If you don't mind me asking, what sorts of classes are you getting a lot of right now, and what classes are getting neglected?
Entered. This is my first ever attempt at one of these kind of things, so I hope I did it according to expectations.
I think it will make a right nasty villain for a lower level party, one that will make players groan for sure.
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If you don't mind me asking, what sorts of classes are you getting a lot of right now, and what classes are getting neglected?
Once again, not Mikko, Mike, or Jacob... but I would guess unlike for the first couple books, class isn't quite as big a factor this time around. There is just so much more to the combinations when dealing with monsters.
I guess "role" would be a better term, then. Lots of brutes? Mages? Sneaks? We don't want this to turn into the Bard Codex, is what I'm saying.
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Narrowing down to 3 was actually tough once I started brainstorming. Keeping to CRB + Bestiaries + 1 book helped me weed out about a half dozen that were better with a 2nd book, but that still left quite a few to choose from. Now that I'm submitted, time for the waiting game.
OK, back from the hinterlands of med school in the Caribbean...
I guess "role" would be a better term, then. Lots of brutes? Mages? Sneaks? We don't want this to turn into the Bard Codex, is what I'm saying.
Good question ... which I actually can't answer right now (I've read many though not all of the pitches at this point, but haven't had time to add many of them to our database, which would let me look through and give you some quick feedback).
We're very focused on making sure we do not have a Bard Codex, of course, and that certainly affects our choices at times. That said, we've more than once had a villain we really liked be made as a different class to help avoid that sort of overlap.
We had a few early trends (undead, for example), but I think have gone away from them more recently and definitely seem to have a wide array of villainy. We've also had a pretty wide variety of monsters selected, though there have been a couple that have been more popular choices (similar to how we saw a lot of paladins pitched for the first couple Villain Codexes). As with the first monster villains in VC3, I've been very pleased with some of the choices, which I don't think I'd have thought of.
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I will say -- since there's now less than 24 hours left to get pitches in -- that many of them have skewed to the middle and higher end of the CR spectrum. While no choices have been made, there's probably more opportunity to have a villain selected from the lower range (CR 3-5) based purely on the numbers submitted.
Making good villains at low challenge ratings can be hard, especially if you want them to be from a bestiary. I am sure there are lots of talented people here that can do it, but a lot of cool options aren't possible at that range.
Making good villains at low challenge ratings can be hard, especially if you want them to be from a bestiary. I am sure there are lots of talented people here that can do it, but a lot of cool options aren't possible at that range.
I think it's a different kind of challenge, but even first-level adventurers need villains to face off against. Remember that the villainy can be of a lower "scale" and there are certainly plenty of low-CR monsters that can be a lot of fun (and again, the young and degenerate templates actually lower CR, which could give you some more room to play).
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I believe I've responded to everyone who's sent in villains so far (though again, it's possible I've missed a reply to someone while I was out of country). Please let me know if you haven't heard from me.
Jacob, when you said "any Bestiary", does that count the ones like "Inner Sea Bestiary" and such?
Bigrig, just Bestiary 1-5, please.
Kevin, probably a few days, at most a week. We usually get a rush of entries in the last couple days (plus I'm a little behind in my own reviews of the pitches due to my travel). After we've all ranked them, we try to decide which will make the best product before I send out notes to the winners. If I had to guess, I'd look for it Monday though again can't guarantee that.
Part of that winnowing process includes deciding exactly what monsters will be at what CRs. If we get two villains we really like that we feel are too similar (in class choice or goals or whatnot), we may also discuss whether we can tweak one of them to add a little more variety -- if not, we may have to pick the best of those two and then find a third villain to be included instead of one of them.
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As always, once the process is done, I'll be happy to provide my feedback to anyone who asks.
*Googles*
Huh. Neat. The plural of "Villain Codex" is "Villain Codices".
Just sent my second submission!
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Crap. I just realized I literally did two "pretends to be a halfling" villains. I wasn't even thinking about it from that angle. This is what happens when you send out submissions piece-by-piece. XD
I submitted one undead, one medium humanoid, and one aberration.
One undead here. (Out of one, total.)
I don't know why, but nothing but undead even crossed my mind for this.
One undead here. (Out of one, total.)
I don't know why, but nothing but undead even crossed my mind for this.
If I didn't know you better, I would think you ARE half dead.....
A magical beast, an undead, and a giant, here.
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So, now that we've finished accepting pitches, I can report we got 65 submissions, easily the most for any Swords for Hire open call (including the Here Be Monsters contests)! Thanks everyone for your interest -- competition's going to be fierce to get one of the spots but there's obviously a lot of good material to choose from.
We'll try to give you more of a breakdown of the submissions as soon as we can (right now, all I can really report is that we had monsters from all five Bestiaries), but I still have 26 entries I haven't gotten a chance to look at, much less a more organized breakdown in our spreadsheet.
I submitted 2 dragons, 2 fey, a half-golem, 3 kobold cleavers (counted as one), and 1 tarrasque (with arch-nemeses Mikko template for CR adjustment).
Are you implying that the Mikko template applies a negative CR modifier?
Are you implying that the Mikko template applies a negative CR modifier?
;)
My submissions were a Magical Beast and 2 very different dragons.
Looking forward to seeing what the winners submitted (and if Jacob has the time, to see some stats from the submissions :))
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Damn, guys. I'm still going through villains, but this is NOT going to be easy.
Well done (also, I may be a little scared of/concerned about some of you now). :)
Damn, guys. I'm still going through villains, but this is NOT going to be easy.
Well done (also, I may be a little scared of/concerned about some of you now). :)
Now you're just teasing us. :P
I went with a Fey, a Fallen Angel, and a niche Elemental
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I have read through all the pitches, and I must say you are going to make it tough on us to narrow down the list of villains for this book. There will be several that one or both of us want to keep that we will have to let go.
Really good problem to have, and a good sign for the future of this line (which I hope continue to be a thing, because they are terrific.)
I only had time to submit one pitch. It was for a magical beast villain.
Considering your name I would have thought awakened construct would be the only way to go, lol.
So I'm assuming they will post here that the choices have been made? I'm a newb at this, 1st time I tried it.
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So I'm assuming they will post here that the choices have been made? I'm a newb at this, 1st time I tried it.
It will get posted here. You might get an email before it gets posted. (I don't recall which order those two items went in for past books.)
If you are accepted, you'll get an email that will have details on formats required, submission procedures, and timelines. The development team is also very good about answering lots of questions. I know, because I bugged Jacob more than he probably hoped for during book 2, and he was still always courteous and more importantly, helpful.
I'm hoping to have word out to authors tomorrow. I think we've got the Top 12 picked out but just want to make sure we're all on the same page.
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I'm happy to announce our 12 villains for the Villain Codex IV: Monsters for Meddlesome Heroes.
As noted, this was a tough choice, with the most entries we've received for any Swords for Hire project, but we think you'll love this dirty dozen -- or maybe not, if your GM ends up pitting you against them:
* Chudwix, pugwampi ectoplasmatist, by Jennifer Jones
* Kin of the Pumps, gourd leshy druid, by Joshua Hennington
* Smoke, worg hunter, by Robert Thomson
* Reyshu "the Great," faerie dragon wizard, by Kim Frandsen
* Radnii, aranea rogue, by Nik Geier
* Gramblethorne, unfettered eidolon bloodrager, by James McTeague
* Clovendell, broken soul unicorn ranger, by Jeff Swank
* Khaalkthys of Jagged Teeth Cove, sahuagin oracle, by Loren Sieg
* Rimefyr, Howl of the Northlands, winter wolf ranger/skald, by Matt Roth
* Glenleven Linden, treant druid, by Kate Baker
* Azagog, dire awakened giant squid antipaladin, by Jeff Gomez
* Tezcatlopala, couatl lich sorcerer, by Mike Kimmel
As always, there may be a few changes in some of these between now and publication. :)
Thanks to all for your interest and pitches. We really enjoyed reading them!
Yes, I'm absolutely still giving feedback (though it might be a little slow as I'm also taking Nick Logue's design class and don't have enough hours in the day at the moment).
Congrats to the winners, and I'll try again if there is another one of these.