Theory's page

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Thank you for your review of the lash of wild roses!

I'm fairly new to the Pathfinder setting, which is probably evident in my word choices. The higher DC comes from casting it at a higher level through Highten Spell, the meta-magic feat, which I failed to include in the requirements. I was trying to buff it up a bit, without making it too lethal (an odd approach to a magic weapon, to be sure). A +2 would have been a good idea, though.

I'd hoped by using the entangle spell, any circumstances I didn't account for would be covered by the spell, but I see I overly complicated the mechanic. I could have done a lot of good with the word-count I wasted on command words and rules caveats.

I'm glad you liked the rose bush bit. I'd worried that Plant Growth would have been a more appropriate spell, but the wall of thorns had the mechanics I wanted.

Lots of easy stuff to fix for next year!

Thank you for the notes GM_Solspiral! I'm glad you liked the Lash of Wild Roses, and with new eyes forged from this contest, I can easily see where I went astray.

Thank you for all the effort and advice you've given to us all.

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Thank you for the notes on the Lash of Wild Roses.

I'd considered an effect where the entangled creatures alignment was revealed by the color of the rose. It would have swelled the word-count, and i'm not aware of the alignments already having a color code, so i'd have to explain it. I could see replacing the entangle effect with something that places a colored rose on the target of a strike, like a corsage.

All of this would only be commonly useful to the neutral aligned fey and druids, so still not Superstar, but I'd appreciate feedback on this variation.

Thanks again, and to all who are providing great feedback!

Thanks for the notes on the Lash of Wild Roses! I can see where I needed to clarify, and where I could have made better use of the word-count for effective flavor.

Thanks for all the feed back on the Lash of Wild Roses, everybody! I got a lot of good notes on my item, and a lot of insight into the community.

*Formatting and wording issues.

*For the first ability, what's the action? Is that on every hit? How do you determine if the target leaves the area? It seems like it might follow them everywhere. If it follows them everywhere, then it's not rooted to the ground. If it's not rooted to the ground, it doesn't hold them in place. And in any...

I intended for the entangle aspect to not be rooted to the ground, so no immobility or range of effect. It would work especially well against fliers. As it doesn't need to do damage (no damage against armor, avoiding the saves to avoid thorn damage), things could get out in a couple rounds, I felt a time limit was unnecessary. If they struggle, they either get free, or take damage and a penalty, if not, they're nicely bound.

As a side, did you note that it creates a single living bush, 10x10x10, not the full wall? I should have found a spell that was more thematically appropriate, but wall of thorns fit the mechanic I was going for. Woodland stride through a Wall of Thorns, perhaps not. That is why I specified it was a living bush, so those with woodland stride "may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at her normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment."
My old DM applied it to the Wall as well, but I can see where that was their interpretation.

Thank you for the notes! Obviously I obfuscated my clarity with excess verbosity. ;)

No worries, Brigg - I appreciate the input and for taking your time to critique it. Hearing different opinions only helps me grow, so thank you :)

I certainly enjoyed the bow. I think Brigg has a point about neutralizing certain encounters, but it seems to take the usual Fairy Fire effect to the next level, without guaranteeing hits. It could allow an archer to remain useful in a ethereal/invisible fight without using half the encounter to just see or effect the creatures.

I've seen a lot of archers siting with arrow notched, waiting for the casters to do something to bring them into the fight.

Additionally, it loses effectiveness against more than a handful of entities, which I think is a fine limit. Granted, getting that second or third shot against one target would always be easier, but getting that first one can be tricky.

Here's my post cull list

Lash of Wild Roses

Thank you. I was starting to think I'd completely missed the mark.

I really enjoyed the Black Dragon Wings. It's not as useful if there's just one, but I could see the pair being an iconic accessory for a NPC foil.

Lash of Wild Roses - Issues with wording and boring abilities. Never list the command words. Should have been made from greenwood. Don't need to add rose bush to requirements. +1 whip.

Fair enough. Greenwood! of course. Command words, never again.

I'd considered avoiding the second part about the rose bush and adding something where roses would sprout from the entangling vine and indicate alignment with color, but it would be tricky to describe that coherently within the word count.

I'd appreciate more detail on the issue with wording, but no worries.

Thanks!

Lash of Wild Roses
Aura moderate conjuration; CL 9th
Slot none; Price 19,201 gp; Weight 2 lbs.
Description
The Lash of Wild Roses was created with the intent to capture or dissuade aggressors to the woodland realms and glows when wielded. The handle is carved from the living root of a rose bush, with thorny vines woven together forming the length of the whip. It functions as a +1 whip.
With a successful attack, the Sylvan word for “bind” causes one of the vines to separate and entangle the target as if they were in the area of effect of the Entangle spell. A successful DC15 Reflex save allows half movement, as normal, but the only way to escape the vine is with a DC15 Strength or Escape Artist check. Note that the vine is covered in thorns, doing 1 point of damage for each time either save is failed. The target can choose to decline the saves and avoid the thorn damage.
Once per day, the wielder can say “take root” in Sylvan and take a standard action to strike the ground within the whip’s range to cause a large rose bush to grow instantly, as per the spell Wall of Thorns, though it creates only a single living rose bush that fills a 10’ cube. This power will not work if used on stone or other nigh impenetrable surface, and those with Woodland Stride are unaffected as normal. Provided it receives nourishment, the bush is permanent.
The whip handle must be placed in water for ten minutes at least once a week, or it hardens and dies.
Construction
Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Entangle, Wall of Thorns; Cost 9,751 gp, and one living rose bush.

I know I'm brushing up on my Golarion geography. I'd imagine the maps will include a title and a key, both which can be (or will be required to be) used to locate the map on the globe.

I also find ideas flow better when I'm creating something to fill a niche in need, rather than spinning something together in a void. I think the constraints help to focus the creative juices (rather than having them just splash everywhere).

In that spirit, I'm throwing together a lot of rough sketches with different rules. The great thing about sketching is that it doesn't require artistic ability to be useful. Scribbles on the page can still give you an idea of how to use the space and what will look cool. The scribbles can be replaced with ^, *, and %s for the final draft.

Crayons can be great too. Light green = plains, dark green = forest, and so on.

I'm the visual artist in a non-visual art family. My heart goes out to those with drawing anxiety. It's all going to work out.

"a full-page map, or a previously unmapped fantasy-themed location in Golarion"

Was that "or" intended to be "of"?

My inner editor keeps tripping over it, trying to find the hidden meaning.

We may not have much of a written accompaniment this time around. The need for evocative language is all the more important due to the scarcity of text.

Lesson

Items that trigger on death, tend to get overlooked. Players and GM's alike tend to favor items they can actively use.

Right! Anything that encourages unrealistic behavior (within the fantasy setting), or self harm.

My theory is PCs should generally be too tough (even wizards) to have time for pain. Otherwise they wouldn't be adventurers.

"Gross" or "Shock-Jock" items have a very steep hill to climb in this competition.

I'd add overly "evil" items are challenging as well. A variation on the "item being for both the GM and PC" lesson. Having a CL15 magic item that gives you negative levels (or just horrifies the townsfolk) is a frustrating tease.

Barring access to a temple with a "Trade your Evil for Good, or GOLD!" policy, it'll just sit in the portable hole, or it'll be tossed into a volcano.

Great for MacGuffins, not so great for treasure.

Agreed, TealDeer "Motel" was a great book to read growing up. I also have another secret weapon - a nine-year-old! Want to throw some randomness into an adventure? Ask a nine-year-old. Lol.

I have a sketchbook where I tell him to give me a theme or an idea for a drawing. He can make it as specific or as general as he'd like. Then he watches me doodle something out and offers additional suggestions. Sometimes, if I have a really good idea, I'll veto a suggestion or two, but usually its me trying to make sense out of a child's imagination.

Absolutely! I have a 5 and 11 year old boys. They pretty much cover the gambit on "random" and served as my pit crew. They're great for those "what should daddy write about now?" times.

Indeed. The more you stoke the fires, the more the impurities are burnt away.

Accomplishing the impossible is incredibly addicting.
The more ridiculous the challenges, the greater the glory in its accomplishment, though the editor isn't going to be interested in the saga of "How I turned this in on time."

They may notice that even their wildest wish can be made true, working with you.

So many objects of "now you're a druid (or sorcerer, or fighter, or...)"

A few different "useful once each galactic rotation" items.

nkerklaan wrote:

Thunderfrog wrote:

nkerklaan wrote:

dien wrote:

Congrats on finally seeing it, Nkerklaan. :)

Thanks!

I felt kind of dirty voting for it.

I didn't. Mine was up against an item that didn't even list a price.

Mine was against an item that was probably slightly better, but I didn't want to rob my item of the one vote I could guarantee it.

I still feel bad though.

I think it's fairly forgivable. :P

When I saw mine it was against a weapon that would make for a perfect nemesis to my entry. I’d up-voted the nemesis prior, so I felt no guilt in voting for mine.

One of the things I am totally adverse to is an item that requires a number of strange arithmetic calculations to use, and then provides a trivial bonus or penalty (like +1 to hit or -1 to saving throws vs. fear). But that item is better than the boring, ill formatted item. But I hate the lots of mental energy for little gain trend (which even professional designers fall prey to) so much I would like to vote against this item even though it is technically the 'better' item. Such are the dilemmas of voting in RPG superstar.

I find myself finishing the first of the pair thinking, “yeah, this one’s doomed,” then I read the other one and think “well, apparently not.”

Not yet, anyway.

Alexander Bennett wrote:

nkerklaan wrote:

Things that turn into trees is another trend, it seems.

Hm, interesting item, what's the other choice? Turns me into a tree? I'd rather not.

(more difficult when it was tree versus tree)

I actually quite like all the tree items for some reason.

Yeah, quite a bit of love for the militant druids. Gotta protect the forests, kids!

There was an armor i'd really like, if only it did the simple thing I can imagin, rather than explicitly stating that it doesn't (for no reason that i can see), leaving me clueless as to what this would look like in use.

But... but... HOW does it do that?

I'm being reminded of so many wonderful movies or cartoons. I'm all for recycling, but...

A few items I couldn't be paid to use, regardless of what I'm playing. I wouldn't even inflict it on a villain as the GM. A few in the "when you've completely lost the campaign, this neat thing happens for a sec. Cost: All the gold ever mined.” theme.

Theory wrote:

For us first timer's, is there a place where the common acronyns are listed?

I didn't see it in the FAQs.

SIAC = Spell in a Can

SAK = Swiss Army Knife

Those were the two that confused me at first, hope this helps.

Thank you, it does.

For us first timer's, is there a place where the common acronyns are listed?

I didn't see it in the FAQs.

Two items with the exact same name were paired. Fortunatly, only one of them is a valid magical item.