Dragon Issue 278: December 2000


part 3/7


A short history of dwarves: Well, that's a pretty predictable pun. And it looks like we're still in changeover territory in some respects, with a whole ton of short, system free articles coming up that were probably submitted a while ago. Our first one examines the literary origins of dwarves over the centuries, giving us a good bibliography for us to do further research on our own. As such, it's not particularly noteworthy on it's own merits, being basically a warmup article of the same sort as the last issue's leading article. I'm sorry, I definitely prefer it when they start with a big spectacular rather than trying to explain to stuff to us like we know nothing. We haven't forgotten everything just because it's a fresh start.


A dwarven lexicon: We continue with a primer in the dwarven language. It doesn't have enough K's, guttural sounds and weird dots and dashes above the vowels to make it look appropriately foreign and metal for my tastes. Dwarvish is supposed to be tricky to learn and pronounce, and this doesn't look too hard at all. Plus it's way too short to get up a decent sized lexicon, which is always a problem with magazine articles. Once again I'm not sure their letter writers have the right idea, and by trying to please the loudest complainers, they may cause other problems along the line.


Cry Havoc: A random dwarven battle cry generator? Looks like it's another goofy idea, that allows you to resolve a problem swiftly if you're devoid of inspiration. They haven't done this before, they're unlikely to do so again, and you're unlikely to repeat results with this number of options. Plus the illustration's gurning is rather amusing in itself. Death or Glory indeed. Omnomnomnom. I still love that kind of silliness.


Forge & Hammer: Our longest article this month is an 8 page general setting one by Wolf Baur, on the lifecycle of the average dwarf. Birth, education, coming of age, marriage customs, jobs, the way they relate to religion, laws, all leading up to a final piece on funereal practices. They might be a serious, practical lot most of the time, but they sure know how to have a good booze-up, and can form some pretty elaborate social rules over the centuries that may get in the way of actually accomplishing stuff. This invokes conflicting feelings in me. Once again, it's not bad, but it certainly doesn't break new ground the way Roger Moore's articles did way back in 1982. That managed to add new details that were taken up and ran with by other writers, while this just kinda slots in and tells us what we expect to hear about dwarves. Crunch-wise, the most significant thing I can find is the table that tells how much a dwarf can expect to earn in a particular profession. (generally a lot more than in a human community, given how much gold they have access too.) Somehow it just doesn't have the same impact as learning about Moradin, Berronar and the rest of them.


Lights, Camera, Dragons!: The guy who played the dwarf in the D&D movie gets interviewed this month, which I suppose is also vaguely in theme. And no surprise that makeup was a fairly substantial hassle, especially the bit where they died his eyebrows orange. They mostly used trick photography to make him look shorter than the other characters, which is one of the few things this shares with the LotR movies. This is their longest bit of promotion, coinciding with the release date, and includes a synopsis of the plot, and little profiles of all the main characters, and talk about how this both uses D&D ideas, and differs from ordinary campaigns. (a fat old elf, the distinct lack of clerics, beholders are utterly incompetent. ) They're still hoping it'll be a success, with people signed on for 2 sequels if it's profitable, but I think they're starting to realise it might not be deserved, now they've actually seen it. Just because quite a few of the people involved are actually gamers doesn't mean the resulting product will be good or faithful. Still, I suppose it's better for the brand that they promote it, compared to the treatment they gave the D&D cartoon back in the 80's.

Dragon Issue 278: December 2000


part 4/7


The old words are the best words: Robin Laws joins in on the theme this month, with some very specific character building advice. Can you judge a culture by it's proverbs? Hell yeah. They not only show you what a people considers valuable and commonsensical, but have hidden meanings that serve as lessons, and help the old pass on their values to the young. Since dwarves live a long time and tend to be quite culturally conservative, it makes perfect sense they'd have a whole boatload of sayings for common situations. And he does go to quite a bit of length to establish the depth behind these sayings, highlighting the various aspects of the dwarven personality in a show, not tell manner. I think that once again he's going to steal the show here, because this is not only cool, but suitable for any game or media where dwarves resemble their stereotypes at all.


Class combos: Now, I knew that technically the annuals came in between the november and december issues, but this is the first time there's been real consequences for doing them slightly out of order. Apparently that's where they started doing this series on making the most of your multiclass options, providing full 20 level progressions with skill and feat suggestions. As Dwarves have fighter as their favoured class, three of the four options presented here are fighter hybrids, with the final one a cleric/rogue one focussed on mobility underground and harnessing the power of the earth. I can see the use of this, especially if you're generating lots of NPC's, but don't find it very interesting, and can understand why later writers skewed back towards providing lots of new classes to fill different intermediate niches. You can only do so much with multiclassing, especially with XP penalties enforced.


Fiction: Keoland blues by Paul Kidd. The Justicar is back, and he's picked up a whole adventuring party of comedic oddballs to be the straight man too. What a life to live. Unlike the last one which had some social message mixed in with it's humour, this is pure dugeoncrawling goofiness, where they stumble into trouble, fight and puzzle their way out of it, and end up no better off than when they started, due to loadbearing boss keeping them from grabbing most of the treasure. Dont'cha just hate it when that happens. So it's entertaining in a fluffy way, but doesn't develop their characters at all, which means you can skip it without affecting what happens in the actual books at all.


Tools of the Deep: As we saw last issue, dwarves are one of the races likely to profit if technology advances. So a collection of new nonmagical, but technically sophisticated equipment is right up their alley. Torches attached to helmets and climbing aids are of tremendous benefit to a miner. And adapting the bellows used in forges to launch projectile weapons at high speed is a fairly logical bit of steampunk technology. So this is quite neat, and would have been just as suitable for the previous issue as well. Reminding the readers that not all their cool stuff has to be magical, and resourcefulness is as important as the resources you have is still an important lesson in these days of expected wealth per level, if not more so, because when you have a fixed allotment, using it efficiently becomes ever more important if you want to win against your peers.


Nodwick's team meets their monstrous doubles, and go on a big crossover adventure. Much profit is had.


The adventures of Volo: A tale of treachery and greed this month, as Ed spins another system free ancient legend about a family, and the magical items passed down amongst them. We saw at the end of last year what happens to people who betray the country of Cormyr too seriously, and it looks like there's plenty of other jackasses who ruin it's good name. Even the relatively pacified england analogue has more than it's fair share of interesting history. Ed seems to be growing tired of maintaining the dramatic conventions though, with not a single snarky comment by Elminster. He might have no shortage of unused ideas, but how many more of them will be able to be squeezed into this format?


VS Duergar: Now this is more like it. With a fairly unique set of powers and resistances, Duergar require quite specific tactics if you don't want your ass kicked in the twisting tunnels of the underdark. Basically, the really important thing is to be able to counter their invisibility, and have some bright lights to make them suffer and turn the tables. General dispelling, anti-poison effects, and movement enhancers will also come in handy. You can have the same basic stats, and have the encounter go very differently depending on the environment, and if you have the right equipment and spells prepared. They do actually have some stuff I hadn't thought of this time around. Let's hope they can get progressively more oddball in their choice of monsters.

Dragon Issue 278: December 2000


part 5/7


Class acts: A fairly stereotyped entry this time, with the stonelord, or Hyperdwarves!  Another one where you have to either dip into a suboptimal class to qualify, or suck up those cross-class skills. Still, they have full BAB progression, plus a whole bunch of thematic magical skills. Although it's not mentioned, the elemental theme seems appropriate not only for dwarves, but for druids as well. Lower the BAB to 3/4, add a partial spell progression and early wildshaping into an elemental, and they'd be a great idea for druids who want to focus on the earth theme. Which is pretty neat.


Rogues Gallery: Looks like it's Raven's Bluff's turn to get a novel. They're already filled in more than any other city in the Realms, thanks to years of RPGA adventures and Polyhedron articles. And apparently the novel pays close attention to established continuity, using the same named locations and supporting characters. I'm sure someone'll be able to find something to complain about.

Jack Ravenwild sees another strong contender for most cliched badass protagonist name introduced to us. He's a charming sorcerer/rogue who much prefers tricking enemies to fighting them head-on, is impulsive, reckless, and loyal to his friends. A completely typical adventurer then. In Raven's Bluff, I'm sure there are hundreds like him (if lower level, since 3e hasn't been out long enough for them to level up in the living city campaign. ) I guess they're going for the everyman thing.

Anders Aricssen is Jack's sidekick, a barbarian with enough common sense to point out his stupider plans and pull him out of the fire. As with many sidekicks, he seems a more interesting character, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's more of a PoV character. But he's still eager to adventure, and not too good at planning himself, so I guess the two need each other. I suspect snarky IC banter will be involved though.

Zandria is a red wizard who's a little less unpleasant than most of them, but she's still a ruthless, short-tempered, arrogant pain in the ass. She just treats her friends better. Which may let her level up in the outside world, but will be a real problem once she goes back home to try and rise in the hierarchy. Why bother being a good guy after all? They'll just betray you. Magically created slaves really are the way to go.

Tharzon is a dwarf fighter/rogue who uses his racial talents at mining as a way of breaking into people's houses and robbing them. Tut tut. Well, someone was going to do it sooner or later. Seems a very protagonisty thing to do. So I guess these four are going to bicker their way through some kind of adventure around the city. Will there be room for them not not hit other adventurers on the way?


The bad guys are definitely winning in this month's dragonmirth.


Forum: Adam C. Tucson is full of praise for the changes to 3e, especially the new class level and to hit system. His only little niggle is the chopping around of pronouns, witch is cool from an equality point of view, but confusing when it happens within a single example. Characters generally don't have sex changes mid-combat, you know.

Louis Pirozzi is the contrastic voice, saying most of the changes they've made suck. Poor poor halflings. Poor poor elemental mages. Oh don't you worry about them, elemental spellcasters'll be back in supplements before you can say shazam, and were never core anyway.

Casey DeWitt loves templates, but isn't too keen on Baatezu and Tanar'ri going back to being devils and demons. Those names just seem bland now. Hmm. Unpronouncable or bland. What a decision. I really can't come down on one side for this problem.

Rikard Fjellhaug praises D&D with all the zeal of a born again convert. Games Workshop have betrayed me, and this is awesome. I'm glad I gave it a try after many years of shunning AD&D.

Christian Walker is thoroughly amused at the idea of 20th level commoners. Still, it does give him a good guideline for giving XP for noncombat encounters. Negotiating a good deal with a 20th level expert can be even trickier than slaying a 20HD dragon. A bit of tweaking might be needed, but the basic theory is sound.

Dragon Issue 278: December 2000


part 6/7


Role models: This column changes writers, and resets to step one yet again, with another bit of basic advice on how to paint miniatures. This is very tiresome indeed. With that comes another format change, back to photographs, and a noticeable reduction in text size, as they actually have a decent amount to say. The advice itself though is another basic list of the things you need, and the habits you should develop if you want to become a good painter. Once again I find myself somewhat irritated at the poor treatment this column is getting, being meddled with frequently and shunted around the magazine like they don't really know what to do with it.  It does end on a positive note though, with a statement of what's coming up next month. Hopefully this guy'll stick around long enough to carry out his plans and get past the basics again.


Sage advice: How can clerics of Heroneous be lawful neutral when their god is lawful good (You misunderstand. When we say they can't be neutral unless their god is, we mean true neutral, not a hybrid. What a Doofus)

Surely clerics don't lose their armor and weapon proficiencies when they become ex-clerics (You are correct. )

Can true neutral clerics cast aligned spells (Yes. They can play all the sides against one-another for their own profit.)

Does extra turning also give extra rebukes (Oh yes)

Can monks make off-hand attacks (This rule is not applicable. Please reset the system and try again.)

Can monks deal subdual damage (yes, and at no penalty. Flexibility's a great thing. )

Do you still suffer AoO's if you grapple someone and have improved unarmed strike (Fraid so. It'll take another feat to do that as well)

Are monks immune to sneak attack (no)

You don't add monk's base attack to their unarmed attack, do you. (No. That would be so broken no other class could compete. )

What is monk's crit range and damage (20 x2, just like anything not specifically mentioned otherwise. The game is sooo prejudiced against nonhumanoids.)

How long does it take to use wholeness of body (Standard action)

Shocking grasp is better at hitting you if you're wearing metal armour (Feature, not bug. The designers knew what they were doing.)

Can you cast spells with somatic components if your hands are full (No. This limits the good gish builds a bit )

Can you raise a skill cross-class if you already have it as a class one (sure, if you want to be objectively sub-optimal)

We interrupt this transmission to bring you a particularly egregious powerplay, in which the deadliness of a buffed cleric is pointed out. Truly, CoDzilla is in the building. And now, back to you Skip.
Thank you, Sean. And now, the weather.

How are feats handled for multiclass characters. (Perfectly normally. We standardised this stuff so it would be easy for you. )

Can you fire two hand crossbows at once (sure)

Is true strike overpowered, virtually impossible to use, or both. Good question. Considering magic missile hits automatically at the same level, we don't think so.)

Does true strike's bonus apply to confirm crit threats (yes)

What attack bonus do you have with improved two weapon fighting (Plenty stupid question, yah. Skip answer question, you feel better. )

How many attacks do you get if you have whirlwind attack and improved two-weapon fighting ( Way too many. Way to bogart the fighting airtime dude. )

What are the rules for partial charges. (half the action, half the distance, half the cool factor. Poor zombies.)

Are bonus spells for high scores cumulative (no)

What's a double headed weapon, and why can't rangers fight two-weapon with it (Something that has nasty bits on both ends. Rangers don't get special powers with them because Drizzt never used them )

Does moving away and loading a crossbow provoke attacks of opportunity (yes)

Do off hand attacks lose all their strength bonus to hit or half (none, actually. Skip can see why you might think so though. Definitely a case where things aren't as standardized as they could be. We have good reason for that though.)

Dragon Issue 278: December 2000


part 7/7


Silicon Sorcery: 5 new magic items from Icewind Dale get backconverted to D&D stats this month. They all have pretty cool names, which definitely makes me more predisposed to using them. Let's see if their powers can match their names in inventiveness.

Alamion is a longsword that makes you resistant to fire, detects fire using creatures and is super effective against evil outsiders. If you're a paladin going to hell, you couldn't have a better friend in all the world.

Dead man's Faces are helms that provide a bonus against fear effects, which is moderately useful. The flavour text is more interesting than their power, being based around the funereal practices of the followers of Tempus. This is an unusual amount of depth for video game items, and well worth using in a tabletop game.

Faith Killer isn't too surprising, being an axe that dispels any divine spells when it hits someone. There's quite a few people around the multiverse who don't like the idea of gods now. I suspect that's why they'll hit back and institute the wall of the faithless to keep us in line.

The Bitch Queen's Envoy is a shield given to servants of Umberlee, that makes them invisible and untouchable to water creatures. How useful this'll be will be pretty context specific, but it's a truly awesome name, nonetheless. I hope you can get good use out of it in the game.

Black Swan Armor isn't the most powerful in terms of armor bonus, but gives you resistance to 4 energy types, a charisma enhancement, and has reduced armor penalties. Since it's designed for a female wearer, I'm left wondering if it looks chesecakey in game. How are you supposed to take a military leader seriously when they're showing great acres of cleavage? (until they prove they've got Great Cleave as well) So with plenty of effort to integrate them into the setting, and powers that aren't just more plusses, this lot can definitely have high marks.


Dungeoncraft: Ray reveals that yes, he wasn't part of the in crowd for the new edition's development, so he's only found out about it as we did. I suspected as much. And due to lead-in times and all that, he's 3 months behind in getting to talk about it. No wonder he's been running booster episodes these past few months rather than starting new topics. Still, this one is quite topical, as it asks the difficult question of when, and indeed if you should switch systems, particularly mid campaign, where the change in rules might hurt people's sense of immersion, as characters can suddenly do things they couldn't before. (or possibly the opposite, which would also annoy them.) A one-shot to try things out before you commit your main game would be a rather good idea. Still, while he doesn't leap headfirst into 3e, he does have positive things to say about it, particularly in the universal resolution system removing big chunks of the headache in winging unexpected actions. All you have to do is figure out a stat to roll against and an appropriate DC. And you can still eyeball those and not worry about it too much if you turn out to not be calculating things strictly by the RAW. Keeping the game moving is more important than adhering to the letter of the rules at all times. As with some of the other writers, he's obviously still writing with the 2e spirit, even if he's using the new rules. And I find myself fully in agreement with his observations this month. You don't want to jump in and use everything in the new system at once just because it's cool and new. That way lies making mistakes you can't easily take back before you get the hang of things.


Dixie is foiled in her latest attempt to rule the world by the wonders of chocolate. That's just cruel.


I'm afraid we have a lot of short, somewhat insubstantial articles this issue. It seems like they're still waiting for the freelancers to catch up with the new edition and start sending in stuff using the new rules, with a lot of system free ones that feel like filler. Despite dwarves being fairly popular, there's no real game-changers for them here, just lots of stuff that tells us what they think we want to hear. Looks like there's still another few mountains of rock to dig through to find the gold in this magazine. Better get a bigger pickaxe if I want to get through them faster.

Dragon Annual 2000


part 1/7


116 pages. Hmm. This half-dragon's a bit less androgynous and pretty than the one in issue 206. He'd chop you up without breaking a sweat or wasting time to angst about being caught between two worlds and belonging to neither. Well, he'll have a far easier time finding a group of companions with similarly bizarre origins these days. That takes the sting away quite a lot. But despite the edition change, the annual seems to have the same idea as before. Skip the themes for lots of regular columns, and maybe an adventure for Dungeon fans. Let's hope the articles are good ones this time, because we need a nice filling helping of extra crunch more than usual at this point.


Scan Quality: Ok, unindexed, scruffy page edges, one page out of order.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: It doesn't matter how long you've been playing, everyone's a newcomer to the new edition, and starting on an even footing. Of course, some are learning faster than others, but that's only natural. What's important is that circulation is up, and people are sending in more proposals for articles than they have in a long time. The main problem is that tons of them are ones about people's personal worlds and characters, which isn't something they're really interested in anymore. Ed got away with that because he was in on the ground floor, interesting, and insanely prolific too. You can't unless you can sell yourself in a mere couple of hundred words. So this is an attempt to herd cats, get what they want from the readerbase, instead of what they want to give us. Good luck with that guys. You'll definitely need it.


By any other name part one: The array of random system free tables to fill out issues continues. We didn't get them this frequently and consistently even in the 70's. So much for the old school. This time, it's appropriate random names for shops. If you're a regular visitor to the same settlement, you can wind up going to the same local places and making them feel like home. So you really really don't want them having names the players'll laugh at every time. If you're caught off guard, this is another one that could well save your bacon if you remember to pull it out in time. It caters well for human, dwarven and elven settlements, but everyone else is on their own. It also sounds very english. Still, there's only so much you can do in 4 pages. An ok starter, I guess.


By any other name part two: Even more than shops, pubs, inns and taverns tend to have interesting names, and be regular hangouts for adventurers. When you start a lot of your adventures being approached by some mysterious figure for a dubious job, it's important to be seen in the right places and have a reputation with the right people. This mostly works off d100 tables, so it has even greater variety than the last article, making it even less likely you'll repeat names. (unlike the real world where it seems every other town in the UK has a Queen's Head. ) I think I like this a little better out of these two, but it's a close thing, as neither really reaches out and grabs me by the throat.

Dragon Annual 2000


part 2/7


Fresh starts: Speaking of being approached by some guy in a pub as they way you start every adventure, screw that noise. This is definitely one area where a little more variety would be great. This is only 3 pages and has 20 hooks, so it's not as able to completely avoid repetition as the previous two articles, but they are fun ones, including multiple ones that take you away from everything you knew, and one dragging the PC's into a harem comedy gone wrong. Blackmail, being swept off course sailing, turned to stone and then back centuries later, or even the really cheesy old one of inheriting a haunted castle. If there is an issue with these, it's how many simply sweep the characters up with no chance to say no, and completely cut them off from their old connections and safety nets. Sure Dorothy and Alice got good stories out of that, but if it happens regularly to players they'll feel railroaded and lose investment. Be sure to break stories like this up with ones where they do get to exercise agency if you want a long healthy campaign.


Rays of light: We don't have an Arcane Lore in this annual, but we do have a collection of spells and new metamagic feats anyway. Quite a substantial one too, with 17 spells and 5 feats crammed into 4 pages. The theme is ray spells. They've been around for ages, but they've received a real increase in frequency in the new edition. This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that you have to both hit the target with a ranged touch attack, which wizards aren't the best at, and then they get a saving throw, making them more likely to be resisted than the average spell. If you want to be a specialist in using them, multiclassing with something with a high BAB like Eldrich Knight would be a very good idea. But I digress. The new metamagic feats are both the most interesting part of this, and also the smallest. You can turn a ray spell into a cone or a burst, make it shoot three things at once or two in a row. And with the spells here, you can shoot fire, cold, electricity, rust, disease, stupidity, negative energy, or a critically acclaimed madonna album. In addition to the 16 rays, they also include a counterspell that'll reflect ray spells back on anyone trying to shoot you, which makes a lot of sense in the circumstances. He who lives by the ray does not want to die by the ray. This is packed full of just the kind of crunch players'll love to use, and love to hate bad guys who also use it. Even now, you can't always rely on AoE attacks to get the job done without hurting your friends.

Dragon Annual 2000


part 3/7


Bazaar of the Bizarre: A grab bag of stuff this month, running the gamut of weaponry and armor. Materials, plus finished products. Not the most glamorous of descriptions, but in the new climate where character optimisation is encouraged, this is a good thing. And once again, it's not all magical stuff.

Lenaer Wood is another elven material that's Better Than Yours. Reduced weight and increased weapon ranges. That'll let you carry more arrows. It's not even that expensive too.

Mindsteel, on the other hand, offers benefits and penalties. Increased weight and reduced protection, but a big bonus to will saves. Hmm. That's actually a pretty tricky choice.

Vakar is a new material discovered by dwarves mining. Since it does extra damage against elves, this has made it rather popular in short order. Let's hope the goblins don't get their paws on it, because then there'd be a lot more trouble in the offing.

Durand's Armor is a mindsteel alloy that has the best properties of both regular and special.

Leafcutter is made of an alloy of Vakar and Silver, and also has the best properties of both. So if any elf gets infected with lycanthropy, it'll be the perfect solution.

Eward's Sword is made of a combination of admantine and copper. This makes it effectively as good as a full +1 sword. Perfect for your magic suspicious barbarian.

Lowri's Arrows are made from crystalized cave slug slime. Like spider silk, this works really well actually. Very cool idea.

Rejavik is a hollow-cavitied warhammer which uses clever leverage tricks to increase the damage done. Sloshing mercury around inside the cavity makes it tricky to wield but damn effective when it connects. A trick also used in real world mechanics. Now that is interesting as well. This has been more useful than the previous magic-free articles.


The bestiary: James Jacobs continues his romp through Greyhawk lore, adding on more interesting monstrosities previously unseen to scare the players. Funny that they're concentrating on making new monsters when there's so many unconverted ones from the old edition. Still, it shows there are people already making 3e into it's own beast rather than just a continuation of the old stuff. Whether that's a good thing or not is probably a matter of opinion, but I quite like these particular new additions. This time, it's not a location, but creatures connected to Tharizdun that are getting their turn in the spotlight.

Julajimus are a fairytale monster that transforms into small cute animals, to get into your room before eating you, and is rendered helpless by sunlight. A nice cautionary tale for D&D characters.

Kurge are a particularly gross form of undead that have their body parts split off and attack independently when you hit them. What a lovely visual. They're another one that's infested with nasty disease too, just to make the team regret the encounter more.

Rogue eidolon are Tharizdun's equivalent of the animating lion guardian, only creepier looking. Since their god was banished, they aren't the most sane of creatures either. Lure them into pits or traps if you can't penetrate their DR.

RotRippers are undead ogres that steal your arms and add them to their body, in another interesting fairytale touch. That does mean their deadliness may vary substantially while they still have the same HD and CR though. There are worse design flaws, I guess, and it is an exceedingly cool idea for a monster.

Dragon Annual 2000


part 4/7


Dork tower is taken over by Phil Foglio, who does a really good job of imitating John Kovalic's art style. At least, until the last frame. Muahahahahaha!


Gorgoldand's Gauntlet: This year's adventure continues the fresh start theme, with a 1st level adventure. A fairly clever, rather whimsical one designed to set the PC's up for future manipulation by a powerful NPC with their own agenda. The challenges are mostly based around puzzles, with jermalaine the most frequent adversaries, and some rather annoying wordplay in the same vein as B9. Plus a minesweeper rip-off, which reminds me how ubiquitous that was on windows computers as a free game. This actually seems quite fun, which shows how well Johnathan Richards can sell elements that would be deeply annoying in lesser hands. It's quite flexible as well, with ideas for scaling, and making it a little more action focussed. I was suspicious at first, but I do actually like this, and can see it making a fun little romp in actual play.


All over the map: We had questions about this quite a whole a go. And even now, most maps that the official D&D campaigns and adventures use start off hand drawn. They may be scanned into the computer, overlaid and digitally manipulated in all sorts of ways later, including having copies printed off so more hand-drawn revisions can be made. But if you don't have actual artistic skills, you'll never really be able to replicate what they can do. If you want to be a true pro in this field, you need both hand drawing skills and computer manipulation ones, or a partnership where individual people can really concentrate on being good at these individual parts. Of course, in the internet age, where people are increasingly expected to be all-in-one creative units, and costs are cut wherever possible, it can be pretty tricky to make a living in a highly specialised job like this. I don't think any RPG company apart from WotC has a full time graphics guy anymore. Sometimes, you do miss the old studio system. And I certainly miss having lots of companies big enough to maintain a supplement mill for their gamelines and do big pretty boxed sets with maps and stuff.


Dragonmirth is interestingly obscure this month:


After the Dragon: Vangerdhast is a bit of a dick, really. Making the king's corpse smile during the funereal procession? This is why wizards should be kept in support roles, not making decisions on public policy, despite their intelligence. Anyway, this spells out the changes in cormyran politics in recent novels. The old king is dead, long live the king! You can look forward to politics being pretty complicated, as he's just a baby, and there's a regent in charge for the next 17 years. (more than long enough to be corrupted by power and not want to give it up) Ed once again shows that his knack for details is what you really need if you want to create an interesting political game, as he details tons of NPC's and their basic personalities and motivations, ready for you to set the intrigues in motion. If that isn't your thing, there's also a prestige class for the higher ranking purple dragons, which gives them natural armor bonuses and resistances to poison and magic as they level up, making them rather harder to take down than a standard fighter. Being one'll tie you into a hierarchy, but since their job is often hunting down monsters and sniffing out dissension, that won't put a crimp in your adventuring lifestyle. So this is another finger licking good bit of information from Ed, keeping the world alive and growing, while also hinting at how subtly deranged his high level wizard NPC's are. Maintaining continuity is important if they want to keep the old players on board.

Dragon Annual 2000


part 5/7


Mentors: Don't tell me we haven't had an article about mentors before? Really?! Well, I suppose it's another one of those things I've never really used in my games, despite this writer thinking they're an essential part of a story. It's never something I've had personally, as I've always wound up doing most of my learning from books or original research rather than a teacher, so of course my perspective on it would be an outsiders one. And this shows that as long as you avoid the pitfall of the mentor being a deus ex machina who could easily do the jobs they're sending the PC's on themselves, there's plenty of plot options you can open up by having a mentor or two for your PC's. (having multiple particularly helps, as it gets the message through much faster that they're not infallible, and their goals probably aren't purely altruistic. ) They can run the gamut from accessible to mysterious, slightly more experienced (but possibly with age or combat based injuries that keep them from the front line anymore) to godlike, heroic to secretly malevolent and manipulative. So this article is very aware of both the upsides and downsides to including a mentor in your campaign, and does quite a bit to help you get good results out of doing so. Plus it's another good example of how they've actually reduced rehash after the revamp.  


101 evil schemes: We've already had 20 adventure seeds this issue. Here's 101 more! How very generous of them. These aren't railroady either, ands many of them won't be combat heavy at all. Of course, they're just stat free synopses, so you'll still have to do all the heavy lifting yourself, and some of them are definitely aimed at higher level characters. Still, quite a few of them inspired a good old muahaha in me, and they are pretty interesting ideas, avoiding or subverting the obvious plot ideas. This issue is definitely racking up enough stuff to keep your campaign running for quite a while.


Class acts: Oh dear. Another attack of hyperstereotyping this issue with the Gnome Trickster. Once again we run into the same design flaw that Mystics suffered from. They have lots of powers that enhance their illusion magics, but no actual spell progression. This means that they'll end up with fewer, less powerful spells than an illusionist who simply sucks up the metamagic feats to enhance their spells. They really are still making the most elementary design errors. In other words, this fails from both a flavour and an optimization point of view. No way I'd take it even if I did want to play that archetype.


The royal heralds: A second prestige class in quick succession. Heralds were quite an interesting Bard Kit last edition, sacrificing skill in ancient lore for being in touch with the pulse of the streets and knowing tons of languages. I'm not surprised they were popular enough to be brought back. As with that incarnation, there's a certain emphasis on the james bond shenanigans, where they're suave and well versed in international etiquette, but also get up to behind the scenes adventures as well. They are a lot more combat focussed than before though, with full sneak attack progression, and uncanny dodge as per a rogue. They get spontaneous spellcasting of about the same level as an Assassin or Blackguard, which means a Bard moving into this will have tons of low level spells rather than progressing to mid level ones. In general, they're somewhere between rogue and bard, and will be useful if you want to concentrate on this particular subset of their powers rather than multiclassing between the two and having to pick up extra class features you might not use. So this isn't quite as flavourful as last edition, but not terrible either.

Dragon Annual 2000


part 6/7


Nodwick is taken over by John Kovalic. Not as convincingly as phil's try, though.


Class combo's: We saw the second instalment of this out of order last time round. Now I get a good look at the proper introduction. Now, there are advantages to taking certain classes at 1st level, particularly rogue and barbarian, but even they'll be offset by the fact that you're not completely specialising in whatever you want to do, which is particularly important for spellcasters. Taking a level or two in fighter or ranger later on can also offer advantages to a build, as these classes are particularly front-loaded at the moment. Even splitting, on the other hand, is one of the worst things you can do, despite it being encouraged by the xp penalty system. Despite that, nearly half of these are even splits, as they try to give us the obvious iconic multiclass options first. Champion (1/3 fighter, 2/3 cleric) Nature's Champion (1/4 ranger, 3/4 druid) Scout (1/2 ranger, 1/2 rogue) Skald (1/2 Barbarian, 1/2 Bard, another resurrection of an obvious kit from 2e)  Spellfilcher (1/3 Rogue, 2/3 Wizard) Spellsword (1/3 fighter 2/3 wizard) and Tracker (1/2 Barbarian 1/2 Ranger) Note how it's already the part spellcaster builds that skew unevenly towards them. While I can see the value in trying to get people to fulfil their character concepts by working within the existing class system rather than creating their own, this series seems likely to suffer diminishing returns very quickly, as while you can create near infinite combinations, the obvious ones will disappear quite quickly. I can't see it having that long a lifespan.


The ecology of the Feyr: Paranoia. Mistrust of the enemy among us. A theme that would go up in profile quite a bit this decade. They don't know that yet, but that doesn't mean this doesn't work. This is one of those ecologies where the narrator is in cahoots with the monster, and giving out the information to stir up further trouble. Which is, of course, just what the feyr thrives upon. Once again, they also use this magazine as a way to update creatures that didn't make it into the monster manual. Is this going to become a regular thing? In any case, this is a competent but not particularly groundbreaking ecology.


Forgotten realms 2000: Here's some mechanical updates for the Realms to complement the setting ones earlier. Can't wait for the corebook to come out? Here's the spheres for the gods, conversions for 13 magical items, a spell, and all the subraces that we've come to know and love. Plus there's the new stuff. Three sample regional feats, including Luck of Heroes, which show that yes, the power creep is small, but has already started. And a relaxing of the multiclassing rules on monks and paladins, as followers of specific gods get special exemptions appropriate to their portfolios. They're not going to stay bound by the standards they established in the corebooks. The realms has always been a high power setting, and they don't see why they should stop now. I mildly disapprove. They should at least stick to their guns long enough to see where the problems are before patching them, otherwise they'll just make new ones. Let the flamewars ....... continue.

Dragon Annual 2000


part 7/7


Rogues gallery: Oh, don't tell me the Cult of the Dragon are making another doomed attempt at world domination. You're always going to be the second stringers as Realms villains go. But they try harder, and this time they're going multimedia! Yes, it's time for the stats of characters from a novel based on a computer game. If anything is going to cause conversion confusion, it's a chain of events like that. It's also likely to cause very rapid levelling up, given both the nature of computer game grinding and the new 3e advancement rules. Which means these stats are only accurate for a very short portion of the novel. Makes you wonder why they bothered, if your PC's are never going to get to encounter them in this stage of their development without screwing with the established timeline.

Kestrel is the embittered self-reliant rogue, who has to learn how to get along with her companions if they're to succeed against all the trials ahead. That's pretty predictable. Now, what kind of person would a girl like that wind up in conflict with?

Oh, surprise surprise. Corran D'arcey is a lawful dick noble-born paladin who has to learn actual compassion and understanding for those who didn't have the same opportunities and easy childhood he did. He tends to be bossy as well, which means he's also going to have to do some serious character arcing to do.

Ghleanna Stormlake is a somewhat animeish looking half-elf who contrasts quite a bit with her more rugged companions. As one of the new breed of sorcerers, she's a mystery to even Elminster. (at least, until the Simbul gets retconned into one. ) Like most sorcerers, she's a misfit despite her high charisma, and has turned into a mediator in an attempt to stave off further abuse. Which means she gets to be right in the middle when the previous two butt heads. Yick. This is starting to remind me of my old band.

Durwynn is the straight fighter of the team. This means he's the quiet one who gets along with everyone, and has a surprising number of good ideas. Every group needs a no-nonsense, no drama guy who shows up on time and gets the job done. Otherwise this group would have died long before they got to this level.


Aaron Williams completes the artistic round robin by doing What's New. In theory, anyway. Phil & Dixie are reduced to cameos in their own comic. Stick to the script, people!


This is a pretty good annual, which has a lot of information about how they're developing the new edition, plus a decent amount of system free stuff as well. Once again, the Realms gets the lions share of the attention, making Greyhawk and everyone else look a little neglected, but as long as the information itself is good, I can survive that. They just have to make sure that the setting has progressed enough that when they cover various regions again in the new edition, it doesn't just feel like a retread, without alienating people, and hopefully winning a few new fans as well. And the same applies to the generic game as well. So let's see what supplements 2001 brings, and how they're received by the readers. There's tons of space to fill, and with the d20 system coming in, more competition than ever. WotC'll have to work hard to make sure their offerings are still the best.

Dragon Issue 279: January 2001


part 1/7


116 pages. Elves get a themed issue straight after Dwarves? My degree of surprise is infinitesimal. Thought you'd get complaints if you waited even a couple of months to heighten the anticipation? Probably right too. Let's see if they'll be getting twinked new crunch, or just fluffy system free articles that could have been submitted any time in the past few years. Even with a life as long as theirs, you don't want to hang around getting bored.


Scan Quality: Good, unindexed, a few colouring glitches.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: Straight away, we talk about the difficulty of accurately portraying creatures that have such long lifespans. Sometimes they suffer from ennui. Sometimes they're aloof, as they don't want to be hurt when their shorter-lived companions keep on dying. Sometimes they're perpetual kids, playful and whimsical throughout eternity no matter how much shit gets thrown at them. Sometimes they're just plain alien. Who's to say which is most accurate, given that they're purely fantasy creatures anyway. I once again wish we would hurry up and create life extension methods, so we can see how people do act when given the promise of eternity in a young healthy body as long as they don't get killed by violence or accident. Let's avoid the accusations of badwrongfun until then, shall we. It might make sense for real world genders and ethnicities, but you aren't going to get the Elf Liberation Front jumping down your throat if you portray them wrong.  


Scale Mail: We start off with someone who's pleased with the quality of the articles recently, but not the layout. Yeah, they've been getting that a lot. They're still fiddling with it, trying to get something that looks distinctive without enraging people.

Second, we have someone annoyed at graphic visuals in their adverts. What a bunch of wusses. Let them spend their money. It does not mean you have to buy the stuff advertised, or even pay any attention too it.

We then have someone raging about the canon police. Do not create new climate or terrain types for your monsters to dwell in? What kind of instruction is that?! Unless the existing ones are sufficiently broad as to be all-inclusive, that's a rule that begs to be broken.

Another person joins the ranks of those who think there's too much forgotten realms stuff in the magazine. Sorry. It started there, and it's not giving up it's place without a fight. If you really want to beat it, you need to control your own means of distribution.

On the other hand, we've got some happy customers as a result of the steampunk issue. Thank god for that, given all the complaints Alternity got in it's final year.

They also seem to be happy about the introduction of prestige classes. Oh, don't worry, you'll be seeing waaaay more of those, until you're mighty sick of them. Actually, I ought to count up how many kits 2e did, so I can see when they get overtaken in the magazine by prestige classes. Gimme a few hours.
Hmm. I count 159. They need to average slightly under 2 per issue to beat that before the magazine ends. The target is set.

We then have a complaint about agism in the magazine. Since Gary's the founder of D&D, everyone else is a young'un in his eyes. Don't read too much into it.

An amusing letter in which they like the new edition, but feel like they're betraying the old one by switching. Love is a many splendored, and often silly thing. Don't worry, you can do both on different days.

The rage mage gets it's errata sorted out. Silly writers copy and pasting without changing things.

And finally, the German correspondent returns another positive verdict, and asks when they'll be doing some psionic stuff for the new edition. Not long, not long at all. It's always had a fairly good niche, so it's one of the first things they scheduled. Bust busy busy.

Dragon Issue 279: January 2001


part 2/7


PROfILES :sigh: Anyway, let's not dwell on the endless format stupidity. Jason Carl is our latest man in the spotlight. He's done modules for Dragonlance, the Forgotten realms, White Wolf, and various LARPing stuff. But his current job is splatbooks. Yes, he's won the enviable job of kicking off the supplement treadmill for the new edition. Which means he gets to design lots of new feats and prestige classes with which to bloat your options and upset the carefully considered balance of the game. He is not unaware of this danger, making sure he listens to the input of other writers and editors, making sure that while the system increases in versatility and depth, it doesn't get too far out of hand in the upwards direction. This one does get bogged down rather in the technical exploration and talk about the new edition, not giving me that much of a picture of the person behind it, outside his work. But then, many of the staff don't seem to have much of a life outside their work. The best they can manage is to choose what music they're listening too while writing. It's another thing that's a bit of a pain in the ass.


Up on a soapbox: Gary gets his act together, and returns with another plan after several months off. He's going to talk about exactly what a roleplaying game is. He's broken it up into a whole list of elements (not all of which will fit into a given campaign) and wants us to rate how important each of them are to us. This gives him well over a year's worth of material to talk about if he decompresses it as much as possible, and plenty of things for him to express interesting opinions on. And since he does have pretty interesting opinions, I'm definitely looking forward to reading future instalments in this series. Will he be be insightful, or in pontificating windbag mode?


Previews: The splatbook mill starts to really turn with Sword and Fist: A guidebook to Fighters and Monks. Lot's of new feats, prestige classes, and all that shininess. The first one I really remember, I suspect this'll sell rather more than the adventures. Speaking of adventures, this month's one is The Speaker in Dreams. They step out of the dungeon and back to the city for a little political fun. Can you get your players to play investigator properly?

Our novels this month are both rehash. Dragons of a Fallen Sun moves to paperback, or something, while Legacy of the Drow sees more of Drizzt's adventures compiled in omnibus form. Not a very interesting result really.


Nodwick becomes the bearer of puerile news. He may be shot for it, but nothing a little duct tape can't fix.


Countdown to the forgotten realms: 5 months to go. A very short article this month, giving us a bunch of little updates to the setting and timeline. The Red Wizards have set up magical shops, trying to take over via commerce rather than force. This seems to be working, making them a little less carton bad guys. The North has formed it's own league of nations to make things a little more civilised. Unther has lost it's god king and been invaded by Mulhorand. Oh, and the Simbul has always been a Sorcerer, not a wizard. Well, someone had to be, and of all the powerful spellcasters Ed's done over the years, she's one of the most unpredictable and primal, so it's a good fit. Any objections to these changes? No? Let's move on then.


Dork tower sends in the filk. Be afraid.


Leaf & thorn: Robin Laws decides he's got plenty to say about elves as well as dwarves. And he doesn't hesitate to contradict some of the stuff in the complete book of elves, cutting the time they spend pregnant from 7 1/2 years to a mere 12 months. But they're still very much better than you in all sorts of ways. They're in touch with nature and the cosmos, stick to the big rules but don't sweat the small stuff, can have sex without all that stupid worrying about if the other person is really attracted to you or not, and then move on easily when it's over, get to learn naturally at their own pace, and then accept death when it comes magnanimously. As pretty pure fanboyism, this is the first thing he's written I don't like. They do have problems as well, you know, not that this talks about them. Otherwise they'd completely dominate the world, which they don't seem too. Remove a good chunk of the saccharine, and call me again next month.

Dragon Issue 279: January 2001


part 3/7


Revenge of the spider queen: Well, this is different. Enough monsters, spells and magic items presented in isolation. How about a team of bad guys designed to work together, so the PC's can face them as a unit, complete with lots of tactical notes. We hardly saw any of those in 2e, and their rise is one aspect of 3rd and 4th edition that I quite approve of. They take a lot more work to build right than individual monsters, so some good examples are welcome. So let's start off with one of Lolth's personal strike forces, dispatched throughout the multiverse to fulfil missions for her. Which means you have a good reason to encounter them nearly anywhere, particularly in the underdark. The individual members are scary enough on their own too, making them suitable solo foes for lower level parties. Plenty of use for this then, and it should be a while before we reach saturation point if they do articles like this regularly.

Sierona is a succubus rogue, and sneakiness combined with demonic spell-like powers makes her very capable of getting that sneak attack bonus damage. She's very much into a little bondage and torture, which means the highest cha male of the party might be spared for a fate worse than death. Course, at the level you'll be facing them, that gives you a chance to escape and raise everyone else. That seems like an appropriately tricky second chance.

Phauman is a drow Fighter/Wizard who uses his spells primarily for buffing in combat. He thinks he's a ladies man, but with a mediocre charisma and wisdom, and no ranks in appropriate skills, he's really not. Catch him before he has time to power up and get him angry, and your chances of winning are massively improved.  

Vinter is a Drider cleric, showing that Lolth can be forgiving on occasion, if it annoys someone else enough. He's very much the support character, buffing and healing the others, making them even harder to take down. A party that hasn't mastered the same kind of tactical efficiency will struggle even if they are higher level.

Krad is a half-fiend Dragonne. As he's part of a party that are vulnerable to it, his roar isn't so useful, but he will give you a good blast of horrid wilting to soften you up before melee. And as he has by far the most HP, he might well be the last monster standing, at which point that consideration goes out the window. Knowing your enemy and being prepared definitely seems like a good idea again.

Berkurt the Corrupter is a fiendish Stone Giant, and while big, is actually the weakest member of the team, with no real magic or particularly cool items. Still, a 30 strength is not to be sneezed at, especially when combined with smite good. He could still smash up a low level party all on his own.

Jaggedra Thul is easily the most powerful here, a Vampire half-dragon Drow Cleric who's stacked templates bring her up to CR 22. Monte is really enjoying exploiting the system he created here, and her statblock is as large as I'd expect for a high level character like this. More than half of her description is devoted to the buffs she'll use in combat as well. She's going to be an almighty pain in the ass to fight alright. This party could well beat even a group of 20th level PC's if they aren't careful. Monte definitely deserves some credit for doing the first 3e article really aimed at high level players.


The elven marketplace: While elves are well known for their magical skill, they can also produce quite a few notable nonmagical items too, such as lembas, and elven chain. While not as technologically minded as dwarves, they do have a long time to get good at whatever they choose to do, and so their craftworks tend to be very elegant indeed. This is another short article, and manages to squeeze in 5 new arrow types, 5 bits of general equipment, and two variant armor types made from natural materials. All are somewhat superior to regular ones, but way more expensive. Which is a way to maintain balance I suppose. No surprises here.


The myth of elves: Or here, which is another 3 page article that does exactly the same as it's counterpart last issue, recounting stories from centuries past, and how elves have changed in them. Really, they're not particularly nice a lot of the time, and even when they are, they're still inscrutable and magically capable. (except when they're reduced to comic relief) Trusting them doesn't seem like the best of ideas. But at least you have tons of quite different sources to draw upon, including quite a lot of books I've never got round to reading. Yet again, I can see the use of this, but don't find it very enthralling. I can once again say I generally prefer the longer articles to the short ones.