Swordless's page

We never made a hypergoblin like you are describing, but in my college campaign, the DM did once throw in a boss with as many templates as he could find that would fit together. It was a wizard's failed experiment in manipulating quintessence (in this campaign, a miracle substance left behind as residue from time travel, with wide magical/alchemical uses) and using it to infuse a living being with extraplanar energies.

Basically he ended up with a swollen, misshapen Lovecraft-style drake with all kinds of demonic, elemental, psionic, construct, and Gods know what else traits. It was highly resistant to most damage and had a plethora of special attacks.

I'm pretty sure the critter's frothing insanity was the only thing that saved us. I can't remember how we killed it but I think it inolved a Portable Hole and Mordenkainen's Disjunction...

Thanks for the supportive messages, guys! It's the community that makes this site so great. I love the chance to brush virtual elbows with other wanna-be's, and especially the option to see the judges' rationale and even the other community members' critiques of different items and contest entries.

I feel like I am learning a lot about the process just watching these discussions unfold, and it's helped me bring a focused critical eye back to my own work.

First session of PFRPG online is tonight, here's hoping it goes well! (And Lastwall is the coolest country in Golarion! :P)

I want to thank everyone at Paizo for hosting this contest and giving me a second shot at living my dreams.

I have dreamed of writing for RPGs since my earliest dice-chucking teenage years, and I studied literature and writing in college to pursue that goal. I eventually failed out of university and grew completely disillusioned, giving up all hope of writing anything but spreadsheets and meeting minutes.

I wear a tie and drool in a cubicle all day, just like I always swore I would never do. I haven't written anything in years, and my huge collection of roleplaying books has been gathering dust since my last move.

This contest suddenly inspired me, I'm not sure why or how. I guess it was just the right external motivation to make me work on creating again. I dug out books, started researching fervently and writing, editing, scrapping, and working the whole creative process for the first time in years.

I re-enrolled in college starting next week. I have started running an online Pathfinder campaign, a tabletop Dark Heresy game, and begun work helping to write a 40 player LARP for next year.

For the first time in six years I have stopped ignoring my dreams and started pursuing them again, and as corny as it is, it's all thanks to RPG Superstar.

Thanks, Paizo.

Not to be a drooling fanboy here, but who else is TOTALLY EXCITED after entering the contest?

I thought I would spend the gap from submission to judgement quivering in nervousness and fear, but honestly the whole thing has just made me really excited to play Pathfinder again!

Anyone else having more fun than fear?

Swordless wrote:

...and then each paragraph ...

*ack*

Sounds busy.

It's not too complex, I'm just addicted to line breaks. I like to separate description out and then give each power its own little section. Been doing that in my houserules work for a long time :)

The thing is.. if the item really needs 300 words, and all 300 words are relevant and meaningful.. it won't feel like 300 words when you read it.

That was really the point when I felt like my submission was ready to be turned in. I grappled with the design for a week, swinging from 150 to 300 and back over and over. I finally brought it to my sister, who is a very casual gamer, and she told me it barely read like English anymore. I had gotten so obsessed with covering my bases and avoiding some of the flaws and loopholes in previous entries that I had completely forgotten readability.

I sat down last night and rewrote the whole thing from the ground, reading each sentence and then each paragraph out loud until the whole thing flowed organically. I think my final word count was around 270, but more importantly to me, it actually read like human writing.

Advice to my fellow contestants: don't get so caught up in trying to be a WINNER that you forget to be a writer. :)

I feel that psionics offers a non-Vancian system of spellcasting. Rather than magical blood, exhaustive study, or divine prayer, psionics represents strength of will and human potential.

I believe psionics would work best if most of the powers that simply duplicate wizard spells with more flexibility should be eliminated. (energy _, I'm looking at you!)

The point-based system is inherently more flexible and offers PC's more power than Vancian casting so I can understand why many players and GM's shy away from it as unfair. I do like the core concept, though.

What I would like to see is a system where, similar to Wild Talents in previous editions, a character could begin play with a few psionic talents. I would like to see a much shorter list of available powers, but have them retain the ability to be "pumped up" by greater point expenditure at high level. For example, a beginner at Telekinesis might be able to lift 1/4 their carry limit. As they level, my spending more points they might be able to use their full strength telekinetically, and at high level lift thousands of pounds.

Powers could even be purchased as Feats alongside a basic character class. Perhaps Psionic Aptitude could be a starting feat that gives a character a base Power Point pool (based on highest of Int or Wis.) Other feats could grant Telekinesis, Telepathy, Clairvoyance, etc.

For full-on psionic characters, prestige classes could be available, requiring high mental ability scores and several power feats as prerequisites.

Thus, any player who really wanted psionics could take them alongside an existing class (at the cost of the all-important feat slots of course.) Those really itching to play psionic characters might want to start in a class with high Int or Wis req's such as skill rogue, monk, or wizard and then gradually abandon their original training in favor of developing their inner powers along a prestige class path.

I think psionic classes are overpowered and the entire alternate casting rules steamroll over existing magical classes. Retaining the flavor and flexibility but making it run alongside normal classes, as it did in classic editions, would be the ideal solution for me.