In the next several days, we’ll be posting the entries we received for the Seize the Tin Crown contest. These will each be only lightly proofread so that you, our voting public, have a chance to judge them based on your own criteria. After we post the last of the entries, we’ll be calling for you all to vote. The winner will seize the tin crown! Oh, the power!
To start off this slate of entries, we have an actual crown for you to consider. How appropriate, eh?
Brandorek’s Crown
Aura strong divination; CL 15th
Slot head; Weight 4 lbs.
DESCRIPTION
The dented and deformed crown is made of common tin and is heavily tarnished due to years of neglect and mistreatment. The crown is inhabited by the spirit of a long-deceased kobold king named Brandorek, who refuses to provide any information about which King Brandorek he was.
History
Untold years ago, King Brandorek commissioned a magical crown to be made. Always worried about what others were plotting, he wanted the crown to detect the thoughts of others, see invisible creatures, and listen to secret conversations. He selected a kobold sorcerer he could trust and, under Brandorek’s tireless gaze, the sorcerer worked almost continuously for three weeks. Barely able to stand, the sorcerer miscalculated the magical energy he was harnessing and drew his and Brandorek’s spirit into the crown. Brandorek and the sorcerer fought a contest of willpower within the crown for years until Brandorek consumed the sorcerer’s spirit and added its power to his own.
Personality
Brandorek’s spirit yearns to become the kobold high king again. He will work with any creature wearing the crown, but he prefers a kobold of strong body and dim mind that he can dominate and eventually possess. He advises the wearer of the crown, while slowly destroying their spirit. He works within the laws of society and will attempt to dominate the wearer to prevent acts of destruction that would delay his plans of gaining supremacy.
Powers
The wearer is under constant comprehend languages and see invisibility effects, gains a +2 to all Charisma and Sense Motive skill checks, and can detect thoughts 3/day. Brandorek’s spirit is under the effect of a constant foresight effect that warns of any creature within 60 feet trying to destroy the crown. The spirit will then try to dominate the wearer to act against the threat. The foresight will also warn the spirit to a threat on the wearer’s life, whether the spirit warns the wearer depends on Brandorek’s plans.
The wearer must make a DC 25 Will save each day or take 1 point of Charisma drain. If the wearer’s Charisma score drops to 0, Brandorek’s spirit will permanently possess the wearer. Upon the body’s death or if the spirit is dispossessed, the spirit returns to the crown. The wearer of the crown can only remove the crown with a casting of remove curse. Brandorek’s spirit will try to gain dominance to prevent the remove curse or any spell that would heal the Charisma drain.
Alignment Lawful Evil Int 10 Wis 15 Cha 21 Abilities telepathy, darkvision 60 ft., read languages Ego 28
DESTRUCTION
Brandorek’s crown must be destroyed while the spirit is possessing the wearer’s body. The crown must then be removed to a distance of more than 60 feet from the body and destroyed in a site under the effect of hallow, broken by a smite evil, or melted down with positive energy channeled into the remains. The spirit must then be dispossessed from the body within 24 hours or the crown will reform.
Just some things I’m noticing at first glance:
This appears to be an artifact submission (hopefully the contestant realized that an artifact wasn’t required as this contest was for a monster, item, encounter, spells, feats, character theme, traps, hazards, powers… but there was a holdover from the relics contest on the blog for Seize the Iron Crown for a couple of days after it had been announced saying “your artifact must be…” so they may have thought they had to submit this type of item)… but not just an artifact, to be more specific this looks like a cursed, intelligent, minor artifact.
While some of the conditions applied are spelled out, one glaring omission is that when the contestant states “…The spirit will then try to dominate the wearer to act against the threat…” and “…Brandorek’s spirit will try to gain dominance to prevent…” they don’t say how this happens in-game, leaving the GM to come up with how Brandorek’s spirit dominates anyone not already drained and possessed by the item. Some of the backstory ot “Destruction” phrasing could have been pared down to include something like “this works like dominate person (sorry don’t know how to do italics on this blog yet) using the crown’s CL with a save DC of…” whatever the DC is, so that when those events occur the spirit in the crown’s domination contingency can be easily resolved during play.
All-in-all, I think that this is a very creative plot device, but mixing Cursed, Intelligent, and Artifact is a bit much for me to want to use it in any game I GM; also, if this is the crown you get for winning the contest, please keep it or give it to someone you want to slowly destroy and not the actual winner. ;-)
Just my 2¢.
I guess I was a bit confused… But the crown made me do it!
Seeing the crown has an ego score, I would hazard the dominate and dominance refers to the intelligent item rules. I think he should have mentioned that since few players actually use those rules.
From the Core Rulebook, Items against Characters:
“When a personality conflict occurs, the possessor must make a Will saving throw (DC = item’s Ego). If the possessor succeeds, she is dominant. If she fails, the item is dominant. Dominance lasts for 1 day or until a critical situation occurs (such as a major battle, a serious threat to either the item or the character, and so on).”
Specific numbers for the destruction would be helpful. Stating the crown’s hardness and hp or how much channel damage was needed would help.
I am still a bit traumatized by the RPG Superstar and not sure if I can talk about my item…
Bumbling Bee has it right, sorry about that Thomas. I’m suffering from similar burn-out and didn’t think about the Ego score issue.
Honestly, it’s an awesome creative artifact. I just think it has too much going on with it, is all.
Best of luck to you, sir. :-)