abyssalbrews

Puppeteer

Added 2024-12-05 01:03:42 +0000 UTC

Greetings adventurers!

Those little puppet box shows on the corner were always a favorite of mine in my youth. I loved seeing the manner in which the marionettes would dance about and put on a show. There was something magical about the suspension of disbelief that could come with a well organized show, so when a puppeteer came to me looking for aid in both their show as with unruly guests that might turn these wholesome performances into a brawl, well I knew I had to get involved. The right charismatic enchantments coupled with a choice spell, and well I dare say I’ve made something special here.

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Design notes from Matthew:
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, one of the most interesting ways to make a magic item is to take a theme, and a spell and then contort how that spell is used to be something different, but familiar. In this case, I knew I wanted to figure out a way to make this item control another creature. Looking through the options for that in 5E and PF2E meant that I was looking through charm spells for a bit as well as power words and the like. I didn’t want anything that powerful though, so I looked lower and lo and behold, there was Command. I had strangely forgotten about it as it doesn’t always see much play.
In 5E, one of the issues that Command has is that you never really know what the enemy was planning on doing before that. Were they simply going to have to move to get into place? Were they planning on casting a different spell? By instead tying this to a reaction, it improved the usability of the spell to prevent damage and gave an alternate method for a squishy caster or something of the like to get out of the way. Toss on a little bit of performance for some flavor and you get a nice little low level item.
In PF2E, Command actually is a bit broader than 5E. The commands are generally more open and it’s more about how many actions you’re eating along the way. One special note is that I had to consider what would happen if the creature had no more actions left this turn. Having the spell fail in that case meant that it became a balancing point. You really have to time your use of this item well to maximize its benefits, but the performance options are a little more broad in PF2E as well. I just know someone is going to mock the BBEG with the puppet at some point.

Something a little different and special this week, as this item is released, we’re already en route to PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia. If you happen to be attending this year, you can journey to the Tom Cartos booth #4300, and see Fernando and I (Matthew) there on Friday and Saturday all day. You can also check out some nifty Into the Wilds map books from Tom. Outside of that, we’ll be roaming the floor and probably visiting the local bars/restaurants. Keep an eye out for AB or Tom Cartos shirts and come say hi!

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