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whitebaron wrote:

yes and no: while it allows to engage 4 clustered enemies, you have no real ability to hit two creatures which stand apart.

I wondered if that is what he meant. Quick look through the Dungeons and MM finds:

Sinruth, Hobgoblin Chieftain in Dungeon #156 had only a close 1 power. Animated Carriage from the same issue only has reach. Fen Hydra only has threatening reach. Purple Worm only has reach.

Haven't had a chance to scan the dragon mags. I thought that might be a deficiency to the kittyrar. I'll have to think about it some more.

*sighs*...... All these exact values on attacks need to be based upon encounter and not the structure of the Solo creature. I understand the nature of 4ed is to try to make it easier to create such encounters (and it does a great job of it) but in the end the entire encounter needs to be taken into account. If a solo monster has no area attacks but has the ability to control creatures then it would seem to trade off evenly if it had the ability to control enough creatures to damage in a wide area. I understand that in a contest we need to follow the rules but never lose sight of the fact that the true objective of the DM is to create a balanced encounter to challenge his players in the overall campaign. This is a competition though and not a campaign.

To be clear. I accept the decision of the judges. For the contest the rules are paramount. In a created campaign or creature the writer must follow the to the best of his or her abilities the stated rules relating to constructed monsters. Examples of official monsters that break the rules don't qualify to excuse something that can't be determined by the written rule.

I accepted earlier that I pushed the rules as far as I could to make rituals to fit my entry. I also accepted that by doing so i could jepardize the judging.

Sometimes that is the nature of a good story. Bend the rules as far as you can and let others judge if you went too far.

Decapitus wrote:

I'm here and have responded to your PM. Thanks!

TB - I did volunteer to judge the next one, so wrecan's got at least one willing judge queued up for XDMC #5.

Sagelyone - since I didn't see any thoughts on your posted idea "The Dark" here are mine:
Obviously it is hard to say much since you presented what is really only a draft of an idea, but I did find this to be a worthy idea to flesh out.
Your menace is interesting being a creature intended to be bound to serve a wizard but free and aimless. However, you only really provide detail on the deceased wizard's needs, motives, and intentions. What you need to do is shift focus on the menace itself - what exactly is this creature? What can it do? What exactly does it want? That would make this much more compelling. If you leave the detail about the wizard in to the extent that it is more than what is needed as background for the DM to understand the creature - then you should justify that material by making it relevant to the adventure in other ways. For example, if the key to defeating the creature lay in using some information or item left behind by the wizard. Hopefully, you get what I'm saying...

Ironically - as I write this I realize, as folks have mentioned, this was the weakness in my own entry. I didn't bring enough focus to clearly explain background for my Psychic Reaver.

Why? Because I set my initial focus on a Holiday! Then I designed my entry from there. Coming at an entry sideways like this, I think can be effective (it did medal), but lesson learned, doing this means you still have to be sure the topic of the contest, in this case the menace, is fully developed as well!

Thanks for the feedback, but the comments about it lacking detail and background were unnecessary. Had I time and will to fabricate those details I'd have made a full entry. I just wanted to tell a sort of horror story as a raw idea, and maybe get a bit of creepiness going.