Hecataeus: Sanctum of the Colossus

[roguerouge]

I'm guessing an homage, since it's part of a piece with the rat maze, fish pond and classroom.

[Gark the Goblin]

Made before reading other reviews:
Map cohesion/clarity, Mechanics, Playability, Fluff, Overall (includes grammatical and spelling errors).
Map cohesion/clarity: The map is a bit dull-looking, and confusing (what do the stars mean, what do the dotted lines mean, is the mansion over the mine or adjacent). You have to read the text to understand much of it. This is a problem with Paizo products too, though, so it seems permissible.
The head part is poorly drawn; the viewer can't tell if the lines in the middle are a nose and eyes, or just a nose (hopefully a nose, because the eyes look too comical to really be eyes).
The coloring of the map makes me feel a bit sick; if you aren't a graphics person, then don't try using color. The dark gray looks good – until you notice the weird beige-green. Since this isn't a graphic-based contest, though, I'm going to let it slide. Out of 10: 4
Mechanics: The chandelier is a bit clunky, as it uses different words than just “speed.” I would have had a special quality which described the chain and the movement limits. The base speed would be 40, and the “drop” rate would be replaced with the maximum length of the chain. The creature couldn't move past the maximum distance of the chain (80 feet). It would have to make a Climb check to ascend, but you could give it a climb speed instead. What happens if the chain gets cut?
I like the gelatinous cube, but the heading on each room should be “EL,” not “CR.”
The remainder of the area looks clean, but it would have been nice to have an updated version of Hecateus' stats to prevent switching back and forth between posts. Out of 10: 7
Playability: The encounters are playable, but bland. The GM can easily play the constructs without fear of being dull and repetitive, and the mechanics are clearly described. The stone laborers in the cavern should do something more interesting; if their stuff is moved, they fumblingly attempt to put it back.
Due to the lack of intelligent creatures, the GM can't be that evil; he has to save all his plotting for the BBEG. Hecateus only makes one appearance on the map. Where does the master of constructs sleep? He's gotta sleep somewhere.
Easily playable, but there's a chance that the GM will get bored and start making the constructs more intelligent than their scores account for. Out of 10: 6
Fluff: High-quality fluff. A gelatinous cube pit trap, a chandelier of swords, a stone fisherman, flesh golems in the dining room, crazy dolls in the lecture hall, skull rippers, cutlass spiders, and stone golems all make for incredibly interesting encounters (at least for the players). There's also a good element of non-combativeness, which mixes things up a bit. Unfortunately, there's not much personality in the encounters, with the soul-bound dolls and Hecateus being the only true intelligent critters.
The goldfish, mice, and birds have a black humor element that meshes well with the horror of the stone fisherman trying to catch them. Out of 10: 9
Overall: There are a few errors where acronyms and numbers are lumped together (“CR15” and “DC21”). This isn't too bad, but it's not the way most people write adventures. Out of 40: 26

[William Senn]

Larkspring Irellion wrote:

I like the gelatinous cube, but the heading on each room should be “EL,” not “CR.”

Incorrect. There is no such thing as Encounter Level in Pathfinder. It's all CR.

[Gark the Goblin]

William Senn wrote:

Larkspring Irellion wrote:

I like the gelatinous cube, but the heading on each room should be “EL,” not “CR.”

Incorrect. There is no such thing as Encounter Level in Pathfinder. It's all CR.

Fine then.

[Neil Spicer]

Larkspring Irellion wrote:

...it would have been nice to have an updated version of Hecateus' stats to prevent switching back and forth between posts.

And we were specifically instructed NOT to include the stats with our villain's lair. In addition, we weren't allowed to update or modify the villain's stats, either.

[Gark the Goblin]

Sorry, some of us don't have the time to review the new rules in the 2 hours we have left to get through eight entries. Stop picking on procrastinators!

[Eric Morton]

Well, the Hecataeus lairs this round have caused me much consternation. Both are solid, but I have only one vote remaining. This late in the game, I think most of the specific observations I would have made have already been made by someone else. So I'll just add that I would use this lair in my own game, and could also see it being the centerpiece of a published adventure.

Same goes for the other Hecataeus lair, actually. My problem in choosing which of the two should advance was the fact that neither lair did anything wrong. Each is well written with an interesting map. Each has interesting encounters, a healthy dose of Hecataeus' personality, and some great humorous elements. For that matter, each has a colossus, which just makes sense.

In the end, I had to choose the Hecataeus lair that offered the most "Why didn't I think of that?" moments, and that happened to be the Sanctum of the Colossus. But neither had any major flaws. So best of luck, and to whomever makes the Top 4: I hope you're ready for a very tough competition; every indication is that the final round is going to be the closest yet.

[Eric Bailey]

Now that we're all waiting for the big reveal, I wanted to come in and offer my sincere thanks to the judges, to Chris West (!) and everybody who has stopped in to offer comments and critiques on my work. This has been a really, really excellent round and I think all the contestants put some outstanding work into their submissions.

Looking through, there aren't a lot of questions that need answering. But I want to address a few points:

- I'm thinking that golems are actually a little weaker in PFRPG than they'd be in 3.5. They can now be sneak-attacked, if not critted. Adamantine DR is now bypassed by a weapon with sufficient "plusses." While undead get a HP boost from Charisma, golems won't get any benefit from this. This might all change for the final, but it seems PCs have the ability to deal greater damage and involve more characters in the fight against golems.

- With that in mind, the CR's of some of the encounters probably IS a little low. There will be some cakewalk encounters here. The original Chandelier had 4 greatsword (claw) attacks and added +2 CMB on the grapple check for each one that hit. I struggled with that and ended up thinking it was too complex, needing the ability to make 4 attacks at the end of a charge/drop and so on. I would probably revisit this, and possibly advance the soulbound dolls a few HD if I were to revisit this.

- Moving bridge, etc. I missed an opportunity here to really detail how this should work. The bridge is a construct, and should have its own initiative count. Hecataeus commanding it would either be a free action or a use of his "command construct" feat that Randy designed last round. Joel, thanks for the catch on the Acrobatics check instead of Balance.

- Gark the Goblin... You're a GOBLIN! How can you not like pale green and gray? Sorry you didn't care for it. I was torn between adding color or not. It may work for some people and not for others. I thought it helped define the environments.

- Steven, Charles, roguerouge: Thanks for your spirited debates, both last round and in this one. I'm bummed that Steven and Charles didn't get as much of a thrill out of Vashkar (read: actively despised?) as I did, but I'm glad to be back on your good sides, respectively, in this round. It's probably a good thing that I didn't get to do Vashkar's lair, because I think the vampire shambling mounds, vampire velociraptors, or vampire magmin MIGHT have made a bad impression. Just maybe... A bit. ;) Charles, I'm completely unpublished, freelance or otherwise. Your comment about maybe being a freelance professional made my day.

Best of luck to all contestants. You guys are all very talented and should be proud of what you've accomplished.

-eric

[Gark the Goblin]

eric bailey wrote:

- Gark the Goblin... You're a GOBLIN! How can you not like pale green and gray? Sorry you didn't care for it. I was torn between adding color or not. It may work for some people and not for others. I thought it helped define the environments.

Didn't you read the MM entry for goblins? We like "drab, soiled-looking colors," not pale green, for Yeenoghu's sake!

Everyone hates goblinoids (and especially goblins). I bet Malgana would kick Hecateus' @$$!
We don't have minuses to Intelligence, people; just Charisma! (At least in 3.5; I don't know about the final PFRPG edition.)
And yeah, I figured that the pale green would stand for grass. It was just a bit too... eww for the goblin eye.

[Charles Evans 25]

Eric:
Congratulations on making it through to the final. On the subject of the vampire rakshasas, I think I said most of what I wanted to say on that subject on your Round 3 thread. You turned in a very strong entry this round, but some lingering feelings I had regarding the Round 3 entry encouraged me to vote tactically for once, putting votes behind the entries of my personal top four best entries who looked weakest to me at the time in the exit polls and from the strafing they were getting on their threads.

My personal grouches about the templated rakshasas aside, I think you have been one of the strongest contestants over the past couple of rounds, and I expect you to give me a very hard choice for the best entry with at least a couple of the other contestants in the final round.