| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Harvestweal
Aura moderate transmutation; CL 10th
Slot none; Price 36,630 gp; Weight 2 lbs.
Description
This +1 keen sickle’s blade is always clean to the point of gleaming: no soil, blood, or other material ever stains it. The shining blade bypasses the hardness of any wood or vegetable matter, even that which is alchemically treated, a special material, or magical in nature. The wielder can use harvestweal as a standard action to automatically break free from the entangled condition, provided the condition is caused by plants, such as via the entangle spell or an assassin vine’s entangle special attack. If the effect causing the entanglement covers an area, this action does not dismiss the effect, but the wielder cannot be re-entangled unless she enters another square covered by the entangling effect. If the wielder is not entangled herself, she may free an adjacent, entangled ally under the same conditions.
While the wielder stands in a garden, barn, pasture, or farm fields, harvestweal cannot be sundered, nor can the wielder be disarmed of it.
Construction
Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, diminish plants, keen edge, creator must have at least 1 rank in Knowledge (nature) or Profession (farmer); Cost 18,315 gp
Minor wording issues, Price/Cost don't match. The abilities aren't particularly interesting, but neither are they mere SiaC, and they tie together nicely to fit together with the item's overall theme. Overall, a Weak Keep.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hi there! I'll be one of the judges for this round, and I'll be looking at a couple of key points for your item: flavor, usability, and how the item is presented. For some background, I helped found the Wayfinder fanzine before I started working for Paizo, and I oversee every third-party Pathfinder Roleplaying Game product that makes its way onto Paizo.com.
Flavor
Good name, abilities match up, are specific without being overly so...I like it!
Usability
This is an item that is useful beyond the immediate "this is a druid's weapon." Very neat, and being able to use it in non-combat situations always gives it a plus for me.
Presentation
Adheres to standard formatting guidelines, rules are presented well.
Final Thoughts
Useful in both combat and out of combat, tight theme with relevant abilities. I do recommend this item for advancement.
Kept.
Modules Overlord
|
My approach to judging these items is "How would I approach this as a developer?" If I would be pleased by the turnover and not see any reason to give negative feedback to the writer, that's great! If I'd keep it but it would take a lot of work or I'd want to let the writer know what needed improvement, that's fine but not perfect. If I'd scrap the item because it would be faster to write new material myself, that's bad.
The entangle-related abilities of this are neat, and I'd keep it for those. But it becomes the #1 weapon of choice for sundering bows, crossbows, anything with a wooden haft, and shields, which seems weird for a harvest-related item. I might need to dial that back to ignoring the hardness of living plant matter, and perhaps eliminate the very GM-dependent immunities when out standing in your field, but the entangle powers are good enough to earn a weak keep from me.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
My Profession skill requirement... has been... beardvenged...
Congrats, DQ. You weren't just whistling Dixie when you said the old Round 1 rules weren't your strength, obviously. First year with different rules and here you are!
I definitely never saw this item during voting, but I absolutely would have upvoted it. I can see Owen's point about sundering bows and other wooden items (though to be honest, I don't think I've ever seen a sundering attempt in one of my games), but I really love the feel of this item. I like the specificity of the entangle -- if you move in the area of the spell, you could be re-entangled. That works well. This is definitely Superstar.
Good luck in Round 2!
An item I frequently down voted as uninspiring. Cleanly written but I am surprised to see it here.
Writer shows they can tow the line, as this items seems to fit the bill of the type of things that have been published for years.
Top 100/Alternate in my mind.
Star Voter Season 6
|
I keep seeing "price/cost don't match" from the judges, but it looks to me like price is correctly double cost. What does that mean?
(found it, answered here by Owen)
I got to see this item a whole ONE time during voting, but it had my vote then and I'm happy to see it (and its designer!) in the Top 32 now! The sickle is, to my knowledge, a fairly underrepresented magic weapon, so well done in finding some vacant design space in that respect. I like everything about it save for the final ability, as I agree with Owen that natural spaces like gardens, barns, et al. can be somewhat fluid in description (which could be easily exploited by rules lawyers...like myself).
With such an evident sensitivity to the role of the environment in combat and gameplay more broadly, I expect to see a compelling map from you in the next round, DQ! Good luck!
Some parts of this need to be more definitively spelled out, but its effects are good, thematic and well thought out.
|
Modules Overlord
|
I keep seeing "price/cost don't match" from the judges, but it looks to me like price is correctly double cost. What does that mean?
(found it, answered here by Owen)
Yes, that is an issue I saw multiple times, but only spelled out in detail once. Thanks for linking to it!
Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
|
Congratulations! I saw Harvestweal at least two dozen times while voting and it grew on me over time; in the end, it ended up on my keep list. It's got a strong theme but, outside of sundering, isn't terribly overpowered. I agree that the environmental trigger is somewhat murky. I would expect this to be used more by GMs as an aid to either storytelling or flavor, than I would expect to see PCs seek this out.
Congrats DQ, I liked harvestweal almost every time I saw it during voting. Good luck.
Congrats!
I thought this item was one of the better ones. It got my vote most of the time. I like the name, and the abilities are neat.
I wonder if being entangled in a net would qualify for being caused by a plant?
Good Luck in round 2!
Of the various nature-themed items that were in the running this year (what was the joke in the discussion thread? The I-am-Groot items?) I think this was definitely one of the strongest, and deserves its place here... not because it has a devastating variety of abilities (it doesn't) or is a Must Have Weapon (it's not), but.... it does a lovely job at embracing a theme.
I think the 'overcomes DR of plant-y material' is a masterful stroke: it's so flavorful it's bursting; it's USEFUL (outside of combat, too); but it's not simply the usual 'it's adamantine. I hit it. I get through hardness. the end.' that would probably appeal to the munchkin gamers.
The entangle ability is neat and flavorful, though a little weak compared to what I think is the 'primary' ability... mostly because I rarely see PCs entangled by the actual entangle spell. I think it's only happened to me/my party once, in several years of play. That said, I'm sure there's people who have had many more annoying experiences with Entangle.
I'm not too worried about potential sunder-cheese that was brought up. I think not too many PCs are willing to spend the 36K for this item when they could just get adamantine cheaper; I feel its abilities will really only be appreciated by nature-themed characters and not too much to the power-gamers.
If have a quibble, it's price: I'm not judging this on formula, but just on feel, and much as I love the flavor and feel and description and powers, I also don't think I could ever have a character spend 36K on it, either. There's just too much else I'd wind up buying instead to save up for that kind of item, when its powers are relatively light and limited at that level. Seems more like an NPC item (a high-level druid in her grove, probably...) than a PC item in that regard.
Still, very good work. There's a unity of theme and a loveliness to the language that I'm not sure I've seen with any of the other items.
Congratulations on making it to the Top 32!
This was one of my favourite items this year. The name is evocative, it has the strongest atmosphere of all the items I saw and the actual abilities are useful enough for me to want to carry this. I especially love the immunity to sundering and disarming in certain places. That cinched it for me, and there's no way I'd leave that out. The GM already has to decide what counts for what when it comes to terrain. Exactly where does the forest start if it's not a clear-cut line like at the edge of a pasture? Does a tree-heavy garden count?
If I had to nitpick I'd say that I kind of wished that the main ability had more to do with farming and rural life than it does now. That would tie it more to the last ability and the name, but it's fine as it is.
A great item and I'm so happy that it advanced. The best of luck for the upcoming rounds!
Congrats! I saw your item twice or thrice during my voting, and it was an easy upvote.
Cons On of my peevs are absolutes/auto-success in magic items, even with a limited scope of affected/targetable items. so I'd've preferred a "treat as adamantine" for sundering wooden items. I was only worried about wooden breastplates and shields, and I never even twigged on auto-sundering quarterstaves and bows.
Pros This is one of the very few nature-themed Pathfinder items I've ever seen that feels like something a druid would actually craft, and not just druid-y things grafted onto a item for flavor/niche appeal. Jaheira would approve! No quibbles on the mechanics or wording. It does what it does well, and I think a druid (or strongly-nature-aligned oracle or witch) would keep it if it fell into their hands. Kudos also for choosing the underloved sickle instead of the super popular dervish-y scimitar.
Being in the Top 32 is something to wear proudly. You did it; good job! So take a deep breath, get the sugar and caffeine on a drip feed, and do your very best on a SupaStah!-worthy map for Round 2. :)
|
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
,
Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka mamaursula
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Well DQ, here we are, in the Top 32 together. I saw this item and voted for it many times, but it never really occurred to me that it was your item until the reveal and your name popped up next to the most nature oriented "farming" implement weapon imaginable :-) I feel dumb for not having put it together before hand.
You have come so far in the past few years and I'm excited for you! Good luck!
Well done! This item made my personal Top 32, but I didn't realize it was going to go over so well with the voters. If I had, it would have been in my Detect Mojo Top 20. Congratulations, and good luck!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Thanks for all of your feedback! I've finally got a bit of a breather to respond. :)
I worked a lot on theme before specific mechanics and I'm glad that came through--even if more work could have been done to further reflect the desired theme without raising potential problems. Something to continue to work on.
Likewise, cost is a challenge--and I realized I halved the base item cost with everything else for the cost about a day after I submitted the item. We were spoiled by wondrous items! As for its price: I calculated what an item using diminish plants would cost and then roughly halved that, then added the cost of a +1 keen weapon. It could definitely be tweaked more.
Thanks for this opportunity, and your votes--and even your downvotes, because yes, there's always room for improvement. :)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ahhh, the harvestweal. I voted this up QUITE often as I saw it a lot.
I like sickle's. So that was a good choice of weapon right off the bat.
Keen, hmm...I'll reserve judgement but that's a tiny bit cliche with a sickle.
Since it is always clean I'd like to see prestidigitation in the requirements.
Oooo, bypassing the hardness of wood or veggie matter. Cool.
I don't like the word automatic, especially when it is applied to breaking out of grapples or entangles. Remember, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, if an enemy has this they will also automatically break free of your druid's entangle spells.
But it's a good theme. Tight theme. And off the wall, with lots of uses that aren't damage related.
I'd cut the last power, because I could basically fill my boots with dirt and seed and call them a garden and NEVER be disarmed or sundered.
Bonus points for Profession (farmer).
Overall, I really liked this. It wasn't in my Top 32, but I see the potential in the designer and I really look forward to your next entries.
Congratulations, R! I'm a sucker for story-themed items, and this one was the best example in the whole round in my opinion. Love the connection to the sickle's function and the profession that inspired it. Great job!
Hi, DeathQuaker! I only just now figured out that R Pickard was you!
Big congrats on Top 32! :)
I like the Harvestweal. Nice, clean writing, and a good, thematic item.
I especially love that you managed to make a professional farming item Superstar!
Rock that Death Quaker niche! :)
Congratulations on making the Top 32! Great work!
Of all the sickles this year, this was my favorite. It made my alternate/Top 36 list. Straightforward and solid design without being overpowered. The imagery was so-so for me, but that is its only weakness from my perspective.
I believe that I voted for this item every time I saw it. The theme is so well executed that this thing feels like it should exist in the game; it just makes sense.
Congratulations!
Harvestweal
Aura moderate transmutation; CL 10th
Slot none; Price 36,630 gp; Weight 2 lbs.
Description
This +1 keen sickle’s blade is always clean to the point of gleaming: no soil, blood, or other material ever stains it. The shining blade bypasses the hardness of any wood or vegetable matter, even that which is alchemically treated, a special material, or magical in nature. The wielder can use harvestweal as a standard action to automatically break free from the entangled condition, provided the condition is caused by plants, such as via the entangle spell or an assassin vine’s entangle special attack. If the effect causing the entanglement covers an area, this action does not dismiss the effect, but the wielder cannot be re-entangled unless she enters another square covered by the entangling effect. If the wielder is not entangled herself, she may free an adjacent, entangled ally under the same conditions.
While the wielder stands in a garden, barn, pasture, or farm fields, harvestweal cannot be sundered, nor can the wielder be disarmed of it.
Construction
Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, diminish plants, keen edge, creator must have at least 1 rank in Knowledge (nature) or Profession (farmer); Cost 18,315 gp
Is the Item Decorative?
There is very little in the description beyond the mention of a 'gleaming blade' to give indication of anything particularly decorative about this item.
Decorative score? 1 out of 7.
Does the Item have Any Obvious non-Decorative Use Around the Home?
The obvious use for this item around a home is for garden maintenance - especially with regard to use on properties where some of the vegetation has issues with 'being pruned'. Not that it necessarily improves the survival chances of individual temporary garden-maintenance staff (long-term staff are always best kept well away from such tasks) - it just means that with a bit of luck, one will go through a reduced number in the annual cutting-back-the-assassin-vines exercise.
non-Decorative Domestic Use score? 3 out of 7.
Does the Item seem Likely to be Helpful in the Fantasy Setting of an Imaginary World where 'Operation Sealion' is taking Place?
So the (for simplicity's sake) Nasties are lining up with all their little boats to launch an invasion-attempt across a strait upon a nation of perfectly (socially) harmless tea-drinkers. And then there's this item.
So what impact is this item likely to have on proceedings?
None whatsoever. Vegetation isn't really an issue to contested naval operations or subsequent amphibious landings. Well, not unless one is in waters choked with seaweed, but that's hardly the case in this hypothetical situation.
'Sealion' score? 0 out of 7.
Total: 4 out of 21.
Tight theme, and obvious passion for the item. I thought the imagery worked for me and felt the last sentence powerful - I like definitive mechanics like that. You could perhaps extend the places where sickles are commonly used for harvesting. Cutting mistletoe perhaps... ;P
Bascially I found it a little too situational, and while I like the definitive mechanic at the end, the automatic entangle-removal doesn't jive well with me - it seems to disregard the possibility that the weapon hand might be entangled etc.. Still, F mechanics are not real world, so it is more my personal inability to cope than an actual mechanical imperfection.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
,
Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka JoelF847
|
Congrats on making the top 32. I never saw this in voting, but would have certainly voted for it regularly if I had.
I really like this weapon - it's powers are tied to using it as a weapon (even the disentangle from plants - it's being used as a machete. That actually makes me think it would also have been good to allow overland movement through jungle terrain faster and avoid penalties for moving through difficult terrain caused by vegetation).
Also you did a great job finding an underserved niche, both for magical sickles, and useful nature/druid weapons.
The big issue I had is the price - I see that you based it on the diminish plants spell as pricing for an item, and that's where you went wrong. You should always price a new ability in an item based on what it does, not based on what spell is used in the requirements. As someone else mentioned, one power is a limited version of adamantine weapons, ignoring hardness, but only for plant matter, and it doesn't increase the hardness of the weapon itself. Since regular adamantine costs 3K for a weapon, I'd have this limited version cost 1K. For the freeing from entangles from plants, I'd probably just wing it and call it about 5K, or search for other items that free from entanglement, like a ring of free action (which is way more powerful) and adjust the price accordingly, in this case down to probably around 5K again.
Why am I critiquing every item? Well, frankly, I love this sort of thing. I sincerely enjoy editing and the art of the critique. I have long considered starting a blog to that end, and maybe this will be the kickstart I need. Speaking of which, if you want to hire an editor, I'd be happy to help ;)
Regardless, the point of my criticism is always to help. Nothing is perfect, so everything can potentially be made better. My comments will often be less than flattering, but they will never come from a place of malice. The point here is to make your item better, not to make you feel bad.
So, what am I looking for, here, when I judge these items? My primary focus is on rules knowledge, clarity/simplicity, and usability. You can come up with the most creative item on the planet, but if nobody is going to actually use it in a real game, who cares? And it doesn't matter if nobody uses it because it's obviously too strong, too weak for its price, too confusing/complicated to actually adjudicate at the table, or just too niche to have an actual target audience. What I am generally not looking at is flavor text. Descriptions of your item will only hurt if the item evokes imagery I dislike. I care about theme, of course, but a crow item with blind and pilfering hand in it is thematic enough--I don't need to read about different kinds of dark wood were used and how many crow parts are sticking out of it.
Finally, know that I did not read any critiques of your item yet. These are all my first thoughts based only on the item itself, so, I apologize if I repeat things others have said already.
Now, let's get to the critique!
As always, congratulations on making the top 32. No matter what I thought of your item, you won, and you should feel awesome!
This item has a cool feel to it, and I like the thematic powers. The wording and formatting seems pretty good for the most part. However, I did not put it on my keep list because it just wasn't practical enough.
The problem is two-fold: this is a sickle, and this kind of barely does anything.
Sickles are junk weapons. Nobody uses them. Or rather, nobody should use them. They are lousy, simple weapons, just there to give simple weapon users a slashing option for use against damage type DR early in the game, before their other powers really come online. The trip quality is just a trap to trick simple weapon users into thinking they have a realistic chance at tripping. Hell, even full BAB characters have trouble landing combat maneuvers without total dedication. So, nobody is realy going to be a "sickle wielder." Heck, even if it was at least a Scythe, you'd get to keep the theme, but have an actually good weapon people actually use sometimes.
Then, you get to the powers. They're really interesting, but none of them are actually all that useful. Ignoring plant hardness is kind of worthless, but again, cool. Breaking out of entangle is cool, but yeah, not super common of a problem, especially when restricted to plant sources. Not being sundered or disarmed, well, you get the gist.
All of these things tell a neat story, but nobody is going to spend (or effectively lose by not selling this) 36k gp just to tell that story. It's just not worth it. That is WAY too much money. I could easily have a +4 Adamantine weapon for that price, complete with locked gauntlet, duplicating everything this item does except the entangle thing, which, I would never spend a standard action on removing anyway.
And honestly, I could have sworn I remembered it costing a lot less than this during voting--I thought I remembered thinking it was a reasonable low level item for people to find during a farm themed module or something that people could wield until they get real weapons and weapon specific feats/class abilities. That's definitely not the case if it's 36k. No way.
If my party found this, we'd think, "neat!" and sell it. Nobody would ever custom order it. I appreciate what you made, but, overall, I don't like how impractical it is in the end, sorry.
Congratulation on the top 32. I swear I still cannot decide if I rather like this or really do not like it. I do like that name and the idea is... interesting, but something is just not. Oh, well, anyway, congratulations.
Congratulations for having made it to Top 32 AND Top 16!
Sorry I'm late to the party, I hadn't realized how big a task commenting on everyone else's items was going to be in the Official Critique Thread!
Seeing as how many other people have commented above me, and you've moved well on from this point... I'm going to keep my comments brief. To understand my rating system, see my larger post on my critique thread.
As an overall comment, each and every one of you that made it to the Top 32 must have had a "Publishable" item in my opinion because you appealed to not only the voters but also the judges -- so if I say "Rewrite" it's more to be "rewriteable to be SUPERSTAR!"
Publishable -- Plants and plant creatures are often ignored in pathfinder, especially by magical items. I could see some fun abuse with this weapon (I'll cut down the whole forest!) but its neat. I don't care for the last ability, it feels tagged on (though thematically fitting).
Harvestweal
Congratulations R!
I tried to keep current on the rounds in terms of feedback and am just now getting back to the reasons everyone earned Top 32!Am I the only one who has read Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series? I always loved that item, but I can see why it never really entered the gaming circle... until now. This avoids SiaC with its sunder ability not being linked to any spell in particular. It avoids SAK by having such a tight theme including the item choice: sickle. It has a just enough extra SS punch to make it a keeper with the entangle-breaking ability.
Well done R!
Congratulations sorry to get to this so late! :)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Thanks, Curaigh! Feedback is always appreciated.
I've not read that book,but it sounds fascinating, and yes the possibility of those kind of practical applications was what I was going for far more over any sort of sunder ability (its value in the hands of someone already good at sundering is obvious, but that wasn't meant to be the focus).
I'll definitely check the book out!