Doyle Tavener's page

When I saw Beraldo's comments, as much as I disagreed with his particular points, I have to admit I felt a certain amount of empathy for him.

I, too, have felt aggrieved about certain elements of the contest. (No, I don't intend to state what they are, because I recognize that they aren't very important or significant.) But I also feel that I can very clearly look to where I went wrong, and see what kept me from advancing.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard about character death was to make sure the player always understood the choice they made that led to their character's death. If you as a DM can't identify that 'bad choice' then it is a least probable that they should not have died, no matter what storyline logic dictated.

Joao, (if I may) try to focus on that one bad choice. What was it? This will help you, I believe, to accept the results of the contest.

In my mind, I felt that many had commented on how my 2nd round villain didn't grab them. So, I felt like I needed to throw a 'hail mary' in order to advance. However, the new villain I went with in the 3rd round needed a lot more time for the stat block than I could devote in the time between Tuesday and Friday. In the end, I had to cut the incomplete parts and submit the element that took the least amount of time to complete.

I ended up submitting it in the very last moment, which Clark correctly noted was a sure sign of a bad entry (even though the comment rankled me at the time, I had to admit later that it was true).

I should have stuck with the 2nd round entry, where I had a mostly complete stat block already, and focused on how to make it shine, and perhaps revise the descriptive text.

That was the error that killed me. And I was my error, all mine, with no one else to blame but myself.

That helped me to accept my disappointment in the results. Try to look for that error, and let the rest of us know what it was. That way, your experiences can help others in future contests like this, as well as help yourself.

Doyle

Thanks to all who commented, and especially all who voted.

I don't anticipate I'll be advancing tomorrow, so I will be able to respond to much of the feedback for the last two rounds.

Thanks again,

Doyle

I think it was either 4:00 or 4:01.

Gulp.

Did I make it in time?

Oh. Jeez.

Kar-En-Helit, Vessel of Moeris

Male human Wizard 14/Male Human Ghost Wizard 18

Description: 6’ 2” 160 lbs. The leader of the Cabal of Moeris is an imposing figure, adorned in the ancient manner of an Osiran God-King. His shaven head, imperial features and aura of cool authority bespeak of one who is born to power. He bears a crook, flail, and Uraeus crown.

Moeris appears to be the same individual, but his skin is albino white, with glowing red eyes and a palpable aura of frigid air. He bears the same regalia, with the addition of a scarab necklace.

Motivations/Goals: Kar-En-Helit has lived his entire life within the auspices of the Cabal, being raised by his father, the previous leader. His bloodline is the strongest in generations, enough so that he could be the first suitable Vessel of Moeris in centuries. He has been taught from birth that he is the true God-King of Osirion, for whom any act is justified in regaining the throne. He does not question his fate, and sees the near completion of his plans as proof of the inevitability of his destiny, to which all else is subservient.

However, he does not understand the true nature of the Ritual of Rebirth, which he believes will enhance his power and allow the assumption of certain offices obtainable only by a true Osirian God-King. In truth, completion of the Ritual will allow the spirit of Moeris to return from the Outer Dark and possess the body of his descendent, extinguishing the soul of Kar-En-Helit in the process.

Moeris’s own plans, set in motion millennia ago, are simple enough; possess his descendent, reassume the throne of Osirion, and destroy the priesthoods that have defied and defeated his aims for so very long.

For now, The Pale King awaits in the Outer Dark, whispering to those who possess his bloodline, corrupting or deceiving them as to the true nature of the Ritual of Rebirth. For now his attention is focused on Kar-En-Helit, but that could change if another of his bloodline arises…

Schemes/Plots/Adventure Hooks: If the PC’s become involved in the machinations of the Cabal, then the trail will eventually lead to Kar-En-Helit, especially if the more self-serving sub-leaders of the cult direct the PC’s attention down this path.

If one of the players possesses the Bloodline of Moeris, visions and ancestral memories might guide the PC in the direction of Cabal, regardless of the player’s intentions.

The PCs might also be hired to acquire the last item of Osirion Regalia, the Scarab of Rebirth, for Kar-En-Helit, who may not trust his own servants enough for so sensitive a task.

Once the Ritual of Rebirth nears completion, mystical wards will be triggered in Osirion and across Golarion, as the priesthoods of the gods who first defied Moeris alert their worshippers that an ancient evil nears its rise. PCs may be asked to interrupt the Ritual, or failing this, destroy Moeris and any who still carry his bloodline.

Kar-En-Helit/Moeris CR 20
LE Medium Undead (augmented humanoid, human, ghost)
Init +6 [+2 dex, +4 Improved Initiative]; Senses darkvision 60 ft; Perception +10
===== Defense =====
AC) 22, touch 20, flat-footed 20; (+4 armor, +4 deflection, +2 dex, +2 luck)
hp 58 (14d6);
Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +13
Defensive Abilities Immune to all mind-affecting effects; SR 20
===== Offense =====
Spd 30 ft.
Melee Staff of Power +11/+6 [+9 BAB, +2 enhancement ] (1d6+2), Rod of Flailing +10/+10/+5 [+9 BAB, +3 enhancement, -2 extra attack] (1d8+3), Grave Touch +9/+4 (1d6+9)
Special Attacks Corrupting Gaze (Fort DC 21), Telekinesis, Manifestation
===== Tactics =====
Before Combat Moeris is not yet incarnate within Kar-En-Helit before the Ritual of Rebirth, and so does not have any spells pre-cast or prepared after the ritual is complete.
During Combat Once incarnate, Moeris will concentrate on defending himself using the Staff of Power, defaulting to the Rod of Flailing or Grave Touch if that is taken away from him. If Kar-En-Helit’s body is destroyed he will manifest as ghost with 126 hp and attack to kill those who have frustrated his aims. b]Morale[/b] Moeris will not flee combat, though he is reluctant to activate the final strike ability of the Staff of Power, for fear of destroying the Regalia. If someone destroys one or more of the set of items, then he may do so if there are enough charges, in his judgment, to wreak final vengeance upon his foes.
===== Statistics =====
Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 24, Wis 16, Cha 16
Base Atk +9/+4; CMB +9
Feats Brew Potion, Combat Casting, Craft Rod, Craft Staff, Craft Wondrous Items, Improved Initiative, Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Scribe Scroll, Spell Focus (Necromancy), Spell Focus, Greater (Necromancy), Spell Penetration, Spell Penetration, Greater
Skills Appraise +13, Bluff +8, Diplomacy +8, Heal +8, Intimidate +8, Knowledge (arcana) +28, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +13, Kowledge (engineering) +13,Knowledge (geography) +13,Knowledge (history) +15,Knowledge (nature) +13, Knowledge (nobility) +13, Knowledge (planes) +13, Knowledge (religion) +23, Linguistics +23, Perception +10, Sense Motive +8, Spellcraft +28
Languages Common, Elven, Draconic, Osirian, Abyssal, Infernal, Celestial, Aquan, Auran, Ignan, Terran, many ancient languages.
SQ Undead Traits (mental only)
Combat Gear Regalia of Osirion; Shepard’s Crook (Staff of Power, 50 charges), Flail (Rod of Flailing), Uraeus Crown (Headband of Intellect +4), Scarab of Life (Scarab of Protection). With the exception of the Scarab of Life all of the regalia become empowered by the Ritual of Rebirth. Before that point, the Staff is +2 Quarterstaff, the Rod is a +2 Dire Flail, and the Crown is a Headband of Intellect +2. They return to these forms if Moeris is defeated. In addition, Kar-En-Helit possesses a Ring of Protection +4, and Bracers of Armor +4.
===== Special Abilities =====
Ancestral Possession (Su) This ability allows Moeris to possess one of his descendants with a strong enough bloodline to The Pale King. This works like the Malevolence power of a ghost, which functions without fail if the Ritual of Rebirth is enacted, which summons up the spirit of the long dead God King

Well, voting is complete. Now we wait. And wait. And wait...

Doyle

As the deadline approaches, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the judges and all others who took the time to comment. I would especially like to thank all those who voted for me to advance to the next round. Whether or not I advance, I appreciate the vote of confidence in my work.

Thanks,

Doyle

I don't think I responded to the original question at the beginning of this thread, about how I heard about the results of the 1st round.

I was out of the house, during my day off on Tuesday, when I stopped by my job (I work at a game store) to pick up my check. So I used the work computer to check the results, the whole time trying to tamper down my expectations. (Visualize how you will feel when you don't see your name. Visualize how you will feel when you don't see your name. Visualize... Etc.)

When I did see my name I let out a whoop you could hear in the next county. And I smacked my hand so hard it hurt for an hour afterward. :)

And then I jabbered mindlessly for a while. Whatever happens from now on is gravy, as far as I am concerned.

Doyle

Is anyone else starting to get a case of nerves? I am, for sure. Jeez, I can't submit early or do anything else to calm my OCD-afflicted self. I just have to wait it out. And the results aren't even in, just the comments from the judges.

Jeez.

Doyle

Jeez, this is actually more nerve-racking than when I submitted last night. I am soooooooo glad I did it then.

So, when does voting begin, again? :)

Doyle

And wouldn't that be a great exercise in stat building? Taking someone else's idea and creating a believable and accurate interpretation while keeping it balanced to what they started with? Sounds almost like something a Superstar would have to do... ;)

I believe you may be right. :)

That being the case, those who make the cut probably won't get to choose which villain they stat up. :O

Done. Whew! (Wipes brow.)

Vic, can you confirm you received it?

Thanks,

Doyle

Kar-en-haris, Grand Master of Spies
Male human Rogue/Assassin 6/8

Description: 5'10", 160 lbs. Kar-en-haris is a nondescript man in his fifties, whose only significant traits are his dark hair, olive skin, and unusually fit appearance. He affects the garb and demeanor of a distinguished-looking scholar, though in fact he is the master of a wide network of spies, with agents in nations across Golarion. In private, his face takes on a sardonic and hard-bitten air and the formally mild eyes blaze.

Motivations/Goals: As the head of an entire branch of the mysterious Cabal of Moeris, he has worked for many years to increase both the Cabal's power as well as his own. The spy master prides himself as a subtle schemer, using only the minimum necessary force or resources to achieve his aims. Originally interested in the acquisition of worldly power, he has grown to enjoy the possession of secrets for their own sake. His greatest aim is the ultimate goal of the cult - the return of Moeris, the God-King of ancient Osirion, to the modern world. There is no doubt much power to be gained as the servant of a living god.

Schemes/Plots/Adventure Hooks: As the spy master for the cult, Kar-en-haris has many missions in motion at once. These include:

* Reconnaissance missions for nations against their foes.

* Infiltration and takeover of small organizations like merchant houses, guilds, and criminal gangs.

* Uncovering specific secrets about the powerful that might be used against them.

PCs can either be hired for these missions, or uncover and stop them in the course of their adventures.

Kar-en-haris constantly searches for the means to return Moeris to the land of the living. This requires:

* An individual with a strong bloodline connection to the ancient God-King.

* The ancient regalia of Osirion, or suitable duplicates.

* The complete Ritual of Rebirth, which exists only in fragments of "The Testament of Moeris", an ancient text possessed by the cult.

Kar-en-haris has these requirements mostly fulfilled, but needs a few more pieces:

* The putative head of the cult has the necessary bloodline, but Kar-en-haris worries that he may become intractable, or discover the secret behind the ritual. An alternate should be found and tracked, without the leader's knowledge.

* The current version of the ritual needs to be performed on someone descended from the bloodline of Moeris, to determine if it will work as intended. This could be a PC, or a PC's dependent.

* The last bit of regalia must be stolen from its current owner, a powerful noble of Cheliax. The noble might hire the PCs as guards or ask them to recover the valuable artifact.

Erik Mona has posted in another wondrous item entry that responding to feedback for the magic item round is OK, so...

I expect each panel would be 12 to 16” high, and 6 to 8” across, and 2” deep, for a total of six inches when folded. It’s made of wood and about the size of a large shoe box or boot box, when folded. That would correspond to historical triptychs, I think.

I did struggle a bit with how to describe the dimensions, as I wanted prioritize the appearance. In the end, weight seems to matter a lot more than dimensions on a character sheet, so I stuck to ‘3 pounds’. I wanted it to be big enough to be interesting and small enough to carry in a bag of holding.

As for why nearly half the word count is description, I have to tell you my players never manage their magic item inventories well. They forget to write down items, or forget to cross them off when used, or forget to use the items when they need to. I wanted the description to be interesting enough so that the players would remember the item, and thus use it more. That and I needed to tie it in to the various lesser servants of the Golarion Gods, as historical triptychs usually dealt with saints.

I did intend for it to be an item used by PCs, though obviously it works as a plot device. (Go forth and return the sacred relic to us, smiting those who would seek to defile it, etc.) I don’t find divination to be that scary, as the games I run (one of which is Age of Worms, currently) are complex enough in plot that I find players need the help of divination, while dream and traveling dream are useful for communication and scrying, neither of which I believe to be game-breakers, when properly handled.

The intent of the item is that you pray for an hour and then go to sleep, when Desna reveals all through dream symbology, at least for divination, as the other spells take place during sleep anyway. But I wanted to avoid a can of worms by having a bad description of activation, so I left it to the DM’s ability to read between the lines. That way, if they wanted to just use the spell as it’s described, they could. Or if they wanted to riff of the whole dream motif, they could do that just as easily.

The part about the item being worth lots of money is a rip-off of Gygaxian prose style, as well as a way of allowing the looting the thing for all the jewels and silver leaf, as some players will no doubt want to do. I assumed that the base price included the all the gem, leaf and craft work. If you pry up the gems and scrape off the leaf, no more magic item, I would assume. That and you’ll have bad dreams for a very long time.

More than anything else, I struggled with the pricing of the item. Eventually I gave up on using the tables and eyeballed it. Robin Laws, my favorite designer, says that eyeballing is nearly always superior to calculating balance and usefulness using abstract formulas or tables.

Is it too much description/backstory/whatever? Yeah, for a generic magic item, sure. Most of what I have written in the past, for Call of Cthulhu or Pendragon, relies on story stuff first, and mechanics second. The best GMs I know are able to cast away mechanics in favor of a good story in a heartbeat, so mechanics always seem secondary to me. I am afraid this is probably a terminal weakness of mine. But I know that this is not the ‘best’ or only way to play the game, so I hope I disciplined myself enough to create a useful as well as interesting item.

Thanks!

Doyle

As was noted, worshipers of Desna are often travelers; I feel dimensions are a must for this item, as it would often be packed up and carted off to the next site its owner visits. Additionally, when you get right down to it, it is a spell in a can. Perhaps a very well described and detailed can, but still a apell in a can. You could have probably added a little more utility, some unique effect tied to the item, and avoided such a categorization altogether. Finally, the price of the gems does seem out of place; can they be removed, and if so does the item cease functioning?

I would very much like to answer yours and Jason's specific questions about the item itself, but I need to make sure that doesn't violate any contest rules. If anyone is listening that is an official, could you please inform us as to whether or not this is acceptable?

I'll contact Vic Wertz later today, and ask directly.

Thanks!

Doyle

First off, thanks to all those who commented. I really appreciate the feedback.

When I ask for feedback from my players and friends, I usually get stuff like "That's fine, Doyle, how much xp did we get?” or “Who’s Desna again?” so it’s nice change, believe me.

(Edit: No comments on specific feedback until end of contest. Agggh. I just saw this on another post, so I am deleting my detailed comments until then.)

Thanks for the advancement, and I'll see you all next round!

Doyle

Aura moderate divination, illusion; CL 9th
Slot —; Price 21,000 gp; Weight 3 lbs.

DESCRIPTION
This icon of Desna is a three-paneled, illuminated screen which is hinged and can be folded for storage. The two smaller panels depict the Night Monarch, which appears as a huge butterfly, and Sorrowbrand, who appears as a Lillend with tears of stars. They face the center panel, in which Desna appears as a serene elven woman with butterfly wings, clothed in billowing clouds on a background of starry night. The icon is exquisitely constructed and painted, with silver leaf and gems accenting the scenes, all worth 5000 gp.

When the triptych is opened, any good-aligned priest or priestess may pray before the icon for an hour and activate the following magic, depending on which panel is invoked. The Night Monarch panel allows the use of divination, 1/day. Sorrowbrand’s panel allows the use of dream, 1/day and Desna’s panel allows the use travelling dream (Gods & Magic, pg. 13), 1/day. Use of a panel precludes the use of the other panels until the next night.

CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, divination, dream, travelling dream; Skill Knowledge (Religion); Cost 10,500 gp

Hi, my name is Doyle Tavener, and I have had some game material published in the past.

My only 'cover credit' is listed in very small print below a primary author's name. That product, Miskatonic University, is shown here:

http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?cPath=41&products_id=747

My name, as well as several others, were listed for elements and systems we contributed that were re-written by the primary author, Sam Johnson. I was not paid for the work.

I do have several small RPG pieces in print, only two of which I was ever paid for (a magazine article and a scenario in The Great Pendragon Campaign). Neither merited cover credit.

My question is simple. Am I excluded from participating in RPG Superstar 2009?

Thanks!

Doyle

One excellent tactic for an alkilith is to fill an area with a stinking cloud (it can still use spell-like abilities in cloudkill form) and then hide within the cloud and spray things with cones of cold and unholy blights.

Good god you are an evil b*****d. I salute you.

Doyle

Well, I used the descriptions tonight.

Nobody got it.

It's not like they're weren't old school guys there, it looks like it was too much of an obscure easter egg for them.

Oh well, I enjoyed it anyway.

I intend to add a few gladiator teams based on characters from various comics that have appeared in the Dragon over the years. Take a look at these descriptions (based on the idea that the players will see them at the Free Dinner for the first time) and feel free to add others or provide alternate descriptions.

F. Fingers & Company

A human male with a large nose (wearing non-descript clothes and a dark sailor’s cap, armed with a dagger) eyes every Halfling near him with suspicion. There are two warriors with him, both with big mustachios who seem dour and competent, until a server passes behind them, whereupon they jump a foot out of their seats.

Philippos and Dexius, Announcers

You see Philippos and Dexius, announcers at the Free city arena. He is a sandy-haired man with an easy grin and a wicked tongue. She is an attractive redhead who seems like a steady foil for her partner. They appear to whispering together and giggling a lot. (DC 15 Listen/Perception check indicates they are talking about sex.)

Donato’s Company

There are two men and a dwarf at this table. The leader seems to be an extremely competent looking human warrior with a scowl who is currently using some small magic item to heal a dwarf , who is lying on his belly with a dagger sticking out of his back. The other human male appears to be a ‘trapsmith’, is whistling idly and looking the other way. (DC 20 Spot/Perception check reveals the ‘trapsmith’ to be missing a dagger.

Snarf’s Band

A goblin-ish humanoid, with a huge nose, is chatting idly with a beautiful barbarian in a fur bikini. They are accompanied by a Gnome in oddly shaped full-plate.

Any others?

We're certainly looking into the logistics and possibility of reprinting Pathfinder #2. But those plans to reprint aren't in stone yet; checking the used bookstores or places like Ebay might be a good bet in the meantime.

I work in a game store, I can attest that people are still learning about (and still buying) the first Pathfinder series. However, we are losing some sales because the second part is not available. And I get at least two or three questions about part two every week.

Reprint, reprint, reprint!

You are wrong.

OK. :)

Having had some of my stuff published in the past (Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, BRP) has taught me some different lessons then the ones you have learned, Frank. Without trying to change your mind or win the debate, I got a lot more use out of seeing how others ran the scenarios I had written, and seeing how campaign supplements I was working on were run with real players than any of the sorts of exercises you describe.

Admittedly, CoC and Pendragon are not Pathfinder and Shadowrun, which operate on a different level of approach to the rules. But I still believe that stating where our group found problems, and what our group liked and disliked is of great help to the designers, especially when multiplied by the hundreds on this board.

I would encourage everyone else to follow this approach, because I personally find getting together with your buddies, playing, and talking about the rules to be more enjoyable then running solo combats.

Pax,

Doyle

A lack of formulas doesn't really equate to playing out an actual campaign.

A real campaign setting takes too much time, because it includes all the stuff that doesn't need to be tested, somewhat ironically, the roleplaying. It also doesn't give you a worthwhile sample set. You'd be testing a handful of race/class combinations against a subset of all available monsters. Thats not worth much. You really can't even swap out abilities and feats during a campaign to see how much better (or worse) characters perform with the changes.

That's why this is an open playtest, so that a lot of participants can provide feedback, which then can be compared and evaluated by Buhlman, etc.

I don't discount that YOU will learn a lot from this exercise. But your viewpoint after engaging in this exercise will still be just one person's viewpoint.

There are thousands of these discussions on message boards, each proclaiming that thier particular opinion, after dealing with the system, is the most logical and reasoned. But you may come to conclusions that the designers would never accept, so that unless you gain a lot of joy from running these solo fights, you are probably just better off running a campaign using the rules, and enjoying yourself.

Interesting discussion.

Robin Laws, no stranger to playtests, says that in the end, you can't really rely on formulas in playtesting, because there are too many variables that don't exist in a CRPG. He recommends eyeballing it, which means (to me, anyway) running a playtest campaign and see what shakes out. (paraphrase)

I understand that may seem incredibly vague, but running the game in a real campaign setting is the only way to find out if it can be run in a real campaign setting. When eyeballing, I use the following criterion:

How many rounds did the combat take? Did it seem to take forever, or did it seem too short?

When a character dies, was it because of something the player did wrong? Did the character have an ample chance to adequately defend itself?

Did a single action effectively defeat the encounter, or was teamwork necessary?

Did everyone have something interesting to do throughout the entire encounter?

Admittedly, these criteria are all subjective. We each have our own answers to the questions above. Figure out your optimal answers to the above questions, and then see if your encounters using Pathfinder match up to them.

OK, we got together this Sunday for our first session. I had five players, one of which left after character generation (not because of the game, I hasten to add).

Terry – Human Universal School Wizard

Michael – Human Cleric of Pharesma

Cody – Elf Rogue

Joe – Human Fighter (close combat specialist)

Robert – Human Fighter (archer)

We discussed the playtest style campaign, and what that would mean. They all agreed to run with it. I decided to run Module TC1, as I figured it would be short and sweet. We actually got to play the first encounter with the dogs, and made it to the inn before the end of the session.

We discussed how characters would be generated, and the players chose point allocation (I went with 28 points).

Several of the players were disappointed that I mandated that only the current draft classes would be allowed, but they went along with it. They are anxious to see the other classes.

We discussed adding more hit points, using the options discussed on pg. 11. Two of the players liked the flat option, and three preferred standard, which surprised me. The players noted that the majority of the other options seemed excessive.

We discussed experience option, and again the players chose the standard options. One suggested that the rapid option would be good for a playtest, but he was outvoted. I might revisit this in the future.

Specific Feedback

* The list of school and domain powers should be included in the class descriptions. It seemed like it was too much trouble to flip back and forth.

* The player with the Elf wanted the return of the elven racial attack bonuses.

* The player with the cleric wanted 0-level spells to be adjusted for high stats, and pointed out that having more first level than 0 level spells seemed kind of odd, even though he acknowledged it was already like this in 3.0/3.5.

* The majority of the players liked the skill system. They liked both the fact that all skills had the same modifier, based on training, and they liked the idea of gaining more skills as their character rose in level. The only trouble they seemed to have was distinguishing between Trained and Trained dross-class. I still believe dropping the cross-class distinction would not be unbalancing while making skills simpler to deal with. Some skills could restricted to certain classes (like UMD) but otherwise, if the player wants a stealthy Wizard, why not let him have it?

* The players were very enthusiastic about the skill consolidation, which they thought was an obvious improvement.

* We did not get to use the CMB, but when I explained what it was, they seemed to like the idea. I’ll have a chance to use it extensively if there is a bar brawl next session.

* One of the players noted that there should be pre-generated characters made available, along with customization options. I have to agree with this, as it will give us an idea about the ‘baseline’ for PCs, as well as making character creation easier for those who don’t wish to invest all that much effort in it.

* The players flat-out refused to worry about equipment unless I actually made them, or promised serious consequences for not tracking it. Based on this, I suggest dumping the encumbrance rules altogether. I have yet to run a group that actually kept track of encumbrance or enforced any penalties based on it. They did keep track of the armor based skill-check and movement penalties, and since the 3.0/3.5 says the weight and armor penalties don’t stack (right?) it probably needs to be junked anyway as a useless rule. I suggest keeping a flat cap on weight based on Str with a simple draconic penalty for a single pound over the limit.

* I used a fan character sheet, which they actually had quite a bit of feedback on, even after I explained it was a fan effort. I suggest you guys take the time to come up with a character sheet and get feedback on the sheet as well. They suggested that the Trained bonus have it own column in skill calculation, and they thought it would be confusing for it to be called the level bonus. The sheet should be easy to read, and include spaces for CMB as well as Maneuver Defense.

* The spellcasters seemed nonplussed about the Domain and School powers. That may change after adventuring for a while.

* I wouldn’t mind seeing some level based ‘style’ choices for the non-spellcasting classes, like fencing and other basic weapon styles for fighting classes. The players seemed to gravitate toward this anyway, so why not reward them for distinguishing their characters? This might reduce the need for 50,000 different prestige classes. :)

* The general reaction seemed good, with one caveat; the players said they wanted the game to be as much like 3.5 as possible, especially the more experienced players. But when actually exposed to a sub-system they perceived as better, they were more than willing to adapt to what they considered to be a positive change. Given that attitude, I applaud your decision to take a year and a half to openly playtest this thing, as that will be the only way to build consensus about your final product.

Any questions or comments are welcome.

Doyle

Kudos to you Doyle, Chaosium produce some magnificent stuff.

Thank you very much. But I must admit that much of my work is pastiche, trying to create something like that which my heroes would create, guys like Sandy Peterson, Lynn Willis, Keith Herber, and Greg Stafford, etc.

Though I think most of us feel the same way about our own favorites, like how Erik Mona (I believe) feels about Gary Gygax and Ron Kuntz.

BTW, Mr. Pett, I am smack-dab in the middle of AoW, and am soooo looking forward to Prince of Redhand.

I'm Jeff Ibach.

I thought Toolbox was a wonderful product. Kudos!

Doyle

I recently had about 20,000 words in Greg Stafford's Great Pendragon Campaign, as well as other bits and pieces for magazines and Chaosium books, including Dragon Lords of Melnibone and the new version of the Miskatonic University Sourcebook.

I have written a crapload of tournament scenarios for the Cthulhu Masters at Gencon for many years. However, I don't earn my living from writing, so I don't think you could call me a professional.

My own take on the PFRPG is that it looks very promising, but that the design team needs to cut, condense and simplify wherever and whenever possible. Less is more.

Doyle

My peeve is with tracking duration of spells and other effects. I do like the idea of 1 round/encounter/day duration limits on spells. My players NEVER track this, so it might as well be simpler in the rules themselves.

Unplaytested Suggestion: Fold Climb and Swim into a single skill, called Athletics, which would be Str-based.

I would further consider folding Jump into this skill, as it was originally Str-based. Then Escape Artist could be folded into Acrobatics, which means each of the new skills would subsume three old skills, which has a nice symmetry to it.

I would also add a feat that would allow a Dex mod to be substituted for the Str in Atheletics.

By folding Handle Animal and Ride together, you get a skill which is very often raised in tandem anyway.

(snip excellent example)

I think the Saga skill ranks thing is a very poor fit for those of us with Simulationist tendencies and a realistic view of how PCs should go about learning to do things.

The thing is, neither simulation-ism (sic) or realism are design goals. Ease of use and backwards compatibility are.

I would also point out that D&D never attempted to simulate the real world, but the fictional milieus of Hyboria, Lankhmar and the Dying Earth. Heroes in those stories sprout never-before-revealed skills all the time. Occasionally someone has a training montage or engages in comedy relief from screwing something up, but level gain can be considered a simulation of the training montage, and the occasional 1 on a skill check and good DM description takes care of the comedy relief.

Unplaytested suggestion: fold Climb and Swim into a single skill, called Athletics, which would be Str-based.

I would further consider folding Jump into this skill, as it was originally Str-based. Then Escape Artist could be folded into Acrobatics, which means each of the new skills would subsume three old skills, which has a nice symmetry to it.

I would also add a feat that would allow a Dex mod to be substituted for the Str in Atheletics.

By folding Handle Animal and Ride together, you get a skill which is very often raised in tandem anyway.

The major difference is that a level 1 character can easily have a +11 to a trained class skill (level 1 + 5 from stat + 2 from dual-skill feat + 3 from skill focus). With the old system, you had ranks to determine how trained in a skill you were, and skill ranks were by far the most sacrosanct element of the game - there is NO way in official WotC D&D books to have more than level+3 ranks in a single skill. In the new system, the point is to just keep track of a single modifier. Unfortunately, that single modifier starts off MUCH higher than before, and gives early access to feats and PRCs that were only available much later before.

Yes, you COULD keep track of the "level + 3" or "1/2 (level + 3)" separately, but that kinda defeats the purpose of making it a unified modifier.

If a player wanted to sink two feats into getting a +11 skill at first level, I say let them. If that means they get access to feats and prestige classes earlier, then so be it, as they are sacrificing a lot of resources to get there.

However, I agree that this needs to be looked at to make sure nothing too weird or wonky gets let in.

Hey, wait a second, can't you stack those two feat modifiers in 3.5 already? So that means Alpha is exactly the same way it is treated in 3.5, right? The only difference is that you are automatically maxed in any skill you choose, right?

That doesn't seem significant enough to worry about. Most of my players already max out in their desired skills or if interested in meeting a prerequisite, sink only the minimum necessary anyway.

Jason, et al,

When it comes to the skills, what are your priorities for changes, and what principles will you apply when revising?

From your intro, it sounds like these are the priorities:

Reduce prep time

Backwards compatibility

Ease of use during play

Since everybody and their brother has`different opinions about skill use, you should also talk about the principles you will be using to evaluate any changes. Generally speaking, I expect you are using the following design principles, but I am very interested in hearing your opinion on these matters:

KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid – When two systems achieve the same general effect, use the simpler system.

Don’t look it up – whenever possible, create rules that don’t need to be referenced from the book to use. That is, use skill vs. skill checks over static DCs, or make the static DCs easy and intuitive (like Jump, which is based on the amount of feet jumped).

Utility – Dump or consolidate skills that don’t get used or that get rarely used. (Personal opinion: you need to be absolutely ruthless about this.)

Can I use the old stat block easily? – each change must be justified in light of its applicability of use with the old stat block. That seems to me to be the essence of backwards compatibility.

So, how close did I come to your vision in these matters? Anything you would add or subtract?

I do agree that Cross-class need to go as a separate catagory, but feel that it needs to be kept as simple as possible after that point.

Unplaytested Suggestion: Each class has a list of class skills. A character can only get trained in skills on this list. Skills that can be used untrained don't get to add the level bonus.

Noble Knight Games seems to have a lot of them, though I have not ordered them myself, I hasten to add. I got most of mine from the FLGS and various friends.

http://www.nobleknight.com/ViewProducts.asp_Q_ProductLineID_E_2137419774_A_ ManufacturerID_E_1240049512_A_CategoryID_E_12_A_GenreID_E_

My group just finished TFoE, and they deliberately kept the Faceless One alive, after figuring out from the preists' notes that bad stuff would happen if they all died. I also gave them the clue to what was going on by describing the souls of the two previous priests emerging as a black cloud after death and drifting toward the pool. Finally, I did the "pool bubbles more after a priest dies" bit.

From all those hints, they did their best to keep the Faceless One alive, and so healed up before the they left, after spending a couple of hours turning over the place for treasure.

So I had the priest die horribly as they entered the cathedral, and the fight was on!

The best moment was when they first hit the thing, in the round after the Aspect howled. I asked, "Do you have an epic weapon?" They had a serious brown pants episode.

However, after the first round, they had a much easier time of it, and were able to kill it without anyone dying after about four or five rounds.

So all in all, it really worked out well for me.

Doyle

First off, let me say that I am sorry for taking so long to reply. I am starting to get spoiled by message boards that send you email notifications.

Second, let me apologize for not paraphrasing you correctly, Jeremy. I have taken people to task for doing just that in the past, so it a little embarrassing to find myself doing so as well.

I think I see your point now – Mary is saying that adjustments need to be made, while you are saying that the situation is self-correcting, because the larger group will have less treasure, and lower levels, at least in the long run.

My own experience with D&D is that there is much need for access to certain spells at certain levels. A party with a wizard who is fifth level has a significant edge over the same party with a fourth level wizard, and so on. If we extrapolate the numbers between a six player party and a four-player party, the party with the higher levels will have a increasing edge in spell level acquisition. I haven’t run the numbers for the entire AP, but using the spreadsheet I mentioned (go get it right now, at www.RPGenius.com) You can see that by HoHR, the difference in XP between a four-player party and a six-player party (I have seven players, so pity me) is already 52,788 to 35,192 or 10th level to 8th level – already a two level difference and very nearly a three level difference, as you need only 55,000 for 11th level – I can only extrapolate further and assume that this difference will grow even more significant as time goes on – and the major difference between 8th and 10th is access to 5th level spells. And this is only a third of the way through the AP.

I concede to you the point that larger parties are far more capable than the basic four person composition – no matter the spell access. But I still prefer to have a party with the access to the required spell level for the mod. I know at least some designers will expect and assume that party will have access to certain spells, and that this will be reflected in the mod. At the very least, I would advise DMs to be sure to examine the next mod run in the path, and see if the players will absolutely have to have such-and-such spell, and get them access to it via a scroll or some other such device from an NPC.

First off, thanks to Zid for this thread, and Mary and Jeremy for their thoughtful posts.

I have seven PCs, and they are just about to end Whispering Cairn. It took them seven weeks (including the upcoming game, where they have to whack the Wind Warriors to be done).

I was worried about this very issue (the appropriate awarding of XP and treasure). Thankfully, one of the posters to this very board has put together XP and Item spreadsheets. I have found these to be of great use. They are available at www.RPGenius.com

Generally speaking, at the end of each Module, you should expect the PCs to be a certain level.

Module – Expected level by completion according to Module text.

WC – 3
TFoE – 4?
EaBK – 6
HoHR – 9
TCB – 10
AGoW – 12
SoLS – 14
TPoR – 16
LoLR – 18
KotR – 20
ItWF – 21
DoaNA 22?

TFoE and DoaNA don’t specifically say what level they expect the players to be by the completion of the module, and DoaNA says that it is for 20th level characters. So there are some discrepancies.

The spreadsheet I mentioned calculates all the XP for all the encounters and divides them by the number of party members (4-7). So you can see what effect having more or less party members will have on XP and level gain. The spreadsheet assumes that most parties will be 5th level by the end of TFoE, and 7th by the end of EaBK. EaBK seems to be regarded as the cakewalk of the AP, and the difference between the actual XP gained by that time and expected party level (by the designer) may account for some of this.

The spreadsheet is filled out only through HoHR, but using the guidance of the earlier mods, one can certainly continue using the spreadsheet (I certainly will).

After playing the first mod, I can definitely say that having more bodies in the party made a difference. They were able to take Kullen’s gang, which I wasn’t expecting without a high body count, and they played smart enough to deal effectively with the traps and encounters at the Cairn. I did run a side quest at the mining office before play began, and gave them some additional role playing xp. They will all be third level by the time they fight the Wind Warriors next week. I could have easily added a level to Filge, and perhaps had more skeletons to buy time for Filge to cast spells. As it was, he was dead by the third or fourth round, even after having all the time in the world to prep (Mage Armor, Spectral Hand and False Life all up).

The key, as Jeremy points out, is that the party needs to be a certain minimum level to play the scenarios (the recommended level according the mod seems correct to me), but that the encounters need to be tougher to give large parties an adequate challenge.

The CR 1 bump for all encounters seems a good solution to me – even though it provides more XP, there are more players to distribute it to, as was pointed out. As long as I continue to make sure that the PCs receive enough XP to be the appropriate level for the mod, I think we will be OK. You will absolutely need to vary this by encounter - some encounters are tough enough as it is, some will need a CR2 bump or more.

As for treasure, the chart in the DMG about expected treasure per level is your friend. I use the item spreadsheet to track who got what – this will allow me make sure everyone gets appropriate treasure for their level. If you total up all the available treasure in WC, for example, there is more than enough for seven players to have the amount they need for third level (though not by much).

In summary –

Use spreadsheets to manage XP and treasure, so you know how much the PCs will be getting, and plan accordingly.

For larger parties, make sure they are the minimum level requested by the mod, but jack the opposition up in number or levels to provide an adequate challenge.

I have noticed that there are battlemaps on the web that are blown-up versions of the blank maps from the Dungeon downloads.

Do any of you mapmakers care to share your secrets of how you blew up the maps to the right scale for miniature battlemaps? I have been trying to use Dunjinni, without much success, and I am wondering if blowing up the blank maps is the way to go.

Doyle

Thanks for all your feedback. I have incorporated many of you suegessted changes into my document, and may post a version of it on RPG genius.

Hastur said he wanted to hear about the final character choices, so here goes.

A bard who works as a bookkeeper for Balabar Smenk.

A fighter who works as a bouncer at the Feral Dog.

A Gray Elf Psion who thinks he's a really incompetant mage, and who is a nephew to Moonmeadow.

A Gray Elf Ranger who is the latest paramour of Moonmeadow.

A Gray Elf Rogue who is also aattched to the Moonmeadow estate.

A Marsh-Folk Draconic Shaman who has a Cajun accent.

A cleric of a really obscure Suel god of water and healing, who works for Balabar Smenk supplying small water elementals for his mining operation.

An interesting group, who mostly seem to have heeded my requests that they be connected with Diamond lake.

Doyle

I wrote a set of character creation guidelines for AoW that I would appreciate critiques of. Any useful advice on tone, substance and if I am too much of a control freak would be welcome. :) - Thanks

Age of Worms Character Creation Guidelines

Statistics: use the point buy method, at the “High-powered Campaign” 32 point level. No stat can be lower than eight.

Available Races: standard Races from the PHB only.

Available starting classes: any 20 level classes from a WotC 3.5 book.

Class Recommendations: I strongly recommend that the players generate their character together, trying to create a balanced party. Feedback from other groups tends to support this; the more balanced the party is, the greater likelihood of success. By balanced, I mean: Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Bard and an additional fighter type like an archer build-Ranger or a Paladin.

It is most important to have a front-line fighter, a rogue with good range of skills, a cleric who can heal, buff and turn undead, an arcane caster with a wide variety of spells to choose from (like a wizard) and an interpersonal skills specialist (like a bard).

Remember, the more specialized your character is, the less flexible they will be. Feedback indicates that flexibility and team work matter more than how powerful any one character is.

That said, these are recommendations, not mandates. Choose what works best for you.

Alignment: no evil alignments. Nuff said.

Background: I do have some mandates for backgrounds.

* All characters must be stuck in Diamond Lake for some reason. This could be financial, family obligations, love interests, etc. The key here is to pick a situation that can be resolved within the first three scenarios or so.

* All Humans & half-orcs must be from Diamond Lake. Elves, dwarves, halflings and gnomes must be attached to the racial enclaves in Diamond Lake, but need not be from Diamond Lake.

* All the characters must know each other, and be part of the same ‘crew’. This is not to say that all the characters are best friends or bosom buddies, just that they all know each other and would be willing to trust each other in a fight.

* All the characters should have a contact or other friend or relative that would be willing to avenge them if they died. This is so the player can have a character waiting “in the wings” should your PC die, insuring some measure of campaign continuity.

Background & Character Class: here are a few notes to help with integrating various classes into the background.

Barbarians could originate from the enclaves of Marshmen in the Mistmarch. However, these peoples should be treated more like Bayou swamp folk than raving hordes, and probably produce as many rangers as barbarians. That said, these are the only folk locally that produce barbarians.

Bards: Bardic lore come from a variety of sources, and all races and culture produce Bards. There is plenty of work to be had in Diamond Lake for bards, and many masters of the craft travel through town, even if they do not stay for long.

Clerics are common in Diamond Lake, with Hieroneous and St Cuthbert of the Cudgel being the most numerous. Wee Jas has a substantial following, sue to the presence of the Temple of the Green Lady, across the lake. Other priesthoods of the Greyhawk pantheon might well dispatch young acolytes to serve the needs of community, as a way of testing their mettle in trying circumstance.

Druids of the Old Faith are a not uncommon sight in Diamond Lake, due to the proximity of the Grey Circle and their regular pilgrimages to the Bronzewood Lodge.

Fighters, are of course as common in Diamond Lake as they are in all of the war-torn Flaness, from the bully boys of The Feral Dog to the professional soldiers of the Greyhawk garrison.

Monks would come exclusively from the Twilight Monastery of Xan Yae.

Paladins would be protégés of Mélinde of Heironeous, of the chapel of the same in the Militia Garrison

Rangers might come from a variety of sources; the Marsh Folk, the Greyhawk Garrison, the elves of the Enclave, the Old Faith, etc.

Rogues should feel right at home in Diamond Lake, even if they are not associated with a Guild. However, home grown rogues tend to be bully boys and con artists rather then burglars or second-story men.

Sorcerers are branded with the taint of magic from somewhere in their bloodline, and such individuals are looked upon with suspicion and sometime branded as witches and burnt by the superstitious populace.

Wizards are rare in an illiterate bastion of ignorance like Diamond Lake. There may be a few in town, but for the most part they are older failed apprentices who eek out a living by peddling potions. Any true Wizards would undoubtedly be apprentices of Allustan.

Favored Souls are chosen by the gods, and so might appear anywhere on Greyhawk, even in Diamond Lake.

Factotums are generalists that would be useful to any business or government entity in Diamond Lake.

Healers would no doubt be products of training from any other Clerical or Druidic religions, or even the Twilight Monastery.

Hexblade, Warlocks, Duskblade, Warmages, and Spellthieves all require very specialized and rare training, which is not available in Diamond Lake.

Dragon Shamans and Spirit Shamans might be a product of the marsh Folk.

Marshals might be a product of the Greyhawk militia garrison, but it is very unlikely, seeing as this is militia duty, not open warfare.

Samurai, Ninja, Shujenja, Sohei, Wu Jen, and Shaman are from Oriental Adventures, and so are inappropriate for Diamond Lake (or anywhere in Greyhawk, really).

Nobles and Knights are not appropriate for Diamond Lake.

Psions, Psychic Warriors, Soulknives and Wilders, while rare, do exist on Greyhawk and would most likely be products of training from the Twilight Monastery.

Scouts might be a product of either the Grey Circle or the Greyhawk militia garrison.

Swashbucklers would find Diamond Lake very boring, but might arise as a expression of rebellion.

Beguilers might well exist to take advantage of all the marks in the mining town.

Please note that none of the Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic, or Book of Incarnum classes are appropriate for mixing with normal D&D classes.

I am about start running the AoW. If you had to give me your top three points (or more, if you want) to keep in mind while running AoW, what would they be?

Thanks!

Doyle

One quick correction. I am missing 105, not 103.

Does anyone have a complete list of all the cards?

Hey all, I am looking for the following from Hero's Horde:

3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 19, 31, 40, 50, 103

I would like multiples of the potions, but otherwise am happy with singles.

And I have the following cards available for trade. The number in the parenthesis is the amount I have available.

If you are wondering why there are no potions, I have decided to keep all my extras of those as per the suggestion of Jason Bulmahn.

(2) - 001 - Banded Mail
(2) - 002 - Breastplate
(1) - 004 - Half-Plate
(1) - 005 - Hide Armor
(1) - 008 - Scale Mail
(1) - 010 - Studded Leather
(1) - 014 - Tower Shield
(3) - 017 - Battleaxe
(1) - 018 - Arrows
(3) - 020 - Crossbow
(3) - 022 - Daggers
(2) - 024 - Halberd
(1) - 026 - Longbow
(1) - 027 - Longbow
(1) - 029 - Longsword
(1) - 030 - Longsword (Foil)
(1) - 032 - Shortbow (Foil)
(1) - 034 - Shortsword (Foil)
(1) - 035 - Shortsword
(2) - 038 - Spiked Chain (1 Foil)
(1) - 039 - Warhammer
(1) - 058 - Ring
(1) - 059 - Ring (Foil)
(1) - 060 - Ring
(1) - 061 - Ring
(1) - 062 - Ring (Foil)
(3) - 063 - Scroll
(2) - 064 - Scroll (1 Foil)
(2) - 065 - Scroll
(2) - 067 - Scroll
(1) - 071 - Scroll (Foil)
(1) - 073 - Rod
(1) - 074 - Rod
(1) - 076 - Staff
(2) - 077 - Staff
(3) - 079 - Wand
(2) - 080 - Wand
(1) - 081 - Wand
(1) - 082 - Wand
(3) - 085 - Wand
(1) - 087 - Wand (Foil)
(1) - 090 - Amulet
(2) - 096 - Bottle
(2) - 099 - Circlet (1 Foil)
(1) - 100 - Cloak
(2) - 102 - Crown
(1) - 103 - Crystal Ball
(2) - 104 - Gauntlets
(1) - 107 - Headband
(2) - 108 - Necklace (1 Foil)
(1) - 109 - Periapt

Please let me know if you have something you want to trade! I am willing to part with foils for what's on my 11 card want list. Thanks!

JavaApp

Check out the trading thread. I am more than happy to send you all the extra copies of the cards I have from your list in exchange for anything you have I'm looking for.

Thanks Dithering, I'll do that.

JavaApp (AKA Doyle)

Jason (if I may),

Thanks so much for the extremely quick response. Like the other poster on this thread, I do appreciate your honesty in dealing with my concerns.

Again, not being privy to the details of your business model for this product (and not really wanting to, thanks) I can understand that random packs may be the only way to go - and I will still continue to buy this product, just not in the same quantities as with this set.

As to your question about the packaging: the packs were completely open at the bottom, and while there was a red stripe present at the top of the packs (which did seem to be sealed properly) no colored stripe was visible at the bottom.

The 'crinkling' at the bottom, however, was very faint, as if not enough pressure had been applied to the packaging.

I am going to send a scan to your private email address, and if you will reply, I'll be happy to send you the actual packaging.

I also want to point out that this defect appeared in both the display boxes that I drew packs from.

JavaApp

This is directed to those Paizo folks involved with the design of the new item cards series.

Before I start expressing my concerns, I want to state that I do love this product quite a bit. This is exactly the sort of thing I have always wanted to have as a GM at my table, and I love both the appearance and production of the cards.

That said, having bought quite a few boosters, I do have some issues with the distribution of the cards I received. I want to state that I do understand that this is a randomized product. I do understand randomization allows you to produce cards in an economy of scale that you would not be able to produce otherwise.

That said, after buying a large amount of boosters (large amount for me, anyway) I came away from the experience wishing I had bought less, not more. Now, that’s not so great for me, but if my opinion is shared by many others, not so great for your guys’ bottom line, either.

I initially bought seven boosters, cleaning out the stock of my local FLGS. I told him that I would be willing to buy another display box, as well, and he eventually got it in. I ended up buying all 12 boosters of the second display box.

So, after having spent about $72 ($66.50 + tax) I now had 206 cards. Of those cards, I got 98 originals, and 108 dupes.

Now there are only 110 cards in the set. I was willing to spend the money on an extra display box because I wanted a complete set. I was missing about 15 cards or so, and much to my surprise, when I open up those 12 new packs, I found that I had gotten only four new cards, still leaving me 11 cards short of a full set.

As I understand it, this means that the same 11 cards were very likely missing in both the display boxes I drew from. Now it seems possible to me that those 11 cards I was still looking for were in the 5 boosters I initially missed buying, but it doesn’t seem likely.

Here are the cards I was missing.

3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 19, 31, 40, 50, 103

Like I said, this is all random distribution. I can accept that I should have expected something like this to happen, but it is a different thing for it to actually happen to you, if you take my meaning.

I would have much rather had complete set with few or no dupes. One of the great appeals to me of this product is that you can have a picture for a magic item, which reinforces the illusion of the uniqueness of each item. Given that premise, all those dupes do very little for me, even I were to still use them, because the sense of uniqueness is now gone. In fact, I can even hear my players complaining about it now, “My +3 Longsword of Coolness looks exactly like his +2 Longsword of Suckiness! How lame is that?”

I do understand that I can now trade for the cards I need. And that is most likely what I will end up doing.

But, and this is the point, I would have much rather purchased two 20 or 25 dollar decks of 54 cards each, then the purchase I have just made.

Now I will buy the next couple of sets as they come out randomly, but at this point, I cannot recommend that anyone buy more that a single display box. Frankly, I would buy a half a display box, or less, and see if you are OK with the sort of distribution you get.

Now, I want to add a single coda. On both sets of display boxes, all the packs I bought were open at the bottom seam. It did occur to me that someone might have tampered with the packs, either at the FLGS or the distributor. But I have seen this before with other CCG games, so it seems at least possible to me that this was a defect due to the packaging process.

Since I don’t know if this was accidental or deliberate, I don’t want to mention the FLGS in question. Please contact me privately if would like to know the name of the store in order to track down the problem.

Finally, I also would prefer that all the illustrations be new, with no re-uses from previous sets, as is the case with set 2, because of the similarity issue I mentioned above (yes, I also bought the initial deck).

Again, I reiterate that this is a fantastic product. I only wish it were better still.

JavaApp

Moderator, please delete my previous post.

Fallen Angel (Dungeons & Dragons 3.5)
This cursed weapon exists to tempt those sworn to law and good away from the path of righteousness.

Description: This blessed sword is carefully crafted with silver and gold with angelic wings making up the quillions.

Activation: Wielding the sword is sufficient to activate its base qualities described below.

Effect: This sword is an intelligent weapon, inhabited by a demonic force skilled in deception and trickery. Though the sword appears to have auras of good and evil, this is in fact powerful masking magic disguising its true auras of chaos and evil. It claims that it is in fact an angel in the form of a sword, sent to the world in order to atone for various sins. Further, it asks only to be used in the cause of good, and depending on the alignment of the wielder, freedom or order.

To this ends it claims several powers, such as the detection of evil and the Holy quality, but it claims that these powers cannot be activated until the wielder proves himself. It offers its good counsel and lore, however, until it is activated.

In actuality it will use its abilities to deceive the wielder, encouraging him to attack those the sword knows to be good. Its goal is corrupt the user, however, rather than destroy the good. It will attempt to deceive the wielder for a long as possible, trying to tempt the wielder into acts that will acquire atonement or alignment shift. If the wielder finally discovers and confronts the true nature of the sword, and has not shifted to an evil alignment, it will attempt to control the wielder into committing all sorts of despicable acts, gloating over its now helpless minion.

Base abilities: +2 unholy

Mental Ability Scores: Int 10, Wis 17, Cha 17, Ego 18

Skills: Sense Motive +13, Bluff+13

Communication: Speech, telepathy

Languages: Common, Celestial, Infernal

Lesser Powers: detect evil/good at will, Bluff and Sense Motive skills

Senses: 120 ft. darkvision and hearing (Fallen Angel possesses light generation, but does not need it to see)

Special Purpose Power: Mask Alignment (This ability allows Fallen Angel to disguise its powerful auras of Chaos and Evil as Law and Good. Any caster who tries to scry or otherwise detect the true alignment of the sword must make a DC 18 Level Check. Failure indicates that the sword possesses powerful Good and Lawful auras. Success indicates the true auras of Chaos and Evil are discovered, and the angelic motifs of the sword are revealed as demonic, and the silver and gold to be corroded iron and bronze.)

Purpose: To corrupt the good.

Aura/Caster Level: Powerful Good, Law and Evocation if Mask Alignment has not been penetrated, Powerful Chaos, Evil and Evocation otherwise. Caster Level 18.

Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, greater magic weapon, mind blank, miracle, unholy aura, 106,315 gp, 4,253 XP, 107 days.

Weight: 4 lb.

Price: 212,630 gp.