HBM3 Top 5: Voidweaver by Matt Roth

Hundreds of vaguely arachnid limbs hold a wiry, larvae-like woman aloft. The air twists around the otherwise limbless figure as she looks on with eight glittering, sorrowful eyes.

Voidweaver CR 6

XP 2,400

N Medium aberration

Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., see in darkness; Perception +16

Aura graviton (60 ft., DC 17)

DEFENSE

AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+4 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 natural armor)

hp 67 (9d8+27); fast healing 2

Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +9

Defensive Abilities gravitational superiority; DR 10/magic; Immune cold; Resist fire 10

OFFENSE

Speed 10 ft., fly 60 ft. (perfect)

Melee 4 claws +8 (1d6 plus implosion)

Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.

Special Attacks gravityweave (+10 ranged, DC 17, 9 hp)

STATISTICS

Str 11, Dex 19, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 11

Base Atk +6; CMB +5; CMD 19 (can't be tripped)

Feats Deflect Arrows^B, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Improved Natural Attack (claws), Multiattack, Weapon Finesse

Skills Acrobatics +16, Fly +24, Knowledge (planes) +14, Perception +15, Sense Motive +15, Stealth +16

Languages Aklo, Common

SQ no breath

ECOLOGY

Environment any (space)

Organization solitary or nest (2-6)

Treasure standard

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Graviton Aura (Su) A voidweaver manipulates the flow of gravitons in a 60-ft.-radius, creating an area of objective directional gravity (of light, heavy, or normal strength). The voidweaver controls the gravity's direction and strength and may alter it as a full-round action. Creatures that enter the aura must make a DC 17 Will saving throw to control their personal gravity, treating the voidweaver's aura as subjective directional gravity for 24 hours. Creatures that make their save but do not actively control their movement (see Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Gamemastery Guide) treat this as an area of no gravity. Creatures may attempt a save each round they remain in the aura. The save DC is Wisdom-based.

Gravitational Superiority (Ex) Voidweavers are gravitationally independent and may choose to ignore any other gravity effect (such as planets or reverse gravity). A voidweaver gains Deflect Arrows as a bonus feat and, once per day when hit by an attack, can force creatures to make new saves against its graviton aura.

Gravityweave (Ex) Gravityweave is treated as the web universal monster ability with the following differences: it has a range increment of 60 feet with a maximum range of 5 range increments, is effective against creatures two size categories larger, imposes a –8 penalty to Fly checks, uses Wisdom to determine its DC, is incorporeal, and is invisible (requiring a DC 30 Perception check to spot the slight spatial distortion where they lie). Gravityweave may be layered over 1d4 hours to create an area of heavy, light, or objective directional gravity. Creatures that fail to notice the gravityweave and become entangled are immediately subjected to the gravitational effect. 

Implosion (Su) Once per round, when a voidweaver hits a living target caught in gravityweave, it can compress the gravitation field to deal extra damage. The creature takes 1d10+3 damage and must make a DC 16 Fortitude saving throw or be slowed (as the spell) for 1d4 rounds. The save DC is Intelligence-based.

Voidweavers are the result of bizarre gravitational tinkering by a group of too-curious wizards. Its arachnid-like protrusions are complex organs enabling voidweavers to spin gravity like a spider's web. Though not inherently evil, their voracious appetites, tendency to crush meals to balls of organic matter, and anomalous gravitational fields make them seldom appreciated. Voidweavers are capable of gravity-propelled, slumbering starflight, but most voidweavers that take to the stars form collective nests in asteroid belts to pull in passerby with vast nets of gravityweave. The average voidweaver stands 5 feet tall and weighs 110 pounds.

SEE BELOW FOR COMMENTS FROM JUDGES ADAM DAIGLE, MIKKO KALLIO, JACOB W. MICHAELS, AND MIKE WELHAM:

HBM3 Top 5: Strife Wasp by Joe Kondrak

 

A single translucent tendril wriggles between the disgusting mandibles of this enormous black wasp. Dappled with twinkling specks of light, its leathery wings resemble the nighttime sky.

Strife Wasp CR 6

XP 2,400

N Large aberration

Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +12

DEFENSE

AC 19, touch 14, flat-footed 14 (+4 Dex, +1 dodge, +5 natural, –1 size)

hp 76 (9d8+36)

Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +7

Immune cold; Resist electricity 10, fire 10

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft., fly 80 ft. (perfect)

Melee bite +10 (1d8+5), sting +11 (1d6+5 plus poison)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.

Special Attacks cerebral extraction, malign venom, poison, spiteful glimmer

STATISTICS

Str 21, Dex 18, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 12

Base Atk +6; CMB +12; CMD 26 (34 vs. trip)

Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Great Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Focus (sting)

Skills Fly +15, Perception +12

SQ auroral transit, no breath

ECOLOGY

Environment any

Organization solitary, pair, constellation (3–6), or invasion (7–19)

Treasure none

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Auroral Transit (Su) When a strife wasp flies through a cloud of ionized gas such as a planet’s aurora or a comet’s tail, it supernaturally senses the locations of similar phenomena across a vast expanse of space, and can transfer itself to one of those locations as a standard action.

Cerebral Extraction (Ex) Using a tendril specialized for just such a purpose, a strife wasp can extract a portion of cerebral tissue from the brain of an adjacent, helpless creature as a full-round action. This deals 1d4 points of Intelligence and Wisdom damage unless the target succeeds at a DC 18 Fortitude save. The save DC is Dexterity-based.

Malign Venom (Ex) Any round a creature fails its save against a strife wasp's poison, it must succeed at a second DC 18 Will save or become hostile toward its allies for 1 round as if affected by murderous command. This is a mind-affecting poison effect. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Poison (Ex) Sting—injury; save Fort DC 18; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d2 Wisdom damage plus malign venom; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Spiteful Glimmer (Su) As a standard action, a strife wasp can cause the twinkling lights on its wings to brightly pulse with eldritch light. Creatures within 30 feet that can see the strife wasp must succeed at a DC 15 Will save or be overcome with spite for 1 round, as if affected by murderous command. This is a mind-affecting effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Strife wasps are strange, alien bugs that travel throughout the universe, hunting and spreading misery wherever they roam. Though they can fly through the upper atmosphere and even outer space, strife wasps do not fly quickly enough to navigate interplanetary or interstellar distances. Instead, they travel from one planet to another by teleporting between the planets’ auroras.

Strife wasps possess a rudimentary intelligence, but are driven primarily by instinct and appetite rather than malign intent. In order to produce viable eggs, they must ingest unspoiled cerebral tissue. After ingesting a suitable amount of such tissue, a strife wasp travels to a comet using its auroral transit ability, and then lays its eggs on the comet’s icy surface. To properly incubate, the eggs require a substantial period of cold and darkness, hatching only after the comet makes a complete trip around its parent star. Scholars and seers on planets repeatedly plagued by strife wasps associate the arrival of the strange invaders with the appearance of particular comets. A typical strife wasp is 12 feet long and weighs 900 pounds.

SEE BELOW FOR COMMENTS FROM JUDGES ADAM DAIGLE, MIKKO KALLIO, JACOB W. MICHAELS, AND MIKE WELHAM.

Here Be Monsters 3: From Beyond the Stars observations

It's always interesting to see how people interpret themes, as oftentimes game designers find themselves mining similar territory for their creations. It's a trait we've seen many times in Paizo's RPG Superstar, and it holds just as true in this contest.

In this case, we noticed a few similar features in many of the monsters submitted: tentacles and eyes (or lack thereof). For what it's worth, having one of these commonalities didn't hurt a monster's chance to make the Top 5 -- at least one monster with one or more of these features made the cut.

Nearly a quarter (7) of the submitted monsters had tentacles of some sort. I feel like we can thank the Cthulhu mythology for that, though that's mostly a guess: The tentacled monsters in this competition weren't all Cthulhu-esque and actually seemed to mine a wide range of inspirations.

We also thought we noticed a trend toward monsters with just a single eye, leading to the quip that in space, no one needs depth perception. Crunching the numbers for this blog post, though, it turned out that it was a little less of a trend than we thought as we were going through them: It turned out only four creatures had a central orb. (I think, as happens with Superstar voting to winnow down the magic items, sometimes you feel like you see something and just become hyper-aware of it, leading to the perception that thing is occurring more often than it does.)

Finally, we also had a similar commonality with naming: "Void" was a popular choice, with four monsters submitted with some variation of it in the name. "Star" came in second place, appearing in three monsters' names.

Here Be Monsters 3: From Beyond the Stars stats

One of the things the Swords for Hire crew really enjoys about running contests is seeing what kind of entries we'll get. While the first Here Be Monsters had a more wide-open theme (contestants were asked to pick a monster from a fan wish list for the not-yet-published Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 5 on the Paizo forums), the second (Hell Breaks Loose) and third contests have had a more unifying theme. That's seen competitors tend to focus on similar areas in their designs, though there's still plenty of variation.

Creature types

Of the 26 monsters submitted for From Beyond the Stars, nearly half (11) were aberrations (which probably isn't surprising as the theme almost screams aberration). Outsiders (5) took up the No. 2 position, while we also had a scattering of constructs (3), monstrous humanoids (2) and oozes (2). A single fey, humanoid and undead were also submitted, but we received no animals, dragons, magical beasts, plants, or vermin.

The subtypes were pretty limited; one of the constructs had the robot subtype, a couple of the outsiders carried the phantom subtype, and we had one incorporeal and a couple shapechanger monsters, but there were no swarms or troops in this year's submissions. Edited to add: I realized as I was going through the entries again that there was in fact a swarm; my apologies.

Challenge rating

The (mean) average CR of the submitted monsters was 8.15, while the median average is 7 (I think; I don't have much call to do math anymore, so I'm operating from memory here, folks).

The lowest CR we received was 3, while our high submission was 18.

Alignments

Seven of the nine possible alignments were represented, with the consensus apparently being that space creatures are neither chaotic good nor lawful neutral.

Twelve of the monsters were evil, with three of those chaotic evil, one lawful evil and the rest (8) neutral evil.

Two monsters were good, one of them lawful good, the other neutral good.

The remaining monsters were neutral, three of them chaotic neutral, and nine of them true neutral.

For those of you who, like Mikko, prefer to see your alignments in tables, here are the same statistics:

	Lawful	Neutral	Chaotic
Good	1	1	--
Neutral	--	9	3
Evil	1	8	3

Sizes

Kiel asked in the comments about the sizes of the entries: They were all 590-610 words, as required in the rules. Wait, what? Oh, wrong type of size. (See, I like bad jokes...)

The monsters ranged from Fine to Huge, though most of them (11) were Medium. Six creatures were Small, while five were Huge, four were Large, and one was Fine.

And, yes, for those of you who note the oddity in that set of statistics, those numbers are in fact doublechecked and are correct.


--

We'll have some more details on the contest entries in the next couple days, taking a fun look at some of the areas we saw some parallel design from our competitors.

Here Be Monsters 3: From Beyond the Stars begins NOW

Look to the skies, for there are monsters coming!

Here Be Monsters III: From Beyond the Stars, the third season of the annual Pathfinder RPG monster design contest from Swords for Hire Development, begins Nov. 9!

We're calling on game designers to create a single monster with the theme "From Beyond the Stars" —Cthulhu-ian horrors, alien aberrations, despotic robot invaders or whatever your mind may envision. Entries will be judged by the Swords for Hire team, consisting of Paizo contributor Mikko Kallio, accomplished freelancer Jacob W. Michaels, and RPG Superstar Mike Welham.

The Top 5 entries will go on to be judged by special guest judge Adam Daigle, a Paizo developer who has designed and developed hundreds of Pathfinder monsters, before going on to a public vote to determine the grand winner.

In addition to invaluable feedback from Adam and the other judges, the Top 5 contestants will each receive copies of Swords for Hire's Villain Codex I: Foes for Fledgling Heroes and Villain Codex II: Adversaries for Advanced Heroes, published by Outland Entertainment; as well as any one PDF of a Legendary Games monsters product (Mythic Monsters or Beasts of Legend). 

The grand prize winner will receive even more stuff! Our generous Third Party Publisher sponsors have agreed to provide the following:

• Legendary Games:  A signed Mythic Monster Manual .
• Rusted Iron Games: PDFs of the Spooky Gardens: Autumn Special and Frozen Gardens: Winter Special.
• Zenith Games: A PDF copy of the Colossal Creatures Bestiary.
• And finally artist Hugo Solis has agreed to provide a large color illustration of the winning monster.
• Also, special thanks to sponsor Tommi Salama, who has again provided Here Be Monsters' contest logo.

Timeline

• Nov. 9: The contest begins NOW!  
• Nov. 26: Submissions are closed at 2 p.m. Pacific standard time. Our judges (Mikko Kallio, Jacob W Michaels, and Mike Welham) convene to determine the top 5.
• Dec. 7: The top 5 entries are revealed along with comments from Adam, Mikko, Jacob, and Mike. Public voting begins.
• Dec. 14: The voting ends and the winner is revealed shortly after!

Contest Rules

Contest entries must adhere to the following rules.

• Your monster must be 590-610 words.
• Each entrant may submit one monster.
• Your monster must be designed for the Pathfinder RPG, and you must use the monster template (you can find it here for Microsoft Word or Open Office).
• PLEASE send your monster in the BODY of an email, not as an attachment; .docx files especially are problematic as my word processor strips random spaces out of them, which makes it look like errors in your monster.
• Your monster entry must be appropriate for the contest theme "From Beyond the Stars." (See the FAQ below for more details.)
• Your monster may not have class levels or templates.
• Your monster must be setting-neutral.
• Your monster's CR must be at least 1 and may not be higher than 20. Please note that you only have 600 words, and higher-CR monsters may eat up all your words with describing special abilities, which could leave you limited space for describing it.
• Your monster may use feats, spells, and other resources available in Paizo's Pathfinder PRD. Your monster may not, however, have mythic ranks.
• You must submit your monster via email to monster.design.contest@gmail.com before the deadline 2 p.m. PST Nov. 26. Include the monster's name in the subject line of the email.

Additional Judging Criteria

Following the guidelines presented below maximizes your chances of winning.

• Your monster's concept is something new and creative or puts an interesting spin on a classic theme.
• Your monster's name and read-aloud text are evocative.
• Your monster's stat block is correctly formatted. Use any recent Pathfinder RPG bestiary product published by Paizo as your style guide.
• Your monster's statistics are balanced against other creatures of the same CR. Refer to the Monster Creation chapter in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary for instructions.
• Your monster has interesting new special abilities with reasonably simple and elegant mechanics.
• Your monster entry includes compelling lore about the monster which helps GMs use the monster in adventures and campaigns.

Frequently Asked/Anticipated Questions

Q: Who's allowed to submit a monster?
A: Anyone! It doesn't matter if you've never made a monster before or if you're a well-known builder of beasts—you're eligible to enter. Also, the contest is international, so you're eligible to enter regardless of your location (PLEASE NOTE: International competitors may need to pay shipping costs for any print products they win in the contest).

Q: What kind of monsters are you looking for?

A: How you interpret the From Beyond the Stars theme is up to you; consider Iron Gods, Strange Aeons, and what is known about Starfinder at this point good sources for inspiration, though of course, the mechanics should be compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the monsters should be setting-neutral, as mentioned in the rules (and below).

You may also get some insight from the judges' comments on previous monsters, which you can find right here on A Sword for Hire. Mikko, Jacob, Mike W. and Adam all judged the top contenders of Here Be Monsters 2,  while the original contest (you can find it in September 2014 in the older posts sidebar on the right side of the blog) featured Mikko and Jacob along with Mike Kimmel and Sean K. Reynolds as the judges.

Q: Can I set the monster in Golarion or another campaign setting?
A: No. We do not have the rights to use anyone's intellectual property. Monsters should be developed to be setting neutral. 

Remember that Lovecraft's works are in the public domain, so references to mi-go or the starspawn of Cthulhu are fine, but references to creatures like Stargate SG-1's replicators are NOT.

Q: Where will my monster be published/shown?
A: The top 5 monsters will be revealed on Mikko Kallio's A Sword for Hire blog.

Q: Do I get to see the judges' comments if I don't make the Top 5?
A: Only comments on the Top 5 monsters will be revealed; Jacob typically offers to share his comments with any contestant who asks (this will happen AFTER the winner is revealed so as to not detract attention from the Top 5). Other judges may make the same offer.

Q: What happens with my monster after the contest?
A: We'll be using hold monster spells to keep your monsters contained for judging, but afterward we'll be releasing them back in to the wild (i.e. you keep all rights to your creations).

Gabriel Almer wins Here Be Monsters 2!

Gabriel Almer's anomiak protean got roughly one third of the votes cast, winning this year's Here Be Monsters design contest. Congratulations, Gabriel!

I'll be contacting the winner and the runners-up within a few days about the prizes from our sponsor Legendary Games and contracts with the publisher Rogue Genius Games.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest, and thanks to my fellow judges Adam, Jacob, and Mike, all the voters, Tommi Salama, Jason Nelson of Legendary Games, and Owen K.C. Stephens of Rogue Genius Games!

Here Be Monsters 2 Voting Booth

The Top 6 monsters have been revealed! Now it's time to vote for your favorite monster!

We are using the Poll Maker website for voting. Clicking the link below takes you to the voting booth where you can cast your vote.

Enter the voting booth

The voting is open for seven days, i.e. until the 3rd of March. The winner is revealed shortly after the voting closes.

Top 6: Hellforge Slag by Steven Hanis

Intense, glowing red eyes are the only visible contrast on this humanoid, walking heap of crumbling metal and filthy black dross. The pungent smell of burning coal and sulfur along with the grating screech of grinding metal give this denizen of hell away long before its unsettling stare can be seen.

Top 6: Headless Devil by Landon Bellavia

A four-armed, humanoid torso sits fused to an emaciated equine body with ebony wings. The neck ends in a bloody stump, and each hand grips the coccyx of a gory spine that ends in a gaping human head.

Top 6: Hellfire Gorger by Isaac Volynskiy

This oversized bulbous worm is covered in pale corpulent faces with sealed shut lips, erratically sputtering fetid flames from its many nostrils.

Top 6: Enabler Devil by Eric Hindley

This slim-hipped, broad-shouldered man has flawless skin and shoulder-length, dark hair. A pair of white-feathered wings sprout from his back.

Top 6: Hellhorn by Joe Kondrak

Steel fangs and jagged shards of flint protrude from the cavernous maw of this monstrous rhinoceros. Obsidian scales cover most of its tough hide, and the horn on its greasy snout glows red hot.

Top 6: Protean, Anomiak by Gabriel Almer

Strings of ever-shifting symbols run across this serpentine creature's scales and disappear in a flash as they converge at its horned iguana head.

Here Be Monsters 2: Statistics on the Submitted Entries

The submission deadline for the Here Be Monsters 2 open call was last Thursday. We received a total of 29 monsters, and the judges spent a few days voting on them to determine the Top 6. We have now chosen our finalists and started commenting on the six monsters.

The Top 6 will be revealed Thursday next week, but meanwhile, I'll be posting some data and statistics about the 29 entries. Below are some stats:

Challenge Rating

• CR 2: 2
• CR 3: 3
• CR 4: 4
• CR 5: 2
• CR 6: 3
• CR 7: 5
• CR 8: 3
• CR 9: 1
• CR 10: 2
• CR 11: 3
• CR 14: 1

Alignment

• Lawful Evil: 23
• Chaotic Neutral: 2
• Neutral: 3
• Chaotic Good: 1

Here Be Monsters 2: Useful Links

Below are some useful links for people thinking about submitting a monster!

Please note: Some of the advice below was originally written for RPG Superstar contestants. Most of the advice applies to Here Be Monsters, but be careful not to include any references to Golarion in your monster entry, for example.

• Monster Creation in the Pathfinder reference document.
• So You're Designing a Pathfinder Monster... by Adam Daigle
• Top 5 entries from the previous Here Be Monsters
• Check out the articles listed under "Monsters" on my Advice Articles page.

Here Be Monsters 2: Hell Breaks Loose begins!

Here Be Monsters is a Pathfinder RPG monster design contest. The second season began on Thursday, 21 January.

Theme: Hell Breaks Loose

The open call for Here Be Monsters 2 begins! The theme for Season 2 is Hell Breaks Loose. To create a monster appropriate for the theme, you monster should be:

• A denizen of Hell, such as a new type of devil,
• An ally of Hell or its denizens, such as a creature born in an area tainted by devils,
• An enemy of Hell or its denizens, such as an archon that hunts hell hounds, or
• A creature that is otherwise closely connected to Hell.

Please note that the monster must be setting-neutral. This means that you should not make references to deities, countries, organizations, or other entities that are specific to a particular campaign setting. For example, a new breed of hell hounds would be acceptable, but a creature allied to an order of Hellknights would not be acceptable.

Publisher: Rogue Genius Games

The Top 6 entries will be developed and published as a bestiary in the PDF format by Rogue Genius Games! The winner of the contest is offered a contract to write another 2 monsters for a total of 8 monsters published in the bestiary.

Below are some additional details:

• The finalists are required to sign a contract that outlines the terms of using the entries in the bestiary product. 25% of the money earned by Rogue Genius Games from the sales of the bestiary product is split among the authors. Assuming the winner agrees to design additional monsters for the bestiary, his or her share is proportional to the total word count. 
• Rogue Genius Games owns the published entries, but they're 100% Open Game Content. The authors are given permission to use the monster art for their personal non-commercial promotion.
• All other entries remain the property of their respective authors, which means you can publish your monster elsewhere if you don't make the Top 6. Only the three contest judges see the entries. The judges reserve the right to publish statistics based on the entries.

Sponsors

• Legendary Games gives each finalist a book of their choice from the Mythic Monsters product series, and the winner gets a signed Mythic Monster Manual.
• Special thanks go to Tommi Salama who designed the Here Be Monsters logo!

Additional Information

• Contest Rules & Judging Criteria
• Contest Schedule
• Monster Template
• Meet the Judges

How to Submit a Monster

1. Download the monster template.
2. Read the contest rules & judging criteria, and design a monster that follows the rules and guidelines.
3. If you have any questions about the rules or judging criteria, use the form at the bottom of this blog post to leave a comment. We'll answer as soon as we can.
4. When you're ready to submit, send your monster via email to monster.design.contest@gmail.com. Include the monster's name in the subject line of the email. The monster template page contains more information about submitting.

Here Be Monsters 2: Monster Template

Download the monster template by clicking one of the following links: Microsoft Word or Open Office. When submitting your monster, please copy-paste it directly into the email. This makes it easier for the judges to review the monsters. You may also attach the monster as a file if for any reason copy-pasting breaks the formatting.

Before you submit, check that the formatting (bolded words, italics, etc.) matches the template and that you have replaced or deleted all the placeholder text (marked with [square brackets]) and placeholders for numbers (marked with ##). Also, remove any lines that you don't need (such as the Aura line if your monster doesn't have an aura), and add any lines as necessary.

Please do not include anything else in your submission. For example, explaining your math or design choices is not allowed.

Submit your monster via email to monster.design.contest@gmail.com before 11 February, 2:00 PM PST.

Here Be Monsters 2: Contest Schedule

Here Be Monsters 2 begins today! Before we reveal this season's theme and other important details, let's have a look at the contest schedule.

• 21 January: The open call begins. Contestants have three weeks to create and submit a monster.
• 11 February: Thursday 11th of February, 2:00 PM PST is the deadline for the entries. The judges (Jacob, Mike, and Mikko) start winnowing down the entries to find our Top 6 finalists.
• 18 February: The judges (including our guest judge) begin commenting on the Top 6 entries.
• 25 February: The Top 6 entries are revealed in the order they were submitted, along with the judges' comments. When the sixth finalist is revealed, public voting begins.
• 3 March: The winner of Here Be Monsters 2 is revealed.

Here Be Monsters 2: Meet the Judges

The judging panel for Here Be Monsters consists of three freelancers and RPG Superstar veterans, who select six finalists from among the submitted entries. Our esteemed guest judge joins us to comment on the Top 6 entries. The judges for Season 2 are:

Guest Judge: Adam Daigle

Adam Daigle is a developer at Paizo and works on the Pathfinder Adventure Path line of adventures. An avid monster maker, Adam has designed and developed hundreds of monsters for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Adam has also been a judge on RPG Superstar since 2014.

Mikko Kallio

Mikko Kallio started out gaming in the late 80s with the Red Box D&D. (He still mourns Aleena the Cleric). In 2014, Mikko was a top 4 finalist in Paizo's RPG Superstar contest, and a year later, he returned as a monster round judge. His freelance design work for Paizo can be found in more than a dozen publications, including Occult Bestiary, the 5-star adventure Ancients' Anguish, and the 5-star Player Companion Dirty Tactics Toolbox. Mikko is also a developer at Swords for Hire Development and the main organizer of the Here Be Monsters contest.

Jacob W. Michaels

Jacob W. Michaels has been gaming for 30 years, since he went on an expedition to the Barrier Peaks in the third grade. A newspaper editor in eastern Pennsylvania, he's a two-time finalist in Paizo's RPG Superstar contest, making the Top 16 in 2012 and 2014. He has written several five-star products from Raging Swan; published a five-star module, Ironwall Gap Must Hold, with AdventureaWeek.com; and had work in products from Paizo, Flying Pincushion Games, Jon Brazer Enterprises, Louis Porter Jr. Design and Rogue Genius Games. He started Swords for Hire Development with Mikko Kallio, with whom he runs the Here Be Monsters contest.

Mike Welham

Mike Welham has been gaming since 1979. The first RPG purchase he made with his allowance was the original Fiend Folio, which set him along the monster path. He translated his love for RPGs into an RPG Superstar victory in 2012, and he has written and contributed to a number of critically acclaimed works for Kobold Press, Paizo, Raging Swan Press, Rite Publishing, and Zombie Sky Press. He has also contributed a menagerie of monsters to the Mythopoeic Rambling blog (http://mythopoeicrambling.blogspot.com). Mike was a finalist in last year's Here Be Monsters and looks forward to being on the other side of the judging table.

Here Be Monsters 2: Contest Rules & Judging Criteria

Here Be Monsters is a Pathfinder RPG monster design contest. The second season of the contest begins Thursday, 21 January 2016.

Contest Rules

Contest entries must adhere to the following rules.

• Your monster must be 590-610 words. Note that the maximum word limit is almost 100 words fewer than in the previous Here Be Monsters, and this time there is also a minimum word limit. Use your word processor to check your word count.
• Each entrant may submit one monster.
• Your monster must be designed for the Pathfinder RPG, and you must use the monster template.
• Your monster entry must be appropriate for the contest theme "Hell Breaks Loose", which is described in more detail in the contest announcement.
• Your monster may not have class levels or templates.
• Your monster must be setting-neutral.
• Your monster's CR must be at least 1 and may not be higher than 20. Please note that you only have 600 words, and higher-CR monsters may eat up all your words with describing special abilities, which could leave you limited space for describing it.
• Your monster may use feats, spells, and other resources available in Paizo's Pathfinder PRD. Your monster may not, however, have mythic ranks.
• You must submit your monster via email to monster.design.contest@gmail.com before the deadline 11 February, 2:00 PM PST. Include the monster's name in the subject line of the email.

Additional Judging Criteria

Following the guidelines presented below maximizes your chances of winning.

• Your monster's concept is something new and creative or puts an interesting spin on a classic theme.
• Your monster's name and read-aloud text are evocative.
• Your monster's stat block is correctly formatted. Use any recent Pathfinder RPG bestiary product published by Paizo as your style guide.
• Your monster's statistics are balanced against other creatures of the same CR. Refer to the Monster Creation chapter in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary for instructions.
• Your monster has interesting new special abilities with reasonably simple and elegant mechanics.
• Your monster entry includes compelling lore about the monster which helps GMs use the monster in adventures and campaigns.