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You've created your foes for fledgling heroes, and sent us your adversaries for advanced heroes. Now, it's finally time to unveil your enemies for epic heroes. We want to see the best of the worst, villains so dangerous that they can make even the most powerful heroes tremble in fear.
Even better, it's time for monsters to take their place alongside the other villains. Send forth your demon rogues, your medusa monks, your minotaur fighters and your vampire barbarians. We're looking to elevate some of the game's classic monsters with some class levels and a great back story to show players just how much worse things can get.
As with Villain Codex I and the newly released Villain Codex II, Swords for Hire Development (Mikko Kallio and Jacob W. Michaels) will be putting out this PDF in conjunction with Outland Entertainment. And, fresh off a successful stint judging the Here Be Monsters II contest, RPG Superstar Mike Welham will be joining Mikko and Jacob in the development process.
The third Villain Codex will feature 12 opponents of CRs 15-20 for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Finished villains will be 600 words, including a stat block and a description of the villain, his/her motivations, plus potential plots, lairs and minions, making them perfect for a GM to simply drop into an adventure when he needs a statted-up opponent or to build an adventure or even campaign around.
Right now, we’re looking for your best ideas. Send us up to three pitches, each up to 200 words long, that describes your villain and potential plots, as well as expected build.
* Please include at the top the villain’s name, race (picking any core, featured or uncommon race from the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Race Guide or monster from the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary), gender, alignment and class. Also include the villain's CR; a range of CRs is fine at this point, and we will assign your final CR.
* Villains should be setting agnostic. If they use a bar as their headquarters, feel free to name it, but don’t put it in a city in an existing campaign world.
* Villains should have clearly stated and unquestionably villainous goals. Most CR 15-20 villains should have goals comparable to awakening Cthulhu. Bringing about the end of the world, conquering the known world, and such are sufficiently villainous for this book.
Mikko previously offered some advice about pitching and making a villain that remains useful. You can check that out here.
Remember, part of the pitch is a test of your writing skills. We want to be excited by your villain and have some idea of what her particular brand of villainy is, as well as knowing that you'll be able to get these ideas across in limited space. Keep in mind that NPCs will only be 600 words, and we want their particular brand of villainy to be clearly fleshed out. As such, we're much less likely to accept villains with a companion (such as an animal companion, eidolon or phantom), as there's simply not likely to be much space for them. If your villain has a spellcasting class, we'll want some idea of how you plan to keep it to the appropriate word count.
Though each villain is of course unique and two clerics can be substantially different, we're less likely to select class and race combinations we've used in the first two Villain Codexes. Those include: Human ranger, half-elf arcanist, human ghost alchemist, gnome shaman, half-orc monk, human bard, gnome sorcerer, human druid, dwarf fighter/gunslinger, halfling swashbuckler, half-elf summoner, elf magus/swashbuckler, changeling witch, elf wizard, nagaji mesmerist, tiefling skald, ratfolk alchemist, halfling summoner, dhampir occultist, dwarf cleric, human investigator, human fighter/shadowdancer, elf psychic, and human paladin.
How do I submit?
Please send your pitches to swordsforhire.dev@gmail.com with your submission in the body of the email (NOT as an attachment).
How many pitches can I submit?
You can submit up to 3 pitches, each of which should be no more than 200 words.
What books will I be able to use?
Villains will be limited to rules from the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook, GameMastery Guide, Bestiary*, Advanced Player’s Guide, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Equipment, Ultimate Campaign, Advanced Class Guide, and Occult Adventures. Keep in mind, you should aim to not use *all* the books for your villain — you want them to be easy to play, which means GMs shouldn't need a half-dozen tomes on hand to keep track of all the options for one NPC. Villains should aim to be Core +1 book; any more will lessen your chances of being selected. For purposes of this product, Bestiary monsters are considered core.
* Only the Bestiary is an option; monsters from Bestiary 2-5 are not eligible.
All right, I’m ready to get started! When you do you need this by?
Pitches are due by the end of the day (Eastern time) April 1. We’ll get back to you and let you know if your pitch has been accepted within a week of that date. Finished villains will need to be submitted by April 25.
If I submit, will I get published?
Unfortunately, not necessarily. We’re including 12 villains in this Codex, so only the best selections will get published. Any pitches that are accepted become property of Swords for Hire Development, which retains sole ownership.
Will I get paid?
We’ll be paying a flat rate of $6 per entry that we publish, which will work out to about 1 cent per word.
Wait, I have more questions!
Go ahead and ask. We’ll be happy to answer.
No, please include them all in the same email. Thanks!
dotting, unsure what to pitch but it will be suitably villainous.
How much flexibility is there to change or add abilities to existing monsters from the bestiary?
We'd handle it on a case-by-case basis, but my biggest concern would likely be space. Words spent changing abilities are ones that can't be used to describe the villain's motivations and goals.
Sure, I don't see any reason why not.
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How much flexibility is there to change or add abilities to existing monsters from the bestiary?
What Jacob said, but I'll also add that last time around when we were putting Villain Codex 2 together, a lot of the villains had word count issues. In Villain Codex 3, the CRs are even higher and consequently, stat blocks tend to get longer, so I'd advise against custom abilities.
Are simple templates such as advanced, giant, fiendish, etc. allowed?
I agree with Jacob, they're perfectly ok to use because the Bestiary is on our list of allowed sources.
Of course, it's good to remember that NPCs of the 0 HD races (human, elf, changeling, etc.) only very rarely have templates. For example, a giant human would probably seem too silly as a concept to be selected for the product, unless the NPC's backstory is very well written and having that template actually makes sense.
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Before I forget, I'll post some advice related to some development challenges we encountered while working on the first two Villain Codexes. My first piece of advice is...
If you're planning to submit a pitch for an old or venerable character (especially if the race has a Con penalty), do the math first. The main problem is that older characters have poor Con, which is a stat that every NPC needs. Even though NPCs are not always "monsters", their stats should be reasonably close to the first table in http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monsterCreation.html. It's possible to compensate for a poor stat with other stats (e.g. poor hp --> better AC), but if your NPC has less than 50% of the hit points than creatures of its CR should have, we have a problem. I'd generally recommend staying within +-20% of the target values.
What to do?
Here are a few possible solutions to the problem.
1) Make sure the NPC can cast a spell or spells (or has stat-boosting items) that counteract the hp issues. These include the various age resistance spells, bear's endurance, and false life. Having to cast a number of spells to make a problem go away creates another problem: each spell cast makes the Before Combat and Base Statistics entries longer. Not to mention, spellcasters usually need these spells anyway because their Hit Die is d6 or d8.
2) Give the NPC an ability that negates the penalties. These include timeless body (druid level 15th or monk level 17th) and custom abilities (I made a deal with the Devil?). I think one of the recent Paizo AP volumes had an NPC with a custom ability like this.
3) Now that it's possible, choose a monster race that has a good Con score and maybe also give it the advanced template.
4) If you can't figure out an elegant way to do it without causing stat block problems, just choose another concept.
Sounds good, I figured it was better to ask now while still in the planning stages.
Sorry, no. No mythic content for this product.
If there's interest, we might consider a later mythic villains book, though.
Any reason only Bestiary 1 is allowed?
I was just about to send my pitch in, but I used a B3 monster as the base.
Two main reasons:
1. We want to limit the number of books GMs need to use the Villain Codex. Even with the prd, it can take time to keep track of all the options and we wanted to keep that under control.
2. We felt those were the more iconic monsters; B3 certainly has some cool beasts, but I think the classic rakshasa, for example, makes a greater impression as a villain than one of the newer rakshasas introduced in B3.
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* Please include at the top the villain’s name, race (picking any core, featured or uncommon race from the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Race Guide or monster from the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary), gender, alignment and class. Also include the villain's CR; a range of CRs is fine at this point, and we will assign your final CR.
Can a racial archetype from the Advanced Race Guide be used for the appropriate race?
The races are listed as legal options, but the book isn't listed in the allowed resources.Would it make a difference if the Advanced Race Guide was the only non-Core source used for the Villian?
Thanks for taking the time to address this.
Can a racial archetype from the Advanced Race Guide be used for the appropriate race? The races are listed as legal options, but the book isn't listed in the allowed resources.
Yes, you can use anything from the ARG, including racial archetypes. Sorry for missing it on the list of resources!
You've got one week left to get your pitches in for the Villain Codex III! We're looking forward to seeing more ideas!
You guys gave some great feedback on declined pitches for Villain Codex II. Any issue with taking a declined pitch, taking your feedback aboard , and upgrading to meet the "unquestionably villainous" criteria for re-submission?
I have no problem with that.
Just putting the finishing touches on my submissions. I have a question for you. You say make sure we give you some idea of how to keep spellcasters within the word count. Aside from simply giving up some spells (either by fewer levels, a different class, or an archetype), what are some ways you have seen this accomplished?
Thanks in advance.
Just putting the finishing touches on my submissions. I have a question for you. You say make sure we give you some idea of how to keep spellcasters within the word count. Aside from simply giving up some spells (either by fewer levels, a different class, or an archetype), what are some ways you have seen this accomplished?
Thanks in advance.
The big thing, as you noted, is simply having fewer spellcasting levels.
In addition, one of the big issues with the full spellcasting classes is they need to have all their buffs to stand up at these high levels (i.e., an unprepared wizard could be slain in the first round). That means they're going to have long Before Combat and Base Statistics sections. By comparison, a class that has four- or six-level casting progression may not need to have a bunch of pre-combat spells, which can save you words in both sections.
With prepared casters, you can also have multiple preparations of the same spell, saving you some words.
Whew. The villains started flooding in today, with the number of pitches received more than doubling!
That said, you've still got just over two days left to send us your best ideas.
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Just putting the finishing touches on my submissions. I have a question for you. You say make sure we give you some idea of how to keep spellcasters within the word count. Aside from simply giving up some spells (either by fewer levels, a different class, or an archetype), what are some ways you have seen this accomplished?
Thanks in advance.
The big thing, as you noted, is simply having fewer spellcasting levels.
In addition, one of the big issues with the full spellcasting classes is they need to have all their buffs to stand up at these high levels (i.e., an unprepared wizard could be slain in the first round). That means they're going to have long Before Combat and Base Statistics sections. By comparison, a class that has four- or six-level casting progression may not need to have a bunch of pre-combat spells, which can save you words in both sections.
With prepared casters, you can also have multiple preparations of the same spell, saving you some words.
What Jacob said! I'll add that it's not recommended to leave spells unprepared (or select fewer spells known than the NPC should have) because that'll cause extra work for the GM. Ideally, the villains are 100% ready to use.
Anyway, I've enjoyed reading the pitches we've received, there are some really creative ideas in them!
My pitch should be in within the next couple of hours.
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Ah, almost missed this! Hope you like my entries.
Anyone that was one the fence about sending a pitch, go for it. Mikko and Jacob are great to work with. Even just sending a pitch might be the foot in the door you want to start freelancing.
Thanks, Donato.
The pitches have been coming in fast and furious over the last 48 hours. Where I initially was thinking we'd have to find a few extra villains, now we're definitely going to have to make some hard choices. There are some (very) good villains that won't make the final book, I think.
I'm also pleased to see some familiar faces from previous Codexes and Here Be Monsters as well as some names I don't recognize.
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I gave it a shot. I had a few ideas, but in the end I only sent the one that I felt had the strongest chance of being a legit villain.
Really glad this was posted on Facebook otherwise I would have missed it completely. I didn't even know about the first two or else I'd have given those a shot. Oh, well. At least I saw this one.
Well, the deadline for submissions has passed, so let me say thank you to all who sent us pitches. If I counted right, we got more than 40 potential villains, which is fantastic.
It'll obviously take us a little time to go through them all and reach consensus, but we'll get back to everyone as soon as possible. As always, once we announce those whose submissions are accepted, I'm happy to offer feedback to anyone else who's interested.
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I gave it a shot. I had a few ideas, but in the end I only sent the one that I felt had the strongest chance of being a legit villain.
Really glad this was posted on Facebook otherwise I would have missed it completely. I didn't even know about the first two or else I'd have given those a shot. Oh, well. At least I saw this one.
Thanks for the feedback! We'll try to do a better job at advertising the next time we do an open call.
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Thanks for the feedback! We'll try to do a better job at advertising the next time we do an open call.I gave it a shot. I had a few ideas, but in the end I only sent the one that I felt had the strongest chance of being a legit villain.
Really glad this was posted on Facebook otherwise I would have missed it completely. I didn't even know about the first two or else I'd have given those a shot. Oh, well. At least I saw this one.
I found the last monster contest to be the same way. Had it not been for Jeff Swank getting me to participate in that, I would have missed that one as well.
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As Mikko said, we'll definitely try to do better publicizing future contests.
Last contest, someone posted a list of some of the popular ideas in advance of decisions; is that feasible for this one?
Sure. I'm happy to share a few observations about the entries:
There was a lot of really excellent submissions -- I had almost 20 entries that were weak keep or better, which is nearly 50 percent. As noted above, winnowing these down will not be easy and good submissions won't make the cut.
Monstrous villains were definitely popular; they outnumbered purely class-based entries by more than 50 percent.
Only two dragons were submitted, which surprised me. I was expecting more. The other entries varied widely among creature types, though I don't think there were any oozes or fey. I think there was one construct and one plant. (We haven't broken down creatures into types on our spreadsheet, so those numbers are from quickly glancing over it and it's possible I've missed one.)
Of the purely class-based entries, all but two of them were core races (one was a featured race, the other uncommon).
There were no vigilantes, which also surprised me -- I know the book just came out but that seemed like an area I would have leaped on if I'd been pitching for this; I would be very surprised if our final product does not have at least one vigilante.
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There were no vigilantes, which also surprised me -- I know the book just came out but that seemed like an area I would have leaped on if I'd been pitching for this; I would be very surprised if our final product does not have at least one vigilante.
Ultimate Intrigue wasn't one of the allowed books. Unchained wasn't either. If this changes by the time the winners have been picked then maybe a vigilante could be possible.
Oh. ... Well, that makes sense.
To quote Gilda Radnor, never mind...
Sure. I'm happy to share a few observations about the entries:
There was a lot of really excellent submissions -- I had almost 20 entries that were weak keep or better, which is nearly 50 percent. As noted above, winnowing these down will not be easy and good submissions won't make the cut.
Monstrous villains were definitely popular; they outnumbered purely class-based entries by more than 50 percent.
Only two dragons were submitted, which surprised me. I was expecting more. The other entries varied widely among creature types, though I don't think there were any oozes or fey. I think there was one construct and one plant. (We haven't broken down creatures into types on our spreadsheet, so those numbers are from quickly glancing over it and it's possible I've missed one.)
Of the purely class-based entries, all but two of them were core races (one was a featured race, the other uncommon).
There were no vigilantes, which also surprised me -- I know the book just came out but that seemed like an area I would have leaped on if I'd been pitching for this; I would be very surprised if our final product does not have at least one vigilante.
kind of surprised there weren't any fey. I think an ooze villain would be hard to do, so not too surprised at that.
Only two dragons were submitted, which surprised me. I was expecting more.
Well, that sorta makes sense. Dragons pretty generally get more from age categories than from an equivalent level. As I learned when designing a Dragon with class levels for a homebrew campaign world.
(One of the two dragons submitted was by me. It's a different dragon from the one I just spoke of.)
Sure. I'm happy to share a few observations about the entries:
There was a lot of really excellent submissions -- I had almost 20 entries that were weak keep or better, which is nearly 50 percent. As noted above, winnowing these down will not be easy and good submissions won't make the cut.
Monstrous villains were definitely popular; they outnumbered purely class-based entries by more than 50 percent.
Only two dragons were submitted, which surprised me. I was expecting more. The other entries varied widely among creature types, though I don't think there were any oozes or fey. I think there was one construct and one plant. (We haven't broken down creatures into types on our spreadsheet, so those numbers are from quickly glancing over it and it's possible I've missed one.)
Of the purely class-based entries, all but two of them were core races (one was a featured race, the other uncommon).
There were no vigilantes, which also surprised me -- I know the book just came out but that seemed like an area I would have leaped on if I'd been pitching for this; I would be very surprised if our final product does not have at least one vigilante.
Fey is almost synonymous with villain, & almost too easy. Oozes are (mostly?) mindless so almost too hard, especially at this CR. . Dragons have big stat blocks already, adding classes & compelling story only makes it that much harder. But dragons don't need much to be challenging villains :)
In the second contest, winners were announced; is that going to happen for this, or do we have to wait for the book to come out?
Nope, winners will be announced probably today (but maybe Monday). We had a tough time making our final choices, but I think we've finally got it done. I plan on sending out acceptance emails to the winners and then I'll post our deadliest villains here.
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OK, I've sent out acceptance notices, so I'm happy to announce our winners (and apologize again for the delay).
As noted, we had a LOT of good pitches, and picking wasn't easy. We've got several authors who we've not worked with before as well as several designers who we're happy to welcome back, including one (Luis Loza) whose work will be in his third Villain Codex. In addition, we've got one writer (Phoebe Harris) who had multiple pitches accepted, the first time we've done that at Swords for Hire.
So please get ready to fear the following villains and congratulate their creators (note that some of these builds may still be tweaked slightly as we develop them so the final product could have some minor differences):
Kalina Marsh, human bard, by Kate Baker
Daegrim Siegebreaker, dwarven fighter, by Phoebe Harris
Fyrek of the Bones, halfling inquisitor, by Phoebe Harris
Yem Mi Goshi, yeti kineticist, by Scott Janke
The Final Star, advanced lantern archon psychic, by Matt Kimmel
Adonia Grivas, vampire medusa unchained rogue, by Jeff Lee
Uldin the Gray, half-orc bloodrager/dragon disciple, by Luis Loza
Tyrin the Implacable, giant awakened iron golem slayer, by Matt Morris
Throne, mimic mesmerist, by Stephen Stack
In addition, Mikko, Mike and I will also each be creating a villain to round out the lot.
For those who didn't make it, as always, I'm happy to give feedback on your pitches. Just send an email asking for feedback to me at motteditor at gmail (please at least include your villains' names, and if you want to make life easy on me, the whole pitch again to jog my memory).
Congratulations to the winners. The villains look very cool. I'm eager to see what Daegrim and Fyrek are like, for Phoebe to have "won" twice with two PC races.
For those who didn't win, harass Jacob for his feedback. I did for Here Be Monsters 2, and it's top notch game design critique.
Well done Phoebe!
Well done Luis!
Congratulations everyone.
And thanks to Mikko, Jacob, & Mike.
Congratulations folks! Thank you as always for the Excellent Contest Mikko, Jacob and Mike!
Glad to see the contest going strong still!