Dragon Issue 334: August 2005


part 4/7


Drunkards and flagons: Aha! I presume this is the article that was meant to be in issue 326 so the Ale and Wenches part of the byline would make sense. Although it has to be said that we seem to be rather short of wenches after all the sexism complaint letters in the last few months. (nor can I find any trulls, strumpets, harlots, trollops, tarts, doxys, or procuresses. ) Oh well, that just means we can focus all the more on drowning our sorrows. Really, it does seem odd that something that tastes foul and is poisonous to us would be discovered independently in nearly all cultures and go into common use. It has it's uses though, being very much a lesser evil compared to the diseases that proliferated in unhygienic conditions back then. Plus what is self-destructive to the individual can paradoxically turn out to be strengthening for the species as a whole, weeding out the weak so the strong can breed. After all, as any roleplayers should know, the first thing we do if we don't have any immediate and solvable problems to deal with is invent new challenges just to entertain ourselves and test each other so the social order can be properly established. As with the previous article, this is heavily historically based, but also finds room to squeeze in 8 new D&D specific liquors with their own distinct mechanical effects. Be it social bonuses, mitigating the effects of ageing or reinforcing an oathbond, these are mostly enhanced versions of stuff booze is supposed to do in real life. So I do find this article amusing and thought-provoking, but it's not particularly original. And it's very late indeed. This is why it's not a good idea for dealers to sample their own wares. Stuff doesn't get done properly unless at least one person keeps a clear head.


The ecology of the kraken: Ahh, the Kraken. Plenty of real world references to draw on for this epic monstrosity. From biblical, to the now obligatory Call of Cthulhu, to Tennyson, to less famous sailor stories. They have enormous brute force, but in D&D, they're also capable of surprising subtlety, controlling both the weather, and other sea creatures and leveraging those powers into further political influence. If they could actually work with each other without constant ego battles and betrayals, they could probably manage even more. Oh well, that's what keeps evil creatures from ruling the world, so be grateful for it. Another so-so and rather predictable ecology here, mostly fluff, with the usual Knowledge DC tables and the reiteration of a neglected 2nd ed god that many of them worship. And so another little shred of my sanity is ground away by this seemingly endless journey.


Wormfood: From finding a home, we now move on to the shopping opportunities in your new location. Once again a rather mundane bit of worldbuilding, and you can see why they didn't want it cluttering up the main adventure. On the other hand, there is quite a bit of useful stuff that isn't in the corebooks. How often are you going to want to buy a canary or smelling salts? I guess this means that the linked adventure involves mining in some way. A bit of cheek really. Adventurers are supposed to be delving dungeons at low level, not carving out their own. Still, you get to find out about the local booze, drugs, and healing stuff. While certainly not as extensive as the inn of the last home or Aurora's whole realms catalogue, this exactly the kind of overdevelopment that killed gameworlds in the last decade. Once again, I'm not particularly enthralled by this. I hope the main plot is getting down to action quicker than this.

Dragon Issue 334: August 2005


part 5/7


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Off to equip the army again. Another topic they have yet to tackle since the 3.5 changeover. Everything old is new again. Or maybe not. I certainly can't work up as much enthusiasm as first time around.

Caltrops of the Captain explode, dealing far more damage than the normal ones. Still, at least they don't hang around for ages. We don't want anti landmine campaigns in our fantasy. That would be very tiresome.

Caltrops of the General are even nastier, covering almost as big an area as a good fireball. Once again a reminder that having a staff wizard is way cheaper than relying on prefab magical items.

Caltrops of the Scout aren't as powerful, but can still penetrate certain types of damage resistance. If you need to run away because you're outmatched, you want to be able to convincingly slow the enemy down, not die before you can report.

Captain's Standards are your basic morale booster for a group, now with drastically shortened duration and range for 3.5 game balance. Well, a +2 bonus to attacks for your whole army would make a quite significant difference. Bah. I'm really not impressed by this particular nerfing.

Cavalryman's Bridles let you navigate your horse through rough terrain like a druid. Actually, druids don't get to extend their power to their animal companion, do they? So this is handy even for them.

Cavalryman's Saddles make your horse faster, able to jump higher, and go longer. It probably won't thank you though. More backbreaking, lather generating work.

Cavalryman's Spurs give you the basic ride bonuses. Another one we've seen pretty precise analogues of before.

Earrings of the Wolf make an adventuring party into a well co-ordinated team able to communicate over a mile with a whisper. Take the metagaming out of the equation, and give yourself a good reason the party's discussions midbattle don't get overheard by the enemy.

Gauntlets of the Siegebreaker offer minor combat bonuses, but their real value is in breaking through walls and doors. Hulk Sunder! Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it.

The quiver of the North Wind is another improved arrow storage device. This one isn't unlimited, but is user locked, so you can't just nick it and turn it against the enemy. Should provide a nice bit of frustration when you kill someone and take their stuff.

Scout's Journals take the hassle out of mapping, albeit expensively. Adventurers these days, throwing vast quantities of money just to avoid a little elbow grease. Why in my day, we had a dedicated mapper and we liked it.

Sentry's Eyes give you a compass, a clock, and a bonus on your sensory skills. Pretty useful really, if easy to take for granted. Doncha just love stuff you can get in reality.

Signalling Trumpets let you communicate to all your buds while keeping the message secret from the enemy. Basic battle coordination becomes more useful the more people you have, and bards don't do well in small teams, so this is definitely more an army one than a party one.

Dragon Issue 334: August 2005


part 6/7


Spellcraft: Tying in with their new environment book, this column pops off to the seaside too. When you combine the two sea magic articles, plus the elemental water ones, this was very well catered for indeed in 2e. As is far too often the case these days, this is both shorter than previous attempts, and a lot less developed in terms of surrounding details. Man, this reduced page count really is hitting them hard in the departments.

Curse of Spilt Water is a death effect that we saw picked over several times in the old Sage Advice. And now you don't need wishes or polymorph any object to pull it off. Transform them, drink them up, and piss them out. That's a highly amusing callback I wasn't expecting.

Float keeps you on the surface of the water despite ridiculous encumbrances. Seen you before. Basic but quite possibly lifesaving.

Geyser is a water based low level blasty effect. Just another of a million variants to pick in an attempt to bypass the most resistances.

Lash of the Kraken lets you get all tentacular. Not quite as good as Evard's black ones, it still both grapples and hurts, making it an interesting choice for the discerning wizard.

Scyllan Scream makes another conscious Stormwrack callout in an attempt to remind you that you've Gotta Collect 'em All! It's a scary scream, but not nearly as nasty as a banshee's one.

Shark Bolt is a playful little summoning effect, with very quadratic growth in overall power. More creatures, each more powerful. Pile some metamagic on to really keep up with the joneses and knock down those fighters.


Sage advice: Do astral constructs affect ethereal and incorporeal creatures normally (No. Just because ssome ectoplassmic powers can, doesn't mean all of them can.)

What's the official definition of humanoid physiology (Use your common ssensse.)

Does DR protect against spells that do slashing, bludgeoning or piercing damage (no)

What counts as a purely mental action ( Lotss of things. Andy will write a lisst for you to take home, preciouss.)

If you are affected by a condition while schismed, is your second mind as well (Yes)

Does being immune to psionics also make you immune to spells (In this edition, Yess. Remember, immune doessn't really mean Immune anymore, oh no, collins collins, just immune to anything that allows spell resistance)

How do you make a psion killer when it requires unique powers from two different disciplines (Working together, yess. Then we can desstroy the ones who threaten uss, yess?)

If you fall off a cliff, can you carry straight on with the same action when you hit the floor (No. hitting the ground hurtsess, and you have to get up again. Be glad you don't break your leggses in D&D. )

Dragon Issue 334: August 2005


part 7/7


Class acts: Barbarians get Council of Elders. Age does have it's benefits, even in a harsh and primitive culture. They WILL respect your authoritah! Sweet.

Bards get Back to School. Four more ideas for bardic colleges, and backgrounds to go with them. Just the thing for brutal min-maxers.

Clerics get 4 new Divine channeling feats. More ways to mess with undead, sort them out quickly and efficiently so the rogue can stop feeling like a lemon.  

Druids get Animal Accessories. As they've said before, you should never miss a chance to upgrade your companions, for otherwise death will come on swift ugly wings. What's a little money when you just got a haul of thousands to destabilize the economy with?

Fighters get The Janissary. We saw you in Al Qadim as a kit. Now they're back as a class variant. Same difference, really, given it's not a very big change. 3e really needs a point buy class construction system. Go go BESM to the rescue!

Monks get Worldly Styles. Three new real world fighting styles for you to kick ass in.   More combat alternatives to keep players and enemies guessing.

Paladins are also getting arabian this month, with three sets of advice for arabian, egyptian and sumerian culture. Nothing a bit of independent research and common sense wouldn't have told you.

Rangers get Nowhere to Hide. Just how tricky is it for you to pick a disguised favored enemy out of the crowd? They've got to have a chance, particularly if they're higher level than you. More of their drive to rigidly codify skill DC's.

Rogues get That which does not Kill, part II. Once again, nearly dying in nasty ways is used as springboard to more impressive powers. Definitely worth considering if you went through that trouble.

Sorcerers get The Bronze Solaris. Do they really derive their powers from celestial ancestry? Given this is D&D, probably, although some of them may be faking it. Includes an organization feat that could prove rather handy in qualifying for prestige classes without multiclassing. And lets face it, we all know loremaster is just plain better than sorcerer. Very worth considering on both a fluff and crunch level.

Wizards get the multiclassing baton this month. A one level dip in another class can provide you with some much needed feats, skills, and save bonuses. Be very wary though, for any more than that, and you start becoming a suboptimal spellcaster. Only do so if aiming for a good prestige class that'll make up for this.


Nodwick catches a kraken first try. That'll have them eating seafood for weeks. Carson the muskrat tries to convert the dork tower players to a healthy diet. Vengance is swift and certain. Zogonia gets gnomified. What a downer.


A fairly sharp contrast between the articles, which showed a real resurgence in setting material that's useful for non-D&D players; and the columns, which were particularly formulaic and tedious this month. I guess that once again shows that changing the type of material they're getting is a slow process, especially if they aren't getting submissions anymore from the people who used to do fun stuff like the Monster Hunter ecologies. Let's see if the pendulum keeps on swinging, or they decide that this is the right balance of material for now and stick there.

Dragon Issue 335: September 2005


part 1/7


75(108) pages. Even though the Realms has got by far the most material in the magazine, it's never had a themed issue before, strangely. But the year's absence has built up pressure enough that it's time for a full five articles (and an appropriate cover) in one go, giving the finger to everyone who was sick of it before. I'm not sure if I should be amused by this or not. As ever, let's hope the articles actually have something new to say about it, and aren't merely content churned out for the sake of making money.


Scan Quality: Good, unindexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


From the editor: Just like 2 issues ago, Erik's editorial is all about how much he loves settings, and how much more setting material he wants to put in Dragon each month. But he still has to both get the submissions from writers, and deal with the WotC higher-ups who want everything to be aimed at the widest possible audience all the time. So they will still be giving preferential treatment to the three alive settings, and most articles will still be generic or easily made so. One wonders just how hard he had to argue to get the other campaigns a collective themed issue every January. This just feels like a reminder not to get complacent. This battle is far from over, and all it will take is one change at the helm to send things back to the tedium of being all generic, all the time. Freedom is a fragile thing, and must be constantly fought for. Let's hope he can get the help he needs to win that battle for the next couple of years at least.


Scale Mail: We start with another letter from someone who think's they've improved recently, and is subscribing as a result. Cut out the middlemen, follow his example today! :teeth ting:

Next we have someone who lost his car, and was most worried about the disappearance of his gaming books in the back. Yes, it's so very crucial to replace them if they go missing, particularly the out-of-print stuff.

The sexism debates continue with a list of fantastical shows that do have very strong female fanbases. Perhaps D&D could learn something from their themes and presentation. Dragonlance managed a fairly strong female fanbase, and I seem to recall that being as much due to the distinct artwork style as the stuff actually in the books.

Another letter says that no-one will complain if they put a bit more beefcake on the covers. I think they may have forgotten what happened after issue 294. How short some memories are.

Similarly, we have someone who wants another swashbuckling/naval special so soon after we've already had big articles on both swashbucklers and pirates. Once again, I'm left feeling that I might just possibly have a longer attention span and memory than the average bear.

And finally we have someone who wants to have a complete collection from the start of the 3.5 issues. Since that's only 2 years in the past, that's not a particularly hard or expensive task as these things go.

Dragon Issue 335: September 2005


part 2/7


First watch changes formats from lots of jumbly little coloured boxes to a neater thin column model. It also seems to be moving towards greater focus on actual RPG products. I think that's a positive change. Good to see them still working on that.

Magic of Incarnum is our generic release. An attempt to do something different within D&D's magic system, this doesn't do that badly at it's objective, even if it does have some silly names. The substitute magic item system is quite favourful, and the whole thing is unusually multiclass friendly for a primary caster class. A laudable attempt.

Our other two releases are a pair of little adventures. Sons of Grummsh and Fane of the Drow. Both aimed at parties of about 4th level, and designed to be compatible with their new minis line, they should keep the uninspired DM busy for a while.

We also get our latest patronising attempt to lure new players into the hobby. Afternoon adventures with Dungeons & Dragons? Dear oh dear. Even the title radiates fail. We do not want our hands held. Just make the tools look cooler. People hate reading instruction manuals, especially when they talk down to you.

D20 stuff gets it's usual boost. The Freeport trilogy gets reprinted. Green Ronin's own contribution to the worldbuilding business still seems fairly popular. Atlas games goes back to Northern Crown, their game of fantasy frontier america. Seems like you can put a fantasy spin on anything and it'll sell better than a straight historical sourcebook. And if you want something even bigger than the world's largest dungeon, order it from Mammothdungeons.com. I'm betting a certain degree of randomised formulaicness is involved.

Our boardgame this month is a glossy conversion from other media. FFG put their own spin on dungeoncrawling with Descent: Jouneys into the dark. Sounds like a more sophisticated descendent of Heroquest.

Three computer games get the spotlight this time. Dungeon Siege II. Call of Cthulhu: Dark corners of the earth. And Dragonshard, the Eberron D&D game they mentioned a few months ago is now out.  Once again, they know what their readers are likely to be interested in, and reinforce the stereotyping.

Two comics as well. Exalted gets it's own line of them, courtesy of UDON's stalwart illustrators. Are you ready to see the stunts in action? Also with it's own share of high action is the compilation of the Conan comics. He's had a long and chequered history, here as in other media.

In minis, we have more 3D terrain coolness from Mystic Blocks. Tough little bits and pieces for your characters to wander around in. And yet more space eaten up in storage.

And finally, (whew) there's the Gamesac, a beanbag customised for gamers, with a little dice holder and footrest and stuff. I find this highly amusing. Is the geek market really that lucrative? Seriously? Of all the things. What will they come up with next?


Waterdeep, splendor of the city: Somewhat irritatingly, we start off the themed section not with an epic special feature, but a bit of celebratory back-patting. We're not covering the Realms in general, but Waterdeep in particular. It's been getting material in the magazine for over 20 years, starting with issue 64 of this magazine, and it's influence extends all over their product range, with sourcebooks, novels, adventures, short stories, and giant maps all featuring or set there. It is a pretty impressive collection, I have to say. So if you're the kind of person who likes tracking down out of print products for the sake of completeness, this article will be quite handy for you. If not, the air of self-promotional smugness may be a little grating. I just want to keep moving forward and see what new stuff they can add to the setting, not look back yet again at stuff I've mostly already gone through now.

Dragon Issue 335: September 2005


part 3/7


The music of waterdeep: A new organisation without a mechanical social ranking system or prestige class attached to it? That is unusual these days, and reminds us that Elaine Cunningham is one of their novel writers who isn't really a gamer. She is very well steeped in Realmslore though, especially since she wrote a fair chunk of it, and this is packed full of references to familiar names and places. It also has surprisingly little Harry Potter in it, when you consider it's about a Bard College, and spellcasting is an important part of their training in D&D worlds. There's a lot of politics behind it though, and plenty of opportunity for PC's to be students there and still go on adventures. They're secretly a splinter group of the Harpers, and whether their goals will remain aligned with the main group is very much in question. The whole thing is written in the IC style that was popular in the 90's, although she doesn't break the 4th wall like Ed and Jeff were so wont to do. So like last issue's features, this is an article that would never have got through last year, and is all the more interesting for it. A lot of the time, changing your playstyle is nothing to do with the actual rules, but the situation your characters are put in, and working from an academic base certainly counts for that. Can you persuade your players that it would be fun to send their characters back to school to learn some new tricks?


An interview with Ed Greenwood: Curiously enough, Ed isn't giving us any new game material this month. But then, he has always been more about the cool ideas than strict adherence to the rules of the game. Most of his highly powerful characters were technically illegal by the old rules, and weirdly enough, are underpowered for their level when converted into 3e. The more important thing has always been developing the setting and the histories of the cool people, places and magic items within it. And in the course of the interview, he does wind up answering more questions about the setting than himself. Unlike the last time he was interviewed in issue 244, he no longer gets to game quite so regularly, as his original group have fallen prey to the usual adulthood thing of jobs, families and life in general making scheduling a pain. But even if life isn't perfect, it's still pretty sweet. He has far more job security than any of the office guys in Paizo or WotC, due to the original contract that means they can't stop publishing the Realms for too long or get rid of him and his input without the rights reverting to him. (and wouldn't it be interesting to see what he would do with them if not bound to using whatever the current D&D rules system is at the moment) Having to write more novels featuring Elminster due to public demand seems a relatively mild price to pay to keep the money coming in. As usual, I remain jealous of both the sheer quantity of ideas he's able to come up with, and the way he can express them, and can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Dragon Issue 335: September 2005


part 4/7


Fiction: Game of Change by Elaine Cunningham. The third biggest name in Realms books (after Ed & R.A. Salvadore) shows up a second time this month, giving us another story with some familiar characters. It starts off in lighthearted fashion, with a little cheating at gambling, which then progresses into a far more serious plot dealing with the nature of magic in the Realms, with a serious helping of elven racism on the side. The whole thing is surprisingly morally ambiguous, with a fair amount of cold-blooded murder committed by the protagonist and no comeuppance at the end. This reminds me that since they got rid of the TSR code of conduct, the writers are free to tell darker stories, even if they usually don't. And having recurring antiheroes and bad guys does help the Realms from seeming quite so cheery and safe. So this story does manage to hold my interest and avoid being cheesy or cliched, which I haven't always been able to say about her work. It's good to be able to look in on characters at various points in their life when they're not doing the typical hero's journey stuff.


The ecology of the lizardfolk: Another monster I'm vaguely surprised hasn't got an ecology sooner. Like kobolds, which it's quite likely they're related too, lizard men (damn you political correctness! ) are one of THE go to monsters for a certain level of adventurers, appearing in absolutely tons of modules and sourcebooks. However, unlike kobolds, which may be of average intelligence, but are portrayed as cunning, inventive, and punching above their weight by use of those characteristics, lizardfolk are generally played dumber than their statistical intelligence, preferring to rely on instinct whenever they can get away with it. As is often the case in D&D, it's largely the fault of deific intervention. Their default god is a lazy bugger only concerned with eating and mating. Curiously, although he's a well established part of D&D continuity, this ecology chooses to completely ignore the other god they commonly worship, his lizard king creations, the way they interact with normal lizardfolk, and attempts to corrupt the race. This is a very glaring omission indeed, and seems even more odd when you consider the number of supplements they do reference in this one, including some crunch which you need to have got recent books to understand. These two very black marks against it mean that I'll have to give this one a well below average mark, despite having a few cool feats and lifecycle notes. I do not approve of whitewashing.


Wormfood: Hirelings and cohorts! They really are kicking it old skool in this series! A step up from the dull worldbuilding of the previous installments as they take the time to show us their characters as they were at 4th level, and talk about how you can use them in your game.

Gar Blitzhame is a local dwarf fighter/mage. He has a bunch of personal connections to the rest of the setting, giving you an easy in to certain plot events if you meet him. We also get details on his fighting tactics, which is particularly useful for a multiclass character.

Daejin Moon is a taciturn and snide elven ranger. If you can't match up to her in skill and tactics, you'll be getting more than a few barbed comments over the course of your adventuring. Just the thing for sarcastic DM's to have fun playing out.

Tassilo Vinese is a cleric of Heironious, who tries hard to be a team player, serving as both healer and fighter as a cleric of war should. You can rely on him to give his all in a pinch to save the rest of you. Glad to have him on board. This lot should come in handy, even if you aren't playing the adventure path.

Dragon Issue 335: September 2005


part 5/7


The Charlatan: They brought back the Jester 4 months ago. now they update another old class from the pages of the magazine as a Prestige Class. Charlatans first appeared in issue 120, where they combined a reasonable selection of thief skills with the ability to fake spellcasting to a modest degree. Since multiclassing and learning magic in general is much easier in 3e, it's hard to see why a rogue wouldn't just take a few levels in wizard or bard rather than going to the considerably harder effort of learning how to fake spellcasting. They'd have to be even better than the real thing in some respects to be balanced overall. And since this is only a 5 level prestige class, but lets you fake a few spells higher than 3rd level (ignoring magic resistance, which is especially nice) I think I can say they achieve that goal. It still can't compete with just going 20 levels in Beguiler, or prestigeing into Arcane Trickster for combining rogue skills with magical versatility, but it at least holds it's own against regular rogues while offering a different set of tricks, and it's definitely better at general social stuff than the 1e version, thanks to the more codified skill system of 3e. Watch out when someone tries to sell you something rare and valuable on the cheap. It could still go horribly wrong, believe me.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Along with the lizardfolk ecology, we have a set of swamp based magic items from the same author. And some fiction too. Been quite a while since we had that around here. Despite the previous article not being great, this still seems promising.

The Baleful eye of Bad Juju is your basic curse inflicting evil eye. Duration has once again been substantially reduced compared to previous incarnations of this principle.

Black Salt Rods detect supernatural nasties and offer minor protection against undead. Once again Sting is the primary influence, and I'm not talking Don't stand so close to me here.

Capotes of Dragonfly Wings keep bugs away and give you insect like reactions. This may make you slightly creepy, but is generally a beneficial thing. A nice contrast to the generally problematic but with a few desirable features ones of recent issues.

Eggsucker Staves bring new life, and have very cool visuals. Very useful, but I wouldn't like to be the person who collects all those eggshells that make it up.

Mudwalker Rings are probably more useful against lizardfolk than for them. They can already navigate swamps faster than they move on dry land, after all.

Shaker Staves of the Quondam give all your allies guidance from their ancestors, and also look really creepy. Typical buff effect with good fluff really as before.

Star Tortoise Shields protect you from being decapitated, for some reason. Anyone know the origin of this one?

The Visard of Semuyana lets you deliberately sacrifice your intellect to get better connected to nature and your god. Since Knowledge (Nature) is an int based skill, this doesn't work too well in D&D. No wonder lizard men are a dying race.

A Vivifying Bacalo animates any corpses that may be hanging around underwater and turns them into temporary ghouls for you to send against the enemy. A surprisingly careful bit of planning. After all, undead breaking free of your control and stinking up the place is always an almighty pain in the butt.

Dragon Issue 335: September 2005


part 6/7


Spellcraft: An interesting themed Bard collection, seemingly aimed at lovers of swashbuckling. (and we know there's still plenty of those around.) It's another one who's setting stuff is set in the Realms too, fitting the issue's theme. All your rockstar fantasies, with magic powers on top. Say hello to the Songsabers. They have some cool signature items that make them a lot more versatile than most spontaneous spellcasters. Get hold of a few of these and you'll be both cool and dangerous.

Animate Instrument lets you fly your guitar, harp or whatever, to play appropriate music while you get on with the buckling of swash. Always a fun business, adding accompaniment to a scene.

Ever Armed is your basic weapon conjuring spell, bard style. As usual, it gets more plusses as you level up.

Harmonic Void fucks up magical verbal components while still allowing regular speech. Nasty. Course, this'll be just as big a problem for Bards, as they can't get rid of those components with metamagic so easily.

Loresong is another, quite good skill booster, that really does let Bards be Jacks of all trades. With this kind of stuff, they handily beat rogues overall, despite the skill point gap.

Tune of the Dancing Weapon makes your weapon a dancing one. Combine that with the instrument playing one, and you can just sit back and relax while the whole scene gets taken care of automatically. It almost seems too easy, doesn't it. Don't let yourself get flabby. No-one likes a flabby swashbuckler, and the narrative may well kill you in response.


Sage advice: Does profciency in light armor let you use a mithral breastplate (Andy isn't ssure. Probably, becausse andy doessn't want to upssset you.)

Do all expensive special materials get charged by the piece (yes)

How much should mithral chainmail barding cost (Lotsess. 16,000 gold piecess)

How much does a nonweapon item made of thinaun cost (It doesn't matter, becausse it won't give you the sspecial benefit, collins collins)

Can magic items be enhanced again after creation (The DMG wouldn't have pricess for it if you couldn't)

How do you figure out the cost for increasing the AC on a robe of wizardry (Andy doesn't know. Making new magic items iss complicated, collins collins. Ssorry.)

Are magic items usable by only one class cheaper. (Ssometimes. More to ssell than to make, becausse there's less demand.)

Can sudden metamagic feats be used to make scrolls or wands  (yes)
do you have to be high enough level to make an item anyway if you use another magic item to make it (no)

Can you make +1 gloves (No. They aren't weapons, so it's not applicable)

Can an item be both magicaly and psionically enchanted (Yess, oh yess)

If an item bonus has a fixed price, does that boost it's effective plusses (no)

Can epic level characters boost ancestral relics further (Sseems like a good idea if you don't want ssamurai to end up ssuboptimal like ssorcerers. Andy will sshow you how to do the ssums to keep thiss balanssed, yess. )

Dragon Issue 335: September 2005


part 7/7


Class acts: Barbarians get Nasty Brutish, and Short. This is not advice about halfling and gnome barbarians, contrary to expectations. Instead, this is their turn on the background wagon. Nothing hugely surprising here, given their increasing love of reskinning.

Bards get a pair of new magic items. The Bamboo flute, and the Gypsy cloak. One basic buff item, and one flavourful one with both benefits and drawbacks. Fairly decent.

Clerics get their turn for patronizing spell choosing advice. Since they have lots of spells, this is rather harder to be certain about than rangers and paladins. Still, a dispel magic or two rarely goes amiss, I must say that.

Druids get Totem druids. Another attempt to trick you into nerfing yourself, these guys sacrifice their regular wild shaping for more frequent and powerful shaping into a single animal only. Not on your nelly mate.

Fighters get Cultured Combatants II. Four more feats based upon variants of the perform skill. What is all that about then? I must admit it has a good deal of style though.

Monks go completely the opposite direction, with Chaos Monks. Just the thing for your Githzerai frustrated by his awkward favored class conflicting with his racial alignment, and perfect for putting in a party with a wild mage.

Paladins get Paladin Lore. As a servant of both Law and Good, it's important you know how to fight corruption, who is corrupt, and which targets you have a chance of beating. Awkward business, when some appear to be upstanding pillars of the community, and you can't assemble enough evidence to prove their wrongdoing. Sometime you wish your god would just turn them all to pillars of salt, then you can sprinkle them on your fish and chips. But no. Gotta be good gotta be wise gotta be strong, gotta stay together. Love won't save the day unless you kick the ass of people standing in it's way.

Rangers get Favored Enemy Feats. 4 feats that do exactly what they say on the tin, allow you to take down your favored enemies even more brutally. Why should cleric class features get all the love.

Rogues get A Second Skin.  Disguising yourself is something that needs a little thought. Methods, consequences, types. Includes a feat that lets you disguise yourself better, unsurprisingly.

Sorcerers get Aquatic Fey Kin. Of all the strange things you could get your powers from. Who'd make this one up? Still, it does have a quite substantial benefit and drawback, so it does seem tempting and amusing. It's certainly not a useless idea.

Wizards get Disposable Arcana. Just as they can have other ways of recording their spells, they can also use other kinds of single use items as alternatives to potions and scrolls. Another way to add flavour to your game, and make the players less likely to realize the value of everything they find straight away.


Nodwick shows that conning old folks gets even easier when they're millennia old.   Dork tower's mini's face the wrath of cats. They're doomed. Zogonia get themselves in another fine mess through their own stupidity.  


Pretty pleased by this one overall, as both the feature and the regular columns are now going back in a direction that I like, and Erik is taking steps to make sure they'll go further in the future. Let's hope that the improvements from practice outweigh the effects of diminishing returns for a while yet, and they get the chance to revisit setting ideas and expand upon them.

Dragon Issue 336: October 2005


part 1/7


83 (132) pages. Just don't make clothes like they used too. Spend a few hundred years asleep, and then when you wake up, you're inadvertently turned into fanservice. Someone is definitely going to pay for this. As ever for the october issues, it looks like they're going to try and tell us something new about the undead.  Since one of those is the long-neglected spawn of Kyuss, tying in with their Dungeon adventure path, they might well manage it. Let's stake a look at this issue and see if anything in it is worth using in a game without adaption decay messing everything up.


Scan Quality: Slightly fuzzy, indexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


Editorial drops the extra words, because really, who needed them? A little dictionary hunting will hurt no-one. Indeed, as we've said before, a little challenge in getting hold of and understanding the books will just add to the temptation. Lure your audience with shiny forbidden stuff, then challenge them and force them to think about and debate your work if you want them to be long-term fans and spread the word to their friends. This is also why trying to forbid things can turn out to be counterproductive, as you effectively wind up creating free publicity in the form of debate and rumours. So this editorial shows that more than one person came to D&D through the same kind of process, and courting controversy remains a good way to boost your profile. And on an artistic level, if you aren't pushing the boundaries in some way, are you actually even being creative, or just going through the motions? What's the benefit in giving the world something it already has plenty of? So let's hope they actually give us something challenging in the articles.


Scale Mail: We start off with a letter grumbling about family-unfriendly covers and too much setting material. Since people complained when they went the other way as well, this definitely seems like a case where I shrug and say from my perspective, the more variety the better. Swinging from one extreme to the other will be far more interesting than following basically the same formula every issue.

Next is a letter from someone who is planning on converting the Bloodstone adventures to 3e. In this system, getting to 100th level seems a lot more reasonable, curiously enough, as you never run out of suitable challenges when you can stack templates and class levels onto monsters.

As they reintroduce more complex backgrounds to the magazine, they inevitably face the complaint of someone who finds them hard to read. Once again, it's very much about maintaining a sufficiently high degree of contrast so both text and backdrop can be easily distinguished, without making it boring. A well calibrated monitor is definitely your friend when doing design work.

And finally, the last letter tempts Erik into talking a little more about his own city-centric campaign. It might have been set over a smaller area, but it still took plenty of preparation and used published adventures to bulk things out. Even (especially?) official writers don't have the time and energy to do it all themselves.

Dragon Issue 336: October 2005


part 2/7


First watch: Heroes of Horror. A definite case where the third party D20 products covered a topic better than the official WotC attempt. Straight D&D has never done horror very well, largely due to the massive power increases characters enjoy. And this problem has only got worse over the editions. See experienced designers, including a couple of White Wolf alumni, struggle over it here.

Eberron gets Magic of Eberron. On we slouch to another proven solid seller. New magical crunch for all! Oh, and some psionics too, so you don't feel left out. Keep on buying, dudes.

And they also issue a package set of the Races splatbooks (at least, the generic ones, they decide to skip the ebberon one for whatever reason. ) in a nice slipcover. If you skipped them first time, will that tempt you? Anyone?

D20 stuff this time is mostly updates. Mutants & Masterminds gets a 2nd edition, and the old Wilderlands setting from Judges Guild gets updated to D20, which is very fitting, considering it's history. In a boxed set too. Yay for third party products!

White Wolf release their big crossover citybook, Chicago by Night. With an emphasis on the big. More than enough info for all three main gamelines here, to say the least.

Our boardgame this month is Midevil. Aka the Army of Darkness boardgame with the serial numbers filed off. Kick the ass of tons of skeletons and get back to the present. Another entertaining way to fill a few hours.

Minis this month include more official underdark monsters from WotC. Oh, and Artemis Enteri. Canon Pairing! Hot Drizzty buttsecks! Man, that never gets old. There's also Cthulhu creatures courtesy of SOTA, a limited edition gothic fortress full of mini furniture, and steampunky mecha stuff for Iron Kingdoms. Tick tock fill up your box.

WotC also chooses to sell off a whole bunch of D&D and M:tG art in limited edition, signed format. I see coffee table conversation pieces are still popular enough to justify their existence.

In play aids, we have the Flip-Mat. Another easily erasable gridded, fold-up bit of card to represent places on. Seems like there's quite a bit of competition in this market.

In video games, we have Black and White 2. God sims have a long history, and they continue to advance with new technology. And obviously given the title, being a sadistic bastard is very much an option for long term play. Muahahahaha.

Finally, we have Horrific, the card game of horror movie archetypes duking it out and terrorising a village as they do so. This also sounds pretty entertaining and replayable.

Dragon Issue 336: October 2005


part 3/7


Not for the living: We've had plenty of templates for monsters over the past 5 years, with undead definitely getting more than their fair share. After a couple of articles turning various types of undead into templates for ever greater flexibility in monster design, I have to wonder what new spin they can add on that this year. Well, it looks like they're extending their love of templates to inanimate objects. (man, they really do breed anything with anything in 3e ) mechanically codifying various types of haunting so you can design even this type of encounter quickly and easily. Which is all to the good if it leads to DM's putting more noncombat challenges in the game that you solve by roleplaying and cleverness.

Bad Place is the kind of incredibly generic name that only Steven King characters can pull off without seeming silly. And indeed, the mechanics show a definite Shining influence in the way anyone who lives there gradually goes mad, and then homicidal, and also in the steps needed to clear the place out.  All work and no play does indeed make Jack a dull boy, which I can quite empathise with at this point in my writings.

Dreamscapes draw on the also popular Nightmare on Elm Street stylings, giving anyone who sleeps there nightmares that you don't wake up from if you die in the dream. Again, you need to play it smart to sort out the force behind the nightmares, and don't get complacent, for they may come back again, and again, and again.

Eidolon let you use the basic principles of the Ring series in a world without videotape. Hallucinations, odd compulsions, and the ghost coming out of the bonded objects to mete out a horrible death if you don't do what they desire. Muahahahaha!

Entitys are haunted places directly bonded to a particular powerful ghost. If you can  take out the ghost, the rest is relatively simple. But anyone who's ever played a Ravenloft adventure will know that what sounds simple in theory is very much not in practice as their power levels and degree of angst mounts up.

Planar Cankers are a more self-explanatory name. Intrusions from other universes are a fairly common thing in D&D, (after all, we had another set of rules for them just this april) and there's plenty of fun you can have depending on what other universe a bridge is forming between. We definitely have such sights to show you this time around.

Primeval Scars are the most powerful and hard to fix of these, causing animals and plants to be overgrown and hostile and anything unnatural to simply vanish mysteriously after a few days. if you stray into one, things will turn into survival horror of the scariest type. Good luck, you'll definitely need it. Once again James Jacobs has pulled off a winner of an idea in style.


Birth of the dead: Many undead are capable of reproducing by turning creatures they kill into minions, which then gain independence when their master dies. But that doesn't answer the question of where they came from in the first place. Just saying a god or wizard did it every time gets very tiresome indeed, especially when you don't have the specifics of what spells they used and how much it will cost as a PC to do it. So here's 26 bits of nanofiction and explanation to differentiate the many many different ways you could come back after dying in D&D land. (not one for each letter of the alphabet though, unfortunately) Some simply require you die in a particular way, some require deliberate and often very complex effort, and some are restricted to certain nonhuman races anyway, so you only have to worry about being killed BY them. The whole thing shows a combination of extensive research and making up new details to fill in the gaps that's pretty pleasing to me. If you want to build upon a setting, you have to be aware of and respect the things that came before so it makes a consistent continuity. While this might not have quite the depth on a single creature an Ecology can manage, it does make a good reference for whenever too many monsters start to blur into one and you need reminding why we have them all.

Dragon Issue 336: October 2005


part 4/7


Fiction: Bandits in the paths of Fame by James Lowder. Been a long time since we saw Mr Lowder contributing to the magazine. Given all that he went through in the TSR years, being cynical about the whole heroic adventurer thing would be quite understandable. And indeed, that's exactly what this story is about, saying that while there may be a few true heroes out there, there's a lot more self-interested bastards who are only in it for the money and fame. Any brief shining moments of hope will eventually be crushed, and things will return to banality in the end. And then we die. Depressing, but unfortunately pretty realistic. Is it possible to get old and remain idealistic, especially if you don't succeed after a few tries? I know a few people that have managed it, but it's not easy. All I know for sure is that I'm not going to give up on you guys at this point, after all we've been through together. A few depressing stories are just a drop in the ocean by now.


The ecology of the spawn of kyuss: No great surprise that they'd do an ecology for these guys when they've just started an adventure path focussing on them. One of the scariest bits of body horror in the book, these guys are even nastier than rot grubs because they go for the brain rather than the heart, so you have more time to feel things slipping away and your facilities being destroyed. And death doesn't end things, soon you'll be back up again and spreading the corruption around with great generosity. As you'd expect for an important tie-in like this, they put in lots of extra effort, both in the illustrations, descriptions and crunch. They include a new template that I expect we'll be seeing quite a bit more in this adventure path, the favored spawn of kyuss. Retaining more memories and powers than a regular kyuss zombie, and having wider and more versatile vectors of contagion, you want to take these guys out from a long range, because if they get within hand to hand distance, or even close, you are in deep danger of joining their ranks. Brr. Clerics are going to have to work overtime in this one, especially if the other players don't fight smart. I quite approve, and look forward to seeing what other tie-ins this series will spawn.


Wormfood: Things pick up some more in the tie-in department as we head from the small town to the big city. If you've done things right, you'll be approaching mid-levels, which means a whole new load of options in what your characters are capable of. This also means they have the freedom to live how they want to a greater degree. They don't have to be obsessives who spend their whole time adventuring or looking for leads to the next big haul. So let's look at some more fripperies that are irrelevant to the direct adventure, but still help you quite a bit in the worldbuilding department. You can slot them in fairly easily whatever city you set this part of the adventure in. Prices, mechanical benefits you can get from frequenting them, and owners are also detailed, which'll encourage players to use them, and hopefully not just slaughter the joint.

The Blueberry Theatre is a high class joint with a penchant for subversive political commentary in it's performances. Sound like the kinda place I'd enjoy frequenting. Gotta keep your cynicism levels up.

The Checkered Circle is an illegal fight club, moving constantly to avoid the law. If you've got the underworld moxie, you can risk your life and money, and really make a killing. At your current level, you'll be able to breeze through the early rounds, but don't get complacent. You never know when you'll wind up bareknuckle fighting with an owlbear.

Honest Axebeard's House of Dice is a nicely furnished casino, including VIP areas the players can splash out out on if they want to play playas. It's another good place to go if you want to hear rumours too. You've got to speculate to accumulate.

Josiel's Bathhouse is a supremely relaxing massage parlor. So much so that it boosts your healing rate. Another one that makes it tempting for adventurers to live large on those ill-gotten gains. If you're going to go out there and save the world, you might as well do it with a straight back and pedicured feet.