GM_Solspiral While the story is tempting, I'd honestly like to your take on redesigning Springheart. Seeing a more experienced hand tackle the mechanics would be helpful, if you get a chance.
I decided to go with a story here. I do find this item mechanically complicated and somewhat flawed but I'm going to use it as I would in a game rather than have it as treasure I'd use it as a plot device.
Dreaming Star
Aura strong illusion (shadow); CL 17th
Slot ring; Price 50,000 gp; Weight —
Description
Coalesced from purest ether, shining with a flickering multi-hued corona of palest starlight, a dreaming star resembling a constantly transforming gemstone, rests in a delicate and intricate ring setting reminiscent of the night sky, which channels its unfettered power.
The wearer of a dreaming star may once per day, upon command, evoke from herself or a willing or unconscious subject, whom she can touch, a dream or fantasy which she forces into reality.
For a number of minutes equal to the wearer’s charisma score the evoked fantasy manifests as if created via shades used to emulate create demiplane. Individuals, details, and items within the dream are as if created with persistent image, with the exceptions of adding tactile sensory feedback and operating as they would in the dream rather than to a script.
The wearer of a dreaming star may as a full round action choose to destroy the star while it is manifesting a dream so as to allow her to select one item or person from that fantasy and grant them a permanent form. Items created by this use of a dreaming star may not have a sale value greater than that of the star. Individuals created thus are as created by Simulacrum using the bearer’s level as caster level, with the exception that they maintain their own free will and are only as loyal to the bearer of the star as they were in the dream that created them.
This use of the dreaming star immediately ends any dream or fantasy currently manifested by the star.
Construction
Requirements Forge Ring, persistent image, shades, simulacrum; Cost 25,000 gp
Were I to approach this mechanically I'd discard the simulacrum in favor of interacting with the slew of decent dream spells already out there (dream feat, traveling dream, dream, haze of dreams, nightmare.) Something like adding spells to a list/spells know and giving a free quicken spell to any of them after casting a sleep spell might be awesome. It takes more energy then I want to devote and honestly would mostly end up being a redesign that doesn't resemble the item at all. A story is more fun for everyone.
Morgaren paused a moment before entering the child's room. What he was about to do could not be undone. A look at the ring on his hand was reminder enough. This town had every misery he could visit upon it coming, for his mother, his sister, and a dozen other innocent women that burned because of superstition and fear.
In draconic he whispered, "you'll get you witch."
Morgaren had promised his service and soul to beings beyond mortal comprehension. His allies waited in the wood, a redcap and a quickling both ready to visit havoc on the town. He'd draw a third child of trouble from the boy's sleeping mind. He had sent nightmare's into the young oracle's mind and the boy's terror fed the vision into something even more terrible.
With a longing look Morgaren knew a moment of regret, this act would destroy the dreaming star. It was the only thing he had to remember his mother by aside from the burn scars on his hands from his fruitless attempt to pull the burning logs away from his sister.
As the star shattered a beast of muscle and chitton emerged from the boy's mind into reality. A sigh of relief was the boy's last as the monster from his nightmares ended his life. The beast turn on it's creator next it's cloven feet crushing a shattered piece of gemstone as it charged forward.
Morgaren was ethereal and the beast passed through him. The bitter witch laughed as the creature howled in frustration and began rampaging in the house.
The quickling had torches and flasks of oil, the parameter of the town was being lit ablaze and he'd join the redcap and the small tribe of orc warriors he had enslaved on the other side of town.
I kind of want to throw some Pcs into the thick of that right now. I'd have it trace back to a haunt and give hints of what the town did to earn this.
GM_Solspiral While the story is tempting, I'd honestly like to your take on redesigning Springheart. Seeing a more experienced hand tackle the mechanics would be helpful, if you get a chance.
Oh I'm honored to take this on and may well do both.
Springheart
Aura weak transmutation, moderate evocation; CL 7th
Slot ring Price 850 gp
Description
Occasionally given as a token of affection by fey creatures, Springheart appears to be a dull green caterpillar tightly curled up in a spiral. When placed into the palm of a hand it uncurls, crawls to a free finger, and encircles it. After a few moments it brightens to a lustrous green and gold color. Springheart provides the wearer with 1 temporary hit point, replenished each morning at dawn. On command it begins a 2 round process - on the first round it uncurls, climbs to the end of a finger, and quickly wraps itself in a cocoon; on the next round it bursts forth as an incorporeal butterfly that departs to carry a message to a specific individual as Sending (but without a chance to fail if the recipient is on another plane.) The cocoon then crumbles to dust and Springheart is destroyed, while the incorporeal butterfly returns to the First World after delivering the message.
If the wearer should die without having used the Sending power, one round afterward Springheart begins the process on its own, taking the sad tidings to the former wearer's dearest loved one.
Construction
Requirements Forge Ring, Virtue, Sending Cost 425 gp
Thank you. That was very close to how I saw it being used. :-)
Springheart
Aura weak transmutation, moderate evocation; CL 7th
Slot ring Price 850 gp
Description
Occasionally given as a token of affection by fey creatures, Springheart appears to be a dull green caterpillar tightly curled up in a spiral. When placed into the palm of a hand it uncurls, crawls to a free finger, and encircles it. After a few moments it brightens to a lustrous green and gold color. Springheart provides the wearer with 1 temporary hit point, replenished each morning at dawn. On command it begins a 2 round process - on the first round it uncurls, climbs to the end of a finger, and quickly wraps itself in a cocoon; on the next round it bursts forth as an incorporeal butterfly that departs to carry a message to a specific individual as Sending (but without a chance to fail if the recipient is on another plane.) The cocoon then crumbles to dust and Springheart is destroyed, while the incorporeal butterfly returns to the First World after delivering the message.
If the wearer should die without having used the Sending power, one round afterward Springheart begins the process on its own, taking the sad tidings to the former wearer's dearest loved one and laying an egg as it dies passing itself as an inheritance.
Construction
Requirements Forge Ring, Virtue, Sending Cost 425 gp
Springheart
Aura weak transmutation, moderate evocation; CL 7th
Slot ring Price 17,000 gp
Description
Springheart appears to be a lustrous green and gold color caterpillar that has encircled the ring finger. Springheart grants its wearer the all the benefits of the fey creature template save for the spell-like abilities gained passed 7th level. On command it begins a 2 round process - on the first round it uncurls, climbs to the end of a finger, and quickly wraps itself in a cocoon; on the next round it bursts forth as an incorporeal butterfly that departs to carry a message to a specific individual as Sending (but without a chance to fail if the recipient is on another plane.) The butterfly leaves behind an egg from which bursts forth another caterpillar the next morning. When the caterpillar is in butterfly or egg form its fey creature template benefits are dormant.
If the wearer should die without having used the Sending power, one round afterward Springheart begins the process on its own, taking the sad tidings to the former wearer's dearest loved one.
Construction
Requirements Forge Ring, must be made by a creature with the fey templete Cost 8,500 gp
I didn't really put my all into the spell list requirements and pricing. To me that wasn't the core issue with this ring, it needed more umph to make it superstar. Granting a template and having the sending be a thing that can be used at the cost of those benefits is a step in the right direction. The template does WAY too much for the price and the user would be very unlikely to send out the sending under the circumstances.
Another revision might be me cherry picking what I want from the template and eliminating the stat effects... Don't know yet but it's a step in the proper direction IMHO.
Thank you. That was very close to how I saw it being used. :-)
There's a lot to like from a storytelling perspective and I'm guessing you usually GM. You demonstrate GM type thinking. What you're challenge is next year is to reach across the table and design something for the player market as that is the majority and they tend to vote for things their characters would use.
Thank you. That was very close to how I saw it being used. :-)There's a lot to like from a storytelling perspective and I'm guessing you usually GM. You demonstrate GM type thinking. What you're challenge is next year is to reach across the table and design something for the player market as that is the majority and they tend to vote for things their characters would use.
Yep, you are entirely correct. I appreciate the critique, story and advice.
*Bow*
GM_Solspiral While the story is tempting, I'd honestly like to your take on redesigning Springheart. Seeing a more experienced hand tackle the mechanics would be helpful, if you get a chance.
The more I think about ti the more I like the idea of the fey creature template as it fits the theme and concept. Essentially it has to be forged by a fey of at least CR 7 who has learned the appropriate spells (sending being the main one.)
When one bearer dies the ring carries the message and a portion of the power of the fallen. It fits into the idea of fey in their home plane never truly dying and having no concept of death. The energy and matter that makes a being doesn't die it just gets re-purposed elsewhere.
I'm reserving the both slot for this item unless something more compelling comes along. I'll say redoing an item you already like a heck of a lot is more challenging then one you're not as fond of...
Thanks!
The Fey template never even occured to me. Nice! I like the idea of the sending usage actually passing the ring off to the recipient too. I had originally planned for the ring to be an actual fey animal - one with a life cycle that depended on mortal tragedy to reproduce (the butterfly form only returns to the First World to mate and lay eggs after the sending is used), but that is a lot of back info to try to cram into a ring, so I just hinted at it. The revision makes for a much stronger item.
Thanks!
The Fey template never even occured to me. Nice! I like the idea of the sending usage actually passing the ring off to the recipient too. I had originally planned for the ring to be an actual fey animal - one with a life cycle that depended on mortal tragedy to reproduce (the butterfly form only returns to the First World to mate and lay eggs after the sending is used), but that is a lot of back info to try to cram into a ring, so I just hinted at it. The revision makes for a much stronger item.
That's another direction to take it making it like a fairy/item and the idea is not without precedent. It's a workable way to approach this for sure but then you are designing a monster and DQing the idea from competition. Re-purposing it and maybe a few more ideas along that vein would make for a standout Wayfinder article for their next issue which has a monster theme.
194) Blackmail
The Good: Description is solid as is formatting and mechanics are easy enough to understand.
The Bad: When you name a superstar entry a pun god kills a kitten.
The Ugly: So the way you use this is you grapple/hug a foe so you can smear some goo on them which allows you to curse them, yeah that's really an oddball niche.
Overall: 3 stars for me as it isn't something I see anyone using but it's not bad, just not upper level.
195) Bonewarp Chain
The Good: Cool name, memorable for its imagery and mechanics. This was well thought out.
The Bad: When I tell someone they have a 300 word count limit I expect them to use 85-90% of those words... from a publishing standpoint those who deliver too few words are nearly as much a problem then those that deliver too many.
The Ugly: It's also somewhat disturbing to envision which can hurt you with the voting public.
Overall: 4 stars as I liked this a lot but it wasn't in contention for my top 32.
196) Staff of Infiltration
The Good: I like the description and the bit with the silent table spell.
The Bad: Price is a red flag, when I see a 6 figure item I'm more likely to be critical which is a problem with both versions.
The Ugly: The challenge of a staff is to remain what a staff is but reinvent it in some way that makes it superstar. A constant spell effect and quarterstaff utility is not going to meet that challenge.
Overall: 3 stars for me for either version. Feels over priced and it's not bad for a staff but it's still just a staff for me.
195) Bonewarp Chain
Thank you for taking the time, it's much appreciated!