Riftwalker's page

Also, if the item deals with one of the following, it gets some extra scrutiny:

...
-Automatically detects something (traps/undead/enemies/etc.)
...

As a GM, items that do this make my eyes narrow. It's really easy to forget that a character has an item that detects something. Which can easily lead to mistakes along the lines of "Oh yeah, I should have told you a couple minutes ago that your sword is glowing because there are orcs nearby" right as the orc encounter starts.

If the GM needs to know ahead of time that an adventurer has an item, then that item contributes to GM overload and in the opinion of this GM, not a Superstar item.

I mostly agree with James above in terms of bias.

One bias I have is against items that require additional bookkeeping. Staff charges are exempt because that's how they work, but otherwise, if an item works for X minutes per day or has X charges or uses per day or has effects that continue for X rounds I know it's just going to be one more thing to keep track of at the gaming table. On the other hand, I am good with items that expend spell slots or ki or grit or other existing resources because those resources are already tracked by the player.

Thank you greatly for the list making, so nice to see your entry is in there and I can just relax and vote knowing it's out there some where, a mother worries you know.

QFT - I was really starting to get worried about mine too! Thanks guys!

I've been voting for a bit and haven't seen my item and also haven't seen it on any public lists so far. Anyone who's collecting items mind if I PM you to see if my item made it on your list, or even better since it doesn't reveal an author<->item pairing, sending me your list somehow so I can check myself?

Oh good - it's not just me!

On the fifth day of Superstar my true love gave to me:

Five! ioun! stones!
Four statues of Magdh
Three flaming shields
Two dancing dwarves
And a defending halberd +3!

(Edited due to ninjaing!)

Fourth timers represent!

Not sure if others have similar experiences with their earlier submissions, but I find it amusing to take a look back at my earlier submissions and see all the mistakes I've since learned from.

I was guilty of an immature outburst last year -- it's definitely easy to get caught up in the criticism of the incessant ramble thread, especially when you can't respond to the criticism due to the contest rules! Which leads to Coleman's/Steelhead's points above.

For any newcomers, I definitely recommend putting on an amulet of natural armor before heading into this year's incessant ramble thread. And I'll honor last year's offer to make my inbox a venting/ranting target for any that are tempted to let loose their rage and fury upon the Paizo messageboards.

Third Page Critiques:

Orb of Supplicants' Shadows:
Interesting Mythic device with some very cool imagery. I liked this one a good deal, but it suffers from requiring a shadow-templated simulacrum of each creature used in this device. That’s an awful lot of paperwork to run it.

Thank you for the feedback.

Just a couple more before bed.

Orb of Supplicants' Shadows
I saw this several times in the voting and I still have no idea what it really does. Why would you want your cohort and followers sucked into an orb when it counts as cruel treatment? Maybe if they are staffing you stronghold and you need copies of them in combat suddenly but I still don’t really get it. The writing needs a good edit too, I have read it multiple times and I am still kind of confused about what exactly happens when and to whom.
Verditct: I don’t get it. Also I have only ever seen Leadership in play once in years of playing.

Thank you for the feedback. I've heard from a couple people that the item is confusing--or at least I didn't make its purpose or use clear enough. Unfortunately, it's also pretty close to the word count so I couldn't spare many words, which really means it might have just been too complicated an idea for a 300 word wondrous item.

@Rysky: *hugs back*

@Mikaze: *hugs back*

@mamaursula: I'm not being very clear about the details of the original post because I'm not trying to draw attention to it. But it wasn't yours. Thank you for your kind words. I'll take you up on the other offer via PM.

(The most important rule: Don't be a jerk. It even says it right underneath the Submit Post button.)

I hesitate to submit this thread--because my intent is to not call attention to my post or generate more drama. But I do want to apologize to those affected and do what I can to atone.

I am sorry. When I read the post that triggered my post, I felt like I had been unfairly sniped. And because of the contest rules, I felt powerless to do anything about it. That powerlessness turned into anger, which festered until I made the original post that included the hot-headed response. This is not an excuse--just an attempt at an explanation.

I shouldn't have posted it. It generated heat but not light and injected negativity into this community which is uncommonly, overwhelmingly positive. It reflects poorly on myself, is unprofessional, and serves no purpose. I should have handled it better and failed to do so. For all of this, I am sorry.

I will not let it happen again and have attempted to undo any damage I've done:

- I've apologized to the original target of my rant.
- I asked for the offending text to be removed, which Sean thankfully did.

I'd also like to offer my PM-inbox as a target for anyone needing to privately vent in the future. Better there than to pollute the message boards, and I'll definitely be able to empathize with you. Perhaps in this way I can help prevent someone from making the same mistake I did.

Thank you to everyone for making this such a wonderful community.

49) Orb of Supplicants' Shadows
The Good: I loved and hated this item. The mark of good writing is the reaction it evokes, so kudos to you on that. Good call on the linking and I like you took risks by going mythic.
The Bad: Evil is a tough design space in an open vote, the drawback will lose you some of the min max vote.
The Ugly: I'm not sure a healing power is a good trade for the mythic expenditure, it should also do restoration. Price seems really low for the level of awesome-sauce you're doling out even if its a little niche.
Overall: 5 stars- I liked this item a lot. If it wasn't in my top 32 it was because there were items I liked a little better and the pricing seems off. I'd offer you 3PP work right now except for the last line of your feedback post...

Thank you very kindly for this review.

If you mind taking a question, what would you price this as?

P.E.A.C.H.:

Orb of Supplicants' Shadows
Aura strong conjuration and illusion; CL 15th
Slot —; Price 30,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
Hushed whispers of betrayal and melancholy emanate from this translucent black sphere as ghostly wisps slowly swirl in its depths.

When a creature with the Leadership feat (or similar ability) grasps the orb and utters the command word (a standard action), her cohort and followers become trapped in the orb (no saving throw; this effect works at any distance). In a swirl of shadows, a pale and forlorn echo of her cohort coalesces in an adjacent square. Treat this "shadow-cohort" as a simulacrum of the user's cohort (using all HD instead of half that disperses into shadows if slain) with the shadow creature template. The shadow-cohort benefits from the user's abilities that specifically benefit her cohort. Additionally, as a standard action while holding the orb, the user may manifest up to 5 "shadow-followers" (as unseen servants but visible as shadows and automatically destroyed in bright light). The user may never have more shadow-followers manifested than her total number of followers.

The orb shatters at dawn, releasing her cohort and followers to their original locations and dispersing the shadow-cohort and shadow-followers. This also happens if the orb is broken prematurely (hardness 1, hp 3). Using the orb qualifies for the "cruelty" Leadership score factor which applies after her cohorts and followers are restored.

A mythic user may expend a use of mythic power to prevent the orb from shattering at the next dawn. By touching the orb to her shadow-cohort for one minute and expending one use of mythic power, she may restore a shadow-cohort to full hit points.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Mythic Crafter, simulacrum, trap the soul, unseen servant; Cost 15,000 gp

Thanks, Vic!

Thanks Mark! I'll continue to monitor the thread just in case.

I have a couple questions about using the Thassilon runes under the Community Use Policy. I take the policy seriously, but rather than simply assuming I can't do something (which to me seems reasonable) I figured I'd ask:

1) Can individual runes be copy/pasted/cropped from the sheets of Thassilon Runes? The devil/demon signs are packaged as one-glyph-per-image-file. Can the Thassilon runes could be used similarly? I plan to use individual glyphs in a manner analogous to a font without altering their proportions.

2) Could an exception to the "don't alter the color" rule be made for changing the color of the runes to something other than black? Changing the color of monochromatic runes seems a bit different from changing the colors of the iconics, maps, faction symbols, and other artwork.

Thanks in advance for answers! My hope is that the official answer is that these minor exceptions don't violate the spirit of the Community Use Policy.

My keep file:

...
Crown of Royal Command
...

The crown of royal command was my submission and it makes me happy to learn that someone liked it, even though it didn't make the cut this year. :-)

Riftwalker wrote:

Mushroom of the Fey Ring

OK, Riftwalker. Buckle up for this one. :) I'll try to take it easy on you...

Thanks Clark.

This was my first year entering, and though I listened to the podcast and read through the advice on these forums, I (clearly) have more lessons to learn. Some of the new nuggets/guidelines I've taken away from this experience are:

- Don't introduce new templates. I thought adding a different template into the celestial/fiendish mix for summon monster might be a clever way to play with the summon monster rules. I was originally going to use the "Fey Creature" template but then found that it wasn't in the PRD, so I tried to jam a new one in that was like fiendish/celestial/anarchic except fey-themed. Anyway, don't do this.

- Theme is important, but it isn't more important than simplicity (especially pertaining to activation). I thought the activation at night in the forest kept the theme (and prevented mushrooms from growing in, say, the desert). I didn't want the PCs to try to catch the fey, so I inserted "unobserved and undisturbed." I didn't want to have to specify the exact fey that did it, (hence the "in theory") because there could be all kinds of problems with that, including that it would shift the focus away from the item itself to the creature, either upstaging the item or being a quasi-MIAC. At the time of submission, I thought this was "flavorful" but in the end, piling all these things on drowned out the item.

- Building off of existing game data assuming that that game data will eventually grow is not necessarily good, especially when that data is currently limited. For instance, new monsters in the Bestiaries sometimes indicate that they are candidates for improved familiars, essentially adding them to the list of creatures that can be taken by spellcasters with that feat. However, while more fey could be added to the summon nature's ally tables, fey currently only sparsely populate that table. What I thought was showing potential forethought and future-proofing of the item (maybe highlighting good design) came across as not being very useful.

Thanks Clark. I think Neil posted the rhyme already, which I liked. Next year my wondrous item submission will be a mojorific acrostic iambic pentameter*! LOOK FOR IT!

*: Or not because judges would think that was gimmicky.

Riftwalker wrote:

Mushroom of the Fey Ring

Thanks Neil (and the other judges) for the comments!

I struggled a bit with the annoying writing trying to keep the focus on the item itself and not the (supposedly mysterious) fey that actually modifies the wand. And it got more convoluted when I considered things like the PC(s) trying to catch the fey in the act.

This was tremendously helpful because I was worried about a few things that turned out not to be issues and things that turned out to be issues I wasn't worried about. Thanks!

Interested in feedback! My submission:

Mushroom of the Fey Ring
Aura faint conjuration and enchantment; CL 5th
Slot —; Price 3,000 gp; Weight —
Description
This mushroom-shaped vial is carved from an oak’s heartwood and contains shimmering dust that attracts fey. If the owner is in a forested area at sunset, they may sprinkle all the dust in a small circle around a magic wand that contains an enchantment spell. Mushrooms then spring from the dust circle. If left undisturbed and unobserved overnight—the theory goes—a fey visits, tries out the wand, alters the wand’s spell as either a gift or a trick, and departs. At dawn, the wand has 1d6 fewer charges (to a minimum of 0) and the wand’s contained spell changes to a random spell from enchantment spells of the same level from the same class' spell list.

Additionally, an owner of non-lawful alignment who casts either summon monster or summon nature's ally can use a full mushroom as an additional spell focus, though this consumes the dust inside. Doing so permits the summoning of a creature marked with a "*" from the summon monster table of the same spell level as a "fey ring" creature (treat as the entropic template with DR/cold iron rather than DR/lawful, a +1 luck bonus to AC and saving throws, but without smite law) instead of the celestial or fiendish template. This option makes the spell chaotic. Alternately, casting summon monster may summon a fey creature from the summon nature's ally table of the same spell level.

If empty, the mushroom's contents are replenished at dawn a total of seven times, after which the magic of the mushroom fades.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, beguiling gift, summon monster I or summon nature's ally I; Cost 1,500 gp