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Ironmorph Dust
Aura faint transmutation; CL 5th
Slot none; Price 500 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
This bag of powder has a sharp metallic odor. It can be applied to a willing adjacent creature as a standard action, or thrown as a ranged touch attack with a range increment of 10 feet. On contact, it causes the target's clothing to stiffen and harden (Fortitude DC 15 negates). If the target is wearing light or no armor, his clothing is treated as chainmail for all purposes (such as armor bonus, arcane spell failure chance, and armor check penalty) except weight. Exceptionally light clothing (such as a nightshirt or a harem girl's silks) is instead treated as a chain shirt. Exceptionally heavy clothing (such as a cold-weather outfit or elaborate ceremonial garb) is instead treated as full plate. If the target is already wearing medium or heavy armor, he instead gains DR 5/adamantine, but the maximum Dexterity bonus of his armor decreases by 3 (minimum 0), and its armor check penalty increases by 3. After 5 rounds, the clothing returns to normal.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, silk to steel; Cost 250 gp
This is pretty cool. I can see this being useful in a variety of circumstances (for instance, if you're protecting someone and you're both attacked, you can instantly put armor on your buddy for a short while), and it's not overpowered or underpowered. I like it all except for the medium/heavy armor bit.
keep
Reasonably priced and clearly useful. The guidelines for what kind of armor clothing converts into seem intuitive (though someone will always find reason to argue).
Keep.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7
aka primemover003
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Once more into the breach! Welcome back Joseph. Interesting item we have here. So far quite a few consumables making the Top 32. Instant armor can be quite handy in high society functions or when attacked at night while camping. Can't wait to see your beastie.
--Solid. Solid as a Vrock.
Good job and good luck! The item caught my vote more often than not.
This item was one of my favorites during the voting period, Glad to see it in the Top 32, Congrats!
This one got my vote every time. I don't usually like expendable items, but this is my favorite expendable ever.
Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7
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I loved this item. Every time I saw it, I voted for it.
Maybe it's just me, but I love the idea of turning this into a weapon against Arcane casters.
"Oh, you're trying to cast that shocking grasp attack on me Mr. Magus, here, try it with plate armor. Oh, you're level 6 and can't cast in plate yet, have fun with the spell fail roll."
Someone sent me the whole text of this one to me during the PMing of everyone's favorite item lists. I wrote a short review of each items and this is what I said about this one:
This item is a great consumable. I can’t really see any problem with it other than it should probably mention that the person is considered proficient with this pseudo-armor (which I believe it the intended reading since it is just cloths). I love that it has the ability to defend and also possibly screw over enemies by giving the spell failure and armor penalties. I hope to see it in the top 32.
It's really one of the best items I saw this year. All around goodness and very well done. I can't wait to see what else you've got this year. Great job.
Welcome back, Joseph. Interesting design. Visually evocative and cinematic. You can never go wrong with that as a solid foundation for your item design. It also plays around with the armor rules in a fun way. I agree with the earlier comments about it being an effective weapon to inflict armor check penalties on arcane spellcasters who are ill-prepared to deal with it. Personally, I would've liked to see you use instant armor rather than silk to steel as the basis for the item's design (or maybe even both spells), but I get what you were going for...and it's still a fun design.
The only elements I'm not that crazy about are the implied "new rules" around light, medium, heavy clothing, as that's going to be a source of arguments at the table between GMs and rules-lawyers/power-gamers. I also agree with Patrick that I'm not that crazy over the effect on medium or heavy armors. The consumable is granting a bit too much with DR 5/adamantine. A more interesting direction to take it would be if the ironmorph dust just impeded wearers of medium and heavy armor by clogging up the working joints to make the armor check penalty go up and the maximum Dex bonus come down. Even imposing an extra 5-ft. penalty to movement or a -1 penalty on melee attacks wouldn't have been out of the question.
Regardless, this is the type of item that shows exceptional creativity, both in concept, visually evocative writing, and a willingness to tinker within the rules of the game to create new, cool stuff. This is the type of design that serves as an excellent calling card to convince the judges to give you a shot at the Top 32 just to see what else you can do. Good luck.
Dangit Neil!! You stole what I was going to say!
Well...still...Congrats and I can't wait to see your beastie!
What an awesome concept! This one was perfect. I voted for it each time I saw it. Congratulations Joseph, you deserve it!!! Cant wait to see your monster!
Welcome back, Joseph! I think I only saw this once during voting, but it was a definite upvote. And I hadn't even thought of using is as an anti-spellcasting nuke; that would have made me even more passionate about it. Guess I'm just not insidiously clever enough. Fun item regardless!
This item irked me every time it came up, though I did upvote it a few times because of the fairly solid mechanics, pricing, formatting, etc. I mentally lumped it in with the 'cheating' items that are obviously designed to get around a rule the item creator doesn't like. I don't want to buy armor so I'll get a consumable instead. (The harem girl reference also rubbed me the wrong way, for some reason.)
I must have been grumpy or dopey or sleepy. Nobody's going to buy this to have a handy suit of armor unless it's for an emergency (no time to don), a nasty surprise, or for RP reasons. Anything that's good for RP is good by me. I'd have restricted it to one armor type OR a separate powder for light, medium, and heavy armors, dropped the DR (as other posters have already said), but it's pretty sweet in a lot of ways.
I'm sorry. I was wrong. Nice job and good luck with your monster!
Well deserved repeat JK. My one quibble is that you should have made top 8 last year and not be taking up a top 32 slot this year! Best of luck and Congrats this was a solid item with tight design.
I quickly fell in love with this one, and it almost was a win in the voting process for me. Congrats on making it to the top 32 and Good Luck.
Another strong showing in my Top 32. Glad you made it. One of the things I liked right off was using an olfactory sense for the item's description. Neil has a good point about the armor mechanics, but I wasn't bothered by them. Congratulations, and I look forward to seeing your offering for round 2.
I have to admit, this item didn't grab me as much as others. I wasn't very excited about it, but I nonetheless upvoted it often (and it cropped up for me often) as the mechanics were solid, the concept simple, and the writing good.
I also always respect a well-done consumable. They're tough.
So good work and best of luck! :)
Simple. Elegant. Very versatile - I can see a bunch of different situations in which/ways this might be used. DESIGN CHOPS EVIDENT.
Welcome back. Congrats. See you next round.
Maybe it's just me, but I love the idea of turning this into a weapon against Arcane casters.
"Oh, you're trying to cast that shocking grasp attack on me Mr. Magus, here, try it with plate armor. Oh, you're level 6 and can't cast in plate yet, have fun with the spell fail roll."
Arcane casters might dislike this item, but druids are going to hate it like the plague. "Goodbye, virtually all druid powers - see you in 24 hours"
Mind you, this is probably going to cause some arguments concerning the interpretation of the phrase "treated as chainmail for all purposes (such as armor bonus, arcane spell failure chance, and armor check penalty) except weight.". Especially since the item description notes that the clothes stiffen and harden, not that they turn into actual iron.
That aside, this is a great and flavorful item, and I especially like how it can be used both as a buff or as a weapon. Nice design chops indeed. Welcome back to the Top 32, you clearly deserve to be here.
I recall the name of your item from voting but I didn't remember the item. In which case I'm sorry if I voted it down (which clearly didn't matter ;-)).
I actually think of the Top 32, you are easily in my top 3 if not the tippy-top of that mountain.
Another item that I haven't seen before...
Thanks for the comments everybody; I really appreciate it!
Joseph! Here you are again! I wanted to stop by and praise you for a fun and versatile item, ideal for social encounters where you decide to leave your armor and weapons behind for diplomatic reasons. Also, anyone who's ever had to defend an NPC or wake up in the middle of the night for a surprise combat recognizes the value of some ironmorph dust.
The only thing that was unclear to me is whether you need armor proficency to benefit from its effects; I assume the answer is yes, but it would be nice to spell it out.
All in all, very nice! Looking forward to seeing your monster!
Ultimate Monk/Wizard stopper!
Remove/make a major problem for most of their defenses/abilities in one go!
=)
Congratulations Joseph and welcome back!
This was one of my keepers: solid image, multiple uses, and good balance. Calling out hardness was also a boon as it expanded the options. This line:
Ironmorph Dust
...Exceptionally light clothing (such as a nightshirt or a harem girl's silks) is instead treated as a chain shirt. Exceptionally heavy clothing (such as a cold-weather outfit or elaborate ceremonial garb) ...
showed a designer's eye. Keep balancing uses, imagery, design... aww who am I to tell a repeater what to focus on :)
Good luck!
I'm going to echo Russel's "Harry Potter" comment. This feels like one of those random items a character could pick up in an elderly wizard's study, accidentally spill, then look embarrassed about when the wizard returns. "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't know it would do that to your carpet..." It's the sort of thing I want to place in a game!
My criticism is the same as Neil's: rules lawyers grumbling over how heavy a given pair of clothes is. One potential way to solve that would be to specify weights: 1 lb or less instead of "exceptionally light," and [however much cold weather outfits weigh] instead of "exceptionally heavy."
I didn't see this item in the voting I did, but I definitely think I would have voted for it. As others pointed out, it can be used offensively against spellcasters, but my first thought is its an excellent item for a bodyguard/escort mission. Sure the PCs are tough, but the poor merchant they are trying to protect from assassins isn't but this item would sure help a lot. Very creative work here. Good job and congrats!
Another item I didn't see! How did I earn this voter tag this year?
This is a really cool item. The DR is a bit much for a consumable--raising the AC bonus while also raising the ACP would have been better for the price point. The idea of using this as an anti-caster bomb is delightful.
Welcome back to the Top 32! It's nice to see multiple veterans of 2013 represented. Congratulations, and best of luck in Round 2!
Star Voter Season 6
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I feel bad for enemy spellcasters wearing a cold weather outfit. Or friendly cold spellcasters getting hit with this by the enemy!
There's a really good idea of an item here that needs some fine-tuning. Not quite perfect, but close. Relaxing the item to only affect outfits or light armour might be the simplest fix - but that might have been lacking for Superstar.
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Champion Voter Season 6, Champion Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Champion Voter Season 9
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This was an item I had a very strong voting bias against.
1) I see this item being mostly used against an enemy, particularly arcane casters, rogues, monks, or any class that has penalties for certain armors.
2) While the item was correctly priced using the item creation rules, the bonus granted strays far enough from the spell used to warrant doubling (or more) the price. You are granting a larger AC bonus than the spell or DR, which the spell doesn't do at all.
3) The save DC for this item is wrong as well. Should be DC = 10 + ability score modifier of the required (1) + spell level (2). DC 13. By artificially boosting the DC, you should have used Heighten Spell as a requirement to change the spell's level. Again would have warranted a price increase.
4) I thought it was strange, using the spell you selected, to alter the ACP, but not the weight of the clothing.
5) Attack of Opportunity to activate? If this item has no AoO specified to apply on an adjacent enemy, again more powerful.
6) This one is a bit esoteric. But why wasn't the speed altered? Hide armor has an ACP of -3 and suffers from movement reduction. It is the same weight as a chain shirt, which has an ACP of -2. Your item grants an ACP of -3 as well and to fit into the armor chart, should have a speed penalty.
7) As noted above, adding a clothing weight would be ease table arguments.
Regardless, this is the type of item that shows exceptional creativity, both in concept, visually evocative writing, and a willingness to tinker within the rules of the game to create new, cool stuff.
8) I have to disagree with Neil on this item. I did not find it visually evocative. Hell, no description was given for what it looks like, which would be nice. Just a smell. Also, I think you missed a big mark here to describe the visual effect the item would have on the clothing. Dull metallic hue? Glittering sheen? Anything would have been nice.
I do like the design space you used for this item, but there were way too many flaws in the execution for my tastes.
Edit: I instinctively disliked this item when I saw it during voting, but was unsure why. I had to do a bit of research on it to figure out why.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8
aka Jrcmarine
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I would have liked to see a little more description with this. You certainly had the word count to add some.
What color is the powder? Does the powder taste metallic? Because you know some silly player is going to eat this dust at some point. When the dust hits clothing is the change audible or silent?
The other question- does it effect undergarments or only exposed clothing? ie. a person wearing a vest and shirt. Would the entire shirt harden or only the parts exposed by an open vest? And of course the question on everyone's mind- would it harden my underwear? Although in certain circumstances a chain shirt jockstrap might not be a bad idea!
I liked your item very much Jospeh and upvoted it almost everytime I saw it. I don't have the mechanical problems with that some others are having. I just would have liked to see a little more flavor, especially since you had plenty of room to expound!
Don't have much to say here other than to add my voice to the chorus of praise. So:
"This is really cool."
Done.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka JoelF847
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While it's a nice instant armor item, the offensive use as instant arcane spell failure is far more useful. for the price, I couldn't see any party not stocking up on this for every wizard they faced. Have every PC throw this at them until they fail the save and bam, end of encounter.
I'd have been a much bigger fan if it was useless on an unwilling target entirely.
While it's a nice instant armor item, the offensive use as instant arcane spell failure is far more useful. Have every PC throw this at them until they fail the save and bam, end of encounter.
Wait. What are you talking about? It doesn't cause "instant arcane spell failure." It gives the average wizard a 30% arcane spell failure chance on his spells for 5 rounds? How does it end the encounter when 70% of an enemy wizard's spells will work just fine, and he gets an armor bonus to boot? This is my favorite item of the year. It is not perfect, but it is great.
Joseph, I'll have you know, that I have an item that I was likely to submit next year that you ruined by creating this awesome item. I was going to submit it this year and switched at the last minute, cause I saw a flaw that needed fixing. Now I won't have the chance. Waaaaaa!
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka JoelF847
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While it's a nice instant armor item, the offensive use as instant arcane spell failure is far more useful. Have every PC throw this at them until they fail the save and bam, end of encounter.Wait. What are you talking about? It doesn't cause "instant arcane spell failure." It gives the average wizard a 30% arcane spell failure chance on his spells for 5 rounds? How does it end the encounter when 70% of an enemy wizard's spells will work just fine, and he gets an armor bonus to boot? This is my favorite item of the year. It is not perfect, but it is great.
It won't completely shut down the wizard, but 30% spell failure is pretty steep, and it's an additional way to stop the caster from using spells, which can still be combined with using readied actions, entangling, grappling, etc. Also, the armor bonus it gives him is likely not to stack with the mage armor spell he already casts. If this were in my game, I'm suddenly start playing the nudest wizard.
readied actions, entangling, grappling, etc.
All usually better options than throwing this stuff and hoping for a failed save.
Also, the armor bonus it gives him is likely not to stack with the mage armor spell he already casts.
You're right, it doesn't stack with mage armor, if he is in fact is using it. But chain mail still nets him an additional +2 AC. I'd rather not trade that for a 30% spell failure, but at least I get something out of it.
If this were in my game, I'm suddenly start playing the nudest wizard.
Love the visual there. Made me laugh out loud.
Versatile, stylish, and unique. No, I love this item the more I think about it and I'm hoping for an equally cool monster from Joseph.
Template Fu Review 2014 - Joseph Kellog - Ironmorph Dust
Template Fu boilerplate: I have yet to make Top 32, therefore much of what follows is from someone learning from your item and may include suggestions you might agree with or not. Please consider anything suggested with your critical designer mind and know that nothing here is personal, it is about your item not you. I try to be thorough every year, taking an hour or more per item, so I hope you find something of value in the review that follows.
Name: An unusual name and base item choice. You grabbed my curiosity right off the bat, nicely played. The name hints at the general effect of the item, so is also a good aide de memoire. Now, I guess you may be wincing right now - the king of bad names (moi!) likes your name! Better move on I guess...
Template Fu scores you 10/10 on this.
Template Usage: Oh boy, with two marathon voter tags and a Superstar tag, would Template Fu have loved to have found something, but, you performed perfect template execution!
I did find it to be a little wall of text and it feels slightly on the cheap side in price for the benefits provided, but not so much that I feel the need to look at the pricing in any great depth.
You refer to the application on a willing target as a standard action and then go into a ranged touch attack (also a standard action). But basically what we have is a bad of dust being thrown/tipped over a target, willing or not, so you could have revised this to be simpler.
Template Fu scores you 9/10 on this.
Game Balance: Hmmm, so, if I am right, basically, if I am already wearing chain armor, which is not "exceptionally heavy", I effectively cannot benefit from the initial item effect, just the DR follow on - but if the chain doesn't stiffen, it doesn't really explain the benefits provided. That in itself is ok, it's the exceptionally heavy and exceptionally light terms that I have a problem with - they require interpretation and that is always bad and likely to run into issues at the gaming table. A simpler solution would be to refer to the armor bonus of an item, changing exceptionally light to mean "providing an armor bonus of 1 or less", and exceptionally heavy as "providing a bonus of 5 or more", using appropriate wording in place of the exceptionally term.
The pricing makes this item available quite early on in a PC's adventuring career, at a point where there is not a very great deal that bypasses adamantine DR. From the description of the effect, I wonder if giving the character a hardness instead of DR might have been tighter in theme, for virtually the same benefits.
Other than those thoughts, I think this is very well balanced at the level it comes into the game at.
Template Fu scores you 8/10 on this.
Cinematics:
Sight - check, good but obvious imagery - it could be more sexy with a bit more work, but on the whole I can easily picture the effect in my imagination. Nicely done.
Sound - missed opportunity - the hardening could have made a creaking, cracking type of sound as part of the cinematics of the effect.
Smell - check, I did wince a bit at "sharp metallic" as it is quite a meme description of metal odor, not in the same league as filigree ;) but close.
Taste - missed opportunity - a bust of iron dust is likely to note only coat the clothes but also the face and hence the lips - you could have used the opportunity for a taste when it goes in a targets mouth or is breathed in.
Touch - check, stiff cloths, like too much starch, I pictured this, so although not specifically called out, the effect was descriptive enough.
Cinematic Summary I like the imagery, some of the terms could be looked at and reworked into known game terms (like exceptionally soft/hard) to avoid variance in interpretations by the readers (and also negating the need for examples). On the whole though, it was concise enough, clear enough and evocative enough - just remember the other senses a bit more, especially sound - sound is powerful when used.
Template Fu scores you 17/20 on this.
Musings, Meme, and One Step Further:
I wondered about the armor check penalty increase and the dex bonus decrease - if I am wearing chain mail, (medium), I gain the DR but the chainmail worsens even though the general effect is normally that of chainmail itself. Hmmm, I can appreciate that it is for providing a balancing offset for the gaining of DR but for medium and heavy armors that already have Dex restrictions and already have higher armor check penalties, I think the amount of change is slightly high. I think a change of 1 rather than 3 is probably sufficient.
I would have paragraph broken the effects so the light / no armor effect and the medium and heavy armor effects are in their own paragraphs, making it easier to scan for each player class.
I do also wonder what happens if someone throws a second or third bag at the same target - should the target continue to harden and harden until enough applications stop them from moving altogether? Maybe this could have been a mythic empowerment. ( You just knew I would find a way of mentioning mythic didn't you? :) )
Template Fu scores you 17/20 on this.
Your final score for this item is 61/70, or 87% - now this is the way to do it!