Idea for a new homebrew contest: the Remake contest!

[Eldan]

Just an idea I had after randomly stumbling about an old D&D article where Mike Mearls remade the Ogre Mage.

We all know that D&D has a lot of basically good ideas that are horrible in execution. Interesting prestige classes that no one takes because they don't advance powers of the base class. Monsters that just fail across the board to do anythign worthwhile to a party, or are unbelievably broken. Spells that you want to like but are just never worth the slot.

So, how about making it a contest? We take a monster with interesting fluff, or a prestige class with one interesting, but waaaay underpowered ability, and then people try to remake it in something interesting, before submitting it to a team of judges?

Anyone interested in that? As a judge or a brewer?

[khadgar567]

well its good idea but i hate to clean wizards of the coasts crap so probably brew few things for my taste.

[Westhart]

interested in both, could judge for contests I am not in... Good on Mon-Fri, ~8:30 am to ~2:30 pm

Think I would start with the dragon disciple...

[nonsi]

How about we list them first?
I have one: Couatl

[Morphic tide]

I'm interested in this as a 'Brewer, simply because there's so many things to remake in 3.X to work with. Contests by fairly-limited concept, like pure martial, or vampires, would be wonderful. Having it be concepts, with available things within said concept listed, rather than single things, is vital for making it have decent participation. Don't want a contest that's nothing but Fighter fixes, or nothing but fixes for a single infamous feat. Part of the discussion, naturally, would be defining what is and isn't in said concept. For example, let's say that the contest is remaking Oriental classes. There'd be people arguing that Monk doesn't count due to being core, while there'd probably be people thinking of crazy-obscure stuff from Dragon magazine or something.

Having it be by concept, with a requirement being listing what you're remaking to allow for refusal of name-sharing to keep who's done what clear, would mean that a thread with the concept being pure martial means you can remake feat trees, as well as classes. A thread all about gishes can be populated by reworks of Duskblade, Ranger, Paladin, Psychic Warrior and Psychic Rogue, but also Eldritch Knight, Arcane Archer and Arcane Trickster. And all those gish-supporting feats, like Smiting Spell and Arcane Strike. A lot of room for creativity. I know I'd love to make Smiting Spell and Arcane Strike into a feat tree for all the gishes to use.

Personally, I'd love to dig into reworking entire subsystems at their core to make them less... Well, less like other subsystems. Like responding to a contest for reworking crafting things with a heavy overhaul of Psionic crafting to make it distinct from magic items.

[Westhart]

I'm interested in this as a 'Brewer, simply because there's so many things to remake in 3.X to work with. Contests by fairly-limited concept, like pure martial, or vampires, would be wonderful. Having it be concepts, with available things within said concept listed, rather than single things, is vital for making it have decent participation. Don't want a contest that's nothing but Fighter fixes, or nothing but fixes for a single infamous feat. Part of the discussion, naturally, would be defining what is and isn't in said concept. For example, let's say that the contest is remaking Oriental classes. There'd be people arguing that Monk doesn't count due to being core, while there'd probably be people thinking of crazy-obscure stuff from Dragon magazine or something.

Having it be by concept, with a requirement being listing what you're remaking to allow for refusal of name-sharing to keep who's done what clear, would mean that a thread with the concept being pure martial means you can remake feat trees, as well as classes. A thread all about gishes can be populated by reworks of Duskblade, Ranger, Paladin, Psychic Warrior and Psychic Rogue, but also Eldritch Knight, Arcane Archer and Arcane Trickster. And all those gish-supporting feats, like Smiting Spell and Arcane Strike. A lot of room for creativity. I know I'd love to make Smiting Spell and Arcane Strike into a feat tree for all the gishes to use.


Hmm Morphic tide does have a point seeing that it would be unfortunate to have to judge a bunch of fighter fixes... and as for people arguing what each category is I would have the judge choose be the one to decide whether it fits or not... but this idea really does sound nice... have to compile a list of classes to start on XP

[nonsi]

Hmm Morphic tide does have a point seeing that it would be unfortunate to have to judge a bunch of fighter fixes... and as for people arguing what each category is I would have the judge choose be the one to decide whether it fits or not... but this idea really does sound nice... have to compile a list of classes to start on XP

Fighter fixes are abundant.
I suggest focusing on things that are usually not addressed (e.g. Duskblade, Couatle, Profession etc.)

[Eldan]

Why Couatl specifically? I mean, it's not a great monster, but it's far from the most boring one around, either. It has spells, at least.

[nonsi]

Why Couatl specifically? I mean, it's not a great monster, but it's far from the most boring one around, either. It has spells, at least.

Yes, my memory betrayed me on that one. For some reason I remembered it to be a lot weaker than what it actually is.