Krazee12's page

I chose 2 from the top 4 and 2 from the next 4. So sort of agreed with the judges.

Mmmm.... Doesn't say anything about Champion voters in the entry criteria for the Guild Hall.

I voted for

Brian J. Fruzen — The Gloomsworn Path
Monica Marlowe — The Hanging Gardens of Karexin

Narrik
Deeplit
Gloomwasp

and I disagreed with the judges: Aetherling

And fey isn't a template, it's a creature type.

Actually it is both, fey is a creature type and a template.

And there are 4 fey templates:

Fey Animal (CR +1)
Fey Creature (CR +1 or +2)
Fey Touched (CR +1)
Debased (or Dark) Fey (CR +1)

One can make a fey designed to live in the Darklands without using the dark fey template, just as one can create new undead creatures without slapping a template on something else. I don't see what the problem is here.

So if you call something dark fey and use just 1 aspect of the template, is that using the template? What about using everything in the template except for 1 aspect is that using the template? Where is the cut-off point?

If you call something dark fey and do not use anything from the template then why are you calling it dark fey?

Dark fey are a slightly complicated case because it is the dark fey template on top of the fey template.

I would think that a monster that does not use anything from the dark fey or fey template would be difficult to be considered a dark fey.
And something that used some aspects of the template may be against the rules.

I was thinking a Darklands fey could be very cool.

One of the monster templates is debased (or dark) fey, as is fey. Since using a monster template is against the rules, I don't think a dark fey is allowed.

Also most of the undead are templates as well so wouldn't be allowed.

I have been a GM and player since D&D started, played with multiple groups and cannot remember a time when a player was awarded a magic item.

In my current campaign players either start with heirloom items, find, purchase or make magic items, and sometimes get them as payment for services rendered.

So, the top 32 had 7 staves and 3 rods (+1 alternate). Given the nearly even numbers submitted at approx. 10%, staves are over-represented and rods are about right.

If we go on the cull statistics which have only 27% of rings surviving the cull then they were obviously the "hard mode" of the comp.

I did notice a lot of rings had charges (which I think is a fail), so presumably people just converted their wondrous item to a ring with no other change.

Further, based on the stats - shields, staffs and rods were easy mode
as over 50% survived the cull (which averaged 44% survival).

Where did you see that none of last year's Top 32 were among the Top 32 vote-getters? I don't recall that.

I recall No. 2 or 3 not making it in, though that may have been the previous year. I think also one (or more?) of the Top 32 was picked from number 80-something, but not that none of them were ranked higher than that.

Sorry I can't find the exact post but it said that the top 32 of last year were ranked by the voting from something like 38 to 82, that is the lowest ranked item was 80 something and the highest ranked item was around 38.

To clarify my 2nd point it seems that a lot of people think that in order to be a Superstar item you first need to be a powerful item. Needless to say I don't think that.

And for completeness my first point was that I think staffs were overall better than the rods.

I guess the proof of this will be in the numbers that make it into the top 100 and the final 32, given that there were about the same number of each (~10% staffs and ~9% rods) submitted

Staves have been a bad category for me. If I read your staff, and you did a good job, you had:

1. A series of related spells.
2. An enhancement bonus
3. A skill bonus.

At this point, you need something else. If all you had was summarized above, it's not a Superstar item. Sorry, you knew it was hard mode.

If you're other power was amazing (and I mean AMAZING) I keep reading. If it was meh, you're still done. I'll take a weapon with a neat power over that. Sorry ;)

If an experienced forumite believes the above is a good design for a staff then no wonder people think they are hard, as for me, the above design would be an automatic fail as too powerful.

I am beginning to see why none of last years top 32 finalist were taken from the voted top 32, and number 80-something made it on to the list. It may be something to do with equating superstarness with magical power.

For me many entrants got staffs right (apart from the weaponized ones), they exhibited creativeness within the design criteria of a staff. Results varied, of course.

However rods were on the whole not done well. Their design criteria, as snipped:

1. Does it function as a weapon?
A) Is craft arms and armor in the requirements.
B) Does the mace-type and special powers make sense for what the rod does/its theme?

2. Does it have charges?
I don't think Rods should have charges. A "once a day" is fine,

3. What does it enhance?

4. Does it have spells known?
If so, it should have been a staff.

and what Rods are about perhaps was not understood or suffered from the conversion from wondrous items the most.

Gotta say...I haven't quite warmed to this design space yet. I think it's just that I don't understand the parameters as well as I did for Wondrous Items.

I think a lot of the entrants didn't understand the parameters either.

If I find the items roughly the same worth, I vote for the one with the fewest formatting mistakes. I hate capitalized words, instead of bolding and walls of text make my eyes bleed.

Also if you don't say what it is in the first sentence I stop reading. You might like your description of fire with embedded ice chips capped with molybdenum, but I want to know what sort of weapon/item it is!

I was too late to enter this year, but from the campaign I am currently running

Staff of Forseeing (Lore)
Aura strong divination; CL 14th
Slot none; Price 29,600 gp; Weight 5 lbs.

Description
This polished wooden staff is adorned with stylised eyes and mystical symbols. When held and used by an Oracle it increases their effective level for the revelation of a divine mystery by 2, the final revelation however still requires the Oracle to be level 20. The staff allows the use of the following spells:

Legend lore (1 charge)
Contact other plane (1 charge)
Vision (2 charges)

Construction
Requirements Craft Staff; Legend lore, Contact other plane, Vision; Cost 14,800 gp

Naturally there is one for every Oracle Mystery, and the price is totally made up.