deadly_puddingcup's page

Finally got my donation in!

Oh, and distance and money. ;)

I would love to go too, but work will only let me have so many days and they're already being taken up with Gen Con and Con on the Cob.

mmm one of the few times that not receicing an email is good news :D

I hear you on that!

Also,I will be donating in two weeks time. Stupid rent gets in the way of everything.

If you did not receive an email from me, please consider that your submission has been accepted for Wayfinder #3.

That's great news!

I'm going to cross my fingers now

You're not alone. Waiting is the hardest part. ;)

Hi Lilith, I'm going to submit some fiction in about a week.

Wow. I really am sorry that I brought the ring up now =P. But this is all I have to say on it. The name of the item defines it for me. Fly means through the air, swim through water. If it was for either, it would be a ring of movement.

Now that I said the name of the item defines it for me, a whole new line of arguments, complete with examples, will erupt.

Dude, your proposal is a beautiful idea buried in a lot of kudzu. This adventure would be AWESOME with a capital A with focus and refinement. I think the core idea you have is the strongest, but the execution is the weakest, so I'm torn. I'll have to meditate on this. I WANT to play in this module. I WANT to buy what I think this idea can become.

Man, why'd you have to make this so hard?

:)

The whole point of this contest is to vote on a module that we would buy and play. Now all you editors out there, don't get mad at me for saying this, because the writers should try to make your life as easy as possible, but these proposals would go through a process of editing and polishing before they would be released. That's why the editors are there. Now this isn't an excuse for having mistakes, but the contestants aren't professional (and lets be realistic, even professional writers have their work reviewed and changed), they're here to pitch a great idea and to make a product that the consumers can have fun with. From what I can see, none of these entries are the ideal submission for an editor. I think that as the consumers we should vote for what we want to play and let the writers and editors take care of formatting and streamlining it. I'm willing to bet that after the criticism of just the pitch and not the whole module, that all of the contestants have a far better understanding of what the good people of Paizo want.

deadly_puddingcup wrote:

two - I don't see why the ring of flying bothered the judges so much. If you think it's silly or over powered, then that's one thing. But two comments that I saw were "where did it come from" and "she didn't have it before." It came from a previous adventure. She made it. She killed an adventurer and took it. Any of those. How do you know she didn't have it before? Lots of villains hold on to items and don't use them till they're useful. I don't think she would have gotten much use out of it underwater.

My position was "Why did she not HAVE this when the PCs fought her earlier? A ring of flying is quite handy underwater, it means you don't have to make Swim checks. If she had it earlier, why weren't the PCs able to find it when they looted her stuff? Did she have a secret cache of magic for just in case she was killed and able to come back as a revenant?"

I didn't even think about the looting process and I was unaware of the swim check. After rereading this, I see that my comment could come off as snotty, so I apologize about that. I was scanning the complaints and I saw the ring and to me, it seemed like an extra rant tacked on. I took it as the wrong way. I would definitely loot her corpse and take a ring of flying.

I lied. One more comment. About the runes and the statue. From what I gather the runes were never visible until the statue was moved. So that would be why no one had thought to destroy them until now. Also, Matt wrote why no one would be able to remove them now:

Upon revisiting the runes, the PCs discover on their own or through help of the local clergy that this is a powerful manifestation of undeath – a haunt. There are no clergy in Varisia strong enough to banish the haunt, and like all of its kind, it will continue to torment.

That however brings up a problem for later on, during the bridge fight. He does say that they have to deface the runes, but that could have been done earlier. Maybe the Blecksprut can pull that piece off of the bridge, or maybe the phylactary has to be within range before it can happen.

I don't have a lot of time to comment at the moment, but I'll make two quick comments.

One- underwater adventure = awesome. I really like the idea of the fight taking place in a submersed giant guard tower on its side. I'm a huge fan of underwater adventures and I've been looking forward to a good one for Pathfinder. If there are others, I've not seen them. Feel free to point me towards them.

two - I don't see why the ring of flying bothered the judges so much. If you think it's silly or over powered, then that's one thing. But two comments that I saw were "where did it come from" and "she didn't have it before." It came from a previous adventure. She made it. She killed an adventurer and took it. Any of those. How do you know she didn't have it before? Lots of villains hold on to items and don't use them till they're useful. I don't think she would have gotten much use out of it underwater.

Anyways, I'm just getting around to these and Matt has been one of my favorites, so I got to his first. I'll be checking the rest out as the work day permits.

You have my vote.

And my axe!

Since the competition has started, I've enjoyed your entries because they always feel as if they're intended more for the story than for the stats, if that makes sense. RP vs. Munchkining. I don't feel that your item nor your villain were made to be super powerful, but instead they were meant for flavor. I was wary about anyone picking Rustin because I generally dislike circus / sideshows because almost everyone seems to do the same thing. I think you did a good job breaking out of the mold while keeping Rustin's story intact. I really enjoy the forest encounter as well as the cricket boy. Good job.

Does Sartel Bollen even have a lair?

Yep, the description says that she flees back to the place where she found the head(I'm pretty sure its the same place). Personally though, I think seeing a caravan designed like a lair would be awesome. I really hope someone picks it up.

Wow. I was torn on this entry last time, but I must say, I like it a lot now. Good job.

In response to the argument about how dangerous this villain would be to encounter, I have to refer back to one of my posts during the 2nd round. Even if this character were to only be encountered with these monsters, (not saying that she would have to be, GMs do get to decide certain things)the PCs don't have to attack head on or alone. They could enlist the help of a kingdom that is in the path of the caravan or use guerrilla tactics. And before someone says that guerrilla tactics would be ineffective, most of her army is undead. A few high level clerics could cause utter devastation (well they could probably do that even if it wasn't undead) among her ranks. In fact, I wouldn't even try an army, I would enlist the help of a church to fight her.

But that on the side, the stat block looks good and I feel that if you were wanting to use her in a campaign, then you wouldn't have any problems.

My regular GM hates me because I pounce on bad names immediately. I think I do this out of retaliation to the fact that years ago he pointed out that my 2nd edition elf cleric's name was Bendick and I worshiped an in house god named Gaiwin.

This guy is a major CRIME LORD. The merchant business is just a social front (and maybe a means of fencing stolen goods).

I will give you that he's a crime lord and that he's a villain. I guess I have higher expectations for a monk than working behind the scenes. I feel that the build up of his training fell flat. Not saying that it isn't plausible, but it was a very unsatisfying life choice for me.

Also, as I said in my other post, I don't see anything spectacular about "the hoard". It's just a lengthy paragraph to say that he uses others to meet his own end.

Not really a villain.

This guy didn't strike me as anything spectacular. I really feel that he is just another greedy lord or merchant. Don't all of them look at their underlings as tools to advance their position? How many evil overlords do you know invite the grunts into their escape pod when the good guys come in? Also, his being a bad-ass monk would only make me angry when my character finally met him for combat. I think I would just look at the DM and go, "Seriously? A dwarven monk who studied under a dragon? Why is he sitting behind a desk?" This of course would be while he's delivering his back story to me because I really fail to see why I would have learned that from his underlings.

I really feel that this character should have taken the monk on a different path besides a shop keep who can lay the smack down.

I'm not going to lie, at first I was going to dismiss this character because it was a half-fiend otyugh. Upon reading it twice, I agree with what everyone else has to say. He is a capable villain, he has a good network in place, and he's active in what he wants.

David Fryer wrote:

This is a villian I can use. Saddly, while my players are in the perfect region for me to use him, they are just second level so they are not ready to face this guy yet. Congrats on creating the first villian I have read through that I actually liked.

don't send him first... send scouts ahead... or monsters or other people being displaced by the Khanate that could easily become a Horde

this is definitively going to end in a big war, just taking the 'curse' from him would be anticlimatic

I agree with you completely on this. I think a few of the entries this year have seen a bit of hesitation because people are worried they are too strong for the PC's to run in and kill instantly. But to me, part of the point of a good villain is feeling her presence and wanting to do something about it and having to plan. Someone that you can just run up to, hack to pieces in 30 seconds, and ride away from is not a memorable villain.

With that said, I like this guy because he is an active presence, because he has the means to come across the PCs, and because there is versatility with the possible plot hooks.

I'm really torn on the eye. Part of me thinks that it's really goofy, the other part of me likes it because I can see how that might be used as proof of his experience and his right to rule.

Giving your villain a new ritual (the entry suggests the ritual is what he's calling the outsiders with) is well within the contest rules - just like it is fine to make your entry a severed head, or an incorporeal creature carrying a solid object. Villains don't need to fit the SRD to the letter, they just need to not use non-SRD sources other than the writer's imagination (with some broad leeway for inspiration, of course). If there is in fact some D20 product that has such a ritual, that doesn't necessarily mean anything - as long as the variation of that idea isn't taken from that source.

Just my 2 coppers.

Agreed.

Edit:
I concede it could be a very exciting and dramatic pitched battle, but I see such an encounter more as the climax of a 'one shot' module than something which could feature throughout a campaign, which I suppose may be flexibility that I am looking for in a villain.

I agree with you that she would be a hard fight, but I also see a lot of versatility in the character and it ways to approach her as a problem. I also want to point out that I really love role playing above combat, so as both a DM and a PC, I usually look for alternatives to combat or ways to make it more interesting. I guess its just how different people would use this character. Since its a slow moving caravan, I see it as something that spurs the characters on, because there is only so much time before the caravan reaches another town,kills more, and grows larger. She could also have a king in her pocket out of fear that she'll come through his city and he could hinder the PCs when they try to oppose her. She may detach from the caravan and go forth into places with just a few guards, perhaps to collect scholar heads and the PCs encounter her then. She could also just be something that influences the entire campaign, without much direct interaction.

While he doesn't jump out and grab me, I really like the idea of a social outcast who has spent his time perfecting his craft. I also read humiliation as being cruel and it doesn't say that he won't kill, it just said that he prefers not to. He's not a 'take over the world' kind of villain, but if done right, he is the kind of person who would spur the PC's to either capture him (my players would love to humiliate a guy like this) or kill him.

A lot of people have said that he wouldn't be a memorable character, but I find the idea of a vain wizard who has tons of constructs in his own image to be very memorable. I think it would amount to a lot of good imagery and dialog with the villain, allowing for a lot of role playing. Overall, I think while he wouldn't be the main bad guy, he could be a really fun encounter. With that said, I don't think it would just have to be part of a lighter campaign, it could be something to break up a very serious campaign.

Also, in his quest to be more known and respected, he may decide to take over a city or start attacking people.

He's a villain, but he's nothing to write home about. He would be a good villain for a small arch or a side quest, but I couldn't see him as someone that the PCs would worry about once they left his territory or killed him. Now that I'm thinking about it, if you're running an all city campaign, he would make a decent villain.

The other thing that I really really like about this villain is that characters with good enough bluff or diplomacy might actually convince the Count that they're on his side or that they have seen another vision of his demise. I'm not saying that the could totally play him for long, but they might be able to steer him to certain courses through his paranoia.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with everyone else that this villain falls short. I wanted to like it and I usually hate bad or pun filled names, Rustin Harp for a bard kind of did it for me. Evil carnival masters are just overdone and the insanity just doesn't do it.

This is a villain, in my opinion, but unfortunately only one for high level play or an action film/thriller novel.

Seriously, this is an all or nothing set-piece encounter, where the PCs face the battalions of headless zombies, the mid-level spellcaster hag, and her 'head of a deposed deity in a sack' all in one go or nothing at all. Maybe at lower levels there might be room for a 'sneak into the camp under the metaphorical noses of the entire army to retrieve the remains of someone important' quest, but like the arms dealer Veddic, this villain is an encounter which will likely smear most parties into paste.

Will this villain cause the PCs grief?
Yes but at least it will likely be over mercifully quickly.

I have to disagree with this because that's assuming that the PCs have only one option: run right in. This IS a higher level encounter and higher level PCs have lots of options. They could raise an army, they could go ahead of the caravan and convince a king or a baron to block passage for the caravan, they could use guerrilla tactics, they could try to turn invisible to assassinate her. To assume that the players can only rush in and attack would mean the DM is railroading hardcore.

Not a fan of the name.

With that said, I really like this character. It makes me think of the rulers who have used the divine right of kings to further their personal agendas above the good of the people. Fear of death, prophetic visions about those who would destroy you, and the means to protect yourself with power and nobility equals a classic villain for me. While not totally original, he is a villain that could fit into a lot of campaigns and he has a reason to cross paths with the PCs.

There have been few entries that have played the insane villain card and this one is the only one that I feel that has really given me a reason behind it. I like that he has been bound to do their evil work but he still has enough freedom to go about it his own way and to punish those who remind him of his past life. The hooks are excellent too. The one thing that bothers me is that I really doubt they would have given him his phylactery.

So torn. I really like the name, a lot. The idea of attempting to get rid dreams to stop an invasion is a really cool idea. I also agree with the statement that it's nice to see a plain outright insane villain. While it's a stretch that having one bad dream would make you genocidal, I could see how suddenly being reincarnated as a different race would affect your mental stability.

The main problem that I have is that if he's careful enough to put non-dreamers in a position of power, wouldn't he maybe think of some way to just prevent the others from dreaming. The description says "Aelfric soon procured magic that sealed his own mind against dreams" before he was turned into a lich. It also says that he performs breeding programs. Why not cast the same spell on others or try to make a super half-elf.
Perhaps free lobotomies? I really feel that a once good character would explore the non killing alternatives before genocide.

But, I also like the concept. =)

He's a villain right enough, but I don't see him being all that special. I feel that making him a rakshasha was added to just drive home the point that he's a villain because from the description given, it doesn't really play into his motivations.

Twisted forest horrors is incredibly goofy to me. Also, while jealousy can be a good motivating factor for a villain, I really feel that he would be more interesting in getting the one elf instead of the entire race and I don't feel that he would want to twist a whole forest of animals, but that's just me.

This villain is definitely one of the more fleshed out (sorry, couldn't help myself =P ) characters. At first, I wasn't really sure that he would be a villain that would be dangerous to others since he was just grafting pieces on to the wealthy, but once it was disclosed that he would go after people who had the parts that he wanted/needed and wanted to "share" his creations with everyone, I thought he would make a pretty good villain.

While I'm not a big fan of this type of character (I've seen it in a few games I've played), I really feel this is one of the stronger submissions, so you'll be seeing one of my votes.

I have to go with everyone else about how bad the name is. But as a villain, he's pretty classic. It didn't blow me away though with originality though. I have to think about this one.

Everything about this character is what you hear of as the classic profile of a serial killer. I don't see how this character is any different than a filler quest that most GMs have thrown in there story at some point.

This character would make a good henchman but not a major villain.

This entire entry sounded like a joke. The concept of having a villain that doesn't try to directly harm the PCs is cool, but this one falls very short of the mark for me.

At first I wasn't sure how I felt about this villain. I thought that her motives would become pretty clear to the PC's early on. But the longer I read it and realized that some of her actions would be covert, I started digging on on this character a lot. What better way for a bard to tell a story than it be completely true and witnessed first hand. Good motivation.

I'm still torn. On one hand, this is pretty unique and she is performing evil actions. On the other hand, she reminds me of some trickster spirit who wouldn't be that difficult to overcome.

When it comes down to it, I think that the execution of the DM is what will determine if this will be a really cool character or a possibly annoying encounter.

Just like with his wondrous item submission, School of Eyes, my interest was grabbed right away by the title.

I really like this idea. It's a pretty classic origin that has a really epic feel to it. The idea of the emissary of a headless serpent god gathering a giant headless army, stealing the knowledge from the heads of slain wise men, while she searches for the location to the body of the god just does it for me. The plot hooks were done really well too. As a player it would give me a real feeling of urgency and the fact that the PC's probably wouldn't be able to do anything about it immediately would make that urgency even worse.

Also, having to trail an army would make the players keep tabs on where it is going while trying to find a solution.

Plus, I really like the idea of the caravan being totally silent.

Also,

Is Sartel now his unshakably loyal servant? Or is she awaiting some promised reward?

The way that I read the end of the first paragraph, the head has taken over her will, not promising her a reward. As far as unshakable, who knows.

I like this item because I could see it put to use for military purposes or by a group hired to explore an area for expansion. For a standard adventuring party, I don't think it would get much use. I can't see anyone wanting to pay the price just in case they come across a pit.

It does conjure up a terrific action scene of the PC's attempting to beat someone across the bridge before they pull it up on the other side.

When I read the description, utility came to mind above combat. But, I'm a sucker for role playing and world development over dungeon crawls and fighting. I thought about spelunkers or miners using it to check out uncharted or dangerous tunnels. If the description did not specifically say creatures, I would also say use it to pull something up from the bottom of a shaft. Attach the hook to the top, the reel to a bucket, send it down, have someone load it and the person at the top "cuts" the line.

I am so late in looking at these but I feel the need to let people know they're doing awesome. I love this item. It has a ton of creative uses and would be excellent for spying and sabotaging. With the ability to help disable magic devices, I feel this item could become as standard as thieves tools. Well, if it was cheaper, and not a wondrous item. =P

And it's true that the fishes can be dismissed, but it doesn't seem like they can be destroyed (permenently,) or stolen, which makes it feel more template-like than item-ish to me...

I disagree about it being a template. I agree, that since it seems to stay around for a very long time(possibly read indefinitely) until dismissed, that maybe it's light on the cost. But I'm assuming that the effects could be dispelled or the user compelled to dismiss them. When I think of template I think of something like a vampire or undead, something that dictates the way that person lives or is likely to act, not an effect they received because they drank a potion.

Also, I guess I'm the only person who didn't view floating one eyed fish as creepy. They're not decaying or anything and in most fantasy settings where you might encounter a wizard with an even stranger familiar or live in fear of attacks from underground creatures, floating fish don't seem to be that out of place.

Okay... one word... uberfeats. That alone is reason enough for me to buy. Just out of pure curiosity.

I agree completely.