3.X Ancillary Contest II Voting Thread

[Zaydos]

Welcome one and all to the voting thread for the second 3.X Ancillary Contest: Follow the Arrow (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?403667-3-X-Ancillary-Contest-II-Follow-the-Arrow). Voting will consist of each voter giving a first, a second, and a third place vote, as well as a vote for the categories of Most Original, Most Likely to See Play, and Best Use of Theme. Anyone can vote, and in fact, entrants must vote to qualify for victory.

A first place vote is worth three points, a second place vote is worth two points, and a third place vote is worth one point. Votes for the three other categories are each worth 1 point in their category. You may not vote for your own entry.

You are encouraged to include reason with your votes, though this is not absolutely required.

The class that ends up with the most points wins the contest overall, and each category goes to the class with the most votes in it. Voting starts now and will continue until 23:59 (Eastern Standard Time USA/Canada; GMT-5) on May 4th.

EntryCreator1st2nd3rdTotal PointsMost OriginalMost Likely to See PlayBest Use of Theme
Arcane Archer Spells (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18957656&postcount=3)Jormengand0113000
Ranged Lurk Augments (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18958262&postcount=4)Kazyan2017110
Thinking Big the Art of Throwing Rocks and People (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19008112&postcount=5)MrNobody1005011
Soulmelds for hitting far away things (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19089111&postcount=6)qazzquimby0113101

And much of the formatting of this post was copied from Temotei's Base Class Challenge voting thread.

And this time don't make me break a three way tie :smalltongue:

[qazzquimby]

entrants must vote for their entry to qualify for victory.


You may not vote for your own entry.

I am confused.

[Zaydos]

I am confused.

I am trying to figure out where the commas should be. Entrants must vote, or their entries do not qualify for victory, might be clearer wording... or just say Entrants must vote to qualify for victory (made it the latter already).

[qazzquimby]

Oh sorry it makes perfect sense. I kept reading it as "entrants must vote on their entry for it to qualify" for some reason.
I don't think there's any problem outside my silly, silly mind.

1st - THINKING BIG: THE ART OF THROWING ROCKS AND PEOPLE
Though it could have been better edited, most of the content seemed very thoughtful and opened new dynamics. As suggestions, the quick tunneling through walls made possible by the gloves is probably not intended, and the size of rocks you can throw could easily be changed to normal weapon rules, I think. It could also be better edited.

2nd - Arcane Archer Spells
Abilities are all simple, but offer a variety of possible uses. Dimension shot in particular could be very fun to use. Markerlight should possibly says it emits light within some radius and at some brightness, since that seems to be implied.
Is it possible to have more than one spell effect a ranged attack somehow? Because then infinity dimension shot into space.

3rd - Ranged Lurk Augments
Very similar to arcane archer spells in that it's a collection of small but useful abilities. Warp attack would be interesting in cases like public assassinations, or causing confusion, and homing attack is an interesting idea, though I think broken as is.
Knowing where the target is isn't specific enough. Do you need to know what 5ft cube they're in, or is being on the other side of that wall enough. Depending on the generosity of the DM, you could arrow spam the villain while he's vacationing in a cottage several planes away.

Most Original - Ranged Lurk Augments, just barely uses more original concepts I think.

Most Likely to See Play - Arcane Archer Spells, contains the least that could be considered broken or missing rulings.

Best Use of Theme - Are we talking about inherent theme among the entry, or best using the theme of ranged abilities? If the first, definitely THINKING BIG: THE ART OF THROWING ROCKS AND PEOPLE.
If the second it will be a lot harder to decide.

All of them seemed really close though, so please don't be disheartened if my votes seem disheartening.

[MrNobody]

Voting this time was really hard.

1st place and most likely to see play: Lurk Augments. While this and the Arcane Archer Spells are similar I find this entry more organic and better brewed. In addition it gives extra material to lurks, one of the many orphan base classes to which WotC gave birth and then totally forget about. Thumbs up.

2nd place, best use of theme and most original: Soulmelds for hitting far away things. First, this entry shouts ORIGINAL all around, expecially for the number of strange ranged weapon provided (shard launcher, i'm looking at you). Mechanics are overall ok, but the souldmeld are not as consistent and well spelled-out like Lurk augments, so 2nd place.
Since the theme was ranged and qazzquimby provided a lot of option for ranged attacks to a group of classes the usually lacks of those (to my knowledge), here it comes the award for best use of the theme.

3rd place:Arcane Archer Spells Mechanics are ok, very simple and neat entry... i decided to put it at 3rd place because i was... confused?... by these spells and their "1 ranged attack" casting time. They look like maneuver, but they are not, they look like spells but require a separated kind of action to work. Reading this entry made me think about a quote of an old animated film (Balto, 1995): Not a dog. Not a wolf. All he knows is what he's not.
Good work overall, though, but to me it does not keep up with the other two.

In addition, qazzquimby, i'm sorry for the bad formatting but i was on the run this time: i'll try to do better next time!

[Jormengand]

Is it possible to have more than one spell effect a ranged attack somehow? Because then infinity dimension shot into space.

No; you can't put more than one spell on the same attack because you make the attack as part of the spell.


i decided to put it at 3rd place because i was... confused?... by these spells and their "1 ranged attack" casting time. They look like maneuver, but they are not, they look like spells but require a separated kind of action to work.

Any resemblance to the Tome of Magic: Swords Edition is completely unintentional, and they are indeed spells that work very similarly to touch spells except they involve shooting someone instead of poking them, and you can cast them as part of a full attack action.

[Zaydos]

Votes tallied. I'm surprised lurk augments got most likely to see play... it'd require someone to play a lurk :smalltongue: I kid, I kid.


Best Use of Theme - Are we talking about inherent theme among the entry, or best using the theme of ranged abilities?

A little of the first (cohesiveness is good), but primarily the second. Let me know if this changes things (i.e. fresh post is easier to notice than an edit).

[qazzquimby]

Can I encourage people to vote in this? 6 days before your entries are disqualified and I lose.

[Zaydos]

Just a reminder just a few more days until the voting ends so get your votes in. In particular Kazyan and Jorm need to vote still to qualify, and even if you aren't a contestant feel free to put in a vote.

[Zaydos]

Extending the voting by one day since I forgot to PM the two contestants who didn't vote yet.

[Jormengand]

Ranged lurk, thinking big, then soulmelds in that order.

[Zaydos]

And again I have to break ties. Kazyan never voted so that removes him from the running.

1st: Mr. Nobody and Thinking Big (www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19008112&postcount=5).

2nd: Jormengand and Arcane Archer spells (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18957656&postcount=3). While I'd not allow the level 6 spell (non-death effect save or die off of the save which is almost universally the worst save at high levels) the rest looked really good and interesting.

3rd: qazzquimby and soulmelds for hitting things far away (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19089111&postcount=6). It does have a few really neat soulmelds however (creature cannon and infuriating boots are probably my favorites).

Most Original: qazzquimby and soulmelds for hitting things far away (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19089111&postcount=6).

Most Likely to See Play: Mr. Nobody and Thinking Big (www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19008112&postcount=5).

Best Use of Theme: Mr. Nobody and Thinking Big (www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19008112&postcount=5). It's the ACFs which sale me on it.