Dragon Issue 311: September 2003


part 6/9


Hee. Dead PC Portraits. Nodwick might not see the funny side. Once again, they make me miss dragonmirth, which reminded them every month not to take things too seriously.


Fiction: Guinevere's fate by Ben Bova. Orion's stories in the magazine come to an unsatisfying end with a piece that continues and builds on the previous instalments, but doesn't really conclude anything, which probably means he intended to write more, but never got round to it, or was put off by some policy change in the magazine. Are we going to see another editor switch sometime soon perhaps?

Anyway, as the title says, this is where we finally introduce Guinevere, and Arthur gets close to becoming high king. Which once again shows the liberties he's taking with the legend, as we've got a whole ton of stuff happening before we even get to the meat of the source material. And as usual, he wins the battles, but is left unsure if he's winning the war or not, given all the Creator politics on both sides. So this is pretty decent as a middle to a larger story, but crap as an ending, leaving all the plot threads hanging. Still, Googling shows that Orion and King Arthur eventually came out as a full book in 2011, so I presume he did eventually finish this arc of short stories in a satisfactory fashion. You'll just have to shell out for that if you want to find out where it goes after this.


The play's the thing: Of all the basic character classes, fighters are probably the most flexible?! :Jaw Drops: ............ Excuse me for a moment. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahem. So yeah, Mike Mearls engages in a bit of epic fail this month, either completely not knowing how 3e turns out in actual play, or lying through his teeth to try and convince us to keep playing fighters despite all the better alternatives. 10 bonus feats as their only special abilities, and a crap skill selection means they actually have the least amount of selectable widgets by 20th level. Even Paladins and Monks have more if you use the ability to swap out class features, and the ones they do have scale far better. And to top it off, the advice he gives about fighter archetypes is very similar to the specialist fighter ideas last issue, only with fewer of them covered, in less detail, and without the mechanical backup as well. So this article really does fail on both the writing and the editorial levels, and never should have appeared in this issue so close to the other one, where all it's failings are thrown into really sharp relief. Screw that noise.

Dragon Issue 311: September 2003


part 7/9


DM's toolbox: After looking at the specific topic of guides last issue, Johnn decides to elaborate on hirelings in general. Yet again they're trying to stem the outward flowing tide towards a small unit composed entirely of PC's by pointing out just how much more interesting the game is when you manage a full rotating cast of helpers and hangers-on, many of whom need regular paying, which forces you to regularly deliver the goods or see the gang disband. Did you take out a mortgage to get that equipment and employees, did you go round the universities and hire eager young interns for free. ( and now they've levelled up a bit they want paying or they'll head off to start their own adventuring groups which might grow up to rival yours. ) Do they all follow you on adventures, or are a big chunk of them employees that maintain your castle, run your businesses and investments, sell off your excess treasure etc etc? As with last month, this shows you just how many plot ideas you can get out of adding to your party if you run it right, and that you shouldn't let it put you off if it doesn't work all the time. If it's a challenge to the players as well as a benefit, (and the benefits exceed the costs) you're doing it right. As usual, there's plenty of solid little bits of advice on how to implement this more smoothly, and what kind of hirelings you might benefit from, but never realised you need, as well as the fluffy personality advice we've seen a thousand times before. Johnn is still one of their most reliable columnists.

Dragon Issue 311: September 2003


part 8/9


Dungeoncraft: Having given us a location, this month Monte is all about keeping the damn thing active, talking about a bunch of different models you can use to make the inhabitants seem intelligent and active with a little less effort. You can create if/then contingencies that predetermine what'll happen if the players do something. You can give monsters a schedule that determines where they are at different times of day. And then there's the full plot model where if the players don't do anything, X, Y, & Z will go off at particular points and ruin people's days. All will take more effort than just plopping a monster in a room with no idea how it survives, but should still be less stressful than just making stuff up as you go along. If you're running an extended campaign, you should probably think about employing all of them in various combinations, as that'll keep things interesting for both the players and you. As with Johnn's advice, this manages to pack in a few new things, and remind us of a whole bunch of old advice as well, which may not be the freshest, but it's still a good idea for you to follow it. Realism may get boring occasionally, but you have to keep coming back to it, otherwise your work will lose emotional resonance and be overthrown by the next generation of creative sorts who use different techniques and trappings that aren't so stale.

Dragon Issue 311: September 2003


part 9/9


Sage advice: How does feeblemind interact with int enhancers. (It bypasses them. You have int 1 no matter how much they try and make you smart.)

Can you cast permanancy from a scroll. Who pays the cost (Good question. Best if you split the price. Can't be having sexist arguments these days. )

How many bolts of lightning can you call with call lightning. Can you save them up (1 per round. No. The clock keeps ticking. If you ain't smiting, you're wasting that powah. )

What kind of action is it for a cleric to spontaneously convert spells (Not an action. It's inherent in the spellcasting. )

Can you cleave when you hit mirror images. (Yes. With great cleave and whirlwind attack, you can take that pesky spellcaster DOWN! )

What squares do mirror images occupy (the same as the caster)

Can you improve your mirror images AC (only by boosting your dex, or providing miss chances. All else does nowt.)

What happens if a mirror image user goes incorporeal, blinks or goes extraplanar. (They come along for the ride. You can still disrupt them if you can see them. )

Do burst weapon powers work on things that are immune to crits (Yes. The special powers still trigger, even though they don't take extra damage. )

How do the Flaming, frost and shock powers work. Do you need to activate them every single bloody time. (Nooooooo! Juuuuuuusssssst Theeeeeee Ooooooonceeeee! )


What's new goes on vacation. Just in time, because the snail is back, and my hasn't he grown!


Once again my worst fears are realised, with a formulaic flip through the classes, with the spellcasters getting better toys out of the deal than the warriors. The only real light here is the introduction of Eberron, which hints at changes to come. I guess it's onto part 3. At least they didn't do a whole year long class themed set, which wasn't completely beyond the bounds of possibility. Let's see what they have to offer for october.

Dragon Issue 312: October 2003


part 1/9


108 pages. Assassins · Mind Controllers · Necromancers · Blackguards. This time last year, the book of vile darkness was unleashed upon us, plumbing new depths in evil, or at least badness anyway. Now they're back, only this time, they're a little classier. Hopefully they've learned something from last year's slatings, and come back with a decent selection of material that'll make the game more sadistically fun for both players and DM's. Or maybe it'll be just more bland crunchy stuff like the last couple of issues. At least the classes they've picked aren't the same old core ones, so we've got a chance they'll give us some new ideas. Let's give them a chance for redemption and hope they don't stab us in the back and laugh maniacally even when it's of no profit for them to do so.


Scan Quality: Excellent, unindexed.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: Another editor change only 2 years after the last one? Well, I can't complain too much. While Jesse's tenure started out strong, it came with a sharp decline in setting material and increase in repetitiveness of topics that made it often a real slog to plough through. Let's hope Chris Thomasson brings us a little more flexibility instead of keeping everything all generic all the time. I guess we won't know for a few issues, if past changeovers are anything to go by. His writing style certainly doesn't illuminate much beyond what the current issue is going to contain, with no drastic change from Jesse's there. I'm sure certain subtleties will make themselves apparent in time.


Scale Mail: The first letter is a plea for help finding online D&D games. By no great co-incidence, they have an article on that this month. Is it really mind reading when they can cherry pick predictions and only use the accurate ones?

Then we have someone pleased that Larry Elmore is back on the cover. Does the new edition mean the end of ridiculous dungeonpunk outfits? Not if the next issue sidebar on the same page is any indicator. The surplus belt store still has plenty of stock to sell to eager young adventurers.

A request for comics with continuity. Sorry. That idea is no longer in fashion, and has not been for some time. They're not saying no categorically, but it'd have to be a pretty good submission to change their current policy.

A cautionary tale about leaving stuff on view in your car instead of in the boot. Any bag could contain a laptop, which is one of THE things thieves love to swipe. Roleplaying books may not have the same ease of fencing, but they're of a similar size, and you don't generally hang around to count your spoils if you want to stay out of prison.

And finally, we have a complaint that Spot is a class skill for so few classes, when it's invaluable for all of them. Value is created by scarcity. D&D is a game built around teams of specialists. If you want an all-rounder to be optimal, play a game with quadratic xp buyups.

Dragon Issue 312: October 2003


part 2/9


Zogonia blows their recruit paladin roll. You're better off without her anyway. They then kick the head off a gnome. What is this writer on? Something's not right here.


Up on a soapbox: Once again Rob Kuntz gets the lions share of the attention. Not only was he one of the first DM's, he was one of the most dominant players as well. Honestly, I'm surprised he didn't contribute more to the actual books. Also once again, it's the funny stories that have stuck in Gary's mind all these years. Rob getting himself an awesome orc henchman was not some big quest, it was an emergent thing that built up into a story via a bunch of cool co-incidences, piled on opportunistic profit seeking, topped off with a terrible in-joke. The kind of stuff that seems perfectly reasonable at a game table, but got treated with great disdain when it appeared in official supplements like Castle Greyhawk or Gargoyles. Which really makes me wonder if those adventures are actually truer to the spirit of the original Greyhawk game as it was played around the table than any of the newer reboots of the campaign that try to recast Oerth as this serious, gritty, war-torn place. Even if Gary was no longer with the company at that point, the rest of it was still heavily comprised of people like Skip, Jim and Rob who had their formative gaming experiences in these games. Maybe it is time to reassess that period, and ask if a few more goofy plots and pun names might actually improve your campaign, make it last longer, and give the Serious Dramatic bits more impact by contrast.


BLACKGUARDS!: So as everyone noticed straight away, they only covered the non-evil paladin types in issue 310. Heeere's the rest of them. As with the previous article, they completely ignore the versions from issue 106, letting us know that those strange names and design quirks are not in style at all, and that we'll be dealing in standardised class structures with a few powers swapped out, maintaining the appearance of balance even if some of them are vastly more useful than others. Sigh. Looks like this is going to be much the same as the last two issues.

Anti-Paladins are pretty much the exact inversion of regular ones, detecting and smiting good, causing fear and disease, and getting a fiendish mount. The only real difference is that they trade off curing with a touch for a bonus to attacking creatures weaker than them, incentivising being a petty and cowardly bully. That's a considerably better idea than just inverting that to cause wounds, as they would do with the Paladin of Slaughter in UA.

Despots are obviously the lawful evil ones. They too have abilities better suited to their role & goals than the Paladin of Tyranny from UA. When you consider how many of the articles in the last two issues will be recycled and improved upon, I'm very annoyed these ones won't be. What were the UA writers thinking, missing tricks as basic as this?

Corrupters fill the neutral evil slot, and have the clear goal of subtly tempting people into depravity, as opposed to dominating or killing them. They could really do with sacrificing the full BAB for more skills and spells in that case. The powers they do get are quite suited to the cause, including a really nifty new spell which does actually subtly tempt people into doing bad things. But they could do with more of them. I guess this way, they'll still be able to give you a really good fight when found out as well. So while not as quirky as the 1e paladin types, this has been a fairly interesting article, with some actual thought put into designing new abilities. They just needed a bit more courage to break out of the existing framework to really make suitably diabolical villains.

Dragon Issue 312: October 2003


part 3/9


Among the dead: Necromancers have always been pretty popular villains, even when the mechanics didn't back up their effectiveness. In a way, that makes them the inverse of clerics, which is fitting. As with the last article, we get three variant classes, each trading the standard familiar and bonus feats for other things. Whether they'll be better than the stuff you could buy with those slots, well, that is definitely worth seeing.

Deathwalkers trade off their bonus feats for gradually becoming undead. Since there are definitely better ways to do that when you're a wizard, this is a pretty lazy move really. Once you've made it to lichdom, you'll really want that extra versatility in making magic items, as you've got eternity to build stuff, but also eternity to get bored in and regret your suboptimal choices earlier.

Fleshcrafters are rather more interesting, gaining the ability to create cheap flesh golems and disgusting hybrid creatures by sewing together limbs. They also gain the ability to perform fake doctoring so they can get more materials to work with, and perform coup de graces without leaving themselves vulnerable for a round. Not sure you want them on your side, because if you go, you know you'll be used in their experiments too. I think flavour and mechanics wise, these ones are a success.

Soul Reapers are a bit half-assed as a variant, only trading half their bonus feats and familiar for special abilities involving binding the spirits of the dead. So I guess that's one strike out of three. Not a very impressive record. I'm still more afraid of a smart transmuter or diviner than I am a necromancer.


Assassin specialty prestige classes: Unsurprisingly, Assassins get similar treatment to Rogues and Bards in the previous issues. However, they do at least get 10 level prestige classes which you can really dedicate yourselves too, instead of just dabbling in. Like Ninjas, there are many different skillsets you can develop to accomplish the same end. But will they be cross-compatible enough that you can multiclass between them without losing effectiveness, or will it be best to pick one until you max it out? Since all of them gain a die of sneak attack at 1st level, there's that possibility at least.  

Oppressors eschew subtlety and fulfil all the very worst stereotypes about the police. They smash into a place, beat the crap out of people in public, and intimidate everyone watching into doing what they want. This obviously only works if you have a government system that encourages this behaviour, or organised crime strong enough to laugh at the law, so they're far more likely to be part of a group than regular assassins. I'm sure any Despot from the earlier article would love to have one as a lieutenant.

Poisoners are more regular sneaky sorts, sacrificing the general magical abilities of a regular assassin for concentrated poison creation and resistance. Since they don't need tools, and at the highest levels can kill via touch, breath or gaze, they can be pretty subtle and even locking them up naked won't save you. Just be thankful there's plenty of ways to make yourself completely immune to their schtick.

Replacement Killers are the subtlest of all, because if they do their job right, you won't even know the person is dead until quite some time afterwards. Unfortunately, in terms of actual disguising, they're not as good over 10 levels as the doppleganger fanbois from issue 300 were in 5. Still, they're no slouches at the kidnapping and killing stuff, with plenty of stealth and sneak attack. Let's see now. If you dip in the right order, I think you could get at least +13d6 by 20th level, while retaining near full skill progression. That's not to be sniffed at. Shame your BAB'll be barely better than a Wizard's. Oh well, It's not as if you were planning on a straight fight anyway.

Dragon Issue 312: October 2003


part 4/9


Thieves of will: Unlike the previous three articles, mind controllers don't have an iconic class associated with the concept. So instead of a whole bunch of variants, we get a load of talk about how well various classes fit into this mould. While Wizards specialising in Enchantment are the obvious choice, they're probably not as effective as Bards or Sorcerers with an appropriate spell selection, as they'll find it harder to get the mundane Charisma to back up their talents when their spells fail. Clerics and Druids may find it a little harder, but they can still get their claws into you if they choose the right spells and feats. Paladins and Rangers, not so much, given how small and specialised their spell selections are. As the shortest and least crunchy of the articles, this does feel like they did struggle for a bit trying to make up the theme, but it does have a decent number of new feats and spells to round off the general advice. Since mind control effects often don't work that well in pitched combat, anything which gives you an edge in speed and difficulty resisting makes a substantial difference. Not that I can escape the feeling that if it comes to that, you've already lost. On the other hand, someone is going to make their save sooner or later, and then you need to be able to defend yourself, and you can't always be surrounded by minions if you want to be a subtle controller. I'm sure you'll manage. 3.5 may have nerfed mind control a little, but It's fine compared to the absolute gutting next edition will bring.


Holier than thou: In sharp contrast with the themed material, we also have some stuff on celestial monster PC's. Asuras, Bariaurs, Holyphants, Leskylor, Moon Dogs,  Quesar, and Rhek all get Savage species style racial progressions. Bariaur and Rhek are the only ones you're likely to finish in and add on additional class levels, with the others being well into the teens, with only around half the levels actually granting new HD and skill points. Ok, the skill points and BAB still aren't completely terrible, since they're outsider levels, but they're still going to be a little fragile. I remain dubious about actually playing them. Better get good at making sure those spell-like abilities and resistances remain relevant, and enemies don't target your weaknesses. I don't think many people will be picking these.

Dragon Issue 312: October 2003


part 5/9


Faiths of Faerun returns after more than a year off, with a complete change of focus. Well, I suppose the first one never really took off in the first place. Instead, it becomes a divine focussed Arcane lore, providing a whole bunch of new spells aimed at priests of Auril, but of course adaptable to any god who's portfolio includes freezing people's nuts off. And indeed, they do make an effort to ensure it's genericness, unlike the earlier articles. Which is probably a positive step overall. We've seen more than a few complaints about overly specific stuff making large chunks of the magazine unusable in the letters pages.

Auril's Flowers educates us on one of the many eskimo words for snow, with a fairly distinctive weather effect. You really don't want to be standing around when this signature move sprouts from the ground.

Cold Fire makes mundane fire burn cold. Perfect for casting on your bonfire on a sweltering summer night, ironically. Remember, contrast is good. Turning things to the x-treme just becomes noise after a while.

Cold Snap is a moderately nasty weather manipulation spell. It'll take a lot more practice before you can coat an entire country in eternal winter, but at least it's a start.

Corona of Cold both protects you from heat attacks and hurts anyone near you. Any wizard with half a brain'll step back and attack with a different energy type. Warriors may not have that luxury. It's good to have secondary options, even if you are a specialist.

Freeze combines damage and paralysis in a way that should be fairly nasty if you have buds to put them in an even more disadvantageous position once they break out. Freezing can get pretty cartoonish, but it still hurts in D&D.  

Frost Breath is your basic AoE cone zappy spell. Niche protection is maintained, it isn't nearly as dangerous as similar wizard spells of the same level like fireball. Padding, really.

Frostbite is your basic single person zappy spell, notable mainly because it inflicts a mixture of regular and nonlethal damage due to it's numbing effects. So as long as there's somewhere to warm up after the battle, it'll wind up less serious than it seems.

Heat Leech isn't too deadly in terms of damage inflicted, but not only heals the caster, but keeps any excess as temporary hit points. Cast in the middle of your foes, this'll really turn the tide of battle in quite scary fashion.

Ice Axe reminds us that clerics are no longer generally restricted to bludgeoning stuff. It's a reasonable conjured weapon, nothing special, should work well for slaughtering yugoloths though. And if you haven't got a magic weapon yet, this kind of thing in your arsenal is a lifesaver.

Ice Gauntlet doesn't add too much to your damage, but should last a whole combat, even at low levels. It may result in a disadvantage if in slippery terrain and climbing, but them's the choices you make. Can't expect a 1st level spell to do everything.  

Snowshoes is one of the few that actually makes things easier for players in cold climates. It even comes in a mass variant, allowing your cleric to assist their whole party like a good support character once they get a few levels under their belt. Seems a wise utility choice if you're expecting this kind of trouble.

Dragon Issue 312: October 2003


part 6/9


The ebon maw: Back to the attempts at vile darkness, with one of those all-in-one articles that tries to provide a complete package of setting material and mechanics to back it up. An all-new demon lord, plus details on their cult, servant demons, unique spells and magic items? After all, starting with hints of cultists, and then ending the campaign with a pitched battle to prevent the demon lord himself from escaping the abyss, or if he does, to defeat or banish him before he consumes the world is a classic campaign arc that could well span the full 20 levels. Complete with humanoid form and collossal "true form" (which looks more impressive, but isn't actually that much more powerful) in classic video game styleee. This is a fun article, even if it doesn't feel much like the old demon lords. But then again, you want variety from the abyss, so complaining it's not in the original gygaxian style is stupid anyway. And it does have some very unusual and cool mechanical touches like the ability to gain infinite hit points if it eats enough, which means it feels like a properly epic monster, not some nerfed for balance creature that's nothing but a combat challenge. And it is different. We could definitely stand to see a few more new creatures covered like this, essentially giving them a full Ecology's worth of info in one article, instead of more disconnected monsters that are likely to never be seen again.


The ecology of the drider: Ahh, Lolth's angstium batteries. Nice to see them getting the spotlight again. They provide lots of fun for all the family, yet are unable to ever have a family of their own. Since they are outcasts, they have to be tough and self-reliant. Since they are nearly all at least moderately skilled spellcasters, traps and treachery are the order of the day in encounters with them. And since they can climb walls easily, they can put themselves in positions where they can attack you, but you can't get them fairly easily. As is their current formula, this has lots of tactics for both the creature, and people facing them. The length of the ecologies seems to be gradually declining, as if they find it harder to fill up this format than the fiction heavy one. And similarly, I'm finding it harder to find interesting things to write about them, despite their being competently done. That's the problem with following formulas too strictly.

Dragon Issue 312: October 2003


part 7/9


Rogues gallery: Like most of the old regular columns, this has been pretty light in appearances recently. And like many articles, it's also focussing much more on the statistical side of the characters than their personalities.

Dyrr the lichdrow is a 26th level master spellcaster who's stats take up a whole page, and his items near that again. He's the very model of a hard to keep track of 3rd edition character, and probably took ages to build as well. I do not envy the DM who has to play him as intelligently as he really needs to be played.

Ryld Argith is the master of Menzoberranzan's fighting academy. He has a couple of levels in rogue as well, which probably hasn't hurt his way to the top, since social skills are as important as actual skill once you get past a certain level. Since he doesn't have a family name to add prestige, he really had to fight for this, and probably deserves it. If you fight him, don't expect him to fight fair.

Valas Hune is the kind of neutral drow who isn't exactly an angsty outcast, but does tend to keep his distance from the political aspect of menzoberranzan society. He also has quite the selection of magic items, including several unique ones. Whether you end up killing him or not will obviously depend on the circumstances in which you meet him.

Halistra Melarn is another morally ambiguous individual, reminding us that the 3e cleric rules allow evil gods to have neutral clerics. Ironically, this means she feels guilty about not being nasty enough to be a proper head of a Drow noble family. Lolth may be a cartoon villain, complete with giant robot spider base, but that certainly doesn't mean all her worshippers are.

And so this column draws to a close, one of the many phased out quietly over the last couple of years. Well, there's only so much they can tell us about their characters, and it does seem to be one of the less popular things they can do. New characters are better placed in the context of full adventures and sourcebooks which give us a clear purpose or place in the world for them.

Dragon Issue 312: October 2003


part 8/9


The play's the thing: Playing with people around the world has really evolved over the years, and here's the latest check-in. The internet has reached a form recognisable in the modern day, but the actual specific websites are very different. It's a lot harder to get someone to reveal their real identity, which means if someone drops out and disappears, it's really hard to find them again. Newsgroups and email lists are still a thing that many people use, and aren't too terrible at running games in as long as you have some form of dice roller you trust. Cartography and battlemap software are options, but they will set you back a fair amount, and require you to be a techie sort. Actually, this raises an interesting point in that the DM will also be expected to be the person who chooses and knows the ins and out of the technological platform you're using, and how this could be offputting to someone who isn't. The age of iDevices and touchscreens bringing a new leap in casual user-friendliness is still a few years away. It's the little differences that'll really catch you out. So this is one of those looks at the outside world that come less and less frequently these days. As such, it's pretty welcome.


Dungeoncraft: If you're going to be spending a lot of time in dungeons, you really need to give them plenty of variety. Here Monte gives us lots of example environments and how they'll affect the play. Caves go off the grid and slope and twist unpredictably. Ruins have irregular walls and substantial open areas. Water and Sky dungeons open up all manner of 3D possibilities. Going extradimensional lets you give the finger to Euclid, and quite possibly Newton as well. (Einstein goes without saying, since I've never seen relativity used properly in an rpg, and I'm not even sure it's possible. ) And you can combine several ideas as well, having a partly submerged ruin in a volcanic caldera on a flying island, for example. Like last issue, most of these ideas are familiar, but they haven't all been gathered in one place before. The real world on it's own is full of rarely used hostile terrains to steal, and there's plenty of others to add. Whether the players will think of them as the dungeon, or the wilderness you travel to get to the dungeon is very much a matter of presentation. And I think with this number of ingredients you can combine them to create a unique challenge or two.

5 years. I've been doing this for 5 years now. Half a decade. Seems pretty ridiculous, doesn't it. And at the rate I'm going at the moment, it still looks touch and go whether I'll be done in a year's time, especially since my old cutoff point looks increasingly outdated with another 60+ electronic issues under their belt now. I guess we'll just have to see then. Typing fingers, don't fail me now.


Dragon Issue 312: October 2003


part 9/9


Sage advice: Sorcerers can't use metamagic as counterspells, because it extends the casting time. (Are you suggesting that Skip, the Ultimate Sage, is fallible?! How dare you! Skip is never wrong! Skip will cap you if you ever mention this in public! )

When do full round actions take place (In your turn, just like everything else. You'll just have to accept the abstraction inherent in this.)

Can you explain the glove of storing's effects. ( Nothing to see here. Perfectly standard passage of time and item suppression rules. Move along.)

Can you scry on locations as well as creatures. (Depends what spell you're using. Some are more versatile and useful than others. As ever, read the books. )

How does disable device work. (Abstractly. Player intelligence and ingenuity plays no part, nor should it. That would give some people an unfair advantage. It also saves the DM the trouble of figuring out exactly how a trap works.)

What happens if you don't notice a trap, trigger it, and it misses. (Exactly that. How it misses is purely flavour text. You may describe it as seems appropriate to the trap and situation. )

Does a rope really have a break DC of 23.  Characters with str 16+ could break through it by taking 20 (Feature, not bug, Skip thinks. Creatures should always have a decent chance to escape when captured, otherwise the players may be stuck in unfun situations for quite a while. Note that multiple knots and loops of rope mean this may take a lot longer. )

When do you save against blade barrier (When it hits you.)

How many times a day can a cleric regain spells (Once. It's just the time that's variable.)

Can you fire a repeating crossbow with one hand or not. We've been arguing for ages about this. (A debate? Skip cannot tolerate this! Skip will settle this argument definitively! Yes, but you cannot reload it onehanded! There! It is settled!)

What order do you grapple in? How quickly can you do it? (The right order. One action per action you have. Multiple attacks are very handy. )

Can you use escape artist to escape a grapple (yes. Better max it out if you wanna go that route.)

If something with reach grapples you, how is the movement handled (They come to your space, or you go to there's with improved grab. This costs neither of you movement points, with is definitely exploitable. )

How can a creature with 0 reach flank (you can't. Nor can you gain benefits from an ally. Sorry, Mr Ratty. Guess rogue wasn't such a great class choice after all. )


Nodwick has a clip show. Well, we have been doing this for a while. You've gotta play with the format to keep it interesting:

Exalted gets to go on the back page. Guess what. They've just completed their fatsplat collection. Now that really takes me back. GUTB, where are you now?


And so for a third issue in a row, I find myself pretty damn bored. The evil classes stuff is better mechanically than the vile darkness stuff last year, but it's also very formulaic and far less mockable, which means it still isn't particularly thrilling. So I find it very strange that one of the best issues in the magazine's run is immediately followed by three of the worst, almost matching the little red triangle ones in redundancy. I seriously hope the next issue has something very different to offer us.

Dragon Issue 313: November 2003


part 1/9


114 (116) pages. Another whitespace closeup of a monster going raar. I R unconvincing badass.  Those teeth can't close properly. And either part of the torso is unfinished, or that's the tightest corset a lycanthrope ever did wear, and he's currently posing at a 45 degree angle like Rhianna. Either way, I do not feel in the slightest bit threatened. Who likes this stuff? Still, it is appropriate to the theme at least. Monsters of Power? Strange way of phrasing it, but the contents make it pretty clear. Lycanthropes, mind flayers, beholders, undead, elves, dragons? The cool kids, in other word. Hmph. All of those apart from beholders have had whole themed sections to themselves before. It looks like the shallow dipping into many topics they engaged in the last three issues is continuing. Don't make me return a negative result for 4 issues in a row. They didn't manage that even in the mid 90's.


Scan Quality: Erratic page widths, unindexed.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: The editorial, unsurprisingly, tries to sell covering more things in less detail in a positive way. After all, it's not as if we use the same monsters in game for an extended period of time. A few new tricks for lots of them mean you're more likely to actually use a decent proportion of them in-game. Plus certain monsters, Dragons and Beholders in particular, are so intimidating statistically that they don't actually appear much in most campaigns. Dragonlance was created specifically to big up the Dragon part of D&D over the Dungeon part, and look how that turned out in the long run. Valid points, and a strong reminder that most people don't want to examine things in the level of detail I enjoy, so covering lots of topics decreases the odds that someone will find the issue completely useless. Obsession can be very unhealthy for you.


Scale Mail: As usual, even when I didn't like an issue, there's a fair number of readers who did. This is certainly the case for the classes trilogy, which does have tons of easily usable crunch whether you find it a good read or not.

The endless list of D&D pop culture references continues. By the time the next issue comes out, someone'll probably have made another one. That's just how we roll now geeks have gone mainstream.

Also usual is the panic when a regular feature is skipped for a couple of issues. Afraid What's New really is gone for good though. They'll have to replace it with something that actually IS new.

Somewhat more usual is a request that they create a new D&D campaign world in the magazine, preferably one that actually follows D&D physics in a logical fashion. Well, they gradually built up the Realms for 6 years before releasing it properly. They could do it again if the will and ideas were there. But that would require someone with the drive and vision of Ed to come along and make a successful pitch, and the odds of that with the magazine more established and set in it's ways look increasingly slim.

And finally, we have yet another instance of someone needing help finding players. If only they had some way of finding people in the same area. You know, the internet has a whole bunch of resources for just that. Get too it.

Dragon Issue 313: November 2003


part 2/9


Zogonia has another double helping of increasing fucked-uppedness. What is going on here? This humour is getting downright mean spirited. I worry about the writer.


Up on a soapbox: Gary's already told a story about how when he was a player, his experience and paranoia proved too much for a scenario, and he missed the obvious solution. This was not a unique occurrence, and while last time it merely resulted in failing to find the best treasure, this time the whole party (bar one teleporting wizard) got squished by the classic descending ceiling trap. And the solution seemed so simple. (to him, anyway ) It's good to keep up your reputation as a player-killer, even if you don't actually do it that often. This all seems entirely consistent with his views from earlier stories, so we're not really learning anything new about him or the old days. And you can be fairly sure if he reuses this scenario now, the solution will be different. Or maybe it won't, just for irony's sake. Who knows, apart from the people who played with him at conventions in the final years of his life. Unless one of them weighs in, we're not going to get any definite answers here. Onward we go then.


Dork tower finally grasps the concept of the circle of life. This is less pleasing than it sounds.


Animal ancestry: Last month, Celestials got racial progressions for those of you who wanted to start them from 1st level. This time, it's Lycanthropes turn. Bear, Boar, Rat, Tiger and Wolf; all the basics, none of the many many other variants that have appeared over the years. Well, they've got to leave room for the follow-up in 6 months or so. All of them have a total LA of 3 above their HD, which oddly enough will hit wererats and wolves the hardest, since being 3HD down compared to the rest of the party is far more significant at level 4-5 than level 9. Everything else is pretty predictable here. The gradually escalating modifiers to ability scores, armour, damage reduction, etc. The only notable thing I see is that the ability to pass on lycanthropy is always the absolute last power they get, reminding us how much they hate spawn cascades this edition. So yeah, stats, a few new feats, basic roleplaying advice. Meharoo.