Non-Usual Homebrew: what to do? Sounding the coming... of MUHA 2!

[oslecamo]

Altering the brain is pretty much inevitable at that point. As for reconfiguring him to their needs, well, it's the military that's paying the tabs, and they want results. If the medics can't make the soldier useful to the military again, then they'll be fired. So just doing their jobs.

And the only alternative is the soldier becoming dead/invalid. Are you saying it would be a better act to deliver back a corpse/guy that can't do anything?

The good option would be for the soldier to get the treatment of his choice and sent back home to do whatever he wants.

But this is the neutral option. You were dragged in by the military, you stick with the military, you get altered by the military for military purposes.

[Raineh Daze]

But this is the neutral option. You were dragged in by the military, you stick with the military, you get altered by the military for military purposes.

Er, no, that's the evil option. That goes against basically every right people are guaranteed by law.

I don't get how you are ranking the complete destruction of someone's identity, erasure of all trace of their former physical self, and more or less annihilating their soul (back to the slaad example) as less evil than stealing someone's wallet. What, so soul trapping someone and raising their corpse is perfectly fine? Same effect--the body is now something else, the soul is out of the way.

[oslecamo]

But this is the neutral option. You were dragged in by the military, you stick with the military, you get altered by the military for military purposes.

Er, no, that's the evil option. That goes against basically every right people are guaranteed by law.

You should take a closer look at the law then. They can, they do, and they consider themselves exalted paragons of goodness while doing so. Actually, it's worse than I described, because it's 100% legal for recruiters to lie to you all they want before signing the pointed line.

I don't get how you are ranking the complete destruction of someone's identity, erasure of all trace of their former physical self, and more or less annihilating their soul (back to the slaad example) as less evil than stealing someone's wallet.

Yes, I consider that changing someone's personality and body is better than making them slowly starve to death. This is, it's kinda the basis of life. People get reshaped in body and mind all the time to adapt in certain tasks depending on the current needs.

What, so soul trapping someone and raising their corpse is perfectly fine? Same effect--the body is now something else, the soul is out of the way.

There's a big difference between trapping a soul and changing it. You can't use changed soul as spell components for one.

But I guess soul destruction/capture should qualify as tainting acts, gonna add them now.

[Raineh Daze]

But this is the neutral option. You were dragged in by the military, you stick with the military, you get altered by the military for military purposes.

Er, no, that's the evil option. That goes against basically every right people are guaranteed by law.

You should take a closer look at the law then. They can, they do, and they consider themselves exalted paragons of goodness while doing so. Actually, it's worse than I described, because it's 100% legal for recruiters to lie to you all they want before signing the pointed line.

... just because they do it, does not make it neutral. Hint, Lawful Evil is an alignment for a reason.

I don't get how you are ranking the complete destruction of someone's identity, erasure of all trace of their former physical self, and more or less annihilating their soul (back to the slaad example) as less evil than stealing someone's wallet.

Yes, I consider that changing someone's personality and body is better than making them slowly starve to death. This is, it's kinda the basis of life. People get reshaped in body and mind all the time to adapt in certain tasks depending on the current needs.

People all inevitably die, too. So what if it's hastened by a tiny bit.

People change, sure. There is continuity to that, however, and the person has some influence over it. This goes so far beyond that that it is in all  ways equivalent to killing them. 'People change' does not cover it. 'People change' does not cover erasing all of someone's memory, reshaping their body into an entirely different type of entity, destroying or utilising their soul, and erasing their personality. There isn't the slightest shred of the original person left. That is much, much worse than taking money off someone.

How the hell are you saying that the destruction of a person is fine so long as you're just changing them and don't actually kill them first, but taking a guy's wallet is definitively evil? That doesn't even guarantee starvation.

What, so soul trapping someone and raising their corpse is perfectly fine? Same effect--the body is now something else, the soul is out of the way.

There's a big difference between trapping a soul and changing it. You can't use changed soul as spell components for one.

But I guess soul destruction/capture should qualify as tainting acts, gonna add them now.

No, you can't use a changed soul as spell components, because you've just used it as a building block. Rather in the same way as using a soul as spell components. It's morally equivalent.

[oslecamo]

... just because they do it, does not make it neutral. Hint, Lawful Evil is an alignment for a reason.

Hey, you were the one saying that it was against the law!

People all inevitably die, too. So what if it's hastened by a tiny bit.

People change, sure. There is continuity to that, however, and the person has some influence over it. This goes so far beyond that that it is in all  ways equivalent to killing them. 'People change' does not cover it. 'People change' does not cover erasing all of someone's memory, reshaping their body into an entirely different type of entity, destroying or utilising their soul, and erasing their personality. There isn't the slightest shred of the original person left. That is much, much worse than taking money off someone.

How the hell are you saying that the destruction of a person is fine so long as you're just changing them and don't actually kill them first, but taking a guy's wallet is definitively evil? That doesn't even guarantee starvation.

You'll only gain Taint by stealing from the needy.

Anyway, changed people that are still alive can be changed back, getting a person that's dead nondead is considerably more complicated.

No, you can't use a changed soul as spell components, because you've just used it as a building block. Rather in the same way as using a soul as spell components. It's morally equivalent.

Citation needed. Their personality changes. Their memories changes. Nowhere it says their soul is consumed on the process.

Which is further reinforced by the fact that blue slaads are chaotic neutral. If it was such an horrifying experience, don't you think they would be evil, like, say barghests, that actually consume souls?

[Raineh Daze]

People all inevitably die, too. So what if it's hastened by a tiny bit.

People change, sure. There is continuity to that, however, and the person has some influence over it. This goes so far beyond that that it is in all  ways equivalent to killing them. 'People change' does not cover it. 'People change' does not cover erasing all of someone's memory, reshaping their body into an entirely different type of entity, destroying or utilising their soul, and erasing their personality. There isn't the slightest shred of the original person left. That is much, much worse than taking money off someone.

How the hell are you saying that the destruction of a person is fine so long as you're just changing them and don't actually kill them first, but taking a guy's wallet is definitively evil? That doesn't even guarantee starvation.

You'll only gain Taint by stealing from the needy.

Anyway, changed people that are still alive can be changed back, getting a person that's dead nondead is considerably more complicated.

Raise Dead.

To change an Outsider back into anything else, the standard requirement appears to be Wish or Miracle. Er, somehow, I think these two 9th-level spells are much rarer.

No, you can't use a changed soul as spell components, because you've just used it as a building block. Rather in the same way as using a soul as spell components. It's morally equivalent.

Citation needed. Their personality changes. Their memories changes. Nowhere it says their soul is consumed on the process.

Which is further reinforced by the fact that blue slaads are chaotic neutral. If it was such an horrifying experience, don't you think they would be evil, like, say barghests, that actually consume souls?

Definition of an Outsider. Their soul and their body make one unit. Therefore, it's subsumed into the body--consumed as a building block.

Slaadi are evil; WotC suck at writing Chaotic Neutral races. Basically every other thing about them is using people as hatcheries, random killing, changing people into things... there is a distinct lack of non-sociopathic actions on their part. They don't seem to do any good.

[Anomander]

(click to show/hide)

Fine, put an asterisk for that.

Thank you. There is no real point to keep on discussing the issue of evil intent now besides mere discussion. If you're up for it I am because I can easily keep at it. I'll otherwise drop all points related to the issue.

"An Unjust Law is No Law at All"-St.Augustine.
So yes, blindly following the law will have some inherent evil to it. That's why Inevitables get a mind of their own unlike golems. Because even Mechanus admits sometimes the laws must be bended for the whole system to keep working (there's even that Fiend Folio inevitable that hunts those that break reality by using reality-breaking abilities itself).

You proved my point.
It is evil only if the law is unjust. If the law is unjust, it is no law. Pure Law can therefor not be unjust.

And since no Law can be truly just across all ages and situations, then Pure Law is a null field with zero instances, making it a moot example.

Okay, exception for this one since it might actually matter later for other reasons:
Dnd isn't limited by our experience with law. Law can be pure in the game even if it has no pure incarnation in our reality.
There is an elemental plane of fire where everything is all fire. Even if it technically is impossible to maintain eternal combustion without something to burn forever.
There is a plane of perfect Law, where Law is more perfect than we can imagine. Or at least as perfect.

Conduit and symptom aren't mutually exclusive. Flu can be transmitted trough coughing. You can also get medicine that will supress the coughing, but not actually cure the flu.

Yes, but my point is that taint channels evil when no evil is involved. You don't catch the flu from someone's cough if that person doesn't carry the flu.

Alright. I was thinking more along the lines of mundane tools to help purify the land, which would be more than just throwing money at the problem since you'd need people with the skills to use them correctly.

Healer's Kit?

I imagined tools that actually give you better results than what is limited by heal checks. But that's not really important.

The idea of being as fast as your minion aside, I agree.

It's your own fault if your Heal skill is inferior to your minions.

I said that because even if your heal modifier is three times as high as your minions', they will work as fast as you do anyway.

Time is the most valuable resource.

Anyway, half the point of corrupted items is as a means to Taint distant places. If untainted areas remove the Taint, then that becomes impossible, and whole sagas never happen because the one artifact of corruption turned into a safe trinket because it was kept on the village of innocents for too long.

We weren't against low resources. You were against it being too easy, which is why I said that.

Not if the time it takes to heal is longer than the time it takes for it to taint a place.
As soon as the item starts to get used, the odds of spreading taint increases exponentially.

Eerrr, too sleepy to really understand that, but I guess you're arguing with me here.

No. I wasn't.

The problem with having Master Purifiers that can remove years worth of taint with the wave of an hand whitout reducing it to a wasteland means that heavily tainted areas are simply impossible to exist. The master purifier will be called in to take care of it in no time at all.

That is quite true. If you'd consider implementing more purification options, perhaps something akin to an expensive material component along the usual skill level required to get the job done. It'd be kind of the same reasons most cleric being able to raise people back to life doesn't equate to death not being a problem anymore anywhere (not saying that resurrection is handled as I'd like it to be in dnd though).

And so the Taint spreads, just as planned.

Hell yeah. 
Well, spreading as much as it otherwise would, technically, since it gets transferred instead of multiply. It just means that taint isn't really hampering material profit (unless you want to fight it, if you're playing super good guys).

Added that you can use Disguise to try to hide Moderate Taint from adjacent observers.

I thought that the way you put it meant that you could use disguise to hide your taint, and that if you were adjacent to them it would become apparent. My question was; if someone doesn't actually conceal the effect of the taint on his body, how can one tell that he is tainted? (because people can naturally be weirdly pretty/ugly without being tainted)

Similarly, only a full body check-up if you're helpless or willing will reveal slight taint, and as is that applies no matter your qualifications to identify something as taint. Someone especially knowledgeable about taint wouldn't be able to tell someone is tainted at first glance either.

I'll consider it.

I just thought I'd share the idea without being concerned about it being granted or denied, so you even considering it is appreciated.

[oslecamo]

(click to show/hide)

Okay, exception for this one since it might actually matter later for other reasons:
Dnd isn't limited by our experience with law. Law can be pure in the game even if it has no pure incarnation in our reality.
There is an elemental plane of fire where everything is all fire. Even if it technically is impossible to maintain eternal combustion without something to burn forever.
There is a plane of perfect Law, where Law is more perfect than we can imagine. Or at least as perfect.

So why aren't there Law elementals? Why can't I walk into a terrain made of pure compressed Law like I can walk on flames in the plane of Fire?

Conduit and symptom aren't mutually exclusive. Flu can be transmitted trough coughing. You can also get medicine that will supress the coughing, but not actually cure the flu.

Yes, but my point is that taint channels evil when no evil is involved. You don't catch the flu from someone's cough if that person doesn't carry the flu.

Technically no, but someone whose immunitary system is strong enough to keep the flu in check, can still transmit said flu to someone more vulnerable with devastating results.

Basically, everybody has evil desires in them, temptations at every corner. It's up to their immunitary system ethics if they actually fall to those temptations, and symptoms soon follow.

Alright. I was thinking more along the lines of mundane tools to help purify the land, which would be more than just throwing money at the problem since you'd need people with the skills to use them correctly.

Healer's Kit?

I imagined tools that actually give you better results than what is limited by heal checks. But that's not really important.

In case I still wasn't clear enough, Taint is supposed to be someting that only hard honest work can effectively counter.

The idea of being as fast as your minion aside, I agree.

It's your own fault if your Heal skill is inferior to your minions.

I said that because even if your heal modifier is three times as high as your minions', they will work as fast as you do anyway.

How come? The check is higher if the terrain is more tainted, and if you fail the check by 5 (including Aid Another), then they risk gaining taint. So if they try to rush it, they'll gain a lot of Taint quickly and become unable to cleanse it.

Time is the most valuable resource.

Anyway, half the point of corrupted items is as a means to Taint distant places. If untainted areas remove the Taint, then that becomes impossible, and whole sagas never happen because the one artifact of corruption turned into a safe trinket because it was kept on the village of innocents for too long.

We weren't against low resources. You were against it being too easy, which is why I said that.

Not if the time it takes to heal is longer than the time it takes for it to taint a place.

Good point, since terrain now gaints taint slower, the healing should be slower as well. Reduced to 1 taint removed per month.

Eerrr, too sleepy to really understand that, but I guess you're arguing with me here.

No. I wasn't.

Then you'll have to explain by better words. Right now I'm only checking this thread when my brain is mostly spent for the day.

The problem with having Master Purifiers that can remove years worth of taint with the wave of an hand whitout reducing it to a wasteland means that heavily tainted areas are simply impossible to exist. The master purifier will be called in to take care of it in no time at all.

That is quite true. If you'd consider implementing more purification options, perhaps something akin to an expensive material component along the usual skill level required to get the job done. It'd be kind of the same reasons most cleric being able to raise people back to life doesn't equate to death not being a problem anymore anywhere (not saying that resurrection is handled as I'd like it to be in dnd though).

But  ressurection methods in D&D have several limitations besides level/money. You need the body, and for the lower magics the body needs to be in good condition, and even the 9th level True Ressurection can be blocked by a bunch of effects.

Neither of those is exactly easy to replicate with terrain. I can't add clauses like "the terrain to be untainted must be whole", or "the terrain cannot be fast-cleansed if it has been tainted by [Death] effects/turned into an undead/eaten by a barguest", because those are all things that can happen to creatures, but not terrain.

And so the Taint spreads, just as planned.

Hell yeah. 
Well, spreading as much as it otherwise would, technically, since it gets transferred instead of multiply. It just means that taint isn't really hampering material profit (unless you want to fight it, if you're playing super good guys).

Screw the village and villagers, you got the money!

Added that you can use Disguise to try to hide Moderate Taint from adjacent observers.

I thought that the way you put it meant that you could use disguise to hide your taint, and that if you were adjacent to them it would become apparent. My question was; if someone doesn't actually conceal the effect of the taint on his body, how can one tell that he is tainted? (because people can naturally be weirdly pretty/ugly without being tainted)

If someone has eruptions that are oozing insects, you can bet it's not natural.

Similarly, only a full body check-up if you're helpless or willing will reveal slight taint, and as is that applies no matter your qualifications to identify something as taint. Someone especially knowledgeable about taint wouldn't be able to tell someone is tainted at first glance either.

Correct. Slight Taint is hard to find out. Gives a reason for organizations to be paranoid.

[Anomander]

(click to show/hide)

So why aren't there Law elementals? Why can't I walk into a terrain made of pure compressed Law like I can walk on flames in the plane of Fire?

Because the alignments are part of the Outer Planes while the elements are part of the Inner Planes. They manifest physically differently but as the Inner Planes represent their respective substances the Outer Planes themselves are usually physical manifestations of the alignment they represent.

Yes, but my point is that taint channels evil when no evil is involved. You don't catch the flu from someone's cough if that person doesn't carry the flu.

Technically no, but someone whose immunitary system is strong enough to keep the flu in check, can still transmit said flu to someone more vulnerable with devastating results.

Basically, everybody has evil desires in them, temptations at every corner. It's up to their immunitary system ethics if they actually fall to those temptations, and symptoms soon follow.

Even if that statement was true, it'd require that evil desires alone are enough to get taint, which isn't the case. A deed must be done - intentions alone are not enough.
Because the deed that produces taint does not require evil to be involved, the statement does not hold.
Its like someone with the flu touching (with clean gloves on) another person with the flu leading to the touched one getting flu symptoms it didn't already have.

In case I still wasn't clear enough, Taint is supposed to be someting that only hard honest work can effectively counter.

Yes. Which is why I said that they'd need the skills to use them correctly. Part of their hard honest work and not throwing just throwing money at the problem. But again, it's not important. No point getting upset over this.

I said that because even if your heal modifier is three times as high as your minions', they will work as fast as you do anyway.

How come? The check is higher if the terrain is more tainted, and if you fail the check by 5 (including Aid Another), then they risk gaining taint. So if they try to rush it, they'll gain a lot of Taint quickly and become unable to cleanse it.

I'm talking about purification speed. Not skill vs difficulty.
A PC with a +50 heal modifier will heal a terrain with 1 point of taint as fast as a minion with a +7 heal modifier. Both will take a week to get the job done.

Then you'll have to explain by better words. Right now I'm only checking this thread when my brain is mostly spent for the day.

Same here.
I'd give a more detailed explanation but the topic is largely unimportant and I don't see how it would make things progress so I'll spare your brain from overworking itself on it.

The problem with having Master Purifiers that can remove years worth of taint with the wave of an hand whitout reducing it to a wasteland means that heavily tainted areas are simply impossible to exist. The master purifier will be called in to take care of it in no time at all.

That is quite true. If you'd consider implementing more purification options, perhaps something akin to an expensive material component along the usual skill level required to get the job done. It'd be kind of the same reasons most cleric being able to raise people back to life doesn't equate to death not being a problem anymore anywhere (not saying that resurrection is handled as I'd like it to be in dnd though).

But  ressurection methods in D&D have several limitations besides level/money. You need the body, and for the lower magics the body needs to be in good condition, and even the 9th level True Ressurection can be blocked by a bunch of effects.
Neither of those is exactly easy to replicate with terrain. I can't add clauses like "the terrain to be untainted must be whole", or "the terrain cannot be fast-cleansed if it has been tainted by [Death] effects/turned into an undead/eaten by a barguest", because those are all things that can happen to creatures, but not terrain.

It is just an example of why the process could be implemented without making it impossible for heavily tainted areas to exist. It doesn't have to be a straight transition of every little details. It was just the first example that came to mind. Another try: Casters being able to make food out of magic and there still being plenty of hungry people; decanters of endless water and there still being wastelands and deserts...

Having a feat and that factor (whatever it is: expensive material component, ritual involving the death of a tainted monster within the tainted area of CR depending on terrain taint, ability burn per taint quickly reduced so that you can move on faster but you are weaker, etc - all being in vain if the heal is failed) that makes it impossible to just spam it whenever the situation happens gives the option without trivializing the severity of the problem when it is on your way.

If someone has eruptions that are oozing insects, you can bet it's not natural.

I take it that this insinuates that if someone with moderate taint isn't trying to hide his body those who see him know that he is tainted.

[oslecamo]

(click to show/hide)

So why aren't there Law elementals? Why can't I walk into a terrain made of pure compressed Law like I can walk on flames in the plane of Fire?

Because the alignments are part of the Outer Planes while the elements are part of the Inner Planes. They manifest physically differently but as the Inner Planes represent their respective substances the Outer Planes themselves are usually physical manifestations of the alignment they represent.

Eeerrr, it seems that was already adressed with the latest asterisks, so I'll be skipping to the next point.

Yes, but my point is that taint channels evil when no evil is involved. You don't catch the flu from someone's cough if that person doesn't carry the flu.

Technically no, but someone whose immunitary system is strong enough to keep the flu in check, can still transmit said flu to someone more vulnerable with devastating results.

Basically, everybody has evil desires in them, temptations at every corner. It's up to their immunitary system ethics if they actually fall to those temptations, and symptoms soon follow.

Even if that statement was true, it'd require that evil desires alone are enough to get taint, which isn't the case. A deed must be done - intentions alone are not enough.

Falling to your temptations means acting on those temptations. Just because someone is tempted by something doesn't automatically mean they act on it by impulse.

Because the deed that produces taint does not require evil to be involved, the statement does not hold.
Its like someone with the flu touching (with clean gloves on) another person with the flu leading to the touched one getting flu symptoms it didn't already have.

It's actually the exact opposite. If someone with the flu touching someone else whitout bothering/remembering to put the gloves on. Or perhaps touching an object and other person touching it aferwards, catching the fresh germs left on it.

Taint isn't gained at random. There's specific conditions, and there's measures you can take to negate gaining it (carry gloves/anti-taint items, don't take risky behaviors, don't put stuff in your mouth if you don't know where it has been, etc).

In case I still wasn't clear enough, Taint is supposed to be someting that only hard honest work can effectively counter.

Yes. Which is why I said that they'd need the skills to use them correctly. Part of their hard honest work and not throwing just throwing money at the problem. But again, it's not important. No point getting upset over this.

Talk to me in a week or so. One way or another I'll have a lot more free time after this weekend.

I said that because even if your heal modifier is three times as high as your minions', they will work as fast as you do anyway.

How come? The check is higher if the terrain is more tainted, and if you fail the check by 5 (including Aid Another), then they risk gaining taint. So if they try to rush it, they'll gain a lot of Taint quickly and become unable to cleanse it.

I'm talking about purification speed. Not skill vs difficulty.
A PC with a +50 heal modifier will heal a terrain with 1 point of taint as fast as a minion with a +7 heal modifier. Both will take a week to get the job done.

A month as per the last revision actually. And if the terrain has too much taint, the +7 Heal minion can't do it at all.

The problem with having Master Purifiers that can remove years worth of taint with the wave of an hand whitout reducing it to a wasteland means that heavily tainted areas are simply impossible to exist. The master purifier will be called in to take care of it in no time at all.

That is quite true. If you'd consider implementing more purification options, perhaps something akin to an expensive material component along the usual skill level required to get the job done. It'd be kind of the same reasons most cleric being able to raise people back to life doesn't equate to death not being a problem anymore anywhere (not saying that resurrection is handled as I'd like it to be in dnd though).

But  ressurection methods in D&D have several limitations besides level/money. You need the body, and for the lower magics the body needs to be in good condition, and even the 9th level True Ressurection can be blocked by a bunch of effects.
Neither of those is exactly easy to replicate with terrain. I can't add clauses like "the terrain to be untainted must be whole", or "the terrain cannot be fast-cleansed if it has been tainted by [Death] effects/turned into an undead/eaten by a barguest", because those are all things that can happen to creatures, but not terrain.

It is just an example of why the process could be implemented without making it impossible for heavily tainted areas to exist. It doesn't have to be a straight transition of every little details. It was just the first example that came to mind. Another try: Casters being able to make food out of magic and there still being plenty of hungry people; decanters of endless water and there still being wastelands and deserts...

Trivia: there's an official inevitable series in D&D whose sole purpose is making sure deserts exist.

And there aren't hungry people in D&D as far as I know. At least I don't recall any adventure path based on "those people are hungry, get them regular food". What I do recall is plenty of "Mind Flayers find brains of fulfilled people delicious, so they aren't gonna settle for distateful goblin slave brains" plothooks.

Having a feat and that factor (whatever it is: expensive material component, ritual involving the death of a tainted monster within the tainted area of CR depending on terrain taint, ability burn per taint quickly reduced so that you can move on faster but you are weaker, etc - all being in vain if the heal is failed) that makes it impossible to just spam it whenever the situation happens gives the option without trivializing the severity of the problem when it is on your way.

Well, added a new feat, Tainted Martyr. Absorb taint from creatures and terrain, beat yourself to cleanse it off for good, also better at detecting Taint on others.

If someone has eruptions that are oozing insects, you can bet it's not natural.

I take it that this insinuates that if someone with moderate taint isn't trying to hide his body those who see him know that he is tainted.

Correct. Will clarify.

[Morph Bark]

The contest has been closed! We now have 4 entries total, with Jormengand filling in one entry on GitP! Due to the limited amount of entries, I figure we don't need to announce category winners (what with 2/3rds of them only having one entry), which slightly speeds up the judging process. I'll contact the judges later so we can get to that, and hopefully we'll be done within a week.

The next MUHA, should there come one (highly dependent upon demand), will be fluff-wise in nature like the first one. There would probably be various categories still, with individual winners if there are multiple entries for them (base class, PrC, monster, race, subsystem, Officially Overlooked and Outside-the-Box, probably).

For future MUHAs, what do people think of my move to have it run on both GitP and Minmaxboards simultaneously and together as one contest?

[Raineh Daze]

Taint now lets you be a flagellant? :O

[oslecamo]

Tecnically you always could, Taint just allows you to gain an actual mechanical benefit from it.

[veekie]

The contest has been closed! We now have 4 entries total, with Jormengand filling in one entry on GitP! Due to the limited amount of entries, I figure we don't need to announce category winners (what with 2/3rds of them only having one entry), which slightly speeds up the judging process. I'll contact the judges later so we can get to that, and hopefully we'll be done within a week.

The next MUHA, should there come one (highly dependent upon demand), will be fluff-wise in nature like the first one. There would probably be various categories still, with individual winners if there are multiple entries for them (base class, PrC, monster, race, subsystem, Officially Overlooked and Outside-the-Box, probably).

For future MUHAs, what do people think of my move to have it run on both GitP and Minmaxboards simultaneously and together as one contest?

Running together increases the exposure at least, and keeps it from being evaluated based solely on the board culture of one forum. More is better for sure.

[Morph Bark]

The Results Are IN!

Before I begin, I must apologize for not having time to properly judge all of the submissions. While I’ve read much of them, I was too occupied with the sign-up process for a new school. As such, I resigned myself to making any tie-breakers, should they be necessary, but it appears that wasn’t necessary!

Unfortunately, two of our judges weren’t heard back from, though it had been unlikely for Welknair to be able to come back anyway. However, the rest of the panel did their task very well, and I trust their judgment completely. I have recently also heard back from MUHA I judge Owrtho, who told me that—though he couldn’t be present to participate or judge this MUHA, he’d be happy to help or participate in future iterations.

“I was really blown away by the quality of the entries,” one of the judges remarked about the MUHA II entries, and I find that telling, as I know all judges to be extensively experienced with creating their own homebrew and taking in the worth of and the effort put into other people’s homebrew.

Jormengand's The Internet received very good scores on Coherence across the board, but wasn’t deemed very original. Its Complexity was rated decently, though one judge scored it really low, so it was deemed either too complex or too simple by them.

Sirpercival's Wisps of Creation received top scores in Flavor, Originality and Coherence. Some of the judges deemed its Balance and Complexity to be off the mark, but they still all gave passing grades in those areas. It was deemed very coherent, though one judge noted that there was a lot of ‘excessive verbiage’ that complicated understanding it.

Veekie's Intimacies was rated very flavorful by everyone, though at least one score in Balance, Originality and Complexity dipped much lower than the rest, so the judges were slightly divided on them.

Oslecamo's Taint was deemed very Coherent by all the judges, so the wording was very clear! It was unfortunately not deemed original by most of the judges, though one of them rated it highly.

And now, the combined scores!



With an overall score of 175 out of 200, Wisps of Creation is the Mixed Ultimate Homebrew Arts II Contest winner! Congratulations, sirpercival, full A score!

I’d love to present some sort of trophy, but unfortunately we lack one at current. Either way, the honours go out to you.

It is left up to the judges whether they wish to reveal their opinion of the entries. Should they wish, I can post their opinions for them so that they may remain fully anonymous.

I have been pleased with the quality of the works that were entered! Slightly less so with the amount, but I’m sure that concern will be alleviated with a more easily understood and less limiting goal, which will also allow us to really pick winners within categories. I’d like to thank the judges for their time and effort in reviewing the entries. I hope to see many of you back for the third iteration of the Mixed Ultimate Homebrew Arts! Thank you, everybody, and see you all in the future!

[Nanshork]

I just want to say that it was a pleasure judging the contest and I'd be happy to help with any future contests. 

[Temotei]

I just want to say that it was a pleasure judging the contest and I'd be happy to help with any future contests. 

Same goes for me. Great entries. 

[veekie]

That was fun.