Crowface's page

Kind of an ominous sounding name. Some big words in there. Not sure it was the most thought-provoking, intriguing name that would resonate with everyone. But it wasn't run-of-the-mill either.

Crowface wrote:
Aura strong illusion; CL 13th
Slot —; Price 98,000 gp; Weight 3 lbs.

Aura and CL seem about right for project image and shadow conjuration. Slot and weight make sense for an iron crossbar, I suppose. Price feels a little low for the uber-range abilities and surrogate spellcasting this enables.

Crowface wrote:
Description
This hand-held apparatus is a cold iron crossbar ringed by a circle of carved ivory. From one side extend five ghostly cords that hang taut before fading into nothingness. As a standard action, the wielder can make a ranged touch attack against a single humanoid target within 100 feet. On a successful attack, the target gains the entangled condition as shadowy ligatures lash out and coil themselves around the creature’s neck, wrists, and ankles. The wielder can then force the target to act as his spell-casting surrogate.

That's a very powerful effect. It pretty much lets a wizard or sorcerer (or any spellcaster really) stand back and 100 feet in a position of relative safety and let someone else take the brunt of every bit of front line fighting, while hurling spells through them. It's pretty much stacking a high-level caster on top of a front-line fighter's body.

Crowface wrote:
Entangled creatures cannot move more than 100 feet from the wielder; removing or severing all five ligatures ends this restriction and the entangled condition. An entangled creature may burst or escape from a single ligature by making a DC 20 Strength or Escape Artist check. Any amount of slashing damage severs a ligature; each ligature is AC 20. The ligatures are made of shadow-stuff and if severed simply reform when the apparatus is used again to ensnare. The wielder can release an ensnared creature as a standard action.

So, a single ranged touch attack establishes five separate entangle-imposing conditions on someone? Very powerful. Too powerful, considering that the entangling ligatures keep letting you channel automatic touch attack spells straight into someone.

Crowface wrote:
The ligatures can ensnare a willing target. All the conditions above apply fully however, and opponents may attempt to target and sever the ligatures normally.

If the wielder chooses, any spell he casts with a range of touch or greater can be channeled through the ligatures. Melee touch spells cast in this manner always target the “surrogate” and do not require an attack roll. Spells of greater range (including ranged touch attacks) originate from the surrogate as if he were the caster, affecting targets normally. A maximum of 20 total spell levels may be channeled each day.

And then we go into the uber-range sock-puppet proxy spellcaster ability, which fires the power level of this item up even that much more. Granted, the 20 total spell levels per day is a restriction...of sorts. But it refreshes every day. So, you could make it though several encounters before that restriction would ever truly mean anything.

Crowface wrote:
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, project image, shadow conjuration; Cost 49,000 gp

You chose the right spells for the construction requirements, except, I might have suggested black tentacles be in there, too. Still, it's underpriced. It's game-breaking. And it's over-the-top.

Summary:
Ominous name (neither good, nor bad)
Interesting idea (an entangling, spell-channeling rod could be interesting)
Mechanically broken (just way too open to abuse for both abilities)
Good flavor/writing
Excellent presentation (near-perfect execution of the template)

Wanted to post some reflections on the process here. I want to be clear that I agree with Neil 100%. This is not a rebuttal or an argument... I hate it when people try to explain or defend their designs too much because to me if an item is Superstar then it doesn;t need explanation or clarification. My item is definitely not Superstar and I see that. What I want to do is share the faulty assumptions I made during the design process, so that I (and maybe anyone else who reads this) can learn from the mistakes. Also, I'd like to really just say I didn't *intend* to create a munchkiny, game-breaking item. Honest. :)

I think the first poor assumption I made was underestimating the entangle effect. It was intended to be more of a nuisance that harrassed the target while it took a round or two to free itself. I think I got tunnel vision and assumed this item (because of its caster level and pricing) would mostly see high level play, and made another bad assumption that most targets would have iterative attacks or allies that could free them in a short time frame. I went with the 5 seperate entangles because I wanted it to take time for a creature with 3+ attacks to break loose from. I didn't go for a typical arrangment of AC and hit points to break out of the entangle because I was trying to avoid a sitaution where a giant or some other size Large or bigger creature could just shrug their way out of it on Strength bonus alone before a caster could even channel a spell through it. I failed to think out what would happen to a tough critter with only one attack such as a T-Rex might have to suffer through... let alone what would happen to some poor chump under the effect of a slow spell. Yikes. Open to abuse indeed.

Lesson Learned: Just because your item "slots" into a certain level of play, don't make assumptions about the conditions under which it will be used or the creatures it will be used against. If I had simply stopped to think out what it might do to someone less powerful than anticipated, I should have easily made that next jump to the potential abuses ahead.

Second, I think I made a big mistake in comparing the item too closely to project image which is the spell that more or less inspirted it. Project image is a seventh level spell that basically creates a hologram that lets you blast people with spells. I actually thought since this item's effect was tied to a physical target rather than a hologram that it was more limited than the spell. But as Neil pointed out that is just stacking a spell caster on top of a front line fighter... again, I think part of that horrible decision stemmed from underestimating the difficulty in severing the connection/ending the entangle. I figured "Sure, the party wizard can hook up to the barbarian and then send him into room raging and shooting scorching rays out of his eyes. But then the baddies will slice through those 'any amount of slashing damage' ligatures and that's that. Didn't think what happens if there is a single bad guy with only one or two attacks and he has to spend 4 or 5 rounds just trying to pull the plug on Exploding Barbarian. Ugh. Broken.

Lesson Learned: Sometimes you can be adding an element that you think is a limiter or a twist on an existing game mechanic and it backfires. Just because it works as a spell doesn't it will be balanced as an item. Those are different types of resources and care must be taken in translating from one "medium" to another.

Also, project image might be a little more overpowered or open to abuse than some of the other spells in the Core Rulebook. Maybe.

Anyway, my point of all that rambling was that I set out to create a cool item that had value mostly as a harrassing/suprise tactic against an enemy ("Bob the Fighter is entangled! Holy Crap, why is there a burning hands spell coming out of him?!? Why, Bob, why?") or as a utility item to aid your allies (a cleric channleing cure spells or buffs through it to the party front liner). Instead it got out of control and was game breaking. But I'm learning so it's not a waste.