Post/Author/DateTime	Post
WotC_Mel 01-25-06, 01:28 PM	A committee of WizOs have narrowed the feild, now it is up to you to choose the winning entry for the Tactics and Tips contest (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/tt/20051225a)!
Artexerxees 01-27-06, 08:48 AM	To me the Dragon seems the badest creature in the mix. Then again, Who's to argue with Dragons. :)
superpriest 01-27-06, 10:25 AM	I hope these are edited for spelling, grammar, and rules accuracy before being uploaded to the site.
Mercurius 01-27-06, 11:13 AM	I still don't quite understand how we can pick an actual tactic to fight something that hasn't even had its rules finalized yet. Both of its main special abilities keep being mentioned with the caveat that they'll be hammered out and worked into viable rules before the creature comes to be, yet we're supposed to have tactics for abilities that we're not even sure work the way we think they do? It just doesn't make much sense to me. I'll abstain. Courteously.
JohnnyONeal 01-27-06, 11:33 AM	Hmm. I think Light Dragon's choice is the best-written of the pieces, and I like the flavor text. It's my opinion that some of the more interesting and thorough entries didn't get picked, though they were perhaps too wordy. (Mine included. :)) I was particularly impressed by superpriest's demystification of the wild magic aura (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=8165000&postcount=31).
MindWandererB 01-27-06, 12:52 PM	I didn't want to get involved in this, since my own piece is up for votes, but I've read Light Dragon's piece (which is currently winning by a landslide), and I'm severely disappointed. The flavor text (which is entertaining, and I wish I'd thought of it) is actually inaccurate. Mialee's lightning bolt spell is an area effect, and thus not subject to Blasphemous Geometries. 10' reach weapons are recommended, but they don't help. You have to be 10' away to use a 10' reach weapon, and that puts you in Blasphemous Geometries range. Cone of despair is listed as a particularly useful spell, but it works no better on the [AMM] than on anything else. I can't think of any reason why it was mentioned. Same goes for protection from evil, which was listed as a must-have but is hardly mandatory. As I mentioned in my piece, summoned monsters are actually a bad idea, since mobbing the [AMM] reduces the chance of anything actually hitting it. Must haves: meteor swarm. Come on. A must-have? You've gotta be kidding. There are plenty of ways of dealing damage that are effective besides busting out the meteors. And the [AMM] could be as low as CR 15, and level 15 parties just don't have this spell, so what then? While I admire Light Dragon's writing, I'm moderately horrified that his poor tactics are getting all the votes. I wouldn't mind losing to someone else, who actually had good tactics, but this is embarassing. I hope future voters will keep these factors in mind.
Rocketboy13 01-27-06, 01:03 PM	Really I think that people are going for light dragon simply because it is first and if people like something right off the bat, and who can blame them he has good flavor text to dress it up, they pick it. Who needs to look at gold if they already have some shiny silver that satisfies them just fine. If light dragon were last he would probly have a comparable range to the others, but again, the one at the top of the list would have a good edge. :P
superpriest 01-27-06, 03:20 PM	I was particularly impressed by superpriest's demystification of the wild magic aura (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=8165000&postcount=31). Thanks. My entry contains no flavor, because there is none to draw upon at this point. I agree with the poster who said it's premature to have had this contest. I didn't want to get involved in this, since my own piece is up for votes, but I've read Light Dragon's piece (which is currently winning by a landslide), and I'm severely disappointed. You are right to be disappointed. However, your entry isn't perfect in terms of grammar or mechanics. I don't see why you suggest some of the spells you do, since they can all malfunction. As for antimagic field, I belive you're entirely incorrect as to how the spell works.
davethebrave371 01-27-06, 04:01 PM	Anoter vote for "Premature Vote" I'd have to see the completed creature. I still voted though, since Tarkahn did a good job with the information available.
Board_Rider 01-27-06, 04:05 PM	I will not call anyone out, however I feel that there are a couple of entrants above that should feel lucky that they are being represented. I would love to know the grading criteria that the WiZO's used to "thin the herd" so to speak. Personally, and this is not meant to be mean, I would be sorely dissapointed as a WoTC purchaser if any of those tactics (save for a few things found in each entry) above were printed as "offical" tactics in an upcoming supplement. Good luck to whomever wins though...thats a pretty rightous thing. If whoever wins already has the Spell Compendium, PM me and I will send you my home address. Be :cool:, BR
MindWandererB 01-27-06, 04:58 PM	Well, I also thought the contest was premature--I personally thought it was pretty pointless to write tactics without knowing its ability scores, armor class, spell resistance, spell-like abilities, etc., etc. But I saw other people were doing it, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I agree that each set of tactics is missing things, even my own. I'm also quite aware that I went out on a limb with antimagic field, since no two people play that spell the same way (I wish they'd actually written that Rules of the Game column they scrapped). I wouldn't have expected mine to get selected for that reason if nothing else. I think I'll be somewhat horrified in any event, whichever article gets "published." They all contain problems, some of which will be severe problems once the final design decisions are made. Publishing any one of these as official will be incomplete at best, simply wrong at worst (as Light Dragon's submission would be). I'm very curious about WotC's decision-making procedure as well, as there were several other entries that I thought deserved nomination more than these. superpriest: I can't find any grammatical errors in my entry, but perhaps you mean to comment on the ease of reading. I agree it's a bit dense (my writing is usually geared toward an academic audience), but it's not incorrect as far as I can tell. And yeah, order effects are ugly things. I would hope that WotC would re-randomize the order of presentation every day or so, but then I don't think they care that much to put in the effort.
yourReality 01-27-06, 05:51 PM	Agreed for premature, i mean...without all the knowledge about a creature it's next to impossible to find a strategy.
Elessar Alpha 01-27-06, 07:28 PM	Um, I thought I should point out to Khahli, based on the information that I've gathered from the other four entries strongly emphasizing the presence of evil fey, that characters fighting the AMM probably aren't going to be fighting dryads or nymphs, both usually chaotic good, or even satyrs. In fact, I've looked through a bunch of books containing monsters, including MM, MM2, ELH, and Frostburn, and the only evil fey I've found have been the Jermelaine (CR 1/2) and the Hoary Hunter with Steed (CRs 25 and 9, respectively). I don't think anyone can really suggest a number of specifics for tactics against the minions except for those used against fey in general. Does anyone have a large list of evil fey on hand?
aelryinth 01-27-06, 08:50 PM	I happen to agree with the idea that this is much too soon. For instance, when I posted my build, I noted the fact that the AMM is FAR more effective against swarms of creatures then fighting a single creature...but this assumes it has melee power and an ability to 'tank'. Otherwise, it is horrendously vulnerable to the buffed up 'champion' attack because it can't deflect attacks at all. We need to know considerably more about the combat capabilities of the AMM before there can be a good write up...including modes of travel, speed, AC, melee ability, hit points, and any other special abilities. ==Aelryinth
Capfalcon 01-27-06, 09:42 PM	I agree with all of the above on the prematureness of the contest, but I would like to point out that LightDragon's fluff is just that. Fluff. It was made the post more enjoyable, and he was the only one who bothered to do that. So that got my vote, because all of the articles were roughly equal on pure tactics and tips.
Whisper_Swiftblade 01-27-06, 09:55 PM	looks like Light Dragon will win.
cwslyclgh 01-28-06, 12:54 AM	The flavor text (which is entertaining, and I wish I'd thought of it) is actually inaccurate. Mialee's lightning bolt spell is an area effect, and thus not subject to Blasphemous Geometries. while I agree with this statement, I have to ask how that differs from any of the tactic and tips articles that WotC puts up on their website... (although I was glad to see that the editors corrected the incorpreal-ethereal thing from the begining of the months article) :)
The_Newborn 01-28-06, 07:18 AM	I agree that the vote is premature for something that is not yet finished but it could be just that. Prehaps the point of the vote is to hammer out the kinks in the AMM. As I see it the entrants all had some similarities and some differences. The result could be used to fine tune the mechanics of the new abilities. I was wondering if any entries included the transdimensional spell metamagic feat as a means to overcome the blasphemous geometries with spells (wild magic aside...)? With that in mind my main disappointment is the inclusion of flavor text. It has no bearing on the issue at hand and should have been cut out. A good idea but irrelevant and tends to confuse those with poor will saves. One person already admited to voting because of the flavor text and not the actual issue, and I'm positive they weren't the only one. It may be "cool" to smoke but you still get cancer and die. I will try vote as true as possible.
GhostStepper 01-28-06, 03:02 PM	These strategies may not be totally applicable once the details of the creature's abilities are fully fleshed out and none of them are likely to be complete by any means but i see this as an exercise in what players must often do in campaigns. Unless your players know the specific monsters you use in and out, the strategies they usually come up with tend to be pretty general based on the information their character has available. If they hear from the locals that some travelers where attacks by creatures that smelled of rotted flesh they may not know specifically what kind of monster it was but will prepared to fight something undead and make sure they''ve got their holy water and cleric with them. These strategies can only be only slightly better than a character's strategy when facing a creature he's never faced. Sure he knows about aberrations and fey, and maybe some other adventurer has lived to describe it's strange "blasphemous geometries" ability, but he still can't come up with a comrehensive strategy agains such a foe. All the other winning tactics articles assume that every detail of a spefic enemy is layed out already; we dont have that benefit here.... I agree with what everyone who is saying this contest is a bit premature. Why not just wait till the thing is complete to do this?
Mocker 01-28-06, 10:07 PM	I choose....drum role please....the Light Dragon! Since I didn't know what the others were...I just went with...what the heck...Dragon. (who would of thunk it...with a game called "Dungeons & Dragons"!P ) 'nuff said! Mocker
darkness ninja of light 01-29-06, 11:57 AM	I for one, had to take a good hard look at this contest to figure out what it was about. The previous polls I'd seen were about making the creature. When I first looked at this poll I was under the impression that we were deciding the final look, tactics, stats, and flavor text of the creature. I wonder if it's possible that some people are choosing "Light Dragon" because they think it's a monster (despite not being an aberration in the least...).
The_Newborn 01-29-06, 05:49 PM	I choose....drum role please....the Light Dragon! Since I didn't know what the others were...I just went with...what the heck...Dragon. (who would of thunk it...with a game called "Dungeons & Dragons"!P ) 'nuff said! Mocker Hey if you can't form a valid opinion don't vote, it isn't compulsory. You could have at least made an effort,the people who created the enties did. Why do you deem your lathargic flop of a vote. As to not knowing, they are all the same thing you mayas well have rolled a dice. It isnt evenan actual dragon! I sure hope this isn't the standard method used by the design and development team at wizards. Though it would explain how Bush became president (Shrubbery vs Viscera)...
kaphremthefox 01-30-06, 12:44 PM	Has it truly degenerated into this? I read over the submissions, and didn't catch a single strategy that would make Sun-Tzu call out from the grave. Plans are either too elaborate, or to simplistic. Given the lack of a statistical model from which to generate a strategy, it seems a given that those who submitted strategies would come up with a concept themselves. If Design and Development is depending on these strategy submissions to counter with a completed design, then the final product is sure to be mediocre. I wish now I'd submitted something myself. I'm sorry Design and Development, but I can't bring myself to vote on a single entry here. If you're wise, you'll extend the submission date and pick some real winners. :confused: Another abstention. Cliff
BigJMoney 01-30-06, 01:55 PM	I'm not going to make a huge deal out of this, but I think this vote is a joke. LightDragon's is obviously the fluffiest and most lightweight on 'tactics', yet it retain's the highest vote. Why? Who knows. I'm not going to create a new assumption, but I have a feeling a lot of people here have no idea what they're voting about. My low faith in Forum Polls is continually being validated. =$= Big J Money =$= PS -- No I'm not telling who I voted for.
Kr0m 01-30-06, 03:40 PM	MindwandererB: "...and swarms are horrible (since they consist of more than ten creatures, a swarm within 10 feet reduces the chance of hitting the [AMM] to zero)." Monster Manual: "Swarm Subtype: A swarm is a collection of Fine, Diminutive or Tiny creatures that acts as a single creature. A swarm has the characteristics of its type, except as noted here. A swarm has a single poll of Hit Dice and hit points, a single initiative modifier, a single speed, and a single Armor Class. A swarm makes saving thorws as a single creature." The swarm should be considered a single oponent. Light Dragon: "Attacks From Afar. Ranged attacks and attacks made by adventurers with 10ft. reach weapons can do massive damage to the [AMM] without fear that its blasphemous geometries will reflect the damage back to the adventurers." The required weapon reach to avoid the Basphemous Geometries is 15 feet instead of just 10 feet. Khahli: "In addition, mirror image, and summoned monsters can aid a lot to split up the redirected attacks to multiple opponents" Mistaken thought; summoned monsters within Blaspheomous Geometries radius would increase the chance of redirection, which is not very clever. Mirror Image is just an ilusion, not actual opponents. Even if they were considered real opponents it wouldn't be a good tactic for the same summoned creature's reason. The winner should be Dsugui or Tarkhan. My favourite is Dsugui, but Tarkahn's article considers the forest terrain as something relevant; so I doubt between these two participants.` IMHO, the tactics I described on my article were the best, but probably my writting is the worst because I am Spanish; so English is not my maternal language and I have not achieved the proper language dependent level, hehe. I will do it better the next time.
Kr0m 01-30-06, 05:02 PM	I've read Light Dragon's piece (which is currently winning by a landslide), and I'm severely disappointed. I agree on everything you have said. Light Dragon's article is not useful at all, because he has focused in storytelling and has described just obvious tactics, as well as some wrong tactics. Maybe it is the best novel, but definitely it is not the best Tactics and Tips article. J.L. Forges once said: Democracy is an abuse of statistics. Votations are undoubtly useful to obtain balanced choices, but they are impregnated by mediocrity too often. Votations deal better with popular choices than with optimal choices. That's why I think this votation is not going to reward the best Tactics and Tips article, but the most popular, easy-reading and useless one.
Neo-Sapian 02-01-06, 02:09 AM	A lot of people are dissing on LightDragon for reasons I can't understand. Every other finalist had basically the same vague strategy and tips. LightDragon seemed to be the most precise. Given the fact that the AMM's rules aren't complete I think he/she did a great job. Protection from evil and summon monster spells are great; why they aren't given more credit is beyond me. If a caster can't get near the AMM then he can summon a monster to grapple the AMM or fight it and if the summoned monster dies, so what, the caster can summon another one. If the caster has a bunch of scrolls then he/she can summon all day long, while being protected inside a protection from evil spell. I also don't understand why people are bad mouthing LightDragon's intro. Sure it's nothing more than flavor, but most of the fun of D&D is flavor. I sure wouldn't buy a book if it was nothing but stat blocks. By the way, just because most people don't agree with you, it doesn't mean they're dumb. Complaining about everyone being simpletons because they don't agree with you makes you sound like a pretentious sore loser. I voted for LightDragon because it was the best writing (which does matter) and provided the best tactics.
snowstrider 02-01-06, 10:32 AM	Personally, I think all the tacticians are forgetting a few things. Namely, alchemical items. Alchemical items are relatively cheap compared to magic items and can often times get a bigger effect, wanna slow the thing down, tanglefoot bag, want to deal some extra damage without having to worry about the wild magic aura? Use alchemist's fire. Am I really the only one who thought of these things? Or did someone else think of them as well and their tactics just weren't included for the poll? None of them get my vote, because Im not sure how well they will actually work. Most of them consist of separating the party, and in the movies, when people separate, they die. So it goes for DnD, people need to be crafty and outsmart the mastermind (hard to do but bear with me) not just attack it head on and hope they can cut through its special abilities.
DSugui 02-01-06, 12:55 PM	It seems I got nominated... Well, I also think this contest was held too early. In fact, I though that the first moment I decided to write the entry. We knew too little about the monster, and the few pieces of information we had were too vague. We had too work with assumptions and unknown facts, and that's not easy. So, before you bad mouth the entries here, think about it. Second, I'd like to remember that the entry should be going to the "Tatics and Tips" colum in the D&D website. I, at least, tried to follow the format the existent articles have. None of them have "flavor text", and, although it's cool, it does not fit the colum. And it seems that people are voting withou even knowing on what. This really bothers me, because, as already said, the winner could not be the best tatics. But I am just happy I got nominated. Best luck to all, for it seems that luck alone will determine the winner...
Tarkahn 02-01-06, 02:57 PM	It seems that there is a great deal of confusion over what is being voted on. Some people think it's for a supplement, some think we're voting on names (using our forum names as the choices), and others are just voting at random. I'm one of the choices, and even I don't want to vote. Wizards, please hear our voices: HOLD ON! This contest a bit premature. Frankly, what I'd suggest is keeping the winners, and then allow us to rewrite a new Tactics & Tips column based on the new information. If that's no good, at least make the poll more clear. At first glance, it is hard to tell the names are actually links to the articles. Also, there are no criteria suggested. Depending on people to make informed choices without giving instructions is not going to work. ... Moving on, I would like to say that we should lay off Light Dragon a bit. It isn't his fault he is getting all the votes. Yes, he does deserve some of his votes. It isn't fair to say, "Oh, he's getting votes 'cause people are dumb." Granted, some of the comments in this thread are indicating that is the case for at least a few votes. However, this isn't enough info to completely blow his work out of the water.
Caelos 02-01-06, 07:28 PM	Light Dragon: The intro text repeats the word "aberration" so much it gets tedious. It is hard to avoid since the creature has no name, but I think if you can't make your story pretty, don't make it yet. The story intro is a good idea, and I'd like to see it in future Tactics and Tips articles. I'm sure people at WotC thought so too. However, the implementation here is not as lively as it could have been. The presumption that it's good to grapple the [AMM] because it has a low strength score is premature. Dragons, aboleths, krakens, pit fiends, and vampires are all masterminds with superior strength. I would not want to grapple any of them. The quotation about keeping friends and enemies far is an attempt to alter an old saying to fit the situation. The idea itself is potentially witty, but it needs some work, because it reads awkwardly and only works for the [AMM]. It would be much more impressive to have a traditional saying that works well for everyone, but is especially relevant to the [AMM]. The presented [AMM] tactic of hiding while sending forth its minions is a good idea for the creature, but the article is supposed to be about tactics to fight against the creature. We don't know if the creature can turn invisible or hide. Hiding would be difficult for a large creature. Reach attacks require more than the 10 ft. recommended here to avoid the blasphemous geometries. Recommendations for attack spells are adequate. Magic circle against evil doesn't help any more than the basic protection from evil. The saving throw and AC bonuses are nice, but also not especially excellent either. If any of the enemies were extraplanar, it might make more sense to recommend this. Light Dragon definitely wins some points from me for taking chances and trying to be creative, but the cons of useless tactics far outweigh the pros in the end. Dsugui: No specifics are given for how much reach is desired in a reach melee attack. One would want at least 15 ft. reach to avoid blasphemous geometries, which is difficult without being an unusual race or having feat or magic augmentations. Needing an enlarge spell and a reach weapon is mentioned later, but the reasoning is not explained. It feels disconnected. The reference to tactics from other articles is flattering. I'm glad Dsugui liked my acid fog suggestion. However, since this is supposed to be a stand-alone article, references to competitors are inappropriate. I do appreciate that Dsugui credits others though. It seemed fairly common for the later submissions to be inspired by earlier ones. The questions near the end under the "It's a Trap" heading are a bit too generic to be in an article about fighting a specific creature. Every party should always be considering these questions, so devoting a whole section to advice that should already be obvious is a waste. MindwandererB: Good job mentioning the [AMM]'s lack of attacks. This creature is laughable. Finally, an article that mentions the importance of 15 ft. reach, and even a reasonable way to achieve it with the enlarge spell. Kudos. Analysis of the "Spring Attack" type tactics is well done. Ouch, the word "buffing" is used. It's MMORPG lingo, and well understood by most of us, but probably doesn't have a place in a serious and otherwise tasteful article. Analysis of the importance of high caster level versus multiclass casters is well done. The antimagic field suggestion is too controversial. As a DM, I definitely wouldn't allow a spell to be cast within the field, although I do see the reasoning behind allowing it. Something written for an tactics article should be acceptable to most people reading it. Call lightning series is an excellent suggestion. This is superb writing. I still like mine better, but maybe it was too wordy. Tarkhan: Good job mentioning the line-of-sight problems in the forest. That particular challenge had occurred to me, but I didn't talk about it much in my article, because I couldn't think of a solution. Actually, Tarkhan doesn't offer a solution either. I suppose flying and dropping fireballs into the forest could do the job if the trees weren't too dense. It's unclear whether the wild magic aura uses the standard DC for natural auras, or the special DC stated in the [AMM] description or both. Tarkhan assumes only the standard DC, I think, but that's not really his/her fault. The power was just written unclearly. Magic items are not normally immune to wild magic. Mentioning the benefits of bardic music is very nice, and I don't remember many other submissions that include it. Inspired archers could be very effective. Bear's endurance feels out of place. It's not any more effective against the [AMM] than it would be against any other enemy. This contrasts with the other more useful suggestions Tarkhan has made. It's especially inappropriate given that it boosts hit points, and as far as I can tell, the [AMM] has no way of inflicting damage unless it is attacked first. Defense is a fairly low priority when fighting a monster that can't fight back. Khahli: Using summons to split up redirected attacks is inefficient. Having multiple creatures near the [AMM] just causes more redirections and makes it take longer to defeat it. If mirror image does count as a target for redirection, it could provide protection for an attacker, but like summoned monsters, images also hinder the attacker too much to be worthwhile. A party should never have more than 1 high strength monster in melee or grapple with the [AMM] so that interference with other attacks is minimized. Like Tarkhan, Khahli assumes the standard DC for a wild magic aura from the DMG rather than the DC provided in the [AMM] description. Again, this is not Khahli's fault, but something that needs to be made clear in the creature description. This, and many of the submissions focus a lot on dealing with the minions. This is understandable because we know little about the [AMM] itself. However, a tactics article against a creature shouldn't have much focus on the minions, because the monster is meant to be a challenge by itself. Mind flayers are known to have minions like duergar, quaggoth, intellect devourers, and umber hulks, but they are also meant to be dangerous opponents by themselves. The tactics article on the mind flayer centered on fighting the monster, not its pawns. Going so far as to prescribe tactics based on assumptions about specific fey minion types is going way too far, especially since the fey mentioned typically aren't evil. Use magic device with a spectral hand want and cure spells is a great idea. Final Ratings: 1. MindwandererB - good writing, ideas, analysis; delete antimagic! 2. Tarkhan - very close 2nd, good overall, potion use error 3. Khahli - multiple tactical errors, too much minion focus, good spectral hand idea 4. Dsugui - a few good ideas, writing style lacks power 5. Light Dragon - inappropriate tactics, creative, careless assumptions I also think this tactics contest is premature. I'd also like someone to say how these 5 finalists were selected. MindwandererB and Tarkhan have some problems, but they are good writers and careful tacticians. Light Dragon didn't show a lot of good tactics or good writing, but is stylistically innovative, at least. Khahli and Dsugui don't really stand out, having the expected good and bad elements to their articles, which is why they feel REALLY out of place as finalists. Have people noticed that with the vote on 2 extra defensive abilities for the [AMM], the creature now has FOUR aura type defensive powers and still NO attack? This thing is pathetic. I, for one, will feel very safe just sitting in a tree and sniping the [AMM] to death at my leisure. It has a flaming aura - FLAMING. Even if I was unfamiliar with the creature and knew nothing about the blasphemous geometries, I still wouldn't melee it. Ah, but I couldn't melee it even if I wanted to, because it also has a REPULSION FIELD! Arrows and tanglefoot bags are my best friend. CR 15? I call that free experience lunch.
Caelos 02-01-06, 07:35 PM	Actually, I kind of hope Light Dragons wins. It would be rather funny if that article were published and none of the tactics worked. Maybe then WotC will refine their creature crafting and tactics contests to work better the next time around. I hope there is a next time. They are fun ideas, but just not all that well implemented this first time around.
pikebody 02-02-06, 12:21 AM	Wizards did a horrible job on the contest. All the contestants sound the same and there are errors in every article given. I guess Wizards didn't want to edit them and lose something, but that's not a reason to post it as is. I like Tarkahn's idea. We should finish the creature and then write the article. If Wizards wants to keep those chosen and use them, fine. Whatever. Just don't publish crap. PS. Anyone notice that Light Dragon has yet to respond?
monkeybelief 02-02-06, 02:33 PM	How was the potion thing wrong? i thought that the amm only effected spells and spell-like abilities. A potion isn't a spell.
Caelos 02-03-06, 12:14 PM	How was the potion thing wrong? i thought that the amm only effected spells and spell-like abilities. A potion isn't a spell. It seems I must amend my earlier criticism of the potion idea. I swear I read that wild magic affected items as well as spells, at least those from potions and wands, which are simply spell charge storage devices. Apparently, I was wrong though. Upon re-reading the rules for wild magic, it appears to only affect spells and spell-like abilities as monkeybelief said, at least according to a literal interpretation of them. Well, that gives Tarkhan extra points from me. It's a pity I already voted. Well, I'm not sure if it would make a difference to anyone anyway, since by this point, Light Dragon has already won. I don't like Light Dragon's article very much, but I feel bad for him/her that he/she has to receive all this harsh criticism on the board. It's a bit sad. I think if I had to tell Light Dragon to his/her face that I didn't like the article, I would be too scared to. I hope Light Dragon isn't scared away from the board or from writing because of this.
420 02-03-06, 08:16 PM	I participated in every other You Craft the Creature vote except this one. I'm more of the D&D computer game buff and I just don't know enough about the PnP mechanics to feel that my opinion in this category would be valid. However I do know a thing or two about monsters! In fact, I've looked through a bunch of books containing monsters, including MM, MM2, ELH, and Frostburn, and the only evil fey I've found have been the Jermelaine (CR 1/2) and the Hoary Hunter with Steed (CRs 25 and 9, respectively). I don't think anyone can really suggest a number of specifics for tactics against the minions except for those used against fey in general. Does anyone have a large list of evil fey on hand? I suspect this book is the reason evil fey was voted in: Ragewalker NE CR: 14 Red Cap CE CR: 2 (young), 7 (elder) Splinterwaif NE CR: 2 (normal), 6 (Knave) Also, possibly the best D&D resource on fey in general: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/fey (Fey Feature Archive) Hoarfroster NE CR: 8 Bile Wrapped in Beauty NE CR: 5 I suspect there may be one or two in the Fiend Folio but I don't have that one on hand. -420
Delvesdeep 02-05-06, 11:07 PM	There seems to me to be a large amount of people who appear bitter and jealous about how this vote is proceding. I find the whole thing rather humorous really considering the nature of the contest. After all this is a popularity contest pure and simple, as much as it is an affirmation of well contructed and thought out tactics and strategies. I enjoyed Light Dragons prelude immensely and found his tactics extremely interesting and well thought out but I feel there are some who are engaging heavily in the 'tall poppy' syndrome (i.e. knock down anyone who appears to be doing better than yourself). I for one applaud Light Dragons work and success and judging by the voting, I am in the majority here. Constructive critism is always welcome in situations such as this but fruitless jibes, emotional insults, rediculous theories and unsubtantiated claims merely show jealousy and poor character. I hope (and feel quite confident in my wish) that Light Dragon wins by a landslide because nothing speaks louder in a contest than the outcome. Go Light Dragon!