend to add +2 CL or DC while cast spell.

Consume Spells (3/day) (Su) As a move action, expend a spell slot to add its spell levels to arcane reservoir.

Greater Metamagic Knowledge When preparing spells, can exchange bonus MM
feat for another that qualify for.

Greater Spell Focus (Evocation) +1 to the Save DC of spells from one school.

Light Blindness (Ex) Bright light blinds for 1 rd, then dazzled as long as remain in it.

Metamixing (Su) The arcanist can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir to add a metamagic feat that she knows to a spell as she casts it without affecting the casting time (though using a higher-level spell slot as normal). She can use this ability to add a metamagic feat to a spell that she prepared using a metamagic feat, although she cannot add the same metamagic feat to a given spell more than once.

=======================

Still working on the spellbook, and still need to spend some gold, but I've added the bloodline and a couple of mutations.

The DM broke down and said anything Paizo on d20pfsrd was fine to use, so does that open up any drastically better options for me?

So, in play, is it better to memorize spells with the metamagic already applied, or to do it on the fly and have full round casting times? I guess with Metamixing and a large reservoir it's a bit of a moot point, huh.

Is Metamixing going to be the best use of my arcane reservoir? I've never played an arcanist before.

Solid choices so far. It will be interesting to see how well you can pump the damage with your Battering Blasts, though I do have a few more insights for your current build.

You will want the Wayang Spell Hunter and Magical Lineage traits for your Battering Blast spell. This makes it so you can cast Empowered Battering Blasts for free. You can also cast your Empowered Battering Blasts while using only one or both of the traits, so it is great for manipulating your spell slots pre-Spell Perfection.

Dazing Spell is good to start out, though I'd recommend retraining it when you get access to Spell Perfection for Bloatmage Initiate. It's good character flavor, and gives you even more CL boosts for your Battering Blast at the cost of meager defense and mobility. Caster Level is your #1 priority with this route, and with enough CL, you can outweigh any need for crowd control on a given boss. As I said in the Conclusion, you can one-round a Tarrasque with Battering Blasts with the proper set-up.

Quicken is always a good option; I'm not saying don't take it, but you aren't quite high enough level to make use of it reliably as a feat. It's best to get it as a Lesser Metamagic Rod. My suggestion is to instead select Intensify Spell, as it gives you an extra 2D6+2 damage (similar to a Bane weapon), and that also is multiplied by Empowered. It only increases the Spell Level by 1, and you can mix it up for your higher spell slots.

Bouncing Metamagic Rod is useless for you unless you're planning to use it with some Save or Suck/Die spells, but that kind of defeats the point of going Blaster. I'd suggest replacing that with Extend for your personal/party buff spells of 3rd level or lower. Heroism, your Pernicious Penumbra, and other such spells would be great options.

With your remaining cash, I'd suggest either buying a Cyclops Helm (~8,000 gold), giving you a 1/day ability to specify a Natural 20 on a given D20 roll you'd make (great for making critical hits with Battering Blasts, or...

I took the quicken as my flexible feat with greater metamagic knowledge exploit, so I can change it out if needed. Otherwise, good advice, thanks!

What exploit would you take instead of the Admixture school?

Alright everyone, here is my first draft build, minus his spellbook:

Master Blaster
Male cursed blood arcanist 13 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 8, 77)
N Medium aberration
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +15
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10 (+1 Dex)
hp 80 (13d6+26)
Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +11
Weaknesses light blindness
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Special Attacks arcane reservoir (7/16), arcanist exploits (greater metamagic knowledge[ACG], metamagic knowledge[ACG], potent magic[ACG], school understanding [admixture][ACG]), consume spells
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 13th; concentration +16)
. . 3/day?dancing lights
Blood Arcanist Spells Prepared (CL 13th; concentration +22)
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 8, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 28, Wis 8, Cha 16
Base Atk +6; CMB +5; CMD 16

Traits:

Feats Dazing Spell, Empower Spell, Greater Spell Focus (evocation), Greater Spell Penetration, Quicken Spell* (GMK), Spell Focus (evocation), Spell Penetration, Spell Specialization (Battering Blast), Varisian Tattoo (Evocation)

Skills Acrobatics +17, Fly +15, Knowledge (arcana) +25, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +13, Knowledge (local) +25, Knowledge (nature) +13, Knowledge (planes) +25, Knowledge (religion) +13, Linguistics +25, Perception +15, Perform (sing) +10, Sleight of Hand +7, Spellcraft +25, Use Magic Device +19

Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Celestial, Common, Elven, Giant, Orc, Thassilonian, 16 more

SQ arcane focus, versatile evocation

Combat Gear lesser bouncing metamagic rod, lesser maximize metamagic rod; Other Gear cloak of resistance +4, headband of vast intelligence +6, lenses of darkness[ARG], lesser dazing metamagic rod, ring of sustenance, 12,239 gp

--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Admixture Associated School: Evocation

Arcane Focus (Ex) +2 to concentration checks to cast arcane spells defensively.

Arcane Reservoir +2 DC or CL (16/day) (Su) Pool of points fuel exploits, or can expend to add +2 CL or DC while cast spell.

Consume Spells (3/day) (Su) As a move action, expend a spell slot to add its spell levels to arcane reservoir.

Greater Metamagic Knowledge When preparing spells, can exchange bonus MM
feat for another that qualify for.

Greater Spell Focus (Evocation) +1 to the Save DC of spells from one school.

Light Blindness (Ex) Bright light blinds for 1 rd, then dazzled as long as remain in it.

School Understanding (3 rounds) Use 1 reservoir as a swift action to treat school ability at full level & gain other ability for 3 rds.

Versatile Evocation (6/day) (Su) Change the damage type and descriptor of a spell from acid, electricity, fire, or water to any other of those types.

============================

I would appreciate any tips on gear (just over 12k remaining to spend), or spell selection. I plan on specializing in battering blast for spell perfection.

Other than me, our party has an oracle and a druid who do decent crowd control already, and then a multiclassed melee specialist character.

Thanks!

I think I am going to go with the Arcanist after reading Darksol's guide. I'm working on a build, but I don't have everything I want to use in Hero Lab so it will take me a while. I'll post it here when it's done, and hopefully you guys can offer pointers.

Well, I plan to run the Penumbra spell all the time. It will still be a weakness, but no overly so. Also, to exploit it the enemies will have to know who I am and my weakness.

Well, I didn't pick any of these traits, they were just handed to me. I have to work with the race. But thanks for the tips, Darksol. Reading your guide now.

Hmm. Thanks, Daedalus. I will look into WoP but I'm not sure I want to learn a whole new system right now.

I am looking into blood arcanist now. Seems nice...

Aberration

Specialized ability scores, I can pick which (so anything really)

Arcane focus
light blindness
multi-armed
skill training

Edit:I don't really think Words of Power would be an option. Is it in the PRD?

Thanks everyone. So it seems the key is to specialize in one blasting spell, and the take all the feats and traits that can make that spell better along with orc bloodline.

I’m not wedded to sorcerer I just don’t like to play prepared casters.

I will look this over again later and post a sample build.

The race the GM gave me has three arms...any way to take advantage of that for magical gain?

Hello,

I'm in a game where we just started book 5 of Rise of the Runelords. We're 13th level. My PC died, and I've been given an opportunity for a character crunch rebuild along with a reincarnation. I don't normally play arcane casters, but our party needs one.

Can anyone tell me how to build the most effective blaster sorcerer using currently available rules? Anything in the Paizo PRD is acceptable content.

We're 20 point buy, and I'll be using a custom race. I don't need help with ability scores and race so much as traits, archetypes, bloodline(s), feats, spell selections, and equipment. I want to be able to put out damage in any element and also cover the basic arcane stuff (haste, teleport, etc.)

Thanks in advance for any help offered! Please ask if I need to offer more information or wasn't clear on something.

Tim - Can you please post here whenever the thread for #17 goes up? I know it won't be for a while, but I'd like to find out about it ASAP once submissions open up. Thanks！

Last issue they let us know a while before release here in the thread and by e-mail. Then there was an editing phase. That’s the normal proceedure if I’m not mistaken.

Brian Minhinnick wrote:

Ooooooooooh yeah, baby. Dream come true!

LMAO!

You!? I thought you were dead! (O_________________O)!

...

;)

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... I wonder what the chances are of a Starfinder-themed SuperStah season?

That would be awesome, but probably not until after the rules come out since there won’t be an open playtest.

Ooooooooooh yeah, baby. Dream come true!

Holy crap! ** spoiler omitted **

Maybe keep it in mind as you work on Iron Gods-themed submissions and try to guessitimate your flavor & crunch accordingly?

(O_______________________________O)!

Hello, Paris/Tim,

I was really jazzed to be part of Wayfinder #15, and want to continue participating in #16. I am an artist as well as a writer. Right now I'm finishing up a Bestiary submission which is coming in at ~550 words for the complete entry. I'm also drawing a picture of the monster which I would like to submit with the Bestiary entry. The drawing I'm working on is 1500x1500pixels. Does 550 words and an image a 750 word Bestiary article make? Is there some different process for submitting art (file size, format, etc)? Thanks in advance.

I contributed to issue 15, but I live in China. Any chance of me getting a B&W copy shipped here?

Hello Paizo board people. I am interested in recruiting a single additional player to join this ongoing homebrew PBP campaign. At this point the players have worked their way up from novice Pathfinder Society Agents into the most famous team of Pathfinders in Absalom. Their fame is great, and only getting bigger. These Agents are special you see. Known occasionally as the Freaks, they are all mutated with strange and wonderful powers. They are the Absalom equivalent of super heroes. Recently a member of their team has had to return to Goka due to a family emergency, and the Society is looking for a well seasoned adventurer to inject the mutation serum and join their crack team of agents.

The Game: This game is a long term campaign taking place (almost) entirely in Absalom and its surrounding environs. The PCs are Pathfinder Society agents who handle all the work the Society has in the city of Absalom and its surroundings. The PCs are level 7 now, and the campaign will run for another 6 or so scenarios, bringing the PCs eventually up to level 11 when we will end the game. Feel free to read the original post of this thread, and the gameplay thread to know exactly what you’re getting into.

You: The top two things I’ll be looking at in potential players are their posting frequency and the quality of their writing. We have a very good and stable group dynamic going, and I will only add another player if I am convinced they will be reliable and excellent.

Character Crunch:
Level: 7
Races: All paizo published except for Ratfolk, Tengu, Grippli, Samsarans, Strix, Vishkanyas, or Wayangs. Questions about playing races outside these rules will be ignored.
Ability Scores: 17 point buy, nothing starting lower than 8 after racials.
Classes: Any Paizo published class or archetype, except for the original summoner, summoners must be the unchained version.
Alignment: Any except for CE. Must follow the Pathfinder Society “laws” of Exploration, Reporting and Cooperation.
HP: Max at first level, and then half HD+1+con mod after that. Animal companions/eidolons get half HD+1+con mod for every HD, including first.
Traits: Two, standard rules apply. Drawbacks are allowed.
Starting Wealth:24,00 GP no more than 16,000 on any single item
No crafting other than mundane items, and consumables (wands, scrolls, potions).

Firearms are emerging.

Your character gains the Armor Bonus, Str/Dex bonus of an eidolon of their hit dice. You also get 8 evolution points to spend on evolutions for your character. They must follow the same limit on number of natural attacks as eidolons (including any attacks from their race in the total). They gain no free evolutions, but qualify for the extra evolution feat. They do not gain any other features of an eidolon.

Please create an alias for your character formatted like a standard monster stat block. I don’t like too many spoilers, and I want everything in the standard spot so I can find it quickly. See the other characters in this game for acceptable examples.

Character Fluff: You should write a backstory telling me about your character’s family, where your character is from, and why they are a famous Pathfinder. Backstory is a big part of what makes me like a character. Please use Golarion lore and locations to your advantage, there’s plenty of info on PathfinderWiki if you’re not familiar. The less specific your character is, the less interesting they will be to me. I’d also like a description of your character’s personality and their physical appearance.

Game Stuff:I will use maps for combat, but I have some house rules to speed combat up. I run initiative in blocks, actions occur in posting order, you may resolve your own actions (ie. rolling saves or AOOs for monsters when needed. Sometimes I put monster stats in my profile). If you disappear without warning, I reserve the right to kill off your character and/or recruit a replacement for you. I don’t like to do this, but keeping a game moving is important to its longevity.

The current party are an arcanist, a witch, an inquisitor and an alchemist. I will be looking for a character strong in melee combat to join the team.

If I forgot something, or you have any questions, please ask! I will be monitoring the thread closely, and will respond as soon as I'm able. Thanks!

Out of curiosity, when is it estimated that work on issue #16 will begin? I'm new to Wayfinder so I'm not familiar with how often they come out really. Thanks.

Yessss! That's great news. Thanks for letting us know!

Hello, I don't really know 5e rules, but I'd be interested in learning them. How possible would it be for me to participate? I am an experienced gamer (3.x, PFRPG, a bit of 4e, etc) and PBPer (nearly 25k posts since 2012). I'll roll stats in the meanwhile.

4d6 ⇒ (3, 4, 6, 2) = 15=13
5d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 5, 6, 4) = 19=15
8d6 ⇒ (2, 1, 1, 5, 4, 1, 1, 5) = 20=14
4d6 ⇒ (5, 5, 4, 5) = 19=15
6d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 5, 1, 6, 6) = 23=17
4d6 ⇒ (5, 3, 2, 3) = 13=11

Assuming I understand your meaning of reroll 1s correctly, that's:
17,15,15,14,13,11

I want to play a dwarven (shield dwarf if possible) rogue. Do light weapons use dex to hit and damage in 5e? If so before racial mods...

Str 15
Dex 17
Con 14
Int 11
Wis 13
Cha 15

Great, thank you.

I submitted something for issue 15. At what point will I know whether it got accepted or not? Sorry if this has been answered before, I didn't see anything on a skim through the thread. Thanks ahead of time for an answer :)

I shall be my true self here. Mwahahahahahhaha.

Submitted...now I wait.

-crosses fingers-

I have an idea for a New Rules piece, but haven't had time to fully flesh it out yet. Is the deadline still

December 31, 2015, 11:59 Pacific.

?

Can't....stop....editing....

I would caution against over editing, friend. I did that in the monster round and am still regretting it.

So now that I'm out of the running I figure I should go back and address some people's comments on the Phase Mongrel.

First of all I want to say that after doing this I realized I've never made a monster from scratch before. I've never needed to with the massive amount of monsters, templates and NPCs out there for d20/PFRPG. So this was my first ever monster creation effort.

I have been kicking myself repeatedly since the submission, due to a lot of last-minute, panic induced changes I made.

Straight up Mistakes

Well, advance or not this has been a great learning experience for me. I will keep working towards becoming a better writer and designer no matter my Superstar fate. The contest has only helped in that process.

Personally, I feel less than confident about my chances at advancing to the Top 8 right now.

That being said, I came up with two completely different (from each other and my Top 16 entry) monster ideas today and am considering starting a monster design blog after the contest shakes out.

If we find ourselves weak on skills later, I can take some Ranger (Trapper) as I said before. Not a perfect solution, but it can't hurt anything.

5 more days until I can talk? This is by far the most painful wait of the whole contest thus far.

BY FAR!

(x__________________________________x)*

Each year I judge the monsters, I make a spreadsheet to track things like CR, alignment, size, and type (and any subtypes). I like to see what was the most common choices folks made and see who worked to find a niche. I also just like seeing the data.

So, I'm going to share the most common choice in each category to whet people's appetites for what they'll get to see on Monday:

Challenge Rating—CR 7
Alignment—CE
Size—Tie between Medium and Large (the only other choice was Small!)
Type—undead

Huh...that's interesting data. Not exactly what I would have guessed, but also not really surprising.

On a separate note, for me I think the submit button was linked to a you will never sleep properly again spell cast by whatever killed Aroden.

So I gotta ask, why this type of place?

I feel Geb is an interesting, under-explored corner of Golarion. I would also like to point out, I did not invent this concept. It pre-existed in Golarion, I just mapped it.

I personally like the evil in my adventures to be really evil. It doesn't get much worse than undead farming people. What could be a better excuse to get in there, kill the bad guys, take their stuff, and free the chattel? Or more terrible than being stuck in there and having to get out somehow?

I apologize if I triggered anyone. This had nothing to do with concentration camps, it's modeled off an actual cattle feedlot combined with a living altar to Zon-Kuthon.

Now that the voting round is over, I just want to thank everyone for their support and feedback.

I especially liked the songs and poetry. :) I hope you all enjoy next round's offering as well.

Just make sure you don't post it until well after the voting period is over for the monster round! Otherwise it falls into that all-important rule #5 about adding information about your submission and all the rest...

Thanks for the concern, but I'm so paranoid about getting disqualified on some technicality that I'm being very careful about stuff like that.

Brian Minhinnick wrote:

I am drawing my potential monster, in part to help me visualize it, and also because I want to show it off. Will I be able to use my drawing?

Nope.

'Tis a shame. Though I understand the reasoning. The competition is not an art contest, and giving people who can write and draw an advantage would hardly be fair for the others. A picture is worth a thousand words after all, and when you're measuring a word count that matters.

I will probably eventually post an image of the critter, if I get into the next round, and if my critter even works within the rules once they are posted. I'm certainly not going to dedicate any more time to drawing before the Round 3 submission deadline comes though. That's time that could be spent obsessing over word choice and double checking statistical values :P

I suppose I could research this myself, but since I have a bunch of RPG SS nerds captive here I might as well ask. I am wondering if the monster rounds have traditionally allowed for a picture along with the stat block?

I am drawing my potential monster, in part to help me visualize it, and also because I want to show it off. Will I be able to use my drawing?

Something I would like to ask anyone who has achieved Guildhall status to consider - putting your RPG Superstar entry links on your profile page. I went looking for some stuff and it is terribly inconvenient for me to go looking through all the contests to find your entries when I can find you so easily.

Okay, it's not for me, it's for the 3PP who also may be looking at your stuff. And me. It's always about me ;-)

Good idea, Monica. Thanks for the suggestion :)

Hey Bill, just want to let you know that the work that went into this was good enough to earn my approval despite the resolution flub. Well done :)

Hey fellow top 32+4,

I just finished my voting for this round. There are some great submissions in there, well done y'all. Best of luck to everyone!

Now to resist the urge to comment on my work for the next several days...-twitches-

I just want to publicly say, I hear and understand the magic weapon/wondrous item conflation criticism loud and clear. I maintain that the way I have it set up wouldn't really cause rules interaction problems with the game as far as I can see (in play that is). That being said, I also accept the criticism as legit. It doesn't make sense within the normal taxonomy of magical gear...like a liger or a tigon, it's cool but nature won't allow it to reproduce.

In hindsight, yes, I should have made it a "+1 whip" that does all the other stuff I wanted it to do. I just would have had no idea how to price that. When you're making up a unique weapon that doesn't rely on preexisting magic weapon special abilities how does one price it out? I probably would have ended up pricing it as a wondrous item+the price of a +1 whip, since that seems to make the most sense. However, I feel like that would have made it too expensive for what you get out of the weapon. What do the pros do?

I love cats and dogs. I own a cat however, and have two of feline species tattooed on my chest (tiger/lion). If I were in Golarion I would definitely have an animal companion of some kind.

If someone does an exit poll, I don't I could bring myself to look at it until after the final results are announced.

I am too weak to resist.

Yeah, I recall someone starting an Exit Poll thread for various rounds of voting (R2 comes to mind the most) to get people's votes and then they start tallying. Granted it is a subset, and the numbers in those threads didn't always match up to those who went on...but it was very stress inducing for competitors while they waited to see the official results.

This sounds like it will be...fun. (X_X)