I'd definitely call it interactive, since it seems like it's mostly an area to explore containing traps and such.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
Premise: Leifwyth the Lazy was an average farmer's son until one day while he was hiding from his parents to avoid doing his chores he came across a long lost magical crypt where Belphegor, the Daemon of Gluttony had been sealed. Belphegor offered Leifwyth a deal he could not refuse - arcane power to take care of all his chores in exchange for releasing Belphegor and serving as his host. Leifwyth accepted and soon had rivers of Dunamanctic Arcane powers rushing at his finger tips.
But rather than use these powers for fame, fortune, or global domination, Leifwyth used them simply to make his own life as easy and luxurious as possible. Thus was created The Teleporting Tower of Leifwyth the Lazy. The tower can teleport itself across the land so that Leifwyth need never leave the comfort of his own home. Undead servants are sent out to collect any supplies, food, or other goods Laifwyth requires. As Leifwyth has grown to enormous size (Huge creature, weight of ~ 2 tons) from an endless supply of food and no exercise, he magically manipulates the gravity within his tower to move himself around as his limbs are utterly incapable of doing so. He also uses these powers to prevent unauthorized entry of others by increasing the gravity around them until they are incapable of movement (or squashed into pancakes on the floor) and sending his undead servants to throw them out.
Encounters:
Elevator
An elevator powered by Reverse Gravity can be found in the middle of the tower, however as it is tuned to Leifwyth's 2 tons of body weight, Medium creatures will find themselves flung past the doorways they intend to arrive at.
Mechanics: gem buttons are present at each floor to specify which floor the rider would like to arrive at, Reverse Gravity activates for a specific time proportional to the distance to the appropriate floor. A Huge creature arrives at the appropriate floor, a Large creature is flung 25% further than intended, a Medium creature is flung 50% further than intended, a Small creature is flung 75% further than intended and a Tiny one 100% further than intended. e.g. if a Medium creature attempt to travel 2 floors up, they instead travel 3 floors up.
There is then 18 seconds (3 rounds) where creatures are suspended as per a Levitate spell, before normal gravity is restored.
Alternatively, the party must locate hidden stairwells used by Leithwyth's undead servants to travel between floors.
Gravity Traps
If Leifwyth is aware the party is within his tower, he will activate various Gravity traps to try and foil them. e.g.
Vertical Pit Trap - Local Reverse gravity throws a creature up onto spikes mounted on the ceiling. Gravity Well - A floating orb pulls all creatures & items in a 30 ft radius towards itself 10 ft each round (STR save to resist), and creates and area of difficult terrain around itself. If a creature is pulled into the orb it becomes grappled & restrained and must make a Wis save at the start of each turn or be put to sleep. Gravity Ramps - rather than stairs there are ramps with gravitational fields that can pull creature up or down them, Leifwyth can tune these to pull the party away from him. Gravity trash Compactor - gravity fields crush the massive waste generated by Leifwyth into cubes before ejecting it from the tower, should the party enter one of these chambers it will happily compact them as well.
Leifwyth
Leifwyth's living quarters are entirely enchanted with Levitate spells such that any creature within the area is affected by it. Leifwyth has been utterly corrupted by his host daemon and will attempt to consume any living thing that enters his quarters.
Stat block to follow...
I’m struggling here. Can anyone help me debate whether a submission such as this would be more of a DM or Interactive option? It seems to be both a dungeon and a set of puzzles and traps, and apparently also a boss monster. Any help would be appreciated.
Appreciator of all things Weird, Wondrous, and/or Yummy
In the Autumn Country, days end quickly, the gloaming hours linger, and the midnights pile one upon the other till the air is thick and flows like twilight syrup.
Well then I give up, I don't understand what an Interactive Option is supposed to be since based on the description Leifwyn's Tower would full fill most of stated examples: "such as NPCs" - check Liefwyn + undead servants "puzzles" - half check, PCs have to figure out how to use the elevator "stories/lore" - check backstory "terrain" - check gravity ramps "traps/hazards" - check I included a list of them "even institutions like shops or taverns" - check the tower itself and the undead servants that fetch stuff for him.
Well then I give up, I don't understand what an Interactive Option is supposed to be since based on the description Leifwyn's Tower would full fill most of stated examples: "such as NPCs" - check Liefwyn + undead servants "puzzles" - half check, PCs have to figure out how to use the elevator "stories/lore" - check backstory "terrain" - check gravity ramps "traps/hazards" - check I included a list of them "even institutions like shops or taverns" - check the tower itself and the undead servants that fetch stuff for him.
It isn't bad. The Interactive option is really hard in my opinion. I now think that it could fit into the Interactive options. When I first looked at it, it seemed more as a DM option, and I think that it could still be included as one, but it does seem to fit into the interactive category as well. It contains elements of both.
For improvement, I think you should include what type of undead servants are there and how they act. Right now they just seem like things to fight. Not things to interact with.
Also some mechanics might need to be added to the traps and hazards. There aren't any rules on how they work, just that they are there.
It is a good idea and I would probably have done something similar if you hadn't done it first.
Appreciator of all things Weird, Wondrous, and/or Yummy
In the Autumn Country, days end quickly, the gloaming hours linger, and the midnights pile one upon the other till the air is thick and flows like twilight syrup.
I agree that Agilemind's submission fits in the Interactive Option. While I would consider Liefwyn to be more of a "monster", since it seems like he would be a combat encounter with no chance of interacting with socially, the rest of the parts of the submission fit more into exploration and under the purview of the interactive option.
There will many times be some overlap between the Interactive and DM Options, and things like dungeons or encounters might have a mixture of "puzzles" and "monsters"; however, as long as the submission reasonably fits enough of the criteria for the desired category (in this case Interactive), I would not bar the submission.
To try and make this a little less confusing, for the next iteration of the competition, I suggest we remove "dungeon/encounter" from the DM Category, replace it with "combat encounter" , and leave something like designing a full "dungeon" as being more flexible and possibly applicable to either category depending on its content.
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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!
is a 3rd level dragonborn fighter who prefers to savor the small things in life, because he knows that the next day he may go to the heavens, and I mean that literally. Furōto was raised by the Jūryoku arrokokra family. He always knew he wasn’t a true member and yearned for the ability of flight, just so he could fit in with the people he was around his whole life. When he turned 14, he got his wish, just not in the way he was hoping.
On the night of his birthday, the village was attacked by elven raiders. His family had escaped, but the young Jūryoku was asleep. He heard the sounds of chaos, but he couldn’t wake up. A being as strong as the gods whispered in his ear. “Your family is gone” it said, “But I can help you get to them. A wish you had for years will save you. I’ll grant this wish. Unless you wish to be captured?” “No!” he yelled, “I wish for flight! Give me flight!”
Furōto opens his eyes to find himself floating in the sky, unable to control his movement. He would’ve have died from starvation if his family hadn’t found him. His brothers and sisters dragged him to the ground and put him in a set of plate armor. He knows if this armor came off, he would float to his death.
And so, he swore vengeance against the being that made it so that he will never live the same way again. But he needs help from an adventurer party to do that.
(This is an NPC, not a plot hook or character background)
My submission for Loaded Dice plays into the idea of tethering ones fate to another, and spiting oneself to undercut another. Its pretty loosely tied to the theme of Fate, but I have already cleared this one with Semako.
I am submitting a subclass for the Blood Hunter class hosted here on D&D Beyond: Order of the Nemesis. Let me know what you think
Order of the Nemesis
The Order of the Nemesis belongs to a sect of Blood Hunters who have sworn a vow of vengeance against some creature or group. These hunters have practiced their hemocraft and psychometry with the goal of damning others to a certain doom, even if they are pulled into the abyss with them. Members of this order seek to bind their own fate with those against whom they have sworn vengeance and manipulate it to their advantage.
Brand of Shared Fate
Starting at 3rd level, when you hit another creature with a weapon attack you can mark it using this feature. Whenever you take necrotic damage from rolling your hemocraft die, the branded creature takes the same amount of damage, which cannot be reduced in any way.
This mark lasts for up to 1 minute, but ends early if you mark another creature with this feature.
Spiteful Maledict
Also at 3rd level, you learn one additional Blood Curse of your choice: Blood Curse of the Anxious, Blood Curse of Binding, or Blood Curse of Bloated Agony. This doesn’t count against your number of blood curses known.
Whenever you invoke the chosen curse using your Blood Maledict feature, you can choose to be targeted by the curse’s normal effect as well. If you do so, the original target of the curse has disadvantage on any saving throw made against its effects, and the curse is treated as amplified for that creature.
Defy Destiny
Your vengeful aspirations have guided you to rely on your hemocraft to resist the pulls of fate which work against your goals. At 7th level, after you fail an ability check or attack roll you can use your reaction to reroll the d20, but you must use the new roll.
You can use this feature once and regain the ability to do so following a long rest. You can choose to use this feature again early by rolling your hemocraft die and taking necrotic damage equal to the value rolled, which cannot be reduced in any way.
Brand of Interment
When walking the line close to death, you will use your hemocraft to ensure you drag your enemies to the grave as well. Starting at 11th level, whenever you are reduced to 0 hit points you can project your spirit to accost your enemies. If there is a creature bearing either your Brand of Castigation or Brand of Shared Fate within 30 feet, choose one of the following effects:
Ghostly Shackles. Your spirit weighs on the creature, rendering its movement sluggish. The target’s speed is halved and cannot take reactions. If the creature has access to Legendary Actions (DMs discretion) it cannot take such an action that would cost 2 or more Actions to use.
Life Drain. Your spirit hampers the creature’s ability to recover. The target cannot regain hit points. If the target is capable of making death saving throws (DM’s discretion) it does so at disadvantage.
Vexing Presence. Your spirit distracts the creature. It has disadvantage on all attack rolls.
The chosen effect lasts until you are stabilized or regain hit points. If you are instead killed, your spirit lingers around the target and the chosen effect persists on the target for 7 days. The effect can be removed early by driving your spirit from the target, such as through the effects of the Dispel Evil and Good spell.
Snatch Destiny
At 15th level, after a creature you can see within 30 feet makes an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw, you can use your reaction to force the creature to reroll the d20, and it must use the new roll. If the target bears either your brands, it rerolls using two d20s and takes the lower value. Once within the next minute, you can replace the roll made by another creature within 30 feet of you for an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw with original value rolled by the target.
Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Sealing Rite
At 18th level, when you reduce a creature to 0 hit points using a weapon bearing one of your Crimson Rites, you can seal its soul within that weapon. The soul remains trapped within the weapon for up to 8 hours. You can exploit the sealed soul in one of the following ways while holding the weapon
As an action, you can regain one use of your Blood Maledict feature. Once you have use this option, you cannot choose it again until you finish a short rest.
As a bonus action, you use the soul's energy to enhance your weapon's damage. Instead of rolling, the damage dice for the weapon and any active rite are treated as rolling their maximum value until the end of your turn.
You can cast Speak with Dead without expending a spell slot or providing the material components, targeting the soul rather than a corpse
After the soul has been exploited, it vanishes from the weapon. If the creature bore either your brands when it was reduced to 0 hit points, you can instead exploit the soul up to twice before it vanishes. You can only have one soul trapped using this feature at a time.
You have a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls with this magic weapon.
You can use a bonus action to toss this magic sword into the air, speak its command word, and indicate a creature you can see within 150 feet. When you do so, the sword immediately begins hovering and flies up to 50 feet towards that creature on each of your turns attempting to reach a space 5 feet directly above that creature. Once the sword reaches its destination it hovers in that space. If the target creature moves, the sword will fly up to 50 feet on each of your turns to regain its position 5 feet directly above that creature and resume hovering.
While the sword is hovering above a targeted creature, that creature must succeed at a DC 19 Charisma saving throw at the beginning of each of its turns or become frightened of the sword until the start of its next turn. If that creature makes an attack or moves more than 5 feet away from this sword, you can use a reaction to cause the sword to attack that creature. The sword uses your attack roll and ability score modifier to damage rolls, and deals an additional 1d8 force damage on a hit.
As a bonus action you can repeat the sword’s command word, causing it to fly up to 50 feet towards you on each of your turns and try to return to your hand. If you have no hand free, it falls to the ground at your feet. If the sword has no unobstructed path to you, it moves as close to you as it can and then falls to the ground. It also ceases to hover if you grasp it, or if it is ever more than 150 feet from you.
You can use a bonus action to toss this magic sword into the air, speak its command word, and indicate a creature you can see within 150 feet. When you do so, the sword immediately begins hovering and flies up to 50 feet towards that creature on each of your turns attempting to reach a space 5 feet directly above that creature. Once the sword reaches its destination it hovers in that space. If the target creature moves, the sword will fly up to 50 feet on each of your turns to regain its position 5 feet directly above that creature and resume hovering.
While the sword is hovering above a targeted creature, that creature must succeed at a DC 17 Charisma saving throw at the beginning of each of its turns or become frightened of the sword until the start of its next turn. If that creature makes an attack or moves more than 5 feet away from this sword, you can use a reaction to cause the sword to attack that creature. The sword uses your attack roll and ability score modifier to damage rolls, and deals an additional 1d8 force damage on a hit.
As a bonus action you can repeat the sword’s command word, causing it to fly up to 50 feet towards you on each of your turns and try to return to your hand. If you have no hand free, it falls to the ground at your feet. If the sword has no unobstructed path to you, it moves as close to you as it can and then falls to the ground. It also ceases to hover if you grasp it, or if it is ever more than 150 feet from you.
Wadaya youse all think of it? Need tweaking?
Honestly I find this to be fairly weak, but just a +3 to attack and damage rolls would fix it IMO
Added “5 & 5” clause encouraging contestants to vote 5 & 5 on their own submission, and all scores will have -5 when being calculated.The idea is to encourage contestants to vote, and to prevent imbalance in the number of votes or unfair voting. The previous “don’t vote on yours” was wholly unreliable. This way, contestants will only be at a disadvantage if they do not vote or if they vote lower on their submission.
Ugh. This is quite a depressing change, to be honest. Not everyone has time to vote, and not everyone is able to keep up and rate everyone else's entries. Quite frankly, "encouraging" people to vote in this way will only lead to rushed votes that skew the results and don't faithfully represent the skill demonstrated in each piece of homebrew.
Now, contestants have an additional large task load of work that they are effectively required to do, if they care about the competition and recognition part of this, or if they care about being able to choose the categories and get to see cool pieces of homebrew for topics they're actually interested in. If they don't go out of their way to read and rate dozens of submissions, then they are at a significant disadvantage, merely because of the time they have available and the level to which they want to participate here.
This method is still extremely flawed in other regards too, and it does little to stop troll votes or users who vote multiple times with different accounts. Why couldn't we just make most of the poll optional and allow each person to only skip to their entry to rank, should they so choose?
In all honesty, I am very upset and discouraged by all the worrying over potential problems that haven't and likely won't occurred, and methods that are being implemented as safeguards against potential problems but that harm the people participating in COTFB. I wish we had a chance to discuss these changes as a whole, because we had discussed this together several times before but never decided on a change like this, since all the faults of this system have been repeatedly hashed out every other iteration here.
I'm sorry to be an aura of negativity, I'm not usually like this. That being said, hopefully this rule will change, because it really makes me not feel like I want to participate or share any homebrew here if everything requires more work outside of actually designing and sharing our free stuff and ideas. I'll probably try to enter something, maybe even a bunch of things. The April Fools idea is great, and the themes are nice too. This was just a really depressing thing to see in the rules and change log.
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BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explainHERE.
I agree with most of your sentiments besides "Now, contestants have an additional large task load of work that they are effectively required to do, if they care about the competition and recognition part of this, or if they care about being able to choose the categories and get to see cool pieces of homebrew for topics they're actually interested in."
In my opinion, if you are going to submit your homebrew to the competition in the hopes that it will be seen by others and reviewed, the least you can do is review the submissions of your fellow competitors so they can receive that same recognition and feedback. I know that sometimes there will be circumstances that prevent someone from having time to vote, but those should ideally be the exception, not the rule.
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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!
You can use a bonus action to toss this magic sword into the air, speak its command word, and indicate a creature you can see within 150 feet. When you do so, the sword immediately begins hovering and flies up to 50 feet towards that creature on each of your turns attempting to reach a space 5 feet directly above that creature. Once the sword reaches its destination it hovers in that space. If the target creature moves, the sword will fly up to 50 feet on each of your turns to regain its position 5 feet directly above that creature and resume hovering.
While the sword is hovering above a targeted creature, that creature must succeed at a DC 17 Charisma saving throw at the beginning of each of its turns or become frightened of the sword until the start of its next turn. If that creature makes an attack or moves more than 5 feet away from this sword, you can use a reaction to cause the sword to attack that creature. The sword uses your attack roll and ability score modifier to damage rolls, and deals an additional 1d8 force damage on a hit.
As a bonus action you can repeat the sword’s command word, causing it to fly up to 50 feet towards you on each of your turns and try to return to your hand. If you have no hand free, it falls to the ground at your feet. If the sword has no unobstructed path to you, it moves as close to you as it can and then falls to the ground. It also ceases to hover if you grasp it, or if it is ever more than 150 feet from you.
Wadaya youse all think of it? Need tweaking?
Honestly I find this to be fairly weak, but just a +3 to attack and damage rolls would fix it IMO
I agree with most of your sentiments besides "Now, contestants have an additional large task load of work that they are effectively required to do, if they care about the competition and recognition part of this, or if they care about being able to choose the categories and get to see cool pieces of homebrew for topics they're actually interested in."
In my opinion, if you are going to submit your homebrew to the competition in the hopes that it will be seen by others and reviewed, the least you can do is review the submissions of your fellow competitors so they can receive that same recognition and feedback. I know that sometimes there will be circumstances that prevent someone from having time to vote, but those should ideally be the exception, not the rule.
I dunno. Some people only have time to participate, not to vote. Voting takes a significant amount more work and time, and it can often feel dull or uninteresting (to me at least). Feedback and recognition works because each person or most people give a bit, and everyone else gets a decent amount of those things in total thanks to the group. Going through every submission and accurately rating it goes beyond a little, and it goes into the territory of doing a lot.
I wish we could make voting take less work. I wish that we could make it more attractive and appealing without penalizing people. Different people have different things they want from COTFB, and everyone should be able to get as many of those things as possible. When additional work is heaped on those who just wanted to have a bit of fun and maybe look at a couple other things people submitted, then it really starts to feel un-fun.
Perhaps we could make it so that you don't have to vote for everything? So, if I decide I want to read through X pieces of homebrew, I don't have to look at a bunch of other thins that don't interest me too. I honestly don't know what to say or how to solve this. Thank you for your thoughts, because they are insightful and intelligent (as always), and they do a lot to reassure me on this.
That being said, I think this is not the answer, and the old way of doing things mostly worked fine. Perhaps bringing back written feedback will help? There were a lot more votes (11) for the survey where people could share their thoughts and skip around, and the next two competitions that didn't have that experienced a massive drop in participation.
I think it would make sense to try this rule out with a survey where people have the choice of skipping around and skipping voting entries, and where they can supply written feedback too.
I dunno. I just really don't know lol.
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BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explainHERE.
is a 3rd level dragonborn fighter who prefers to savor the small things in life, because he knows that the next day he may go to the heavens, and I mean that literally. Furōto was raised by the Jūryoku arrokokra family. He always knew he wasn’t a true member and yearned for the ability of flight, just so he could fit in with the people he was around his whole life. When he turned 14, he got his wish, just not in the way he was hoping.
On the night of his birthday, the village was attacked by elven raiders. His family had escaped, but the young Jūryoku was asleep. He heard the sounds of chaos, but he couldn’t wake up. A being as strong as the gods whispered in his ear. “Your family is gone” it said, “But I can help you get to them. A wish you had for years will save you. I’ll grant this wish. Unless you wish to be captured?” “No!” he yelled, “I wish for flight! Give me flight!”
Furōto opens his eyes to find himself floating in the sky, unable to control his movement. He would’ve have died from starvation if his family hadn’t found him. His brothers and sisters dragged him to the ground and put him in a set of plate armor. He knows if this armor came off, he would float to his death.
And so, he swore vengeance against the being that made it so that he will never live the same way again. But he needs help from an adventurer party to do that.
(This is an NPC, not a plot hook or character background)
NPCs need statblocks like monsters get with stats and stuff.
I'd definitely call it interactive, since it seems like it's mostly an area to explore containing traps and such.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
This feels like a DM option to me.
Well then I give up, I don't understand what an Interactive Option is supposed to be since based on the description Leifwyn's Tower would full fill most of stated examples:
"such as NPCs" - check Liefwyn + undead servants
"puzzles" - half check, PCs have to figure out how to use the elevator
"stories/lore" - check backstory
"terrain" - check gravity ramps
"traps/hazards" - check I included a list of them
"even institutions like shops or taverns" - check the tower itself and the undead servants that fetch stuff for him.
It isn't bad. The Interactive option is really hard in my opinion. I now think that it could fit into the Interactive options. When I first looked at it, it seemed more as a DM option, and I think that it could still be included as one, but it does seem to fit into the interactive category as well. It contains elements of both.
For improvement, I think you should include what type of undead servants are there and how they act. Right now they just seem like things to fight. Not things to interact with.
Also some mechanics might need to be added to the traps and hazards. There aren't any rules on how they work, just that they are there.
It is a good idea and I would probably have done something similar if you hadn't done it first.
DM Options: Death itself
https://critterdb.com:443/#/creature/view/60db6d07af3aa903ed162396
I agree that Agilemind's submission fits in the Interactive Option. While I would consider Liefwyn to be more of a "monster", since it seems like he would be a combat encounter with no chance of interacting with socially, the rest of the parts of the submission fit more into exploration and under the purview of the interactive option.
There will many times be some overlap between the Interactive and DM Options, and things like dungeons or encounters might have a mixture of "puzzles" and "monsters"; however, as long as the submission reasonably fits enough of the criteria for the desired category (in this case Interactive), I would not bar the submission.
To try and make this a little less confusing, for the next iteration of the competition, I suggest we remove "dungeon/encounter" from the DM Category, replace it with "combat encounter" , and leave something like designing a full "dungeon" as being more flexible and possibly applicable to either category depending on its content.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
DM Options: The Sword of Damocles
The Tria Casus
I'll post more later for the other challenges.
MY INFO
Just to be clear, me and DrakenBrines_ALT are the same person.
Hi, I’m DrakenBrine, here’s my Sig and characters
I am The Grand Envisioner!
Interactive Options: Gravitational Mayhem
Hi, I’m DrakenBrine, here’s my Sig and characters
I am The Grand Envisioner!
My submission for Loaded Dice plays into the idea of tethering ones fate to another, and spiting oneself to undercut another. Its pretty loosely tied to the theme of Fate, but I have already cleared this one with Semako.
I am submitting a subclass for the Blood Hunter class hosted here on D&D Beyond: Order of the Nemesis. Let me know what you think
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
I might be taking this DM Option a little literally, but I couldn’t resist:
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Honestly I find this to be fairly weak, but just a +3 to attack and damage rolls would fix it IMO
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXV?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.I agree with most of your sentiments besides "Now, contestants have an additional large task load of work that they are effectively required to do, if they care about the competition and recognition part of this, or if they care about being able to choose the categories and get to see cool pieces of homebrew for topics they're actually interested in."
In my opinion, if you are going to submit your homebrew to the competition in the hopes that it will be seen by others and reviewed, the least you can do is review the submissions of your fellow competitors so they can receive that same recognition and feedback. I know that sometimes there will be circumstances that prevent someone from having time to vote, but those should ideally be the exception, not the rule.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
👍
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Is your problems with the -5 if you vote 5/5 for your own?
Hi, I’m DrakenBrine, here’s my Sig and characters
I am The Grand Envisioner!
what do you guys think of my entries by the way?
Hi, I’m DrakenBrine, here’s my Sig and characters
I am The Grand Envisioner!
I dunno. Some people only have time to participate, not to vote. Voting takes a significant amount more work and time, and it can often feel dull or uninteresting (to me at least). Feedback and recognition works because each person or most people give a bit, and everyone else gets a decent amount of those things in total thanks to the group. Going through every submission and accurately rating it goes beyond a little, and it goes into the territory of doing a lot.
I wish we could make voting take less work. I wish that we could make it more attractive and appealing without penalizing people. Different people have different things they want from COTFB, and everyone should be able to get as many of those things as possible. When additional work is heaped on those who just wanted to have a bit of fun and maybe look at a couple other things people submitted, then it really starts to feel un-fun.
Perhaps we could make it so that you don't have to vote for everything? So, if I decide I want to read through X pieces of homebrew, I don't have to look at a bunch of other thins that don't interest me too. I honestly don't know what to say or how to solve this. Thank you for your thoughts, because they are insightful and intelligent (as always), and they do a lot to reassure me on this.
That being said, I think this is not the answer, and the old way of doing things mostly worked fine. Perhaps bringing back written feedback will help? There were a lot more votes (11) for the survey where people could share their thoughts and skip around, and the next two competitions that didn't have that experienced a massive drop in participation.
I think it would make sense to try this rule out with a survey where people have the choice of skipping around and skipping voting entries, and where they can supply written feedback too.
I dunno. I just really don't know lol.
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