Villainous Design Competition I: The Cult Arises!

[JNAProductions]

There's a thriving Villainous Design Competition (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?577930-Villainous-Competition-XXX-One-Feat-to-Rule-Them-ALL) in the 3.5 subforum, so let's make one for here! I'll be aping a lot of what they do, but with some differences since, well, 3.5 and and 5E are different games.

So, what do I mean by a Villainous Design Competition? Pretty much, I'd like to see the big bad of a campaign submitted from everyone who contributes. The kind of being that's a mover and shaker, the kind that drives a campaign, the kind that, when you finally, FINALLY get to face and hopefully defeat them, you feel GOOD. You feel ACCOMPLISHED. I'd also like to see their minions and lieutenants, since a solo fight is oftentimes... Not the best.

The exact specifications for submissions are:

Tier(s)
What tiers of play is this villain and their minions good for? The tiers of play are Tier I (levels 1-4), Tier II (5-10), Tier III (11-16), and Tier IV (17-20). It's perfectly appropriate to design enough to cross tiers too! But please indicate where you should start, and where you should end. For instance-goblins (as presented in the Monster Manual) are a mostly Tier I threat. While, in sufficient numbers, they make for a challenge to characters of any Tier... No DM wants to run 400 goblins against a level 20 party. No one does.
A note about what tiers the villain is good for is required for a submission.

The Boss
The overriding creature(s). For this contest, an oligarchy is pretty acceptable, but may not in future competitions. This is the TOP, the main bad guy, the ruler, the driving force...
The boss should have a complete statblock, motivations, history... They should be pretty damn complete.
One or more Bosses are required for a submission.


Lieutenant(s)
The right-hand of the boss. These are the kinds of creatures that are the leaders of smaller groups, perhaps an opposite adventuring party, even! They're a cut above the rank and file, and are generally unique.
Any lieutenants you make should have a complete statblock and at least a brief blurb on motivations and backstory.
At least one Lieutenant is required for a submission.

Mooks
The rank and file. These make up the meat of a lot of encounters. It's highly encouraged for you to have many types of mooks, since fighting the exact same thing again and again gets boring.
Mooks should have complete statblocks and a short blurb on the general ideas behind them.
At least two distinct types of Mooks are required for a submission.

Submissions without the indicated necessities will be outright ignored.

Deadline
Submissions for the entries themselves are due no later than the end of February. That is, 11:59, February 28th, forum time (so GMT-4). Anything submitted or revised after that point will be ignored.

Judges will have a week after that point to finalize judgements. Since the villains will be posted and revised as they come, judges should keep an eye and be formulating thoughts as the month goes on.

Judging
Judges should rank villainous entries on a scale of 1 (poor) to 10 (exemplary). Each part should be ranked individually-the parts are split into three categories, as seen above, and then split into further subcategories.

Bosses, Lieutenants, and Mooks are each split into the following categories:
Mechanics-Are the mechanics sound? Does everything work smoothly and intuitively? Are the power levels appropriate?
Story-Is the story interesting? Is it believable, in the given setting? Do the motivations work, and do they provide interesting encounters?

And then an overall 1-5 ranking on "How on theme is it?"

The bosses, lieutenants, and mooks will have their two rankings averaged.
Then, those three will be added together along with the "On theme" ranking.
Thus, the total possible score is 35, if you score 10/10 on everything and 5/5 on theme.

If you want to be a judge, post in this thread saying so. However, note that, if you are a judge, you CANNOT enter this contest!

Currently, the judging list is as follows:

JNAProductions
Unoriginal

Presentations will be made ANONYMOUSLY. You should PM me your submission (and any revisions) which I will repost here, in order to avoid any biases. You WILL be credited with your work after the contest is over and judging is complete.

I repeat: DO NOT POST YOUR SUBMISSIONS ON THIS THREAD! PM THEM TO ME!

To standardize the PMs and make things a little easier on me, please include:


D&D 5E Villainous Competition I: Name Of Your Entry

As your subject in your PMs.


You might want to include a small explanation of how disputes are handled, or if they're even allowed.

For those unfamilair with the 3.5e competitions, there's usually a period after the judgements have been posted in which the contestants can submit clarifications on their build or explain some facet they think the judge overlooked (this is not for correcting mistakes or altering the build, just for providing clarity if you think the judge missed something important about your build). This is generally done by sending a message to the organizer, who'll then post the disputes for each build in the thread.



This first contest will have the following theme: The Cult Arises! Interpret that as you please.

[Unoriginal]

Do all the villains including the mooks need to be homebrewed monsters, or could you say something like "Magister Sandstone has 15 Bandits and 5 Thugs under her employ, which she convinced to rally her operation with demonstration of her magical might"?

[JNAProductions]

Do all the villains including the mooks need to be homebrewed monsters, or could you say something like "Magister Sandstone has 15 Bandits and 5 Thugs under her employ, which she convinced to rally her operation with demonstration of her magical might"?

I'm gonna say no-you need to make some homebrew mooks. It is 100% fine to include existing monsters as mooks, but you need at least two types of new mook.

I'll edit the OP with the changed requirements.

[Rukelnikov]

Can boss or lieutenants be classed characters, or should all be stated as monsters??

I feel like Theme rating is rather low, it should be 10 full points

[JNAProductions]

Can boss or lieutenants be classed characters, or should all be stated as monsters??

I feel like Theme rating is rather low, it should be 10 full points

You can include character class features, but the statblocks should be presented as a monster statblock.

And I am fully aware that the Theme is worth less than the rest. That is intentional.

[Unoriginal]

Well, then, I propose my services as judge for this competition.

Just one last question: it isn't quite clear in OP, but will all the judges debate, deliberate and decide on the score together, or will each judge's rankings of the contestant's work be averaged for the final result?

[JNAProductions]

Well, then, I propose my services as judge for this competition.

Just one last question: it isn't quite clear in OP, but will all the judges debate, deliberate and decide on the score together, or will each judge's rankings of the contestant's work be averaged for the final result?

Each judge's ranking will be averaged.

That being said, it's totally fine to talk to other judges and revise your rankings, if they point out something you missed or whatnot. Likewise, if the entry gets revised over time, make sure your rankings reflect that!

Thanks for being a judge too!

[Unoriginal]

Thanks for being a judge too!

Thank you for accepting my candidacy.

[Wryte]

The hardest part is going to be picking which on my original villains to use. :<

That is, I'm assuming there's a "one entry per contestant" rule.

[JNAProductions]

The hardest part is going to be picking which on my original villains to use. :<

That is, I'm assuming there's a "one entry per contestant" rule.

Yeah, one entry per contestant.

That being said, the goal is to make this a usual thing, so hey, keep ideas for later entries!

[DeTess]

Maybe you might want to include a small explanation of how disputes are handled, or if they're even allowed. That should hopefully prevent some confusion during the judging process.

For those unfamilair with the 3.5e competitions, there's usually a period after the judgements have been posted in which the contestants can submit clarifications on their build or explain some facet they think the judge overlooked (this is not for correcting mistakes or altering the build, just for providing clarity if you think the judge missed something important about your build). This is generally done by sending a message to the organizer, who'll then post the disputes for each build in the thread.

[JNAProductions]

You might want to include a small explanation of how disputes are handled, or if they're even allowed.

For those unfamilair with the 3.5e competitions, there's usually a period after the judgements have been posted in which the contestants can submit clarifications on their build or explain some facet they think the judge overlooked (this is not for correcting mistakes or altering the build, just for providing clarity if you think the judge missed something important about your build). This is generally done by sending a message to the organizer, who'll then post the disputes for each build in the thread.

I'm hoping that won't be needed. But I will be quoting this post and adding it the OP.

[Zonugal]

How many builds/full designs are we allowed to submit?

[JNAProductions]

How many builds/full designs are we allowed to submit?

Just the one.

[furby076]

What happens if someone fails to meet a criteria? I presume auto disqualification of entry? If its a mistake on the mook, then the mook is not counted. If its a mistake on the boss or LT ten that would be sufficient to disqualify?

[Zonugal]

Am I correct that there is no theme for this first competition?

[Rukelnikov]

Am I correct that there is no theme for this first competition?

The Cult Arises!

[Kadesh]

I'm gonna say no-you need to make some homebrew mooks. It is 100% fine to include existing monsters as mooks, but you need at least two types of new mook.

I'll edit the OP with the changed requirements.
Why homebrew? Why is it not OK to have Orcs or Hobgoblin in this cult?

[Unoriginal]

Why homebrew? Why is it not OK to have Orcs or Hobgoblin in this cult?

You can have them, you just need to include homebrew mooks as well.

As for why homebrew, maybe because it's a monster creation competition?

[Kadesh]

Nothing in the 3.5E was homebrew. In fact, it was exactly the opposite, except you had the ability within the core game to template, advance HD, and grant class levels to the monster if you wanted, or have villains built using the same Character Creation system as PC's. Nothing was homebrew however, and everything was RAW legal.
If it's a homebrew competition, and requiring homebrew, perhaps take it to the homebrew discussion forum where there are already competitions to create homebrews?

Is it homebrew enough to weapon swap? What about a spell swap? What about a stat bump/drop? How much am I allowed/required to modify from a 1st party designed creature before it's considered a homebrew? Can I use a standard creature but give it a homebrew magic item to make it homebrew?

If it's about creating a memorable villain, have there been many memorable villains based on their abilities, or are they memorable because of their actions? Is it memorable Sephiroth can OHKO a creature with one attack? Or is it memorable who he does it too?

While I don't have a problem with Homebrew mechanics being included, I'd prefer if it was actually marked down (as per the original challenge). After all, can Dragons' not be villains? Can Devils not be villains? Or Lich's? Or Vampires? Or Giants? Or Humans? is it allowed to homebrew a monster when it's merely copied from a previous editions as yet unpublished monsters from obscure references or later filler material in monster manuals?

[JNAProductions]

What happens if someone fails to meet a criteria? I presume auto disqualification of entry? If its a mistake on the mook, then the mook is not counted. If its a mistake on the boss or LT ten that would be sufficient to disqualify?

You receive 0/10 points for that category. The idea is to have complete entries.

Mistakes are not disqualifying, though-if you meant a mook to have +8 to-hit and you wrote +10 (or something silly, like +88) that's not disqualifying. Not to mention, you can revise your work before the deadline.


Why homebrew? Why is it not OK to have Orcs or Hobgoblin in this cult?

It's fine to have existing monsters in the cult, but the point is to make new things.


is it allowed to homebrew a monster when it's merely copied from a previous editions as yet unpublished monsters from obscure references or later filler material in monster manuals?

And to answer this specific question, porting monsters that have not yet been ported from earlier editions is fine.

Also, just because there are stats for dragons doesn't mean you can't make a dragon the boss-you can easily make a new type of dragon, or a unique dragon of an existing type, or other options.

5E is a different beast from 3.5. There's no easy-to-cheese monster creation system, and no straitjackets for design space.

[Kadesh]

Does changing a spell list count as homebrew? Is making a spellcasting dragon enough? What about equipment changes? What about mounting guys on top of one another?

You have absolutely no mention of homebrew either in the OP. And if it is homebrew required why is this not in the homebrew section?

[Kalashak]

Does changing a spell list count as homebrew? Is making a spellcasting dragon enough? What about equipment changes? What about mounting guys on top of one another?

You have absolutely no mention of homebrew either in the OP. And if it is homebrew required why is this not in the homebrew section?
I think some degree of homebrew is pretty heavily implied through the use of 'design' when you're talking about 5th edition. If you're not making something, you're not really designing it are you?

[Kadesh]

I think some degree of homebrew is pretty heavily implied through the use of 'design' when you're talking about 5th edition. If you're not making something, you're not really designing it are you?

Making the mechanics is different that making a villain, though. Is Goldfinger a memorable villain because of what his Stat sheet says, or what his actions are?

If I create my Orcish Cultists, am I going to be penalised because I used Orcs, and not because I created Yellow Necked Pygmy Dragonfly Winged Walrus Beetle cults?

[JNAProductions]

Making the mechanics is different that making a villain, though. Is Goldfinger a memorable villain because of what his Stat sheet says, or what his actions are?

If I create my Orcish Cultists, am I going to be penalised because I used Orcs, and not because I created Yellow Necked Pygmy Dragonfly Winged Walrus Beetle cults?

Kadesh, I'd like to politely ask you to accept that the competition is what it is, and not just continue to try to crap on it.

Part of the competition IS the fluff-a perfect statblock won't get you first place, you need good personalities and stories to go with it.

And no, you will not take penalties for making an Orcish Cult. You would have some already-filled design space, but so long as you explore something new for the bare minimum of two types of mooks, a singular lieutenant, and a singular boss (notably, while there's lot of Orcish mooks, there aren't many boss or lieutenant suitable monsters in printed books) but if you make good crunch and fluff, you'll do miles better than someone who makes a crappy statblock and story for the One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple Eater.

Edit: Also, a lot of those complaints are perfectly valid against the 3.5 competition, yet I don't see you bothering them there.

[Kadesh]

A lot of those complaints are not valid against the Villainous Competition 3.5 because they use the RAW ways of modifying monsters. You cannot create templates, you cannot increase HD beyond what the base creature allows, the assumption is that all class levels are associated, the magic items are created in accordance with the DMG rules, any classes, spells, skills and feats come from an existing book...

And now in the 5E, competition is now requiring me to make homebrew creatures of my own design, or I'll be penalized? 1 - Why? There might not be suitable reasons why I can't make a 1-20 theoretical cult plot line out of orcs alone, but delving into their backstory gives me a great number of potential hooks with other creatures.

I want to enter this competition, so I'm not piddling on It. I'm just questioning 2 things, why is being a villain (of various degrees) predicated on it not being written down in a book already, and what is the minimum needed for a monster to be considered homebrew?

Is a weapon swap enough? What about a spell swap? Or a spell list swap? What about a star array? How's about those creatures with optional spellcasting, does adding that to the creature count as homebrew?

I want to put in the worm for this, but I don't want that to be rewarded with 'oh, you've not homebrewed enough, here's 0 points'.

It seems arbitrary, and nonsensical.

[JNAProductions]

The monster has to be significantly changed from the original, if based on an existing one.

There's no hard line on that, but something like a weapon swap would almost certainly NOT qualify.

Just get your stuff done early, submit it, and if the judges (currently me and Unoriginal) think it's not changed enough, then we'll say so, and it can be changed before the deadline.

[Ganymede]

Wait, why are we submitting stat blocks instead of story hooks and motivations/goals?

[JNAProductions]

Wait, why are we submitting stat blocks instead of story hooks and motivations/goals?

There's both.

You're supposed to submit a homebrew statblock (minimum four, actually) along with fluff, including their motivations. Adventure hooks should logically progress from that.

[Astofel]

I don't even play 3.5 but I find the 3.5 forum's optimisation/design challenges to be fun to look at so I think I'll give this a shot now that it's in a system I actually fully understand. I just have a couple of questions first.
1. Do we need to tie our entries to some pre-existing setting? For example, could I make a cult dedicated to an evil deity that doesn't exist in any setting because I just made it up? Assuming of course that I gave this deity a proper fleshing-out in my entry.
2. Is there some kind of format we're expected to present our statblocks in? Or is it up to us, as long as everything that would be in a 5e statblock is represented somewhere?

[JNAProductions]

I don't even play 3.5 but I find the 3.5 forum's optimisation/design challenges to be fun to look at so I think I'll give this a shot now that it's in a system I actually fully understand. I just have a couple of questions first.
1. Do we need to tie our entries to some pre-existing setting? For example, could I make a cult dedicated to an evil deity that doesn't exist in any setting because I just made it up? Assuming of course that I gave this deity a proper fleshing-out in my entry.
2. Is there some kind of format we're expected to present our statblocks in? Or is it up to us, as long as everything that would be in a 5e statblock is represented somewhere?

1) No pre-existing setting is needed. Feel free to use one, but don't be beholden to it.

2) Try to make it close to the existing 5E statblocks, for consistency's sake, but as long as everything is there, should be good.

[JNAProductions]

How's everyone coming along?

[Rukelnikov]

I'll try to post mine before next weekend.

[JNAProductions]

I'll try to post mine before next weekend.

Reminder: DO NOT POST YOUR SUBMISSIONS!

PM them to me, and I will post them in-thread. Everyone will be credited AFTER judging is over.

[SunderedWorldDM]

Working on mine. Fluff is about done, but I still need mechanics, and I'll be quite busy very soon...

[Wryte]

Close to finishing mine, and second guessing whether I actually want to submit it or save it for a later contest. XD

Edit: Also, just realized that a major aspect of my backstory was based on a misunderstanding of some of the established lore, and is going to require rewrites.

[JNAProductions]

AND WE GOT ONE!

The first entry is on the homebrewery, found here (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/rkbZEC9V44). I should've made clear that I want it formatted for just an ordinary forum post, but ah well.

I have a distinct feeling this will be the winner, since it's literally the only entry. That being said, on first glance, it also looks pretty cool.

More detailed feedback will be done after work.

[Man_Over_Game]

I'm unsure of how many judges you'd like to be using for this, but I would love to be one.

I'm really interested to see where this goes. Great idea!

[Edit], Oh, thread made over two weeks ago. I guess having more judges than participants doesn't really help things, huh?

[JNAProductions]

I'm unsure of how many judges you'd like to be using for this, but I would love to be one.

I'm really interested to see where this goes. Great idea!

[Edit], Oh, thread made over two weeks ago. I guess having more judges than participants doesn't really help things, huh?

I mean, the contest submission period ends today, and the judging period starts soon.

Honestly, given my proclivity for creation, I'll probably submit something to the next one instead of judging.

That being said, stick around, offer critique on the Daughters of Titania. I'm sure the entrant will appreciate advice on how to make better.

[Man_Over_Game]

I mean, the contest submission period ends today, and the judging period starts soon.

Honestly, given my proclivity for creation, I'll probably submit something to the next one instead of judging.

That being said, stick around, offer critique on the Daughters of Titania. I'm sure the entrant will appreciate advice on how to make better.

Really quite a shame, too. I had made up a whole slew of fungal zombies/beasts to accompany a cult worshipping an extraplanar fungus, but I just don't have the time to write everything for an entry. Maybe next time.

[MrStabby]

Ah, I hadn't seen this when it was on the front page! Too much work on at the time. Would love to have had a go if I had seen it sooner.

Would love to be a judge though if there are any vacant spots there

[Unoriginal]

I propose a 4-days extension to the submission period.

[Rukelnikov]

I'm sorry I've been with a lot of work and prepping for weekly sessions, couldn't make anything worth submitting.

[Wryte]

Not a judge, but I'd second the extension. It'd be a real bummer for the first contest to end uncontested.

[JNAProductions]

Well, not quite uncontested...

Second entry here (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HkwIAVvj44).

That being said, I'll give it a few more days. Work quickly, entrants!

[Wryte]

Well, it's been over a week. Does anyone out there have a pending submission, or are the judges ready to move on to the judging phase?

[Xihirli]

Hey I’d like to enter with a team of five villains.

Second thought these won’t be done in time I’ll catch the next one.

[JNAProductions]

Sorry, got a little caught up with work and whatnot.

The judgement is upon us!

Unfortunately, my judgement will be a bit delayed. Getting caught up on other stuff.

[Wryte]

Is it cool to make suggestions for future villain prompts, btw?

[Wryte]

I don't want to harp on this, but it's been two weeks since the judging started, and almost a month since the competition was originally supposed to end. Is this still happening? Should we be expecting a second competition by the end of this month? I've been wanting to participate in one of these villain competitions ever since I read Rich's Villain Design Workshop article years ago, so I was really excited when this was posted, and I really hope it's not dead in the water already. :smallfrown: