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Pathfinder is part of a storied tradition of gaming full of strange things wizards made because they got high and started enchanting. They help fantasy gaming feel like fantasy gaming, and this item fits right in. Sometimes you just have a problem that is best solved by throwing a lot of angry birds at it. Ahem.

So, yes, kind of a spell in a can, kind of a swiss army knife, don’t really care because it made me smile and fits seamlessly into Pathfinder while still feeling unusual. This is a good illustration of how the guidelines of RPG Superstar can be broken by someone who knows what they’re doing in the service of making something that really feels like it belongs in the game. The catch, however, is that if you’re going to do something like this that works within existing material, you had better show yourself to be a master of that material, because you will be extended less benefit of the doubt than someone treading into creative new territory. Here there’s a lot of good writing and attention to detail, but also some notable power/pricing issues, and maybe a little gilding the lily in terms of the sheer volume of STUFF on the gloves.

I would also suggest thinking about what the different durations say about the purpose of the item. 1 minute = combat only. 10 minutes, usable in 1-minute increments = use this in every combat every day. If the time limit is on the long side, but indivisible, it encourages the PCs to use this to solve problems and otherwise think creatively to use their bird powers for good - or it encourages them to blitz on to the next situation without lots of boring planning, another source of entertainment. So that approach might have been more effective here.

My guess is that this designer would only be OK at making new character classes and monsters stat blocks, but great at writing organizations, NPCs, and modules. I look forward to finding out.

So, first off, apparently haters gonna hate, but “clockwork conscience” is an awesome name. Probably my favorite of this year’s item names. The elements of a good magic item are here – a cool high concept, well-written description, nice use of rules – though something that zaps you to stop you hurting your friends doesn’t quite fulfill the promise of a “clockwork conscience,” which I had hoped would involve alignment or something that would come up more often, especially in non-combat moral situations.

But, there’s a central problem with your item. The clockwork conscience protects against the two most un-fun effects in Pathfinder, stun and mind control – i.e. things that make you lose control of your character. What are you hoping for when your character buys this item? Are you afraid that your GM is going to ruin your fun by taking over your combat turn all the time, and you need protection? In that case, you would be satisfied to have this item and for it never to be useful. But rather than take up an item slot on your character sheet, a better solution would be to talk to your GM about why you don’t like this kind of stuff and ask him/her to minimize its presence in the game.

Alternatively, if this isn’t an insurance policy, then when you buy this item, you’re saying to the GM “yeah! Send lots of monsters that daze and confuse (see what I did there?) the party!” After all, if you buy this thing and don’t get to use it it seems kind of boring. But, of course, your fun here is going to come at the expense of the other members of your party who don’t have this protective equipment. Which is cool once, your paranoid dude and his masochistic amulet turn out to save the day, but isn’t going to be interesting as a regular thing.

So in sum, this item doesn’t really have much of a place in any campaign I’ve ever been in where the players and the GM had a good relationship. I could see a situation where the party KNOWS they’re going into the lair of the dreaded sirens, and so they seek out clockwork consciences for protection, but that is too niche for Superstar in my book.