RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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General - include rules for improving items which aren’t weapons and armor, i.e. from a lesser to a standard to a greater version.
potent - aside from shoe horning game balance reasons, why can you only have one stat boosting item at a time?
treasure by party and character wealth - these don’t seem to work out together. If you give the treasure indicated on table 11-1, then characters will have more treasure than in table 11-2.
increasing price for special materials as quality goes up - this doesn't make any sense. If 80% silver is enough for an expert weapon to count as silver, then you don’t need 90% pure for a master weapon - it would be just as silver and should have the same effect.
hardness - how is a shield that much thinner than armor? I’d think regular hardness is for stuff like walls, not as thin as armor. Don’t bury the hardness rule for structures in a sentence - include it in the table. It would be better to have the table have the material down the axis, and across the top be thickness - thin, regular, and thick - then the hardness for each in the body of the table.
special materials - the price for light compared to 1+ is really off. 1/10th the weight for a L item should be 1/10 the price for a special material. And the price for bulk 1 should be per bulk, not the same for a 1 bulk item and a 500 bulk item.
Special nonmagical items - these items aren’t at all necessary. The special material rules are fine, but writing up the example items make for the most boring item entry possible. There must be better uses for this page of space.
snares - what does “found snares cannot be collected or sold in their complete form” mean? They have a price, why couldn’t you sell them? What prevents you from “collecting” them - I’m assuming this means you can’t keep them in inventory? Or does it mean you can’t hand them on your wall as part of a collection or capture them in a poke-ball? Looks like you mean you need to disarm them to get their half value in components, as detailed in disabling snares, but this is not at all clear from the line in the first paragraph.
caltrop snare - is this really worth it? You’re spending 17 sp and hoping an enemy enters the square to save the action of putting the caltrops out yourself. If you had time to set up the snare in the first place, why not simply put caltrops out normally ahead of time?
hobbling snare - what if the target is uninjured? Is there no way for them to remove the hobbled then other than waiting? Or can they injure themselves then get healed?
stalker bane snare - how long does this last? How can a victim remove the powder?
striking snare - this does the same damage as lightning, freezing or exploding, but doesn’t have the extra effect of flat footed, persistent damage, or hobbled. Shouldn’t it be cheaper and lower level?
alchemy and resonance - if they’re not magical, resonance shouldn’t be involved, since that’s your ability to use magic items. It is yet another game balance thing which doesn’t make internal sense in the game. Especially when it only applies to bombs and elixirs - if alchemy needed resonance it should for tools and poisons also.
method of exposure - why do all poisons have to have only one trait? Can’t you have both ingested and injury, etc?
acid flask - 1d4 persistent damage from a level 1 item seems very over powered if there’s not a limit. There should be a duration...otherwise that acid could eat through a 10 foot steel block or more.
General listing question - why do some items have combined listings for standard, greater and true like antidote but others have separate listings for lesser, greater, true, etc.? Should stick to consistent format.
bestial mutagen - how come the drawback never increases while all other mutagens have stronger drawbacks as they get more powerful?
poisons - the ones which only do damage are pretty boring. Also, seems like inflicting some damage and conditions is better, but they’re priced less and lower level - compare giant centipede venom, level 1 to black adder venom, level 2.
blightburn resin - this should inflict weakness and/or radiation sickness disease, to tie into being related to blightburn, not just hp damage.
bomber’s eye elixir - for removing only a -1 penalty which happens sometimes only (screening), this seems like it could be a level 1 item, and even then would rarely see use.
cat’s eye elixir - should be named for the effect better - like echolocation, or blindsense - cat’s eye suggests low light vision.
elixir of rejuvenation (and p. 367 philosopher’s stone) - these should have a price - since while you can’t craft them normally, you can sell them.
hemlock - this shouldn’t be level 17 - hemlock is naturally occurring and can be used to poison someone without special preparation. Make hemlock low level, and use another name for a level 17 ingested poison. I'm pretty sure the Athenians who poisoned Socrates weren't 17th level. It was a standard method of execution.
infiltrator’s elixir - don’t make it at GM’s discretion - just say it’s the rule that it works for another creature of your type if you’re not humanoid.
quicksilver mutagen - shouldn’t this also apply to attacks with finesse weapons in melee?
thunderstone - how far away is the sound able to be heard?
runes - does the example need to be a +1 expert longsword, since you need it to be expert before it can have a potency rune?
transferring runes - this is another gamist conceit - permanent magic items should be permanent. If you don’t like them, sell them and buy what you like.
weapon potency runes - why do they increase accuracy, when item quality already does that? Seems redundant.
potency runes - requiring the previous + bonus is needlessly complicated. To create a +5 weapon requires 5 separate craft checks. Just allow for doing it all as one process.
armor potency runes - having different prices for heavy armor makes no sense and is another weird unrealistic rule that’s needlessly complicated.
corrosive - why does this ignore acid resistance if it’s acid damage? Seems counter to it being acid damage. What’s the point of acid resistance if acid ignores it? Same for flaming, frost, and shock.
dancing - so it can fly action once, then either fly again or strike? Why can’t it just have 2 actions usable to fly or strike? Seems odd - and also makes the whole point of dancing very limited if you only get 1 attack a round out of it. Finally, having it fall to the ground if you fail the flat check is super harsh - would make more sense to fly back to you 40 feet and end if your hand if you have a free hand.
glamered - very weak power to require resonance - don’t think anyone will ever use at that expense.
holy - why does this give you vampiric abilities against evil? That seems very much non-holy. What holy person wants to take in the life force of an evil creature in the first place, or any living creature for that matter?
returning - how can you not have a free hand if the weapon returns after the strike is completed - you wouldn’t have a chance to draw another weapon or item - so of course your hand is free.
shifting - this should be a focus action not operate - applying your will to change shape is much cooler than having a play-doh weapon you physically have to manipulate to change shape.
slick - shouldn’t bonus also be to DC to avoid being grabbed?
spell storing - this shouldn’t be an action, either a reaction or a free action. Using it already costs a resonance, and it costs a spell slot, so it can’t really be used too often. It’s weird to hit someone, and then take just as much time as it would to hit them again to target them with a spell. The spell should affect the target while the weapon hits them, not afterwards.
void - why change brilliant energy from a light based effect to a darkness one which does negative energy instead? Lame. Also, if it ignores armor and non-living matter, why would TAC bonuses from armor apply?
vorpal - should add that multi-headed creatures can lose benefits of multiple heads, for things like bite attacks, all around vision, etc.
magic items - these general rules should appear before runes, since many runes use the magic item rules.
activate an item - what’s the logic of the administering person spending resonance rather than the receiving person? At the very least it should be either. If you’re out of resonance, but your dying friend has them to spare, you should easily be able to use theirs for healing them with your potion.
investing items - aside from not liking resonance in the first place, items should have either investment or activation, not both. Also, investing an item should allow for continual use, without turning off 1/day when you do your daily preparations, and then invest an item for 1 minute. This makes many defensive items deadly in dangerous environments - like items that protect you against fire on the plane of fire, or protect against severe cold in the arctic. Also, don’t have the “unless the GM says more than a minute” clause. Just let the rules dictate this - either always a minute, or have specific items say they take longer.
activating potions - conflicts with activating items on page 376, which states “which requires the administering character to instead…..and it spends your Resonance points”.
shields - why can’t they have armor runes as well? Doesn’t make a lot of sense.
investing a staff - what does it mean to invest charges in a staff if you already have one invested? How do you expend charges, and from where?
trinkets - why do they have the requirements? It makes sense when it’s a particular feat or ability and the trinket affects how it’s used, but not at all for something like ghost dust. The whole point of the trinket is that it’s magic - you shouldn’t need a certain level of proficiency in the skill, just let the magic work.
affixing a trinket - it’s magic - it should just affix magically, rather than requiring an hour to affix it using the repair an item task.
wand statistics - isn’t it time that the spell cap limit for wands was removed? Why not allow 9th level wands?
wand table - prices are too high - there should be more than a 10% discount for using a wand vs. a scroll. There’s really not enough benefit to a wand without a bigger discount.
aeon stone - change the name back to ioun stone. Most of the name changes due to WOTC IP make sense, but Ioun stone isn’t part of their IP, since it’s from the Jack Vance books.
gold nodule - this seems extremely overpriced - a 10th level item for 875 gp to learn 1 language?
lavender and green ellipsoid and pale lavender ellipsoid - having a flat check after each use make this over priced. It should simply be able to be used for a fixed number of times, or a fixed number of spell levels dispelled.
orange prism - seems over priced now that spells don’t have level dependent effects. Only increasing the level needed to dispel them shouldn’t be that much.
alabaster reliquary - effect for good seems pretty random - you’re critically hit, so you heal yourself (that part is good), and also reduce the frightened condition? How often are you critically hit and are frightened? How about something more generally useful, like a circumstance bonus to AC or saves for a few rounds?
anklets of alacrity - the water walk activation is pretty random for this item. Most characters would want the constant abilities and not care about the water walking. Should be a power which actually makes sense for being fast. Also, why are these anklets rather than boots?
antimagic oil - if it makes you immune to all magic item effects including your own, there shouldn’t be an exception for your armor and weapon - makes no sense.
armbands of athleticism - can these please be bracers? Armbands aren’t a cool type of item. They’re practically wristbands a 70s athlete would wear.
arrow catching shield - hardness is way too low for damage at this level
bag of holding - so it has 1 bulk instead of L bulk like a normal sack - which is from the magic, even though you can’t use it without spending resonance? If the magic of the bag doesn’t work otherwise, it should be L bulk. If it’s broken, items shouldn’t be lost forever - that makes destroying artifacts super easy. Instead, they should be lost in the astral plane like it used to be, so you can recover something important with a quest if you need to. Shouldn’t require resonance to open or close, should be resonance free - or no one will invest their RP in it compared to more useful items.
barding of the zephyr - why aren’t they horseshoes anymore? Why can’t it be used on normal animals? Why can’t the animal wearing it use their RP on it?
barkskin potion - since this just casts a spell (which the blogs said potions wouldn’t do anymore), why can’t there be generic rules for potions like there are for scrolls and wands?
beacon shot - should deal damage if ripped out, and also should allow a Medicine skill check to remove which takes more time.
belt of the five kings - please use prior name belt of dwarvenkind or at least belt of the dwarven kings, to be more generic for any dwarven culture.
bracers of missile deflection - this doesn’t do a lot. It should be usable 1/round, or have some effect since a +2 AC is often going to cause no impact. 10% of the time it makes a crit a normal hit and 10% of the time it makes a hit a miss.
breastplate of command - should have some bonus to actually command troops, as well as provide the bonus to fear continuously, not just 1 per day.
bronze bull pendant - shouldn’t armor trinkets be defensive in nature?
candle of revealing - only lasts 1 minute? Even birthday candles last longer than that!
choker of elocution - this is cheaper than the golden nodule aeon stone, and does more.
collar of inconspicuousness - why only on animal companions and not other animals? Shouldn’t they get to spend resonance instead of the PC?
divine prayer beads - why aren’t these still a strand of prayer beads? What happened to the karma, summons, and wind walking?
doctor’s marvelous medicine - 12th level seems pretty high for getting 3rd level neutralize poison or remove disease, and 18th is high for 6th level versions. At those levels will you ever really be needing to remove effects so low of levels?
doubling rings - clarify that even as two rings, only 1 RP is needed to invest them (or explicitly say they need 2). These seem super under priced - even doubling a +1 potency saves 15 gp. Being able to double up to +5 would save you over 50K gp.
dragon’s breath potion - seems under priced allowing theoretically 120 uses if you had the resonance. Most potions just work once. Also, using 2 actions for a breath weapon seems excessive - not really believable it needs an action to inhale. Sounds like a Clinton joke.
ladder feather token - what’s the bulk of this?
swan boat feather token - specify if it moves on its own, or needs to be crewed to move 60 feet.
tree feather token - what happens if used where there isn’t enough space for it? Does it stop growing to fit, or does it break the ceiling and/or walls?
flame tongue - the flame aura seems weird - is it actually an area on fire, shouldn’t it burn things then? If it’s granting flaming to attacks, it shouldn’t be an actual aura of flame.
markets for magic - don’t be vague - give actual rules for how markets work, with settlement size impacting price limits and availability.
ghost ammunition - since this re-appears, is the price still for a group of 10, or is it for a single piece?
gloves of storing - shouldn’t need to be both invested and cost RP to store an item. It has no constant effect, so just have the activation cost.
hat of disguise - how does it take 1 minute to activate? It’s magic.
horn of blasting - the 2 action activation should include rules for damaging objects and structures in the cone, not just creatures - as this is what the historical versions of this item did. It’s far more boring as just dealing sonic damage to creatures.
horseshoes of speed - animal companion rules (p. 284 under young companions says ACs never get item bonuses other than from barding). So these wouldn’t work on ACs. Since items are for mounts, why shouldn’t they spend resonance on them instead of the PC?
immovable rod - what does 8000 pounds of pressure mean in PF2? How much BULK does this support? Why require a critical DC 30 athletics check? Just make it a DC 40 check.
inexplicable apparatus - this seems like it’s a gold machine - after you earn back it’s high cost in crafting days. It doesn’t do much other than give you gold in the long run.
knapsack of halflingkind - halflingkind is long and awkward. Can you make this a Halfling Haversack to more closely tie it to the handy haversack it replaces? Also, make it clear if you need to spend resonance to open each compartment. You shouldn’t need to invest this item since it has no passive effects, or better yet, not need to spend RP to use bag of holding compartment.
lion’s shield - requiring this to cost a RP is ridiculous. It provides no benefit over simply attacking with your normal weapon.
maestro’s instrument - much preferred the flavor and game/folklore history of pipes of charming
magic armor and magic weapon - we had all the rules for these earlier in the chapter, no need to repeat them here - give us better use of page count.
mattock of the titans - shouldn’t a giant totem barbarian be able to wield without a belt of giant strength? The activation is pretty silly to say it’s non-magical, and that you achieve the earthquake effect in 2 actions by digging furiously, and affecting an area of a 60 foot burst.
mesmerising opal - this should be a weapon trinket since it’s about attacking
messenger’s ring - what if you don’t serve a lord or organization but are instead served by others or just a lone wolf?
necklace of fireballs - so you need to invest it, which does nothing, then spend 2 operate actions to use (2 more RP)? Even if it’s just 1 RP per use, there’s no reason it should be invested.
oil of weightlessness - having 1 or even 2 bulk weighless is pretty pointless. There’s lots of ways to transport stuff, using magic for stuff so light is possibly the least impressive magic item I’ve ever seen. And for 1 hour only it doesn’t even let you transport it long distances (like back to town to sell loot)
ring of the ram - should have the ability to force open doors like older versions did.
ring of wizardry - how does 1st level version work if no more than 2 can be of the same spell level - but it gives you 3 slots, and max level is 1st?
robe of eyes - how can it change to have eyes when worn if it’s not invested? This should only happen if invested I would think.
robe of the archmagi - why even bother with the drawback if you’re the wrong alignment or not an arcane caster when you need to invest it first? Who even puts on magic items without knowing what they are since you have to spend the RP and time to invest them?
runestone - what exactly does this do? Just act like a piece of paper you can put a rune on? Why would you do that ever? Just to carry in your pocket and smile? How does this help you in any way?
salve of antiparalysis - why is the greater version even the same item? How would someone petrified also be paralyzed and need both effects at once? Just make these separate items - and let the anti-petrification one be called stone salve like it used to be.
salve of slipperiness - shouldn’t this also let you use on a surface for a grease like effect? Shouldn’t the bonus also apply to DC to avoid being grabbed in the first place?
slippers of spider climbing - don’t require investing if they have no constant power - only RP to activate.
virtuoso’s instrument - why isn’t this part of the maestro’s instrument description as a greater version? It’s exactly the same thing, but higher level.
wolf’s fang - as an attack item, this really shouldn’t be on armor.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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runestone - what exactly does this do? Just act like a piece of paper you can put a rune on? Why would you do that ever? Just to carry in your pocket and smile? How does this help you in any way?I could see some use in this for keeping extra property runes around for when they're needed like one for each element change then out as needed. Also keep in mind its a 3gp slate you can slap any rune on instead of needing the proper, and very expensive eventually, master and legendary quality items for potency runes.
As for basically everything else yeah i generally agree items need to wither be invested or cost per activation never both. Also alchemical items should never have cost resonance.
Great write up, totally agree with almost everything
I saw the runestone as useful for removing runes from items or as a raw material for crafters, especially if you don’t want to carry a bunch of bulky magic armor out of the dungeon.
I guess you could use them to avoid 4 bulk from a suit of magic full plate, but that seems annoying to have to do for every suit of magic armor you find, and prepare for having enough blank runestones. The good old portable hole seems like a much better and more versatile solution (or a pack horse or wagon if you want to go low tech.)