Pathfinder Grab Bag Competition XXIV Voting thread

Entry	Author	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place	Total	MLTSP Votes	MUE Votes
Mehndi	Adam1949	0	9	1	10	1	0
Instinct Disciple	Phillammon	21	3	0	24	3	0
Bravosi Water Dancer	Stake a Vamp	0	0	1	1	0	0
Blade Juggler	ObliviMancer	0	0	0	0	0	1
Exotic Expert	gr8artist	14	0	2	16	1	0
Haz-dul Haz-dul favored class options and feats	dragonjek	0	3	1	4	0	4

Unfortunately, the Ryukyu Mistress, the Servant of Edge, the Perfect Blade and the Ferric Paragon are disqualified for being incomplete by the deadline.

Welcome one and all to the Voting thread for the twenty-fourth Pathfinder Grab Bag Competition! We have six 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 May 30th and the winners will be declared May 31st.

Right then, let's get these votes on the road.

First Place: Instinct Disciple. This class is just so simple, yet so elegant. It knows exactly what it's doing, and it does it with absolute effectiveness. The prerequisites are simple enough to attain by anyone who would be looking forward to using those sorts of skills, and the abilities that it offers are useful without being overpowering. This class is great, just great.

Second Place: Haz-Adul. This race is like nothing I've ever seen before, and yet is everything I never knew I wanted. It's a bit difficult to get through at first, but overall this weapon-attuned race is an excellent addition to the game, something that will really stick out in players' memories.

Third Place: Exotic Expert. This prestige class is simple, clean, and elegant. Nothing fancy or frilly here.

Most Likely to See Play: Exotic Expert. Because people who burn a feat on getting a strange weapon should have the opportunity to be rewarded for their choice.

Most Unique Entry: Haz-Adul. As mentioned before, this race is unlike any that I've seen before. I'm very happy to see it in existence, now!

1st Place: Instinct Disciple
Simple, straightforward, and easy to use, there's nothing wrong with this class, other than perhaps a few grammar or composition errors. The idea is clear and concise, and good at what it does.
2nd Place: Mehndi
Though possibly not as in-depth as the other racial entry, the Mehndi wins me over in clarity and culture. I like the idea, the mechanics, and the decisions you made. Hell, I'm rolling one up for the campaign as we speak. There's something about the philosophy that seems lacking to me, though since I can't put a finger on it, I'll just call the feeling "jealousy" and be done with it.
3rd Place: Bravosi Water Dancer
Though there're several nitpicky things that are "off," I have to say I love the idea and the direction. The major points against you are the inability to actually pull off the Insight check, lack of function for Fear Cuts Deeper, and some slight design errors with Blade Defense. Still, I enjoyed the idea and the direction of the class, even if the execution was perhaps a little off.
MLTSP: Instinct Disciple
Though I'm rolling up a Mehndi for the campaign, I don't know that it'd normally see that much play. But I love dex builds, and the Instinct Disciple is right up my alley. I think it's also a little more appealing to the general population, but that's just me.
Most Unique Entry: Haz-Adul
This entry was so peculiar, unique, strange, and intimidating that I don't really know how to judge it on power or utility. I want to love it, and it seems to work ok, but I feel that there's a lot of overwhelming information that would make actually playing one seem complicated or awkward. Perhaps it's just me or my personal preference. You definitely made a proud showing in your first entry, and I look forward to seeing more from you.

Most Hopeful would be the Blade Juggler
You have the possibility for a really interesting class here, but a general confusion about the mechanics and eligibility of options really shot you in the foot. We provided a little guidance, but it didn't seem to make its way to paper, which was a bold decision on your part. Your prerequisites are atrocious, and your abilities don't work well or function like anything should really function... I feel that the class is so close to being really, really neat, and I hope you post it elsewhere and keep working on it.

1st: Instinct Disciple. There are some minor issues (Instinct Pool's meditation seems like it's missing a pass/fail point as suggested by its last sentence), but overall it does exactly what it's intended to do, has enough variation of options to work for a large number of different types of characters, and looks like it'll be fun doing it.

2nd: Mehndi. It fails one of my personal requirements for a well designed race, in that it has a bit too much focus on one aspect - being really good at weapons - but since that's, well.. the point of the contest there's room for leeway. Outside of that it's flavorful and clean, with only a few small editing details to polish out.

3rd: Exotic Expert. Honestly, my primary complaint with this class is that it has way too many options for a 5 level affair. Aside from that, the only problem I see with it is that there are permanent class options that are affected by a score that will change regularly, and everything else looks good.

MLTSP: Instinct Disciple. I can't say that I would personally ever use this, but it's exactly the type of thing that many Dex-builds would kill for.

MUE: Haz-Adul. This is seriously some major information overload, and I think it fails the same design point that Mehndi does, only to a much, much higher degree. To put it simply, there's no real room in making this character for anything other than an up-in-the-face melee, despite the plethora of options. That said, it is amazingly flavorful, and with another few polish passes it would be something incredibly cool to play with in a game.

First Place: Exotic Expert
When all's said and done, it's simple, it's an excellent antidote to the bulk of exotic weapons being next to useless (considering the feat cost), it's relatively versatile, and it doesn't overstep itself in terms of power. Excellent entry.

Second Place: Mehndi
I've said it before, but I'm more than happy to say it again- I really, really like the flavour on this entry. The refluffed religion and culture alone are enough to make this a good entry in its own right, and it's backed up with fun and reasonably strong mechanics.

Third Place: Haz-Adul
And on the other end of the scale, we have the Haz-Adul, filling in as "complex but awesome". The concept is excellent, and a lot of thought has gone into making it as versatile as possible within its niche. It does, unfortunately, suffer from being the sort of race that only really works well with one or two classes, but it's still a strong entry.

Most Likely To See Play: Mendhi
Simple but effective, with excellent synergy with many core martial classes, Mehndi look to be both easy to use and easy to build a character out of, two features that make it likely to see play, in my eyes.

Most Unique Entry: Haz-Adul
I don't really think I could justify putting this vote anywhere but on the Haz-Adul. Impressively detailed, well thought out, and come on, it's the living manifestation of a weapon made flesh. That's really quite cool indeed.

Votes tallied to here.

Bumping for more votes.

1st: Exotic Expert
I love the variety of exploits, and I feel that it fits the theme the best.

2nd: Instinct Disciple
I would have given this first place, but its weapon-based abilities aren't as prominent as I think they should be.

3rd: Mendhi
It's simple without being boring. That's a very good thing.

Most Likely To See Play: Instinct Disciple
This seems like it'd be fun to play as and a lot of different characters could take the class without being forced to be similar by the prerequisites or structure of the class.

Most Unique: Blade Juggler
He juggles weapons. I do not believe there is more to say than that.

(My apologies for that vote, I must have missed it when I checked the rules)

(I changed my vote minute or so before 12:00. But then I edited it again to put the apology in at 12:04. But I did edit my vote while it was still the 30th.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dragonjek

I'm a little leery of voting for my own entry, but I haven't seen a race or class like it before.

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Entrants are not allowed to place any votes for their own entries.
From the first post.

'Course, it's already 4-0 in his favor, I'm pretty sure he's taking the MUE trophy. :smalltongue:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gr8artist

'Course, it's already 4-0 in his favor, I'm pretty sure he's taking the MUE trophy. :smalltongue:

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... WOW. He literally got every vote. I didn't even notice.

Sorry about that. I seem to have missed it when I checked the rules.

Vote edited.

Extending this another day because I have the flu and won't let Gr8 do all the work. :smalltongue:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tanuki Tales

Extending this another day because I have the flu and won't let Gr8 do all the work. :smalltongue:

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So the flu ended up being even worse then I thought at the time. I'll close this up tonight, so any last minute votes should scoot in here.

Is this closed or what?
lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gr8artist

Is this closed or what?
lol.

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It's closed, I just got distracted with the game and being able to eat food again. >.>

Edit:

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


First Place - Instinct Disciple
Second Place - Exotic Expert
Third Place - Mehndi
Runner Up - Haz-dul


Most Likely to See Play - Instinct Disciple
Most Unique Entry - Haz-dul
Judge's Choice - Instinct Disciple