Thomas Miller aka tqmillerusa's page

I'm not going to see the same items over and over? Thank you!!!!

Grrr, where is it?

To Ryan and everyone else at Goblinworks a big, "Congratulations and Thank you!". This is definitely a milestone in your journey to making this dream a reality.

The Tech Demo was great and showed just what you wanted it to show. You have the staff and talent to do this. Go get um!

What gets me excited about PFO isn't the demo, but is all the Blog information on how this MMO will run and be different from all the others currently out there. It will be unique. I was excited about this project before ever seeing a screenshot.

If the Undead Type only stated, "Immunity to all mind-affecting effects", then I would say it was up to DM interpretation. Play on.

But, the Undead Type then goes on to list specific Spell Schools, Sub-schools, and effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms). Each of these specifically state they are either mind-affecting spells or effects.

Since Mirror Image and Silent Image, are both Figments and the Figment Sub-school does not specifically state, "all figments are mind-affecting spells", like the other Illusion Sub-schools, I would rule Undead DO suffer the effects of Mirror Image and Silent Image.

Thomas Miller aka tqmillerusa wrote:

Linnorm Raiding Drum

*So, this is just to enable swift travel for Ulfen warriors in their longships and overland marches. Meh. How often do the rules for rowing watercraft and forced marches come up in your game? Almost never. Yet, you want 22,000 gp for this item? I think I'll pass.

*Vote to Reject.

*Agreed. Reject.

*Also, agree. Reject.

*Rejected.

Thanks for taking the time to share how this entry fared with the judges.

Though, I do think this type of item will be useful to players in the near future, or at least that was my thoughts when designing it, in the Skull & Shackles adventure path.

If anyone else is interested in commenting or sharing thoughts on something other than usefulness or cost, I would greatly appreciate the feedback.

Good luck to those who are moving on!

Thanks for taking the extra time to help us all improve.

Linnorm Raiding Drum
Aura moderate transmutation;; CL 11th
Slot none; Price 22,000 gp; Weight 20 lb.

Description

The well-polished sides of this large wooden drum are covered in elaborate base-relief depicting Ulfen warriors raiding a coastal town. The tightly laced skin of a Linnorm is stretched across its top. Highly prized by Ulfen longship captains, this magical drum can speed travel by sea and land. If the crew of a rowed watercraft can hear the drum being played, the watercraft’s standard distance traveled in a day is doubled. The watercraft must be rowed to benefit from this effect. In addition, the drum includes two large braided handles to allow it to be carried on the back of a single medium sized creature, so as to be played by another. This allows a group that is traveling, while listening to the deep booms of the drum, to make a forced march without needing Constitution checks or suffering nonlethal damage from doing so.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Mass Bear's Endurance, Tireless Pursuit; Cost 11,000 gp

The dice have to come with a little white crayon and we have to color them ourselves! Then I WILL be reliving some golden memories.

Oh, and the corners need to be really really rounded so the things roll forever! Can't forget that.

On a more serious not...

Thanks, guys. Good to see a starter box product for Pathfinder.

Thomas Miller aka tqmillerusa wrote:

Changing topic or asking additional questions of the tankard increases in difficulty as the tankard becomes more inebriated the longer it is full. The DC of the diplomacy check increases by +5 for each topic discussed.

That's a great change. It's entertaining, and it also does what you want mechanically.

However, the 'must take 20' rule still does't make sense to me; non-bards CAN'T take 20 here (and bards do it as a standard action), assuming I'm reading the rules correctly. You can't retry knowledge checks, so there's no way to 'keep trying until you get it right' (I don't think non-bards can take 10 on knowledge either, but I'm not as sure about that). If your item grants the ability to take 20 then I think it should be worded quite a bit differently.

Speaking of penalties for failure, you should also say what happens if you fail that diplomacy check. Can you ponder another subject (with +5 to your diplomacy DC)? Can you ponder the same subject again (with +5 to your diplomacy DC)? Or is the session over because your tankard is rambling and there's no way to stop him?

Edit: Sorry, I stopped to answer some things on my play-by-post and in the interim several posters already raised the same issues.

Appreciate the posts. In hindsight using the Take 20 to represent elapsed time was probably not the brightest of ideas. I should have used some other rule for the measurement of time. The untrained section in the rules for the Knowledge skill states, "The time to make checks using a library, however, increases to 1d4 hours."

Maybe something like 1d4 turns and avoid the use of taking 20 altogether.

What happens if they fail? Can they retry? How often can they attempt it? 1/round ... 1/day?

Thanks for the questions, Callum.

They fill the tankard and try to get it to discuss their topic. If they fail the first diplomacy check, they can try again while the tankard is still full, but it is more inebriated and the DC is now 15. They fail again, they can try again for the same topic, but the tankard is cross-eyed drunk and the DC is 20. If they try to empty the tankard and start over, they will have to wait till it sleeps it off and try again tomorrow.

Just to check I'm clear -- this is essentially giving you +25 on your Take 20 rather than +20. How does this sit with not being able to take 10/20 on knoweldge checks usually? Also most knowledge checks take no time/require no action.

The idea of taking 20 on the knowledge check was to represent time spent interacting with the tankard, not for the +20 to the actual skills check. I used the information from the untrained section on knowledge checks as it refers to using a library to help and another wondrous item, a book of sayings and quotes which I cannot find now, that allowed the bearer to take 10 or 20 on knowledge and profession checks, which usually isn't allowed.

Does the DC also increase for additional questions if the topic dosn't change?

Yes. The idea is they spend some time asking a number of questions on the topic and then they get to add the +5 bonus to their roll for that topic. They would have all the answers the tankard had on that topic, so there would be no need to continue on that line of questioning.

How long a gap can there be between consecutive questions/diplomacy checks?

This is down to the GM's desecration on how long a take 20 lasts.

Tiniek’s Talkative Tankard 2.0
Aura faint divination; CL 5th
Slot none; Price 6,400 gp; Weight 1 lb.

Description

This clay tankard has the caricature of a gnome’s face carved on its surface. When the tankard is held and filled with any type of alcoholic drink the face animates and begins to speak.

The tankard speaks in the language of its bearer, but regardless of the language spoken, always speaks with the unmistakable voice of a slightly inebriated gnome. The tankard will begin waxing lyrical about various topics while active.

Due to the tankard’s inebriation and tendency to drift off topic, the bearer must succeed on a DC 10 diplomacy check to focus the tankard on discussing the topic they wish.

If successful, the bearer gets a +5 competence bonus on a Knowledge skill check pertaining to the topic and can make the skill check untrained. The bearer must take 20 on this check to represent the time spent questioning the tankard.

Changing topic or asking additional questions of the tankard increases in difficulty as the tankard becomes more inebriated the longer it is full. The DC of the diplomacy check increases by +5 for each topic discussed.

This ability may only be used once per day. If the tankard is refilled with any type of alcoholic drink during the same day it simply snores contentedly.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, clairaudience/clairvoyance, tongues; Cost 3,200 gp

For all of us who created items that were not Superstar ready. We submitted our items for feedback on the 'Judges, Please Critique My Item' thread. We were given lots of feedback and advice from the judges and our peers. Now hopefully we internalized that feedback and learned from it.

I enjoyed creating my wondrous item and wanted to share it in its improved state. I thought it would be nice to have a thread where those who wished could post their improved wondrous items now that they're automatic, they're systematic, they're hydromatic. Why they're Wondrous Items 2.0!

Tiniek's Talkative Tankard: Okay, that's pretty fantastic. I'm sure many will feel that it's too silly but I like it. I think that the diplomacy check to keep it on topic is what makes it for me. However, it feels just a little half-baked in that regard; as in, if I can interact with it at-will (so that I in fact gain the bonus on ALL knowledge checks), then can't I just keep rolling until I get it? So, isn't a DC10 check pretty trivial? As much fun as it is to imagine this thing being left with a splash of ale in him and making conversation with the other tankards all night long, I think limiting the duration (and thus giving the diplomacy check some urgency) might have been a good idea.

Taking 20 on knowledge checks isn't even possible for most characters; it's worth noting for those who can, but there might be danger of someone misreading this.

This is just an idle though, but I probably would have had the tankard roll his own knowledge checks rather than providing a bonus to yours. If you are already very knowledgeable on a subject it's not going to tell you more, but it will fill you on on the basics for something (possibly something surprisingly obscure) that you aren't familiar with yourself. Breadth, not depth. Anyway, thanks for sharing this, it's a cute idea and I could totally see myself using it some day.

Thanks for the review. I agree with everything you said. The ability to take 10 or take 20 on the test was to allow for the time it would take to interact with the tankard. But, what is to stop the bearer from constantly using it.

The tongues addition from imbibing the contents is a SIAC, but the tankard is made of clay and had the ability to speak the language of its bearer. That and a clay model of a ziggurat is the material component for tongues. For some reason, I thought that all tied in nicely.

I am going to take all the reviews and redo the tankard and post it on a different thread later. I'm hoping to have an item that would have made it into the Top 32. I really enjoyed the whole process and feedback this contest generated. Of course, the stress of the competition isn't still looming over me. That helps. Thanks again.

Thomas Miller aka tqmillerusa wrote:

Tiniek’s Talkative Tankard

(Note: We had several alcohol- or drinking-themed items this year.)

* Wow am I tired of booze items.

* Ok, the idea of a drunk tankard is somewhat interesting. Having to interrogate it for info is interesting. The fact that it's drunk and you have to really work at it is interesting.

* But you get, somehow, a bonus on ALL Knowledge checks as a result? Forever? And it makes a Tongues potion once per day too.

* I think this might have been Superstar if you could pull this thing out, fill it with booze, and then conduct a series of increasingly difficult interrogations (as the tankard gets more drunk) about some specific topic maybe something the Tankard could see, and maybe scoped to things gnome sailors of Gogpodda might be expected to be well versed in.

* As it is, it's a skeleton key of "make my Knowledge check", and with a SAK Tongues thrown in just in case we didn't think that was cool enough.

* Yep. SIAC. Skill-Bonus-in-a-Can. All with annoying, inebriated gnome face wrapped around it. Not innovative enough.

* And it has an aggravating alliterative appellation.

I think this might have been Superstar

. My tankard is always half full. Thanks for sharing this additional feedback for those of us who didn't make the cut this year.

I'll take everything into consideration and learn from it. Except for alliterative titles. RPGs need magic items with alliterative titles like dungeons need secret doors. <grin>

Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Tiniek’s Talkative Tankard
Aura faint divination; CL 5th
Slot none; Price 29,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.

Description
This clay tankard has the caricature of a gnome’s face carved on its surface. When the tankard is held and filled with any type of alcoholic drink the face animates and begins to speak. The tankard speaks in the language of its owner but regardless of the language spoken, always speaks with the unmistakable accent of a slightly inebriated gnome sailor of the floating settlement of Gogpodda. The tankard will begin waxing lyrical about various topics while active. Due to the tankard’s inebriation and tendency to drift off topic, the owner must succeed on a DC 10 diplomacy check to focus the tankard on discussing the information they wish. If successful, the owner gets a +5 competence bonus when taking 10 or taking 20 on all Knowledge skill checks, and can make those skill checks untrained. Once per day, as a standard action, drinking the liquid in the tankard grants tongues on the owner for 50 minutes.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, clairaudience/clairvoyance, tongues; Cost 14,500 gp

Congratulations to this year's top 32! I think this contest is such a great idea. Good luck!

First all, grats to all the winners.

My first thoughts upon looking through the winner's items was why did mine not qualify? But, as I read through the judge's posts, I started to see things that made me go, "Oh, I see."

It looks like items that used alcohol in their descriptions didn't last long. Hey, mine needed alcohol to activate.

It looks like item's whose titles were an alliteration didn't last long. Hey, my item's title was an alliteration.

So, I'm getting my feedback early by reading the comments.

Looking back on when I ran this AP, I wish I had done more with Chopper and the Sandpoint Devil for that matter. It would have definitely given the module a more "Supernatural" feel.

In my campaign, there was a real change to the overall mood between the two modules.

Your players are sure to think Chopper is back and up to his old tricks when they start The Skinsaw Murders.

1. Revise my NaNoWriMo Fantasy story.

2. Write some Pathfinder FanFiction.

3. Play instead of GM.

4. (Big One) Make time to actually read all the stuff I receive from my Pathfinder subscriptions!