Search Posts
To the team at Paizo, and the RPGSS community-at-large, As we have all seen and heard, the beloved spectacle that is the annual RPG Superstar contest has been put on an indeterminate hiatus. It is my understanding that many here in the community are taken aback as their potential contest entries must be set aside for the time being. Now, if there is one thing I've gleaned from my time interacting with this contest and its contestants, it is that there is a geyser of creativity that is always set to burst forth the moment the open call submission form went online. Lengthy voting periods brought the community together to vote, laugh, mingle, and (Most importantly) learn. I am by no means an expert, but in the two years I entered and participated, I saw some absolutely incredible things. Security Blanket, Springheart, Rod of Ghost Teeth, Caber Twig, Gorgon Sinew Lariat, and there was that one awesome cloak that let you leap from Graves but I can't for the life of me remember the name of it. These are just a few names and examples of the crazy-creative items that have come out of Round 1s the past couple years. So I was thinking about all of the amazing stuff that has been presented to the masses over the years, and I got to thinking, "What if Paizo took a bunch of those great items from years past and made a compendium of them? Almost like another Ultimate Equipment, but name it, Like, 'Superstar Equipment Codex' or something?" I guess such an idea would beg the questions: Is something like this even feasible?
I was also figuring that something like this would be perfect to galvanize the RPGSS community for this season, seeing as a new contest is out of the question. (Which I respectfully understand) So my question to both Paizo and the RPGSS community is this: "Can this be done? and if so, who's in?" Side note: I get the feeling it won't be a simple thing to arrange, but I honestly do feel of "Hey, let's get together and make something awesome!"
Aww. Sad-faces :(
Who knows, maybe in the future they could bring it back. For now, I can wait while picking away at 3pp projects and my novel series. I won't be bored. But I'll definitely miss the community shenanigans that RPGSS brought about.
This is why pencils have those funny little earwax cleaners on the other end Ah memories...*Wavy, trippy, dream-sequence transition* Back when I was in 1st grade, oh so so long ago, I put the eraser-end of the pencil in my ear, and when I pulled it out, the eraser wasn't there. Worse off, being so little, I forgot about it by the end of the day. It wasn't discovered until one day I said my ear was hurting. So my mom decided to swab my ear and see what was up. Well, long story short, the next morning, I was having the eraser fished out of my ear with fine-tipped forceps at the family doctor's office. (To the best of my memory.) Had like, all kinds of nastyness on it. Bleh! I still, to this day, remember what it looked like. Be careful with pencils, kids! ^.^
Can't beat the classics! ^.^!!!
Come on, step right up! Get yer rogue options here!
We've got archetypes and traits of all shapes and sizes for ya'! Don't be shy, step right up! Hmm.... Maybe they think we will steal their coin purses if they approach the stand? <.< ^_____^
Disarm, as I see it, is wonderful backup plan. Maybe invest 2-3 feats into it, and pack a couple of weapons that can help disarm. You want this as a backup, as you can't disarm spells or natural weapons ;) But when a baddie whips out a nasty weapon that can blow away the squishies in the party, and you're not sure how much health said enemy has, you want to disarm that.
As always, three free copies up for grabs in exchange for an honest review. (yeah I know, breaking the bank on free PDF's, that 3 x $.99 could have bought me one and a half coffees, ;) ) That means it saves the people who get the free copies the money to buy the coffee to assist them in writing the review! It works out that way XD
You're making me want to start a new RPGSS Mad-lib. >.>
What's the range increment of the ice shard? I assumed it would be as the dart, but I think that should actually be in the text somewhere. It think the "Feedback Starvation" is due to the fact this forum is very unoccupied right now. I'm confident once more people start prepping for Season 10 (Probably after an announcement from Paizo about when it will be), this forum will be jumping again! ^.^
North–Thorn Jarrett, I SEE what you want to do with this item. I'd like to offer some suggestions: .That whole icy burst thing throws the pricing all out-of-whack. However, a good way to fix this while still maintaining the integrity of your idea is to specify the item to be a blowgun dart rather than just a regular dart. Blowgun darts are 5 sp for 10, so we will round that up to 1 GP
Then, adjust the ability to interact with making a full-attack action with a blowgun. (Which you normally couldn't do without horribly feat-taxing yourself). I'll let you feel out how to do that on your own. ^.^ I will, however, say that the section on repairing the item would need to be cut due to the way ammunition works.
That a word limit should also be treated as a word target, as that's the amount of space they want to fill on the page. Hmm.....Never thought of it that way. <.< True, when the big boss needs space filled, you have to deliver. This might slightly change my approach to trying to make a new and unique item without overbearing rules text or convoluted abilities. And be more aware of text that can be cut.
Oh, I totally agree with you. ^.^ These first couple of test items were supposed to get me into a flow of making an item in under 200 words. Now that I feel like I'm able to make things more concise, I can try to make something that looks more like an actual contest entry ^.^
I double-checked for the comma italics to find that they were not really italicized. You can click "Reply" to the initial post an look at the bbCode tags in what would be the quoted text. I wanted to try something else first before going down the "Prevent ability damage" avenue. So here's revision 1, 140 words.
Corset of Girth and Grace
Once per day, the wearer can tug at the corset’s strings while concentrating for 30 seconds. Doing so increases the provided bonus to CMD to +4 for 4 hours, and heals 1d4 points of Constitution damage and 1d4 points of Charisma damage from the wearer. Construction
Joe, you are correct about the "Action" of the activation.
Now, the idea of creating an ability to shield the wearer from ability damage is definitely worthy of being a combat-speed action. I'll factor that into my revision. Thanks guys. ^.^ I'll probably not be able to do a revision until Monday, though. u.u~~~ One other thing. And this is for up-and-comers to note: This item would definitely be "favored by bards". But I managed to show that in the descriptions and abilities without shoe-horning it in. Avoid at all costs to use the phrase "favored by...". Don't say it; show it. Also, Kim...yeah. Girth...*snerk* >.>
Well...let's try this....107 words.
Once per day, the wearer can tug at the corset’s strings while concentrating for 1 minute. Doing so heals 1d4 points of Constitution damage and 1d4 points of Charisma damage from the wearer. Construction
EDIT: I'm itching to do something else with this, but I'm wondering if it really needs anything else, or am I just going to accidentally convolute the item? <.<
SKR's guidelines for RPGSS design I highly recommend looking through it at least once. Agreed. The first post in that thread is quite possibly the single most useful post in the entire RPGSS forum!!
I'm going to take Kim up on the "Spoiler tags for independent impressions. So if I repeat anything, my bad, ^.^
Shield of Gruesome Visions:
First, I see a couple of template issues:
1. Capitalized aura. (Should read "faint illusion")
For the non-template things: 1. A classic case of "It looks like a normal thing, except (this)". The visual is great, though, of the bloodstains changing positions and stuff. But, you have some extra words to work with, so make the shield interesting by making it not "look like a normal shield". 2. Something about that save DC seems off. With both cause fear and silent image being level 1 spells, the DC for this should be 11. (Using most other magic items that utilize level 1 spells as an example. Sleep arrows, anyone?) 3. Speaking of cause fear, that appears to be all this shield does; a shield-shaped can containing cause fear. Spice it up a little bit. Do something to make this stand out. Suggestion: Since the frightening image is ON the shield, allow the bearer a free bull rush or shield bash attempt using the shield if the target fails the Will save. Then, if the target is successfully struck with the free attack, their frightened condition upgrades to panicked. Rewording/Game Language Suggestions 1. "...against a single opponent whom he or she currently threatens with a melee weapon..." -> "...against a single adjacent target she is threatening..." (By denoting the target must be adjacent, you won't need to specify that they need to be threatening with a melee weapon. It saves on words, and makes it sound a little less clunky)
2. "... the shield for the effect to work, and a target who makes the will save is..." -> "...the shield to be affected. A target succeeding its Will save against this effect becomes..."
That's all I have for now. Have to get to work. ^.^
I'm glad to hear the feedback for the Belt of Uncanny Movement. It's definitely making me feel better about the self-imposed 200-word limit. For anyone who has seen and/or critiqued the living copperthread net or the cyclonic darkleaf, you'd be able to clearly see how much I wanted my item to stand out above the rest, but wound up burying it in excessive rules text (especially the darkleaf). Thanks a lot gang, and if there's no other comments for this one, I'll move onto the next one possibly tomorrow.
Belt of Uncanny Movement The reason I'm attached to the idea of a move action instead of "On Command" is because "On command" implies a command word, thus making it a standard action to activate. From my experience (based on games I've played with others) is that people love to use standard actions to do things that they would perceive as "more useful" (Like attacking, casting a spell, etc). If I made it a command/standard action, I can already picture half the people I play with reading the item and saying "But it's a standard action! Downvote!" against anything that provides a perceived "Better action economy". Additionally, gripping your belt buckle is just a simple movement of the arm. So thematically, it's the speed of a move action or swift action. I definitely concede to allowing it to be a reroll, though. ^.^ Revision 4, 155 words! Belt of Uncanny Movement
Twice per day, as a move action, the wearer can grip the buckle and activate the magic within it. This increases the provided Dexterity bonus to +4 and the provided speed increase to +30 feet. This effect lasts for 5 rounds. During that time, the wearer can end this effect as an immediate action to reroll a single failed Reflex save. Construction
Wow, yeah, when you guys put it like that, the whole evasion thing is a little bananas. And yes, I failed to remember the avoid the "Class feature in a can" thing. I know the exact list you're talking about, Joe.
Anyway! Revision 3! 164 words! I looked at other instances of "+x enhancement bonus to speed." to see that it doesn't use the word "base", so I took that out, among the other edits. ^.^ Belt of Uncanny Movement
Twice per day, as a move action, the wearer can grip the buckle and activate the magic within it. This increases the provided Dexterity bonus to +4 and the speed bonus to +30. This effect lasts for 5 rounds. During that time, the wearer can end this effect as an immediate action to automatically succeed a single Reflex save. He must decide to use this before attempting the saving throw. Construction
This is why I love this community: Honest and constructive feedback! ^.^
The belt can be activated as an immediate action to double the enhancement bonuses provided by it. During this time, the wearer also gains evasion, as the rogue class feature. If the wearer already possesses the evasion ability, the belt provides improved evasion instead. This effect can be used up to 10 rounds per day. The rounds need not be consecutive. Construction
I bolded that particular statements for the purpose of my response. If the purpose of your bard is heavily steered toward buffing and assisting the party, why change it just because you got tripped up one or two times? No character build can be truly prepared for everything. Yes, it's annoying to get caught with your pants down when bad guys sweep in to gang up on you. But that's no reason to divide the attention of your resources, class features, and action economy. The bard being my favorite class, I can offer this advice: Stay the course. Keep buffing/assisting/healing. But instead of trying to focus on attacking the enemies, take defensive spells like mirror image and saving finale, or spend some of your cash and/or prestige on some defensive fun stuff from Ultimate Equipment. There's a literal treasure trove of great stuff that a buffing bard can take advantage of. And if you feel you need to take some offense, there are great offensive spells in the bard's repertoire like blistering invective, chord of shards, and sound burst (Which makes a fantastic wand, by the way). The best way to stick to your task and keep your party buffed on your own power is to keep yourself alive; keep away from the mooks. I know it feels like you're "Not Contributing" because you're not bopping the bad guys, but when everyone has a better chance of hitting and damaging, it's just as effective as dealing the damage yourself. Lastly, there is no harm in buying a Masterwork Shortbow (Or a +1 Conserving shortbow) and a compliment of special-material arrows, or some sleep arrows. Pick at the bad guys a little bit for those times you're doing your buffing, but prefer to conserve your spells.
Well, Clocking in at 154 words...My first test item. Pricing might be a little off. Not sure.
Three times per day, the belt can be activated as an immediate action to double the enhancement bonus provided by the belt for 2 rounds. During this time, the wearer is also granted an enhancement bonus to his base speed equal to +10 x the enhancement bonus to Dexterity provided by the belt. Construction
*Creeps in*
Next time RPGSS rolls around, I'm going to challenge myself to limit my words to around 200. Both times I entered RPGSS, I feel I had solid ideas, but they wound up getting derailed from me trying to make the item do too much, or making it too wordy. When I make my test items for this thread, I'm going to be adhering to this self-imposed word limit.
Bandwagon Powers, Activate! Muh Higher-Than-Level-1 Murderhobos of note: . . -1. Fennix Dak - CN Male Gnome Bard 4 - Retrained into Sound Striker Archetype, but haven't actually played him in a long time! -2. Venture Captain Senel Trolus - CG Male Human Fighter (Cad) 4/Bard (Daredevil) 10 - Dirty Trick master extraordinaire! I tend to cite my adventures with this character the most. Needed to multiclass to better optimize dirty tricks, which are right now 1d20+26 per attempt. -3. Selena Alse - CG Female Musetouched Aasimar Bard (Negotiator) 7 - Wily enchantress, and the prettiest party face this side of the inner sea! -6. Grillis - CN Male Foulspawn Tiefling Brawler 3 - Specializes in Charging, Bull Rush, and Overrun. Also Spiked Destroyer! Will later dip 1 level in Bloodrager for Fast Movement, Bloodrage, and wand of True Strike. -8. Ridda Allis - NG Female Human Alchemist (Chirurgeon) 8 - Healing Bomb alchemist keeping the party healthy!! Will not dip because it will take away from the feats and discoveries I have planned out. -15. Dusty the Geokineticist CG Male Dwarf Geokineticist 1/Internal Alchemist 1 - I'm experimenting with a way to be tanky as a kineticist. Breath mastery will keep gas-based attacks at bay, and at Character level 4th (2 levels in each class), I will have DR 1/adamantine, SR 9, and a 75% chance to negate critical hits and sneak attacks thanks to the Extra Discovery Feat and retraining! And the DR and SR will only get stronger as I grow in level. ^.^
So I'm putting a Brawler character together that specializes in Charging, Bull Rush, and Overrun. So I've been doing my usual research and I came across an interesting combination of feats and items, and I'm wondering if this will all work the way I hope it to: ========================
Equipment
1. Charge Enemy
======
1. Charge Enemy
Hmm, that's a little tricky. It SOUNDS like it wouldn't make sense to be playing a flute and attacking with a rapier at the same time. If you're concerned about both your hands being occupied because you're playing your flute, you can find many effective ways to contribute to combat. Also, unless you're playing a martial-focused bard archetype, I would avoid getting into melee and "fighting". Bards do an excellent job of supporting the party without necessarily attacking or getting in enemy faces. You could also step near and use aid another to buff ally AC without interrupting your flute playing. Bards also have a wonderful array of healing and support spells. My personal recommendations are: Cantrips
1st level spells
These are just recommendations based on what I'm perceiving you're looking to do. You can play that flute to your heart's content, Just make sure you keep a weapon or have a backup plan for when you run out of rounds of Bardic Performance. EDIT - BigNorse and Jeff bring up good points, too! Improved Unarmed strike is a great idea! Catch Off-Guard to use the flute as an improvised weapon (A masterwork flute can also be made of silver to bonk through some DR!!) Never heard of Boot Blade, must have missed that one... <.<
And using Rhino Charge to prep charges against wicked spellcasters ("When he starts casting I charge") sounds like a great way to save some people's bacon. Rhino Charge (Combat) Your charges are both violent and unpredictable.Prerequisites: Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, base attack bonus +5.
Normal: Charging is a full-round action and allows you to move twice your speed. From PPC: Sargava, the Lost Colony
Oooohhhh! All right. Unfortunately, a Brawler dipping 4 levels in Druid to get wild shape before being able to use Martial Flexibility to snag that feat won't quite cut the mustard for the build I'm aiming for. Since the main question has been answered, if I can tweak the topic a square to the left: What do you guys think of Charge-/Bull Rush-/Overrun-style builds in regards to their usefulness in PFS goes? I like the idea of granting my allies Free AoO's with the GREATER versions of the feats. And using Rhino Charge to prep charges against wicked spellcasters ("When he starts casting I charge") sounds like a great way to save some people's bacon. |
