chaoslizard's page

RonarsCorruption- in response to your comments

1. CL - determines an item's "operating strength" if you will. It also limits a creator of the said item to a minimum level. CL is not neccessarily equal to the minimum level of spell needed to create the item. Thats a big difference.
You seem to suggest that giving characters access to a spell/or ability higher than what they can personally cast/or perform is a bad thing? or overpowered thing? It certainly can be but it by no means makes it so- I have had characters use wishes who have never been able to personally cast a wish spell(back in the day, most characters died before you would reach this level- see Tomb of Horrors)

2. You use the term "swiss-army-knife" and yet- every corset on this thread tries to tie in a shape changing and some sort of mesmerizing effet- presumably this is why everyone is using "snake" in their name to justify the mix of effects- but a "rose by any other name would smell as sweet." I think there is an argument that anyone pulling off the mentioned item by the design panel had pulled off a "swiss army knife"- I don't see it- As I said, the first 2 uses make this an item arguable usable by any class and not limited to witches.

3. I honestly felt like both of the first 2 uses were usable by a witch- as I said, casting spells provokes attacks of opportunity- I also felt both of the first 2 useses were the "shape-changing" aspect- It causes the attack of opportunity to miss you by altering your shape at the right moment - it changes your size category by tightening in or loosening out your girth So I didn't feel as if either use was "tacked on". I wasn't trying to tack on something from "another class"? However I would agree that a Corset of Sinister Sisters doesn't need such effects and would be a great witch only item anyway

4. Hags & covens- exactly!- why include a rule in a player book that is meant for NPCs to use? Because no one is going to use up a feat, ability, skill slot ect for that one chance encounter which may or may never happen.

5. When I replied to Neil, I thought I was clear, but I will reitirate, once more for you, it was meant to allow a single witch, to cast a single spell from the coven list once per day. It was poorly worded in the original presentation.

chaoslizard wrote:

Corset of Sinister Sisters

Aside from a mildly interesting name, this item actually has some poor design decisions in it that it might prove useful to examine...

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks for your comments!

1. The name only mildly interesting?

2. I considered shades but I didn't feel like the item had an illusion ability other than the visual effect. I felt like it actually had more of a summons or communicate with others- which I decided were probably dead hags or witches- anyway. In hindsight shades is a great choice.
Yes, I need to work with pricing. I set CL to 7 because I wouldn't want someone to neccessarily have access to the coven spell list before 7 - good rule of thumb might be to match CL with the actual spells required in creating- weird too because this is the very reason I didn't include the enlarge/reduce/alter self - what was I thinking?

3. yes, I should pay more attention to how items are presented in the core rulebook- I went through many drafts while trying to keep word count down to fit the ideas into concept. I was also trying to keep to the design decisions presented at the seminar which is why the item almost has to have a change shape ability of some kind. Curious, would have using "charges" instead of "uses" have been a better route?

4. hmm.. my thinking with the first 2 abilities was that this really wouldn't limit the item to just witches. And, while no, a witch isn't running around a battlefield per se, she is casting spells which do draw attacks of opportunity.

5. refer to spells- good idea- though again I wouldn't want to sound like a spell in a can.

6. The witch coven hex ability- I cannot imagine a player witch ever selecting this ability. How often do hags join adventurer parties? Though if they did, I suppose it would be easy to imagine that the party would have more than one witch :) but to the ability:
Yes, 1 individual gains access to the coven spell list but having to use the corset they can only cast 1 of those spells once per day. Thats not quite the same thing as having an actual coven. Or they can use it to "power" one of their own spells per the coven hex ability rules. And if they have already used the corset to do either of its other abilities they can't even do that.
But the wording is bad- the corset should allow the witch herself to count as a Hag for purposes of the coven, and use additonal uses(charges) to summon the shadow hags to cast the single coven spell.
I was actually thinking it was a cool idea to get some play out of what I would think to be an almost never played rule.

Thanks again for your thoughts and criticisms! In the words of Wile E. Coyote, "Back to the drawing board!"

For me, its not that I don't like pirates... pirates can be cool.

I do not like the "Pirates of the Carribean" movies. I do not like that pirates are popular because of a fad. A pirate AP seems like fragrant commercialism to me. (But then for me- An AP through all of the horror movie classics also seems -meh.)

Now I do love a great horror module- "Ravenloft(I6)" I DMed the hell out of this back in the day. (The the only modules I may have played more were "Dwellers of the Forbidden City" or the "Keep on the Borderlands) I hated the Ravenloft campaign setting as first released and hated the modules written for it- all followed the same formula.

My problem with the AP system is that they are themed. I would rather adventure in a dungeon one week, do a pirate module one week, fight a clan of werewolves, the next. I like to experience the whole gambit of fantasy rather than drown in a single niche. I do not mind that they have an overarching story-line- (well.. maybe I do - I am undecided)

I love that they would make DMing for me an ease, IF they were anything I wanted to DM.

Corset of Sinister Sisters
Aura faint necromancy and transmutation; CL 7th
Slot chest; Price 11,000 gp; Weight -
Description
Moons, stars, and other arcane symbols adorn this light garment. The corset magically adjusts to fit any humanoid of Small, Medium, or Large size. Three times a day, the wearer can, as a free action, activate any of the following abilities: (1) automatically avoid a single attack of opportunity, this decision must be made prior to the result of the actual attack (2) adjust their size by 1 size increment for 3 rounds, i.e., Medium to Small or Tiny to Small, etc (3) if the wearer has Witch levels, they may use the Coven Hex ability and count the Corset as a Hag for purposes of the Coven and may expend any remaining uses for that day to count as additional witches in the coven. When used in this way, shadowy hag forms mirror the caster while she casts her Coven spell. The Corset may never be used more than 3 times per day and always renews its uses at 12:00am, the witching hour.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, creator must have Witch levels, speak with dead; Cost 6,000 gp

Thanks for the reply!

I was thinking about looking at the ROTRL AP for some inspiration as I have never played them. Looks like I would have to get a PDF though as they are no longer in print.

I think the Kaer Maga source book would be useful as well. From the reviews of the book it looks like I might get all kinds of ideas on how to expand a Godsmouth Heresy campaign.

Sorry for the confusing title to the thread but I am a little new to this message board and do not want to ruin anything for anyone- that said-

This is a very specific question for those who have either played/DMed the dungeon or are more familiar with Kaer Maga than I-

Any thoughts?

Wow! Thanks! That looks fantastic! I may have to research a bit to see if I have the time to convert..and especially thanks for the links.I was also very interested in having read the reviews of hearing about Age of Worms and Savage Tide. I may have to research those Adventure Paths as well.

I have decided to return to.. gaming... and discovered Pathfinder. I like what I see so far. As a DM- eh- GM.. though think maybe it should be PathMaster now- but that would make me a PM.. hmmm.. anyway- sorry- tangent..

I don't have a lot of time to design having a fulltime(60hour a week job and social life) week so adventure paths seem like the way to make running a game a lot more realistic given my free time.

Anyone around here ever play through this? Has it ever been pulled from the magazine and published together in a seperate volume by itself? Was it completed before the end of Dungeon Magazine? How hard would it be to convert this adventure to Pathfinder rules? I guess this could be considered the original Adventure Path.

Sorry if thats too many questions... Guess I am feeling inquisitive.