Nausea Pill
This foil-wrapped green pill, blending the flavors of rotting fish and moldy bread, alters the blood, sweat, and soft tissue of any living creature who consumes it, rendering that creature unbearably foul to the taste for the next hour. During this time any creature vulnerable to poison that deals damage with a bite attack to someone altered by this pill must make a DC 15 Fortitude save or become sickened for 1d4 rounds. The creature must make this save with each bite attack, and, if already sickened (whether due to a failed save from an earlier bite or for some other reason) becomes nauseated for 1d4 rounds instead. In addition, any creature vulnerable to poison that actually manages to swallow someone altered by this pill must make a DC 15 Fortitude save each round. Upon a failed save the creature immediately spits him out and becomes nauseated for 1d6 rounds and then sickened for a further 2d6 rounds.
Faint transmutation; Cl 5th; Craft Wondrous Item, stinking cloud; Price 2,700 gp.
I absolutely cannot believe I like this. It is a real creative solution to behirs and purple worms and things that like to swallow whole. Its fun. I hated the name though.
I surprisingly vote keep.
Ingeniously inventive, offbeat and usable. Wow.
The idea is fine. I don't know if it would be the sort of thing anyone would actually make. Maybe a really dedicated goblin arcanist? I like the effect, and the cosmetic downside is fun, but who makes a magical item that tastes like moldy bread and rotten fish.
I could see this as an alchemical item--but that would put it out of the running. Maybe as a cursed item. More likely alchemical though.
Or "Buckley's Cough Medicine".
Ipecac's Revolting Lozenge?
Ipecac's Revolting Lozenge. Oh that is great!
It addresses the primary weakness of this item--lame name, less than inspired form (pill). I would have preferred this as an elixer or something.
This one is also on my "love it, stealing it for my game" list. It is one of those items to keep players wondering about, until one of them figures it out oh right in the nick of time.
I love the fact that it is a pill, too. Makes it unexpected in a good way (because in a mediaeval fantasy game people expect elixirs and potions and philters, but no one expects a lozenge).
I agree it could have a more evocative name (thus adding to the "DM having fun with th players" factor), but otherwise I think it is wonderful, like was pointed out, as an elegant solution against being swallowed whole. Again, love it.
Cheers.
I like this better than I did at first. I can see the sorts of fun to be had while playing a totally straight game with it. Not really seen much like it, either. Top five.
Congratulations and good luck in the future rounds. Definitely a Wow item as per SRD design constrainst.
Another good item, from someone I recognize as an author of CW's and adventures.
ROTFL....Funny, evocative and VERY useful against a large number of aberrations. I imagine a PC imprisoned by an aboleth/kraken/neogi; the pill is the only "equipment" the PC could hide, waiting for the rest of the party to make a dramatic rescue....And this little pill is their only defense.....
Ipecac's Revolting Lozenge?
I thought I disliked this. Then I read this title. Now I know I love it, as long as Ipecac is a well known nutjob spellcaster.
Of course I have a pretty savvy group of players, and I suspect Ipecac is going to be too obvious a joke name for them. perhaps Ickeppa's Revolting Lozenge for my home games.
I think this is my favourite, I can just see Miracle Max coating it in chocolate to help someone eat it.
I hated the name though.
yeah, the name thing drove me crazy. You know how sometimes you come up with a really prosaic placeholder name for something until you can think of a better one and then, to your horror, it sticks and you can't shake it out? I spent more time trying to come up with a good name than I did actually designing the bloody thing!
I've been reading some of the other suggested names further down. Several of them are "headslaps" (as in, "thunk, why didn't you think of that one!").
I'd love to hear some more suggestions if anyone has them.
Like everyone else, I like the item, but not its name. I suppose a running gag could be inflicted on your players, where everyone who knows of such a lozenge calls it by a different name.
The adventurer squinted at the list of elixirs and unguents he needed. "I would like to purchase one of Nicarad's Tablets of Nauseation," he asked uncertainly.
"You mean, Longforth's Lozenges of Ingestive Alleviation, don't you?" replied the puzzled alchemist.
Hearing the disagreement, an elderly mage looked up from his examination of a glass jar filled with basilisk nails. "I believe the proper name is Irwell's Indigestion Inducer, isn't it?"
So far my favorite item - brilliant. It is simple, elegant (if that word can be used to describe a nausea inducing effect), completely unique, and helps to protect against an attack form that fills players with fear.
Whenever my players see a creature that can swallow whole they run for cover - they would jump at the chance to make or purchase some of these.
Nice item. Very useful and I like the flavor (pun intended).
My only critism is that it is a little heavy rulewise. It has to many affects to keep track of. The nausea should of been left out.
Great idea though.
I gotta say, this item reminds me my high school years, in chemistry class with miss Érica.
This is my favorite item out of the bunch, except for the name of course. I think I would have called it Bitter Bite.
Like everyone else, I like the item, but not its name. I suppose a running gag could be inflicted on your players, where everyone who knows of such a lozenge calls it by a different name.
The adventurer squinted at the list of elixirs and unguents he needed. "I would like to purchase one of Nicarad's Tablets of Nauseation," he asked uncertainly.
"You mean, Longforth's Lozenges of Ingestive Alleviation, don't you?" replied the puzzled alchemist.
Hearing the disagreement, an elderly mage looked up from his examination of a glass jar filled with basilisk nails. "I believe the proper name is Irwell's Indigestion Inducer, isn't it?"
Now that is funny! Way to paint the scene with just a few details too.
Nice item. Very useful and I like the flavor (pun intended).
My only critism is that it is a little heavy rulewise. It has to many affects to keep track of. The nausea should of been left out.
Great idea though.
Because of the 200 word limit I started off planning to make an item that drew upon one of the already existing "mechanic bundles"(fatigue-exhausted, shaken-panicked, etc). Once I realized that there weren't many items that played upon the sickened-nauseated track I zeroed in on that one. The nausea came first, since my initial concept was to make monsters throw you back up once they swallowed you. But it just felt wrong for some reason not to include the sickening effect as a precursor somewhere along the way.
Typing this for the second time again. I really need to start saving my messages before I hit submit.
When I saw the name I assumed this item was something you had to get a monster to eat which would be really lame. But instead it's cool, colorful and original. I can totally see someone like Billy Crystal in the Princess Bride giving it to the characters and telling them to chew it well before swallowing. I can also picture thieves using it to get past guard dogs and other guardian beasties.
I think anyone using it should smell bad and get penalties to Cha based skills.
This is my favorite item out of the bunch, except for the name of course. I think I would have called it Bitter Bite.
(Already typed this once so my appologies if the original suddenly appears)
Actually that's a very good name. Evocative, nicely encapsulates the theme and even has alliteration working for it. If the Paizo guys ever do decide to publish these items somewhere I wouldn't be at all surprised if they used some version of "Bitter Bite" as the name.
(where were you when I was pounding my head against the keyboard trying to come up with a better name? :) )
This reminds me a great deal of an item from one of the "Treasure Trove" articles in Dragon magazine - the Necklace of Bad Taste (or more appropriately, the Necklace of Tasting Bad).
That's a good thing.
Really? Any chance you've got the issue number at the tip of your fingers?
No need, Dragondex provided it, issue #91. I'll have to see if I have that one :) Thanks for the heads up.
Have to agree with the crowd - uninspiring name. I like Ickeppa's Revolting Lozenge the most so far, although I would also be inclined to change the item to something akin to one of those alchemical capsules from (?) _The_Complete_Adventurer_ that you can store on a back tooth, so I'd have to drop the "Lozenge".
I think someone else actually suggested that it might be better implemented as an alchemical substance and I must say, because I can so easily see it as a tooth capsule that I might just lean that way (although I, too, recognize that it would not have met the requirements of the contest had it been originally implemented that way)
I'm not too happy about the cost with its given form (a pill or lozenge) although, for some reason I can't quite explain, it seems much more palatable when I think of it as a tooth capsule... Strange.
Probably in my top 5, and something I might just throw into my own campaign for the fun of it, though I still have several more to look over before I'll know for sure.
:-j(enni)
I offer up my own suggestion:
Hard Pill
As in 'A Hard Pill to Swallow'
Maybe it's not particularly original, but it has a reasonably well known phrase to play off of, and I don't see any problem calling it a pill if that's what it is.
I think this is my favourite, I can just see Miracle Max coating it in chocolate to help someone eat it.
LOL the chocolate helps it go down behtteh. O:)
Oh and good job Hal.
Probably in my top 5, and something I might just throw into my own campaign for the fun of it, though I still have several more to look over before I'll know for sure.
In the end, it wasn't able to make it into my top 5 but it did stay in the top 10.
I think it's the "amusement" factor of this item that really worked for me - I hope at least a a little bit of this also shows up in Hal's country submission.
:-j(enni)
I'll definitely be presenting this item to my players as part of a treasure trove. Though, I don't know how they'll take it. They'll probably latch onto the idea of going kamikaze and purposefully getting swallowed/bitten. It's the same premise as Diablo II Thornadins who run around without armor.
This is my favorite item out of the bunch, except for the name of course. I think I would have called it Bitter Bite.(Already typed this once so my appologies if the original suddenly appears)
Actually that's a very good name. Evocative, nicely encapsulates the theme and even has alliteration working for it. If the Paizo guys ever do decide to publish these items somewhere I wouldn't be at all surprised if they used some version of "Bitter Bite" as the name.
(where were you when I was pounding my head against the keyboard trying to come up with a better name? :) )
Hal -
yeah, the name is... well, there are many better alternatives suggested earlier in this thread.
But hey, it made the cut... now just make sure your country does, and your monsters, and your... well, no pressure or anything.
I know how much that pressure can suck having been in the finalists round for Flight of the Red Raven... good luck... I know you'll do well. Oh, and if you need to name anything else, ask someone first!
- Ashavan
Well, in design, this item seems kind of cool, but mechanically, I don't like it. DC 15 Fort save? Just about anything that is big enough to swallow you will make that hands down. I read a purple worm and behir example earlier (I think), and I took the liberty of looking them up. The purple worm could only miss a DC 15 Fort save on a natural 1, and a behir needs a 4. Granted, a behir has a 20% chance of failure, but the purple worm has a 5% chace of failure, but it doesn't even seem worth it, even with a behir.
It just doesn't seem to be worth it.
I would agree, except that it's a PER ROUND save.
I would probably have made the swallowed whole save a DC 20 Fort though... just on the premise that almost anything that swallows whole has a killer Con score, and that the creator of the item must know that they are tough beasts that need something strong to make them upchuck.
- Ashavan
I absolutely cannot believe I like this. It is a real creative solution to behirs and purple worms and things that like to swallow whole. Its fun. I hated the name though.
I surprisingly vote keep.
*In a hushed voice* Most "swallow whole" beings, even those you mentioned, are unlikely to ever fail their Fort saves here though.
Yup, the save DC is a bit of a problem. It's a one shot item, so I had to keep the price competitive. My thinking on the swallow aspect was the save each round, followed by the huge pay off if the creature fails (nauseated and then sickened) balances that out. If I made the DC too high you'd get kamakazi missions of people jumping into the gullet and then killing the thing while it lay pretty much helpless. Now it's a bit of insurance against high and mid-level swallowers, with a really decent chance of taking out a lower level swallower.
On the other hand, there's the one hour duration and the risk of sickening for each bite attack (followed by the naseau for the second bite). That part gave me a lot more trouble when I put on my DM hat. I'm surprised no one has commented on it yet.
My imagination immediately conjured up the image of a hydra making piles of bite attacks. Each attack risks the sickening (lots of saves means lots of chances to fail) which IIRC imposes a -2 on future saves. That makes nauseating it about 10% more likely, and then you can really whale on it.
All in all, I think it's properly balanced for a 2,700 gp item since you don't want a sure thing at that price. If I was going for a likelier kill I'd make it permanant, a "nausea cloak" (since my talent for naming things continues unabated... :) ) or something like that and tie it to a 5th or 6th level spell instead.