I am not the organisator of this contest, but what I can see from the results so far is that at least two of the three that have voted already did not take it seriously and instead voted with extremly low scores like 1 point or 2 points for almost every option (no plan who gave my Primus 5 points? I haven't had time yet to go over all the submissions and thus have not voted so far; the Dwarven Ironclad and Lost Depth are my favourites from what I can tell so far and my most likely candidates for 5 points).
This is not the point of this vote!
Please take voting seriously and take your time evaluating the submitted brews!
@MilestoGo_24 should I restart the poll without these "troll" votes and force people to sign up with their Google account to vote?
I am not the organisator of this contest, but what I can see from the results so far is that at least two of the three that have voted already did not take it seriously and instead voted with extremly low scores like 1 point or 2 points for almost every option (no plan who gave my Primus 5 points? I haven't had time yet to go over all the submissions and thus have not voted so far; the Dwarven Ironclad and Lost Depth are my favourites from what I can tell so far and my most likely candidates for 5 points).
This is not the point of this vote!
Please take voting seriously and take your time evaluating the submitted brews!
@MilestoGo_24 should I restart the poll without these "troll" votes and force people to sign up with their Google account to vote?
Yes, but don’t collect the account names/email addresses.
Quick question, is not "bone armor" an almost direct copy of the recently spotlighted "technically "plate" armor"? If so, this submission would be plagiarism.
Hosted a battle between the Cult of Sedge and the Forum Countershere(Done now). I_Love_Tarrasques has won the fight, scoring a victory for the fiendish Moderators.
I haven't had time yet to go over all the submissions and thus have not voted so far; the Dwarven Ironclad and Lost Depth are my favourites from what I can tell so far and my most likely candidates for 5 points).
First, @EleKTriiK has, indeed, made what amounts to a copy of the homebrew magic item, Technically “Plate” Armor, which was featured in a D&D Beyond article. Thus, any responses regarding this entry, titled Bone Armor, will be disregarded.
Additionally, I have been notified that @AlexandrosThegreat is the user that was trolling the survey. Not cool. Therefore, all votes by this user, and any others that are caught abusing their voting privileges, will be disregarded.
First, @EleKTriiK has, indeed, made what amounts to a copy of the homebrew magic item, Technically “Plate” Armor, which was featured in a D&D Beyond article. Thus, any responses regarding this entry, titled Bone Armor, will be disregarded.
Additionally, I have been notified that @AlexandrosThegreat is the user that was trolling the survey. Not cool. Therefore, all votes by this user, and any others that are caught abusing their voting privileges, will be disregarded.
Have a good day.
I'm horrified and upset that this fun game concept I came up with is being trolled and cheated at by others... Thank you for handling this so well MilestoGo, I appreciate how annoying this must be for you. I did not have this foul behavior in mind when creating this, and I hope these events have not impacted others here too badly.
Disclaimer: Sorry if any of the feedback is a little harsh or not centered on what to change. I had to write many reviews quickly and wanted to give a short answer as to why I voted how I did. If you wish further feedback on your option, I am happy to give a full review that will be more nice and targeted on how to make it better.
DM Options:
Dwarven Ironclad:
Good. Fairly balanced and well designed. However, it's fairly basic and lacks anything to make it unique. 3/5
Steel Crystal plate:
The idea of giving others your armor is cool and creative. However, the fact that it is straight up better than +1 armor (also rare) and the grammatical error detracts from it somewhat. 3/5.
Dwarven Defender:
Shield wall is both creative and well written. The rest of it makes for good flavor and a balanced option. 4/5.
Tavern Table:
A fun concept. Nothing immediately comes out to me as distracting from it, but it's non serious manner that it's only a 3/5. (it would be a 3.5 but not half points)
Bound Spirit:
Theme of it is awesome. The only thing that detracts from it is the fact that I feel it barely fits the theme. 4/5 (would be 4.5 but not half points)
Onion knight:
Love it. Was very close for me between a 5 and a 4 but eventually decided on the former. 5/5.
Primus:
Amazing. The features clearly bring out the theme of primus and the plane of Mechanus. The only feedback I have though minor is some of it's extreme length and complexity could be cleared up slightly with much the same effect. A clear 5. 5/5.
Tungsten Golem:
The theme and execution of said theme seem a little weird, but the statblocks themselves seem fun and balanced. 3/5.
Iron Sentinel Titan:
A well balanced and flavorful monster. The though does not go much beyond "large metal monster". 3/5.
Ferroslime:
Awesome idea, and reactive armor is well made for a dynamic encounter. 5/5.
Magiteach Sentient Armor:
The flavor is amazing and well fleshed out. The features are fun and exciting, along with fitting the theme. The only problem would be that it's definitely an artifact while it's advertised as a legendary. However, it's small enough and the rest is good enough that it's still a 5. 5/5.
PC options:
Lost depth:
Love the idea of turning 2-D. However the spell basically just uses it as flavor text and makes the caster better at stealth and resistant to damage. It still gives the spell merit however. 3/5.
Half-Moon Aura:
A fun spell that firs the theme well. 3/5.
Racing the Wind:
An interesting concept. 4/5.
Invisible Wind:
Invisibility mid air is great, but the only other part of the feat is proficiancy in stealth, a rather dull addition. Potentially gliding wound have been a cool addition to the feat. 3/5.
The Whispering:
Every feature is awesome and filled with flavor. I can't give it anything except a 5. 5/5.
Consciousness Gap:
As much as I hate giving myself a 5, I love the idea so much. 5/5.
Memory Wipe:
The idea is awesome, but it's extremely over powered. I couldn't decide it this a 4 or a 2. I decided to compromise with a 3. 3/5.
Oath of the Wild Hunt:
Love it. All the problems earlier were fixed, it's now solidly a 5. 5/5.
Mind-Mist Shroud:
Awesome and creative. 5/5.
Inspirational Options:
Stone King:
A great small encounter. Each section could be expanded upon further, but otherwise good. 4/5.
Adventurer's Insurance:
One of the most creative 5e homebrew's I've ever seen. A clear 5. 5/5.
Becoming a Warlock:
I'm going to have to rate myself badly... This is just boring and poorly written. 2/5.
Also, with a cursory glance not taking the time to take the averages, Semako's Primus appears to be winning DM options, Semako's Oath of the wild hunt appears to be winning PC options, Kaboom's Adventurer's Insurance appears to be winning inspirational option, and people don't seem to hate my becoming a warlock as I did, which I guess I appreciate.
Also, with a cursory glance not taking the time to take the averages, Semako's Primus appears to be winning DM options, Semako's Oath of the wild hunt appears to be winning PC options, Kaboom's Adventurer's Insurance appears to be winning inspirational option, and people don't seem to hate my becoming a warlock as I did, which I guess I appreciate.
Semako could win for the second time my goodness first two-time winner?
I decided to explain my votes too, just like HomebrewMindflayer did, and I am sorry too if it might sound hasrh :)
DM Options:
Dwarven Ironclad:
I like it. It is well-and cleanly written, mechanics are well thought-out, and I like the theme; I like dwarven technology in general. When I read it, I could clearly picture the dwarven amrored warship (or airship) in my head. 5/5.
Steel Crystal plate:
The idea is creative, but it should have been a very rare item, regular +1 armor is of the same rarity. Also, both the creator's behaviour in that contest and the bad wording full of grammar errors lead to it only getting 2/5 points.
Dwarven Defender:
I like the Shield Wall ability, and the statblock is well-written. Still, nothing really special sticks out here, it is just a rather simple NPC statblock. 3/5 points.
Tavern Table:
Fun concept, and could be hilarious to give to a character in the right situation. I think it should have been a rare item though, considering it grants significantly better benefits than other common items. With the ruling of it granting half-cover instead of working like a regular shield it essentially gives +2 to all Dexterity saving throws against effects that do not just wrap around cover like fireball, and the sweep essentially gives the raging barbarian another greataxe attack on each of their turns. I would change the DC to scale off the barbarian's Strength or Constitution instead of being fixed so that it keeps being useful at higher levels. 4/5 points.
Bound Spirit
Interesting theme, but I have difficulties seeing how it fits into the category of the contest. Also, it does not really look like a CR8 monster to me, a CR5 shambling mound for example can be a lot more dangerous, and besides the gaze ability, it lacks any interesting traits or abilities it could use in combat. It also reminded me a bit of the helmed horror; if you had designed it as a variant of that, it would easily be more on theme :-) 3/5 points.
Onion knight:
Very creative and cute little monster, and as annoying as the onions in my kitchen :D *wipes tears from his eyes* 5/5 points.
Primus:
When I wrote this monster, I was quite surprised that I found no homebrew statblock for this guy despite there being some decent statblocks around for the hierarch modrons. I based mine on the concept artwork for 5e of him, and I like the result despite its complexity - and I generally like the clockwork theme; I am playing a Watchers Paladin/Clockwork Sorcerer of Primus right now in one of my games :-). 5/5 points, despite hating myself for that.
Tungsten Golem:
I don't really dig their lore, and they definitely do not seem to be able to deal with dragons, not even with red ones which would be unable to damage them with their breath weapon, as their physical attacks deal doo much damage and they just are too tough. Also, why did you create their statblocks in this way instead of using either D&D Beyond or a site like GMBinder to get properly formatted statblocks? Still, the statblocks seem fun and rather balanced for their CR. 3/5 points.
Iron Sentinel Titan:
Well--written monster, the fortification part is quite interesting. I think it should have been gargantuan though, it is a bit weak for CR 20 (if it had legendary actions, that might be different) and the fortification bonus action could be simplified. Did you check out the warforged colossus for example? It seems to go quite into the same direction as your monster. 4/5 points.
Ferroslime:
I like the creativity and dynamic of its reactive armor; although I am wary that an encounter with it could become a slog if there are no characters with fire or lightning damage in the party due to its high HP coupled with more and more damage resistances, whereas a party with many lightning or fire users would crush it rather quickly; and it can't really do anything dangerous back considering all it can do on its turn is moving a little bit and making one attack. 4/5 points.
Magitech Sentient Armor:
Good flavor and lore; but to be honest, I am not a fan of the mechanics. Tactical Highlighting needs clarification whether it allows counterspelling despite not seeing the caster and its encouraging feature is extremely weak and thus will rarely if ever see use. The autonomous form does not really make sense to me either. 11 HP and a +4 to hit are nothing considering this item will likely be acquired at level 17+ due to being a legendary, but on the other hand, if it hits with its gauntlet, we are looking at 17+ d10s of damage plus a no-save stun. Sorry, only 2/5 points.
Player Options
Lost depth:
I love the flavor of it, of my character essentially turning Paper Mario. The mechanics, while simple, work well enough. I like that you did not made it a concentration spell, which means it is worthwile to use despite spells like pass without trace or greater invisibility existing. Only thing I would change is increasing its duration to 10 minutes or even to 1 hour to make it actually usable for longer stealth missions. Still, I decided to give it 5/5 points.
Half-Moon Aura:
I have not a lot to say for this one, besides what HomebrewMindflayer already said: "a fun spell that fits the theme well". 3/5.
No, sorry, no. Flight by itself already is powerful enough, there is no need to essentially allow perma-invisibility for flying characters. 1 point.
The Whispering:
Really cool flavor and concept, most abilities are great too, good job! Overall it is underpowered compared to other ranger subclasses though (rangers get the majority of their power from their subclasses; most of them grant a situational 3rd attack at 11th level), and a couple of grammar/wording errors caused me to vote with 4/5 points.
Consciousness Gap:
I really like the idea, but I struggle bit to see why I should pick that spell over other 7th-level spells (plane shift, forcecage...) considering modify memory and pass without trace already exist. Maybe I am overlooking something though? Also wording could be a bit cleaner think. 4/5 points, close to 5.
Memory Wipe:
A great idea, but unfortunately quite over-powered. 3/5 points.
Oath of the Wild Hunt:
I am sorry for the troubles I caused when submitting this due to my misunderstanding of the category. I hate giving myself 5/5 points, but I love the idea and the result of the redesign to fit into the category so much. Also thanks again to HomebrewMindflayer for the feedback that helped me reworking the subclass! And now I know how I can handle the issue I had that I just got too many ideas to all work them into one Paladin subclass - I will just make a 2nd subclass more focused on the bestial aspects.
Mind-Mist Shroud:
Cool spell that fits the category, 4/5 points.
Inspirational Options:
Stone King:
I like this encounter, and good job with the art and formatting! A little bit short, 4/5 points but close to 5.
Adventurer's Insurance:
As I am studying law, contracts are kinda my thing, and I really like this one. 5/5 points.
Becoming a Warlock:
I like this one too, especially its concept/premise. It obviously does not work for all warlocks, but it can be good to have if a character wants to multiclass warlock and wants to make an actual pact in-game. I don't think it is that poorly written; for sure some things could have improved wording, but I have seen much worse :-) 4/5 points.
Right now it does not look like I am going to win actually. Without the troll's votes, Primus would probably be tied with the Onion Knight.
Consciousness Gap is slightly in front of the Oath of the Wild Hunt; although I don't know how it would look without the troll's votes for these two as my Oath of the Wild Hunt apparnetly generally got rather polarizing votes compared to Consciousness Gap, which got a lot of 4-point votes.
So, two people have now rated my Memory Gap as being overpowered. I really like the concept of the spell and would like to improve upon it, so if either of you (or anyone for that matter) have tips to make it less overpowered, I will take any feedback.
I knew messing with memory could be pushing too-powerful territory, but I figured since it was only a 6 second gap in its memory it probably wouldn't matter that much, especially since if you were already targeting it with spells or attacks it would get advantage. If I changed it to an auto-success in those circumstances rather than advantage on the save, would that help? Make it purely a social/exploration cantrip and one that would be useless once combat started? This would also make it impossible to target a creature with the cantrip multiple times.
I also see how it scales in power exponentially (since the number of targets AND range increase). If I were to switch it to one or the other, which would be a better scaling parameter?
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Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews!Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Your spell reminded me of gift of gab, which does something very similar, but is a 2nd-level spell. Messing with someone's memory is powerful, yes, and your spell is basicially a free out-of-jail card when someone says or does something they should not have done; with less restrictions than that 2nd-level spell. In addition, I think blinding someone or at later levels even multiple creatures at once with a cantrip is too powerful. For comparison, blindness/deafness is a 2nd-level spell that blinds a creature as its only effect, targeting a worse save with Constitution (although it does not grant advantage on the saving throw in combat).
I think your spell would work well as a 2nd-level spell, considering gift of gab is not particularly strong on its own and the blindness part is not as powerful as blindness/deafness; 3rd level is too crowded and probably too high for a niche spell like that.
Reducing the scaling could help too, but it would still be fairly strong. Changing the save to an auto-success would feel weird, too "gamey" to me in my opinion; advantage is fine and goes along with how other spells like Dominate Person work.
Your spell reminded me of gift of gab, which does something very similar, but is a 2nd-level spell.
I appreciate the feedback. I completely forgot about gift of gab. I dont look at my copy of AI too often, lol. Thats a fair comparison
Messing with someone's memory is powerful, yes, and your spell is basicially a free out-of-jail card when someone says or does something they should not have done; with less restrictions than that 2nd-level spell.
I do not think that it really qualifies as a free undo. It is a save or suck spell, where the target may likely have advantage based on the circumstances. I also don't feel there are far fewer restrictions. One costs a 2nd level spell slot and 2 GP BUT is an autosuccess, only uses a reaction, and targets every creature within 5 feet of you (anywhere from 1 to 8 creatures); the other is a cantrip (so no spell slot cost) but you have to use your action (which means the target could reasonably have a chance to react to what you said/did and even "take a turn" before you get the chance to undo it), the target can negate the whole effect by saving, and even with the scaling I had it will never target more than 4 creatures at once.
In addition, I think blinding someone or at later levels even multiple creatures at once with a cantrip is too powerful. For comparison, blindness/deafness is a 2nd-level spell that blinds a creature as its only effect, targeting a worse save with Constitution (although it does not grant advantage on the saving throw in combat).
Blindness/Deafness also has the potential to last for 1 minute without concentration, whereas Memory Wipe ends at the start of the creature's next turn. Even if the target saves against blindness on its first turn after being targeted, it had to wait until the end of its turn to repeat the save, so it has to spend a whole turn blind. For Memory Wipe, even following its failed save it still gets its sight back before it takes its turn, so it is not impeded by using its action to attack or cast spells or whatnot.
I think your spell would work well as a 2nd-level spell, considering gift of gab is not particularly strong on its own and the blindness part is not as powerful as blindness/deafness; 3rd level is too crowded and probably too high for a niche spell like that.
Reducing the scaling could help too, but it would still be fairly strong. Changing the save to an auto-success would feel weird, too "gamey" to me in my opinion; advantage is fine and goes along with how other spells like Dominate Person work.
Overall, again, I want to emphasize I appreciate the feedback. The spell could definitely use some rebalancing; however, I feel that a 2nd or 3rd level spell would be to high for what you get out of it. I see the comparison that can be made to Gift of Gab and Blindness/Deafness as 2nd level spells, but I do think both of those have stronger abilities/features that merit their higher level.
If you would like to talk more, it may be better for us to move to private messages so we do not derail the thread too much
I'm glad people are enjoying my Ferroslime! I didn't have a whole lot of time to participate this time around so I'm glad my entry is doing well enough.
Also, I did see that there was concern with a battle being bogged down if the party had no fire/lightning damage. This creature is meant more to be almost a puzzle (where the players must discover its weaknesses and exploit them). As a DM, I'd advise only running this creature if
a) The party has access to those types of damage, or b) You have placed sources of those types of damage in the area.
But most importantly, the Ferroslime will rarely attack anyway as it prefers to starve out its prey by trapping them in a room with no food and limited air. Hopefully this clears some things up surrounding it :D
I am not the organisator of this contest, but what I can see from the results so far is that at least two of the three that have voted already did not take it seriously and instead voted with extremly low scores like 1 point or 2 points for almost every option (no plan who gave my Primus 5 points? I haven't had time yet to go over all the submissions and thus have not voted so far; the Dwarven Ironclad and Lost Depth are my favourites from what I can tell so far and my most likely candidates for 5 points).
This is not the point of this vote!
Please take voting seriously and take your time evaluating the submitted brews!
@MilestoGo_24 should I restart the poll without these "troll" votes and force people to sign up with their Google account to vote?
Yes, but don’t collect the account names/email addresses.
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
Okay :-)
Here is the new form, now a google account is required. Please take voting seriously!
Quick question, is not "bone armor" an almost direct copy of the recently spotlighted "technically "plate" armor"? If so, this submission would be plagiarism.
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
Warlock
My statblock. Fear me!
Hosted a battle between the Cult of Sedge and the Forum Counters here(Done now). I_Love_Tarrasques has won the fight, scoring a victory for the fiendish Moderators.
Thanks! It was fun making them.
Announcement:
Two matters must be addressed.
First, @EleKTriiK has, indeed, made what amounts to a copy of the homebrew magic item, Technically “Plate” Armor, which was featured in a D&D Beyond article. Thus, any responses regarding this entry, titled Bone Armor, will be disregarded.
Additionally, I have been notified that @AlexandrosThegreat is the user that was trolling the survey. Not cool. Therefore, all votes by this user, and any others that are caught abusing their voting privileges, will be disregarded.
Have a good day.
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
I'm horrified and upset that this fun game concept I came up with is being trolled and cheated at by others... Thank you for handling this so well MilestoGo, I appreciate how annoying this must be for you. I did not have this foul behavior in mind when creating this, and I hope these events have not impacted others here too badly.
Frequent Eladrin || They/Them, but accept all pronouns
Luz Noceda would like to remind you that you're worth loving!
Just voted! Excited to see how this all turns out.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Disclaimer: Sorry if any of the feedback is a little harsh or not centered on what to change. I had to write many reviews quickly and wanted to give a short answer as to why I voted how I did. If you wish further feedback on your option, I am happy to give a full review that will be more nice and targeted on how to make it better.
DM Options:
Dwarven Ironclad:
Good. Fairly balanced and well designed. However, it's fairly basic and lacks anything to make it unique. 3/5
Steel Crystal plate:
The idea of giving others your armor is cool and creative. However, the fact that it is straight up better than +1 armor (also rare) and the grammatical error detracts from it somewhat. 3/5.
Dwarven Defender:
Shield wall is both creative and well written. The rest of it makes for good flavor and a balanced option. 4/5.
Tavern Table:
A fun concept. Nothing immediately comes out to me as distracting from it, but it's non serious manner that it's only a 3/5. (it would be a 3.5 but not half points)
Bound Spirit:
Theme of it is awesome. The only thing that detracts from it is the fact that I feel it barely fits the theme. 4/5 (would be 4.5 but not half points)
Onion knight:
Love it. Was very close for me between a 5 and a 4 but eventually decided on the former. 5/5.
Primus:
Amazing. The features clearly bring out the theme of primus and the plane of Mechanus. The only feedback I have though minor is some of it's extreme length and complexity could be cleared up slightly with much the same effect. A clear 5. 5/5.
Tungsten Golem:
The theme and execution of said theme seem a little weird, but the statblocks themselves seem fun and balanced. 3/5.
Iron Sentinel Titan:
A well balanced and flavorful monster. The though does not go much beyond "large metal monster". 3/5.
Ferroslime:
Awesome idea, and reactive armor is well made for a dynamic encounter. 5/5.
Magiteach Sentient Armor:
The flavor is amazing and well fleshed out. The features are fun and exciting, along with fitting the theme. The only problem would be that it's definitely an artifact while it's advertised as a legendary. However, it's small enough and the rest is good enough that it's still a 5. 5/5.
PC options:
Lost depth:
Love the idea of turning 2-D. However the spell basically just uses it as flavor text and makes the caster better at stealth and resistant to damage. It still gives the spell merit however. 3/5.
Half-Moon Aura:
A fun spell that firs the theme well. 3/5.
Racing the Wind:
An interesting concept. 4/5.
Invisible Wind:
Invisibility mid air is great, but the only other part of the feat is proficiancy in stealth, a rather dull addition. Potentially gliding wound have been a cool addition to the feat. 3/5.
The Whispering:
Every feature is awesome and filled with flavor. I can't give it anything except a 5. 5/5.
Consciousness Gap:
As much as I hate giving myself a 5, I love the idea so much. 5/5.
Memory Wipe:
The idea is awesome, but it's extremely over powered. I couldn't decide it this a 4 or a 2. I decided to compromise with a 3. 3/5.
Oath of the Wild Hunt:
Love it. All the problems earlier were fixed, it's now solidly a 5. 5/5.
Mind-Mist Shroud:
Awesome and creative. 5/5.
Inspirational Options:
Stone King:
A great small encounter. Each section could be expanded upon further, but otherwise good. 4/5.
Adventurer's Insurance:
One of the most creative 5e homebrew's I've ever seen. A clear 5. 5/5.
Becoming a Warlock:
I'm going to have to rate myself badly... This is just boring and poorly written. 2/5.
I am an average mathematics enjoyer.
>Extended Signature<
Also, with a cursory glance not taking the time to take the averages, Semako's Primus appears to be winning DM options, Semako's Oath of the wild hunt appears to be winning PC options, Kaboom's Adventurer's Insurance appears to be winning inspirational option, and people don't seem to hate my becoming a warlock as I did, which I guess I appreciate.
I am an average mathematics enjoyer.
>Extended Signature<
Semako could win for the second time my goodness first two-time winner?
Frequent Eladrin || They/Them, but accept all pronouns
Luz Noceda would like to remind you that you're worth loving!
I decided to explain my votes too, just like HomebrewMindflayer did, and I am sorry too if it might sound hasrh :)
DM Options:
Dwarven Ironclad:
I like it. It is well-and cleanly written, mechanics are well thought-out, and I like the theme; I like dwarven technology in general. When I read it, I could clearly picture the dwarven amrored warship (or airship) in my head. 5/5.
Steel Crystal plate:
The idea is creative, but it should have been a very rare item, regular +1 armor is of the same rarity. Also, both the creator's behaviour in that contest and the bad wording full of grammar errors lead to it only getting 2/5 points.
Dwarven Defender:
I like the Shield Wall ability, and the statblock is well-written. Still, nothing really special sticks out here, it is just a rather simple NPC statblock. 3/5 points.
Tavern Table:
Fun concept, and could be hilarious to give to a character in the right situation. I think it should have been a rare item though, considering it grants significantly better benefits than other common items. With the ruling of it granting half-cover instead of working like a regular shield it essentially gives +2 to all Dexterity saving throws against effects that do not just wrap around cover like fireball, and the sweep essentially gives the raging barbarian another greataxe attack on each of their turns. I would change the DC to scale off the barbarian's Strength or Constitution instead of being fixed so that it keeps being useful at higher levels. 4/5 points.
Bound Spirit
Interesting theme, but I have difficulties seeing how it fits into the category of the contest. Also, it does not really look like a CR8 monster to me, a CR5 shambling mound for example can be a lot more dangerous, and besides the gaze ability, it lacks any interesting traits or abilities it could use in combat. It also reminded me a bit of the helmed horror; if you had designed it as a variant of that, it would easily be more on theme :-) 3/5 points.
Onion knight:
Very creative and cute little monster, and as annoying as the onions in my kitchen :D *wipes tears from his eyes* 5/5 points.
Primus:
When I wrote this monster, I was quite surprised that I found no homebrew statblock for this guy despite there being some decent statblocks around for the hierarch modrons. I based mine on the concept artwork for 5e of him, and I like the result despite its complexity - and I generally like the clockwork theme; I am playing a Watchers Paladin/Clockwork Sorcerer of Primus right now in one of my games :-). 5/5 points, despite hating myself for that.
Tungsten Golem:
I don't really dig their lore, and they definitely do not seem to be able to deal with dragons, not even with red ones which would be unable to damage them with their breath weapon, as their physical attacks deal doo much damage and they just are too tough. Also, why did you create their statblocks in this way instead of using either D&D Beyond or a site like GMBinder to get properly formatted statblocks? Still, the statblocks seem fun and rather balanced for their CR. 3/5 points.
Iron Sentinel Titan:
Well--written monster, the fortification part is quite interesting. I think it should have been gargantuan though, it is a bit weak for CR 20 (if it had legendary actions, that might be different) and the fortification bonus action could be simplified. Did you check out the warforged colossus for example? It seems to go quite into the same direction as your monster. 4/5 points.
Ferroslime:
I like the creativity and dynamic of its reactive armor; although I am wary that an encounter with it could become a slog if there are no characters with fire or lightning damage in the party due to its high HP coupled with more and more damage resistances, whereas a party with many lightning or fire users would crush it rather quickly; and it can't really do anything dangerous back considering all it can do on its turn is moving a little bit and making one attack. 4/5 points.
Magitech Sentient Armor:
Good flavor and lore; but to be honest, I am not a fan of the mechanics. Tactical Highlighting needs clarification whether it allows counterspelling despite not seeing the caster and its encouraging feature is extremely weak and thus will rarely if ever see use. The autonomous form does not really make sense to me either. 11 HP and a +4 to hit are nothing considering this item will likely be acquired at level 17+ due to being a legendary, but on the other hand, if it hits with its gauntlet, we are looking at 17+ d10s of damage plus a no-save stun. Sorry, only 2/5 points.
Player Options
Lost depth:
I love the flavor of it, of my character essentially turning Paper Mario. The mechanics, while simple, work well enough. I like that you did not made it a concentration spell, which means it is worthwile to use despite spells like pass without trace or greater invisibility existing. Only thing I would change is increasing its duration to 10 minutes or even to 1 hour to make it actually usable for longer stealth missions. Still, I decided to give it 5/5 points.
Half-Moon Aura:
I have not a lot to say for this one, besides what HomebrewMindflayer already said: "a fun spell that fits the theme well". 3/5.
Racing the Wind:
I don't really get the concept/flavor of this one. Also having spells like Tasha's otherworldly guise, draconic transformation, shapechange and so forth last until you are out of HP seems broken to me. 1 point only.
Invisible Wind:
No, sorry, no. Flight by itself already is powerful enough, there is no need to essentially allow perma-invisibility for flying characters. 1 point.
The Whispering:
Really cool flavor and concept, most abilities are great too, good job! Overall it is underpowered compared to other ranger subclasses though (rangers get the majority of their power from their subclasses; most of them grant a situational 3rd attack at 11th level), and a couple of grammar/wording errors caused me to vote with 4/5 points.
Consciousness Gap:
I really like the idea, but I struggle bit to see why I should pick that spell over other 7th-level spells (plane shift, forcecage...) considering modify memory and pass without trace already exist. Maybe I am overlooking something though? Also wording could be a bit cleaner think. 4/5 points, close to 5.
Memory Wipe:
A great idea, but unfortunately quite over-powered. 3/5 points.
Oath of the Wild Hunt:
I am sorry for the troubles I caused when submitting this due to my misunderstanding of the category. I hate giving myself 5/5 points, but I love the idea and the result of the redesign to fit into the category so much. Also thanks again to HomebrewMindflayer for the feedback that helped me reworking the subclass! And now I know how I can handle the issue I had that I just got too many ideas to all work them into one Paladin subclass - I will just make a 2nd subclass more focused on the bestial aspects.
Mind-Mist Shroud:
Cool spell that fits the category, 4/5 points.
Inspirational Options:
Stone King:
I like this encounter, and good job with the art and formatting! A little bit short, 4/5 points but close to 5.
Adventurer's Insurance:
As I am studying law, contracts are kinda my thing, and I really like this one. 5/5 points.
Becoming a Warlock:
I like this one too, especially its concept/premise. It obviously does not work for all warlocks, but it can be good to have if a character wants to multiclass warlock and wants to make an actual pact in-game. I don't think it is that poorly written; for sure some things could have improved wording, but I have seen much worse :-) 4/5 points.
Right now it does not look like I am going to win actually. Without the troll's votes, Primus would probably be tied with the Onion Knight.
Consciousness Gap is slightly in front of the Oath of the Wild Hunt; although I don't know how it would look without the troll's votes for these two as my Oath of the Wild Hunt apparnetly generally got rather polarizing votes compared to Consciousness Gap, which got a lot of 4-point votes.
So, two people have now rated my Memory Gap as being overpowered. I really like the concept of the spell and would like to improve upon it, so if either of you (or anyone for that matter) have tips to make it less overpowered, I will take any feedback.
I knew messing with memory could be pushing too-powerful territory, but I figured since it was only a 6 second gap in its memory it probably wouldn't matter that much, especially since if you were already targeting it with spells or attacks it would get advantage. If I changed it to an auto-success in those circumstances rather than advantage on the save, would that help? Make it purely a social/exploration cantrip and one that would be useless once combat started? This would also make it impossible to target a creature with the cantrip multiple times.
I also see how it scales in power exponentially (since the number of targets AND range increase). If I were to switch it to one or the other, which would be a better scaling parameter?
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Your spell reminded me of gift of gab, which does something very similar, but is a 2nd-level spell. Messing with someone's memory is powerful, yes, and your spell is basicially a free out-of-jail card when someone says or does something they should not have done; with less restrictions than that 2nd-level spell. In addition, I think blinding someone or at later levels even multiple creatures at once with a cantrip is too powerful. For comparison, blindness/deafness is a 2nd-level spell that blinds a creature as its only effect, targeting a worse save with Constitution (although it does not grant advantage on the saving throw in combat).
I think your spell would work well as a 2nd-level spell, considering gift of gab is not particularly strong on its own and the blindness part is not as powerful as blindness/deafness; 3rd level is too crowded and probably too high for a niche spell like that.
Reducing the scaling could help too, but it would still be fairly strong. Changing the save to an auto-success would feel weird, too "gamey" to me in my opinion; advantage is fine and goes along with how other spells like Dominate Person work.
I appreciate the feedback. I completely forgot about gift of gab. I dont look at my copy of AI too often, lol. Thats a fair comparison
I do not think that it really qualifies as a free undo. It is a save or suck spell, where the target may likely have advantage based on the circumstances. I also don't feel there are far fewer restrictions. One costs a 2nd level spell slot and 2 GP BUT is an autosuccess, only uses a reaction, and targets every creature within 5 feet of you (anywhere from 1 to 8 creatures); the other is a cantrip (so no spell slot cost) but you have to use your action (which means the target could reasonably have a chance to react to what you said/did and even "take a turn" before you get the chance to undo it), the target can negate the whole effect by saving, and even with the scaling I had it will never target more than 4 creatures at once.
Blindness/Deafness also has the potential to last for 1 minute without concentration, whereas Memory Wipe ends at the start of the creature's next turn. Even if the target saves against blindness on its first turn after being targeted, it had to wait until the end of its turn to repeat the save, so it has to spend a whole turn blind. For Memory Wipe, even following its failed save it still gets its sight back before it takes its turn, so it is not impeded by using its action to attack or cast spells or whatnot.
Overall, again, I want to emphasize I appreciate the feedback. The spell could definitely use some rebalancing; however, I feel that a 2nd or 3rd level spell would be to high for what you get out of it. I see the comparison that can be made to Gift of Gab and Blindness/Deafness as 2nd level spells, but I do think both of those have stronger abilities/features that merit their higher level.
If you would like to talk more, it may be better for us to move to private messages so we do not derail the thread too much
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I appreciate the kind words for the Stone King, I must get around to going through all of these and voting! I have been a bit lax!
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I'm glad people are enjoying my Ferroslime! I didn't have a whole lot of time to participate this time around so I'm glad my entry is doing well enough.
Also, I did see that there was concern with a battle being bogged down if the party had no fire/lightning damage. This creature is meant more to be almost a puzzle (where the players must discover its weaknesses and exploit them). As a DM, I'd advise only running this creature if
a) The party has access to those types of damage, or
b) You have placed sources of those types of damage in the area.
But most importantly, the Ferroslime will rarely attack anyway as it prefers to starve out its prey by trapping them in a room with no food and limited air. Hopefully this clears some things up surrounding it :D
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I think the ferroslime is a great concept. I love puzzle monsters.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
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