Pathfinder Grab Bag Competition XXV Voting thread

[Tanuki Tales]

Entry	Author	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place	Total	MLTSP Votes	MUE Votes
Zhànshù Tiāncái, the Coronet of the Master Tactician	Phillammon	21	3	0	24	2	1
Blaze Beneficiary	caledscratcher	0	0	0	0	0	1
Master Strategist Templates and Feats	gr8artist	7	3	1	11	2	1
Guileful Striker	ObliviMancer	0	0	2	2	1	0
Taxiarch Stratagems and Feats	dragonjek	0	6	1	7	0	1

Unfortunately, the Troubleshooter is disqualified for being incomplete by the deadline.

Welcome one and all to the Voting thread for the twenty-fifth Pathfinder Grab Bag Competition! We have five wonderful entries for you to peruse over, but only one will end up taking home the gold!

Now, the way the voting for this competition works is as follows:

• You receive five votes to cast.
• The first three votes are to be given to the entries that you believe should come in first, second and third place respectively. First place votes are worth seven points, second place three points and third place one point each. Keep in mind that such choices should go to the entries that you believe fit most closely to the given concept of the contest and not just the entries you like the most.
• The fourth vote is to be given to the entry that you believe is "Most Likely to See Play". This vote is cast for the entry that you could see yourself allowing as a DM or you could see yourself wanting to and being allowed to play at an actual game session by your DM.
• The fifth vote is to be given to the entry that you believe is the "Most Unique". This vote is cast for the entry that you least expected to see made for this competition and that stands out the most compared to it's peers.
• You may apply all types of votes to the same entry (but you of course cannot select the same entry for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place), but doing this does not better the chances of that entry winning anymore than if you selected three separate entries.
• Once you make your vote, that's final. You can not take it back or change it. The first vote I see and tally on the scoreboard is how it will be until the end of the voting period.
• Entrants are not allowed to place any votes for their own entries.
• Please give reasoning for why you selected an entry as the recipient of any of your votes.
• Please Bold your choice for each vote.
• In the case of any ties I will cast the tiebreaker vote.

The voting will remain open through July 27th and the winners will be declared July 28th.

[gr8artist]

I apologize for not giving reviews on these entries sooner, and will try to not hold my criticisms against you when making my votes.
Also, I really enjoy the concept for most of the entries.

1st: Zhànshù Tiāncái, the Coronet of the Master Tactician
So some of the specific abilities are problematic or overpowered, but overall it looks like a solid, working entry. I would never run the whole thing in one campaign, but the concept and mechanics behind it could be useful if toned down a little. You also get 1st place in my book for matching the criteria the best, directly and obviously encompassing the 36 stratagems in a workable way.
2nd: The Taxiarch
I don't know much about Psionics, and your failure to describe what a psionic focus IS and how you get one bothered me a little. This entry seems to match the criteria well, though relations to specific stratagems seem a little vague. I like the idea of what the class can do, more than I like some of the actual mechanics involved.
3rd: Guileful Striker
Though this entry probably synched up to the 36 stratagems a little more than the Taxiarch, I found the class to be a little too straightforward considering the wide variety of options that could have been at its disposal. Though it didn't affect my vote, the most annoying thing for me was the window of opportunity for Improved Maneuvers. I assume that the window lasts as long as the creature is denied its dex bonus against you, but I feel like some more description could be used there.

The Blaze Beneficiary may have done better with a little more polish, but to me it didn't seem to meet the criteria particularly well.

MLTSP: Guileful Striker
If it were based solely on which one "I" was most likely to play, the BB would have taken this vote. But, in general, I figure there's a better chance of this one acquiring interest and making players take another look at feints and dex builds.
It was a tough call between you and the less fleshed-out Blaze Beneficiary, with a 6-piece Coronet lingering in the background, but this is the kind of thing I could see patching up and putting to work.
MUE: Blaze Beneficiary
Taking one of the stratagems a little too literally kept you off my top three, but the flavor and interesting abilities landed you here. Your unorthodox approach to taking a metaphor literally made you stand out from the other entries. The BB is fun, interesting, and has a nice flavor, even if the mechanics are somewhat more lacking. And ease up on your entry requirements. Jeez.

[dragonjek]

1st: Master Strategist
It covers the stratagems well and has a strong tactical feel to it. I may be a bit biased, as I prefer PrCs to artifacts.

2nd: Zhànshù Tiāncái, the Coronet of the Master Tactician
These reasons are the same as the above. Although even for an artifact, some of those weapons are overpowered. Also, take 36 internet cookies for using Chinese.

3rd: Guileful Striker
This class's focus on just a handful of stratagems allowed it to specialize in a way that trying to wield all of them just wouldn't allow, and it does so well.

Most Likely to See Play: Master Strategist
I like lists of options in a class.

Most Unique Entry: Zhànshù Tiāncái, the Coronet of the Master Tactician
There were some incredibly creative abilities in with those weapons.

[Tanuki Tales]

Tallied to here.

[3WhiteFox3]

1st: Zhànshù Tiāncái, the Coronet of the Master Tactician
I really like the flavor, it's has a unique feel to it. It feels like it really embodies the ideas of strategy, tactics and all of the backstabbing and tragedy that tend to follow a truly great general. It feels very real and seems like it fits the 36 stratagems the best. Some of the weapons do seem too powerful compared to the others, but it has a really nice feel to it.

2nd: Master Strategist
A really nice PRC, however, it just feels like some of the stratagems were included as afterthoughts and while there are some really fun abilities, here, it kinda feels underwhelming. I keep wanting to see more powerful abilities (while I realize that it's kept on the lower side of power because of how stratagems can be shared) it's disappointing to see some of the stratagems rather pointless compared to the others. Overall, the class does feel the most like a strategist, it's just that a lot of these strategies aren't as potent or fight-turning as they should be; and since the class has little else it can do, it's dragged down.

3rd: Taxiarch
Psionics and leadership. I enjoy the subtler abilities of the Taxiarch and that it's loaded with fun, useful abilities. Almost to the point of being too much, I definitely worry about players having so many options and tools that they suffer from analysis-paralysis.

Most Likely to See Play: Zhànshù Tiāncái, the Coronet of the Master Tactician
I like that the artifact feels like something that I could actually put within one of my games (unlike many of the artifacts that I've seen) something that an entire campaign could be built around. People vying for possession of the weapons and the coronet itself. Players would also love the awesome weapons and hoping to hold onto the coronet long enough to do something significant with it. It feels something similar to the Book of Swords.

Most Unique Entry: Taxiarch
I didn't expect to see a class like this, especially since we already have a Psionic leader class (the Tactician). But this class is distinct in both execution and flavor. I really enjoyed it.

[ShiningStarling]

1st: Zhànshù Tiāncái, the Coronet of the Master Tactician
The flavor on this is great! I loved all the story and the little eccentricities, and all the Chinese names, and tons of little unique abilities! Spot on.

2nd: Taxiarch
A little densely written, but still very understandable, and the abilities look like a ton of fun to use, and at later levels you have tons of options, which is really when play has great fun potential imo.

3rd: Master Strategist
Very specialized, and not quite as useful as I think it could be, still a very solid PrC, and the templates to enter it at level one was such an interesting idea. Teams would probably love this class, though there's gonna be that DM that singles out your character for some kinda single combat, that probably wouldn't end well. Still looks like fun

Most Likely to See Play: Zhànshù Tiāncái, the Coronet of the Master Tactician
This artifact is running off the presses of martial campaigns, I can practically smell the modules already.

Most Unique Entry: Master Strategist
This one was the only one to deal with larger scale exclusively, which I found intriguing. Runner up: Taxiarch

[Tanuki Tales]

Tallied to here! Last day to vote everyone!

[Phillammon]

First Place: Master Strategist

I have something of a soft spot for simple but diverse martial PrCs, and this is a really simple, really diverse martial PrC. Great use of the theme, and there's a strong underlying concept of the general, leading his men from the front lines. The fact that the class is geared specifically towards mass combat was quite interesting, too.

Second Place: Taxiarch

Another strong concept here, almost feeling like the evil psionic counterpart to the master strategist. The use of the stratagems feels a bit clunkier here, I must admit, but it ties together well. I particularly like some of the non-combat powers, too- particularly Empathy and Sensory Network, they feel a lot like powers that a scheming psychic strategist would use. I have no idea what's going on with power points per day, though. Maybe there's some logic that I'm missing, maybe it's a typo, whatever.

Third Place: Guileful Striker

While it lacks the diversity of the Taxiarch or the Master Strategist, I like how the Guileful Striker manages to use the theme without overwhelming itself with options and text- in short, it manages to deliver on the theme with useful abilities without spreading itself too thin and remaining easy to use, something that some CORE PrCs don't do well.

Most Likely To See Play: Guileful Striker

The simplicity of the Guileful Striker is largely what leads me to put my vote here. A simple class is easier to play than a more complex one, by definition, and a Guileful Striker opens up options that are useful to have on an intelligent fighter-type character, and fit the role well.

Most Unique Entry: Taxiarch

Conversely, complexity tends to make for unique entries, and the Taxiarch is no exception. I liked the way that martial and psionic combat was combined in this entry, and the powers granted by the strategems were well thought out and fit the theme well. Close runner up here is the Master Strategist for much the same reasons, minus the combination of combative techniques.

[Tanuki Tales]

This Voting thread is officially closed and the winners in the Twenty Fifth Pathfinder Grab Bag Competition have been decided!


First Place - Zhànshù Tiāncái, the Coronet of the Master Tactician
Second Place - Master Strategist
Third Place - Taxiarch
Runner Up - Guileful Striker


Most Likely to See Play - Zhànshù Tiāncái, the Coronet of the Master Tactician
Most Unique Entry - Taxiarch
Judge's Choice - Guileful Striker

Sorry Phil, you were too late with your vote.