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dubiousmx wrote:

I started running this yesterday for my group and I noticed that it seems that the cadet's EAC and KAC are off. They are wearing troop ceremonial armour (+1 EAC, +3 EAC) and have a +2 Dex bonus. But the listed values for the cadets are 11 EAC, 13 EAC and don't seem to include the dex bonus. Am I missing something or is this a mistake?

NPC stats are based on CR and designer intent. Attack bonuses and AC aren’t constrained by or calculated based on stats or gear.

I see. I haven't looked through the Alien Archive that much yet so I didn't realize this. I had a feeling it was something I was missing. Still trying to get used to all the differences between Pathfinder and Starfinder. Thanks for the info!

I started running this yesterday for my group and I noticed that it seems that the cadet's EAC and KAC are off. They are wearing troop ceremonial armour (+1 EAC, +3 EAC) and have a +2 Dex bonus. But the listed values for the cadets are 11 EAC, 13 EAC and don't seem to include the dex bonus. Am I missing something or is this a mistake?

Plus Guardian felt very League of Legends inspired to me. Have you seen my bear, Tibbers?

The inspiration for the item came from my 10 month old son playing with a teddy bear. I have never actually played League of Legends since I am an old man who fears new things ;)

The plush guardian was the best joke item I've ever seen. It was really well done. So much that I actually kind of wish it wasn't a joke item. I think it could have been written to be something we can take more seriously. I have a cute kitsune witch who does make and cuddle plushies, and even she wouldn't take this item seriously.

I never really intended it to be a joke item, but I can certainly see how it was taken as such, especially with the name I gave it, which is my biggest regret with the item. I think the cutesy nature of the item, of a teddy bear for a child, leaked through a little too much into the description of the item. If I could do it again, I'd dial back on the 'cuddles' in the description, add an attunement component to the item and change the name to CripDyke's excellent suggestion of Mama's Bear.

@dubiousmx:

Have you read any of my longer reviews?

They have a number of sections, and you would score well in each section save 1: audience appeal.

I think this is a tremendous item. I think the design is RPGSS top 32 worthy (even if not perfect, as noted by Kiel Howell, I believe it's top32 worthy [/i]as is). But for better or for worse, people voting often think in terms of, "Can I use this? Would my character want this?"

Since they can't see their character toting this around, they vote it down.

I think it's a shame, but there you are.

As for the name, I liked yours, but perhaps [i]mama's bear would have made your thematic tie in to power #3 more explicit and turned off fewer voters who don't have my objectively perfect taste in item names.

CripDyke, where were you when I was trying to come up with a name? That is perfect! I sincerely wish I had thought of it. I am in awe of your "perfect taste in item names". And thank you for your kind words.

@dubiousmx

The first thing I'll say is the name. You went a bit TOO silly with it. Maybe something like a child's toy or stuffed bear of childhood then I wouldn't have had such a visceral reaction to it from the get go.

Once I started actually getting past the name, it was quite well done. You've got some rules language issues, you forgot to italicize calm emotions.

Do I have to be holding the bear to suppress or activate the aura? As written it can be argued that I can do that from any range.

It's a little odd that the DC for picking up the bear is only 1 higher than the aura save, since they are the same spell level (bard 2) for suggestion and calm emotions.

The word cuddle is a bit too silly, perhaps if you would have said simply hold it or maybe even hug it.

Great job with not attacking young creatures. Perfect.

Again...the cuddling. But...perhaps just cut this or cut the recharge every day bit. If you went with a recharge...I would have said something like "by holding this bear while sleeping for 8 hours".

The last sentence should be cut and just put the command word after introducing the abilities. And it should probably be written "By speaking a command word".

It was really well done in concept...some mechanical and writing snafus and the overly silly name and silly word choice probably held this back.

I had a feeling the name was a bit off-putting but was having trouble coming up with anything better (also with a 8 month old child I don't get much sleep so I may have been more inclined towards silliness). I did remember to italicize calm emotions when I submitted it, but not this time. As for the higher DC, I was using sorcerer/wizard level for suggestion. While I realized that a bard could cast all the spells necessary, animate objects is a 6 level bard spell so I felt that would put the caster level of the item, and the overall gold cost, a little too high. So I stuck with the sorcerer/wizard levels when I was able.

I do agree, looking back, that maybe I should have pulled back of the 'cuddles' part of it and maybe stuck with holding or hugging. Thanks for the criticisms.

Okay, my item got a few callouts in the Praise thread so I'm a bit curious as to what critiques might help me out next time with really wowing people with a top notch item.

Plush Guardian of Cuddles
Aura moderate enchantment and conjuration; CL 11th
Slot - ; Price 37,500 gp; Weight 0.5 lbs.
Description
This adorable plush stuffed bear seems to be nothing more than a harmless child's toy. However, the plush guardian of cuddles was created as a means for the wealthy and noble to protect their children from danger. The bear contains 3 charges that replenish at the beginning of each day.

As long as the plush guardian of cuddles has one charge remaining, it radiates a 20 ft. aura that quells a creatures aggressive or violent emotions, as calm emotions, unless they succeed at a DC 13 Will save. The aura can be suppressed or activated as a standard action.

By spending one charge the bearer can compel a target within 30 ft. to pick up the bear. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Will save or be compelled to pick up the stuffed bear and do nothing but cuddle it. This effect lasts for 1 minute or until the target is attacked.

Finally, by spending a charge, the stuffed bear can grow to large size and animate in order to defend the bearer from danger. The stuffed bear is treated in all ways as a normal dire bear while animated. The bear will not attack young creatures and has an attitude of friendly towards any such creatures. The summoned bear lasts for 1 minute before vanishing.

The stuffed bear can also be recharged by being held and cuddled. If cuddled for an hour or more, it regenerates charges at a rate of 1 per hour.

Any and all abilities of the plush guardian of cuddles can be activated or deactivated with a master command word.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, animate objects, calm emotions, suggestion; Cost 18,750 gp

dubiousmx wrote:

pH unbalanced wrote:

I would like to call out the Plush Guardian of Cuddles as my absolute favorite item in this year's contest.

When I started reading the item it annoyed me, but by the time I was finished with it I was in love. The author absolutely committed to it and turned what could have been a joke item into something great. This was one item where the background was essential to grounding it in the world.

And every time I saw it I smiled. I don't have any higher praise than that.

That one was mine. Thank you very much for the kudos. I was pretty proud of it and my wife (also an avid player) loved it. I wasn't too happy with the name, but I couldn't think of anything better and I wanted something that stood out. I was mostly inspired by my nine month old son playing with a teddy bear.

My thanks to everyone who voted for my item, and congratulations to everyone who made it!

Dubiousmx,

I would also like to state my appreciation of your excellent item.

I am usually the strongest anti-"Cute/Funny/Kiddy" item type of person, but I have to admit your item was so well done it completely won me over.

Bravo good sir, well done and my thanks for the enjoyment during the voting process.

Thank you. I wanted to take a cute and cuddly item that is traditionally geared towards children and try and turn it into an item that could still be useful to an adventurer.

And I have to say to Wolin, who submitted the Security Blanket, that I now can't help but picture a child clutching the Blanket and the Guardian, wandering lost in a dungeon. And I kind of want to design an adventure based around that.

I would like to call out the Plush Guardian of Cuddles as my absolute favorite item in this year's contest.

When I started reading the item it annoyed me, but by the time I was finished with it I was in love. The author absolutely committed to it and turned what could have been a joke item into something great. This was one item where the background was essential to grounding it in the world.

And every time I saw it I smiled. I don't have any higher praise than that.

That one was mine. Thank you very much for the kudos. I was pretty proud of it and my wife (also an avid player) loved it. I wasn't too happy with the name, but I couldn't think of anything better and I wanted something that stood out. I was mostly inspired by my nine month old son playing with a teddy bear.

My thanks to everyone who voted for my item, and congratulations to everyone who made it!

Talking about this again has made me want to go back and update what I have to Pathfinder myself. Perhaps what I could do is start updating it and post 'Chapters' of the update for feedback and comments.

Back before I started playing Pathfinder, I did actually convert Return to the Tomb of Horrors to 3.5. It would be fairly easy to convert to Pathfinder from there. That being said, it was the one and only adventure I ever did convert, so god only knows if it was any good, but my party did seem to enjoy it, even the guy that got killed, raised as undead and then possessed by Acererak. If I can find it again amongst my old files, I can post a link to the Word file if anyone is interested. If I remember correctly, I built it for a 4 player 13-15 level party.

Thanks for the critiques for my Desperado. I have to give some credit to my wife for some of the names, otherwise I think Shoot 'Em Up would have been a stupid pun based off of flurry of blows.

Reckless Gunfighter: I didn't think to type the bonus to attacks, but I'd likely make it a circumstance bonus if anything. And while I admittedly don't have tons of experience with playing the gunfighter, it always seemed to me to be a mid range class because of the low range increment on most firearms, so I figured that the AC penalty would offset the bonus to attack. Should also have a line mentioning that activating it is part of an attack and that the penalties and bonuses last until the start of her next turn.

Return Fire: The intention with the wording of Return Fire wasn't that you had to sacrifice all your AoO. I just wanted to make sure that people didn't think they could get any other long range AoO. But I could have worded it better.

Shoot 'Em Up: In retrospect, perhaps just trying to limit the number of shots by limiting the range is not sufficient. I do like the suggestion to get additional shots equal to your Dex modifier. My original thought was simply that you generally don't have that many targets in most fights, but that has been only my experience and I should account for what might come up in other encounters than what I am used to.

Luck of the Bold: I still think that this works best as a 20% miss chance, but perhaps I could drop the concealment part? Thinking on it, there is quite a few huge benefits to having even partial concealment. Perhaps keep it as a continual 20% miss chance as long as she has 1 grit point remaining and then keep the ability to increase it to 50% by spending 1 grit point?

Here was my idea for an archetype for the gunslinger. The River Kingdoms tie-in might be a little weak, but I am curious as to how he stands up mechanically. I was attempting to capture the essence of the movie action hero gunfighter, such as Antonio Banderas is Desperado or Clive Owen in Shoot 'Em Up.

Desperado (Gunslinger)
You have what you hold. This core tenant of the River Freedoms drives the desperado to reckless action and bold deeds to take and keep what he wants. This frontier gunslinger is more at home in the wilds of the River Kingdoms where actions speak louder than words, and where fortune favors the bold.

Reckless Gunfighter (Ex): At 2nd level, a desperado may choose to take a -1 penalty to AC and CMD to gain a +1 bonus to ranged attack rolls. For every four levels beyond 2nd level, this penalty increases by -1 and the bonus on attacks increases by +1 (to a maximum of +5 at 18th level). This ability replaces nimble.

Deeds
A desperado swaps a trio of deeds for the following.

Return Fire (Ex): At 7th level, a desperado can spend 1 grit point as an immediate action to make an attack of opportunity against a target that has attacked her with a ranged weapon. A desperado must be wielding a loaded firearm to use this deed. This does not allow a desperado to make any other attacks of opportunity. This deed replaces the Startling Shot deed.

Shoot 'Em Up (Ex): At 11th level, as long as a desperado has at least one point of grit remaining, she gains the ability to make a flurry of shots at multiple targets as a full-round action. She may make a single ranged attack against each target within 40 ft., regardless of how many attacks her base attack bonus grants her. She must use ammunition as usual, but may reload her weapon as free action during this attack. Roll each attack separately, taking into account normal modifiers for range, cover, etc. A desperado gains a -2 penalty to AC until the beginning of her next turn whenever she uses this deed. This replaces the Bleeding Wound deed.

Luck of the Bold (Ex): At 15th level, as long as a desperado has 1 grit point remaining, she gains partial concealment (20% miss chance). As a swift action, she can spend a grit point to gain total concealment, increasing the miss chance to 50%. If she does, the increase last until the beginning of her next turn. This replaces the Menacing Shot deed.

I'm curious as to what you guys thought of my entry. Looking forward to tightening up my ideas for next year. Thanks for the comments, and the chance to participate!

The Coat of the Lone Wanderer
Aura strong universal or evocation (if miracle is used); CL 17th
Slot body; Price 25,000 gp; Weight 15 lbs.
Description
This long brown coat appears to have seen better days. The scars of countless battles litter the surface, obscured in places by the dust of the road. The Coat of the Lone Wanderer provides a +1 luck bonus to AC and saves. As well, the coat protects the bearer from the rigors of the environment as if he was affected by a constant endure elements spell. At any time, the bearer can hide a weapon in the coat and gain a +4 bonus to Sleight of Hand checks as though it were no larger than a coin. The coat can conceal two one-handed or light weapons this way, or one two-handed weapon. The coat can conceal other items of similar sizes as well. This ability does not function with extraordinarily large items such as siege weapons. Finally, the coat protects the bearer's items from damage or destruction. Anytime the bearer of the coat makes a saving throw against an attack, spell or effect that affects one of their items, including the coat itself, they may reroll the save before the results are revealed. They must take the result of the reroll, even if it is worse than the original. This includes when an item takes damage due to the bearer rolling a natural 1 against a spell effect, but only for the item. It does not allow the bearer to reroll to avoid damage to himself.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, bless, endure elements, shrink item, wish or miracle; Cost 12,500 gp

When will then be now?

Soon!

I can see the merit in both points of view.

This being said, RAW-wise, the cone spells have no area numerics. They just extend up to their maximum range.

Which would make 'Enlarge Spell' the Meta of choice of getting that dang Lightning Bolt to a 240' line, or your Cone of Cold to a 120' cone. For the good news, Enlarge is a 'cheaper' Meta Feat than Widen. Actually, reading things this way makes the (relatively cheap) Meta Rods of Enlarge rather... powerful.

Yes, this means that, in the case of a cone, doubling the numerical definition of the spell range will actually quadruple the affected area. Which, I admit, is pretty much counter-intuitive.

This, plus the effect that you get a pretty large area out of a +1 Meta Feat (which is, in my opinion, a tad too good to be true) would likely cause me to houserule all these cones to

Range: Zero
Area: xx' cone shaped burst
but this is not RAW.

Enlarge Spell only works on spells with close, medium or long range unfortunately, so it won't work with cone of cold.

I'm sure this question has come up before but I haven't been able to find a solid answer.

Would a cone shaped burst spell, like cone of cold, become a 120 ft. cone when you apply Widen Spell to it? It seems like the increase to 120 ft. would add more than double the spell's area, as described in the feat description. And as far as I can tell, since the spell is a burst, it would be affected by the feat.