Dragon Issue 341: March 2006


part 2/6


First watch: Back to 4 pages. It looks like the extras for the release of stormreach were a one-off. Anyway, this month's generic product is the Tome of Magic. Quite different from the 2e ToM - where that gave the existing classes cool stuff, this provides 3 all new and strongly experimental ones, with their own unique systems. Binders, shadow mages and truenamers. Not quite as cool overall as magic of incarnum, but still fun to play with.

The Realms get their own epic level sourcebook - Power of Faerun. Last edition they let characters go to 40th level where most other worlds could only manage 30. And in 3.0 they got rough epic rules before the official handbook came out. So continuing this trend of obscene power seems fitting. Includes stuff on actually becoming a mover and shaker in the world too, which is a definite plus in my book.

Only one D20 book this month. Not too surprisingly, it's another Green Ronin one. The Masterminds Manual for Mutants & Masterminds is of course their equivalent of a DM's handbook, full of stuff to customise your game. Seems more like a WW Storytellers handbook than a DM's one, but those are useful too.

Tons of minis this month, albeit some rehashed. Once again, they promote the War Drums Minis set heavily. They're also releasing a new D&D starter game focussed around it. That is intriguing. Goodman games also tie in with their other products with minis based on their DCC line. No-one else is really doing modules in that kind of number anymore, so they have an open field to clean up in. On top of that, there's a deluxe Jareth mini to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Labyrinth, and another line of generic fantasy minis from Mega Minis. People may not be playing wargames much anymore, but there's no shortage of materials to play them with.

Drizzt gets his recent comics compiled into a graphic novel. But no new books, apparently. Are they not making any, or simply not promoting them here?

An interesting sideline this month is a bunch of books that aren't directly RPG related, but still have quite a bit of inspiration for you to try out. Cryptozooology, history books, stuff on mythology. Ahh yes, going outside the subculture for inspiration can definitely help. It's a big world out there, not everything needs statistics.

Final Fantasy 12 is our upcoming computer game. They join in on the steampunkishness, with the overall ambience renaissance, airships playing a big part, plus the usual bishis, chocobos and moogles. This franchise continues to be incredibly popular, even if it is slowing down a bit in release rates.

And finally, we have another collection of t-shirts with geeky stuff on them. Yawnarama. Can't say these grab my attention.


Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Another real world demon this month. Baphomet, prince of beasts. Lord of minotaurs, and served by Goristro, Bulezeau and other horned creatures, he lives in an endless maze and has a vicious never ending rivalry with Yeenoghu, demon prince of gnolls. But he's not just some dumb raging brute. He also has a strong scientific mind, creating all manner of strange things in his disturbing laboratories. Indeed, this is one of the more expansionistic Demonomicon entries, attributing the creation of whole bunch of existing monsters to him. Never trust statements like that, as demons are notorious liars and braggarts. Fairly formulaic entry here, although the blending of warrior and scientist, but not spellcaster is interesting. He might not be as bizarre looking or unique as some of the other demon lords, but being lost in an endless maze can still be pretty scary. Still, overall, this isn't as interesting as previous entries. While still thoroughly gamable, this series is starting to lose it's novelty, and doesn't seem to be improving in terms of writing and design. Ho hum.

Dragon Issue 341: March 2006


part 3/6


Forging friends: Familiars got a fair number of articles in previous editions, but this seems to have dropped off lately, with Issue 280 being the last big one, 5 years ago. Which is funny, given how much easier it is to customise stuff in in 3e. Oh well, they're back again, with a whole bunch of variant familiars that you build, rather than summon. It may cost you more, but greater power and hopefully loyalty is probably worth the price.

Copper Asps spit good ol' con draining poison on anyone who disses their master. Which means you can act dignified and disapproving while still teaching people a serious lesson. Muahaha.

Crystal Cats take their cues from Hellcats, being so transparent they're near invisible, which makes them pretty handy as spies. It does make them even more fragile than most familiars though. All cats demand attention, I guess these are no exception.

Erudite Owls are one of the highest level of these, and get quite handy divination spell-like abilities of their own to add to yours. With a high Wisdom as well, they might well spot problems that you would miss on your own in both exploration and social situations.

Glass Dragonflys are all about the flying speed. Oh and color spray from their prismatic wings. Not as stealthy as the cats then, but still able to get away from most pursuers.

Mercurial Spiders are your own tiny T-1000, able to slip through the smallest crack or disguise themselves as any inanimate object of similar size and look really cool while changing shape. They're another poisonous one too, so they can really do some damage if they catch an enemy unawares at night.

Razor Hawks use their sharpened wings to make fly-by attacks, which'll make killing them a matter of holding your action to strike as they pass. They'll still go down pretty quickly if you do get a solid hit though, like most familiars.

Salvage Rats aren't made of a particular type of metal, the important thing is the symbolism of rescuing it from the scrapheap. They have the lovely power to rust enemy armor, which makes them stand out quite nicely. And indeed, I think all of these have enough finesse in their tricks to make up for their lack of physical power if played smartly. Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are SUBTLE and quick to anger.


Full frontal nerdity gives thanks for Janet Jackson's breasts. My, they are topical quite frequently in here.


Automatons for Amateurs: Golems continue to be one of those iconic monsters everyone knows about, and has a million amusing variants. However, it is true that they tend towards high level, so it's a bit tricky to fill a whole campaign with them the way you can undead, fiends or dragons. (if you count pseudodragons, lesser drakes, etc) Since that does sound like a cool theme for an adventure path, so let's hope these guys do indeed fit the bill and let us go for achievable challenges right from 1st level.

Fungus Golems appeared in issue 255, in a rather more specific and interesting form. Oh. It's going to be one of THOSE sorts of articles is it? :Sigh:

Junk Golems are the big brothers of Salvage Rats, and are quite handy because they can self-repair by incorporating stuff from the people they fight. They also get a rusting ability, which always pisses off gearhead adventurers. Muahaha, as per standard.

Paper Golems sound only slightly more threatening than chocolate or plush golems, and indeed, they are CR1, which means they'll go down in a single hit against scissors or fire. Just don't be silly and try bludgeoning attacks, because they'll just bend around them.

Tin Golems appeared in issue 156, where they were big toy soldiers in classic april tradition. This time round, they're all serious and boring, with their most distinctive feature being greater manual dexterity than the average golem. Yawn. Another reminder of what we've lost over the years.

Wax Golems let you do the creepy animate dummy thing which has been used to great effect in TV shows like Dr Who. I doubt experienced players will be caught flat-footed though, since it's hardly an uncommon occurrence.

Wood Golems previously appeared in issue 119. This appears to be yet another case of independent evolution though, as they don't share and features statistically or fluffwise. So it goes, when it's such an obvious material to use. This article definitely isn't winning any awards for originality or inventiveness from me.

Dragon Issue 341: March 2006


part 4/6


Arcane upgrade: We've gone from little constructs to big ones, and now we're doing the PC ones. Makes perfect sense to me. Warforged have always got unusually good treatment for a non-core race, and it looks like that's continuing here, with a whole load of magic items that they can incorporate into their form. Let's see how many of them are interesting, and how many are merely conversions of existing items.

Circlets of the Third Eye let you see invisible things and penetrate darkness. That's always a handy one for dungeoneers, and the only drawback is that it's pretty obvious when it's active, and can be attacked independently of the rest of your body. Being ogled by eyes on stalks just doesn't make you positively inclined towards someone.

Disks of Illumination turn you into a living light bulb to penetrate dungeons and dazzle anyone trying to fight you. It's not as impressive a deterrant as nymphs or medusas, but it'll do for a start.

Disks of Shadow go the other way, and let you do the mysterious shrouded stranger thing without having to bother with cloaks and hoods. Well, you're a warforged. What use are human clothes to you?

Gauntlets of the Deft Hand boost both your crafting and roguish skills, ensuring you'll always have something of value on hand to sell later. Like knives, you can't really ban things like this because they have so many legitimate uses along with the naughty ones.

Gauntlets of Excavation let you out-dig any dwarf for an hour a day. I think they might still have the edge in finesse and stamina though, as they're bred for it, while you're only made.

Iron-tooth Girdles let you turn your stomach into a giant jagged-toothed maw. Now your eyes will never ever be bigger than your belly again. That's some fascinatingly disconcerting visuals.

Jewels of Dazzling Light let you control pretty lights for both combat and social purposes. If you're in the underdark, it'll help you fake being a Drow convincingly too. Shame your body heat'll let you down in making the disguise complete.

Scorpion Brands let you sprout a nice stinging tail. That'll put the wind up anyone who's vulnerable to poison. Other warforged can relax. Species Solidarity!

Spring-heeled Boots let you go all kangaroo on us, leaping small buildings and outpacing most enemies. Just don't try to stop mid-duration, as they're designed for constant motion, or you'll fall over on us. Hit the road, jack, and don't you come back, no more no more no more no more.

Stones of Internal Fire let you heat yourself to boiling temperatures for short periods of time. This will do some damage to you, but if you're any good at grappling, more to the people around you. Just make sure you aren't wearing anything fragile when you activate it, as that would be terribly silly.

The Clone Mask is the most powerful of these, letting you split your upper body into two and gain the appropriate extra attacks and vision bonuses. Very cool looking indeed. This collection has managed to give us some decently imaginative additions to our arsenal.


The ecology of the Inevitable: Now, if Lovecraft's influence has increased in D&D, the one thing that's decreased is the kind of whimsy that resulted in the Modrons. Man, someone in the development team must really have a hate-on for them. So the formians took their aspect as teeming hive creatures spread across the plane, while Maruts got a whole family of similar creatures created, and the now genericised Inevitables took their job as the exemplars of Lawful Neutral behaviour. Course, they don't mention that, and instead make this another instance where they whitewash D&D's actual history in favour of inventing a new IC one with creatures we've never even heard of before. As with the lizard man one, this does leave a sour taste in my mouth. As they're trying to tackle a whole bunch of related creatures in the same page count, each gets considerably less depth than they would in a normal ecology. So I'm not very impressed by this one. Next!

Well, after exactly 67 months, I can finally say I've finished the writing for every single print issue of Dragon Magazine, and with a nice buffer built up by the end as well. It'll still be a few months before I can lay this to rest for good, but at least now I can say for certain that it will be done unless I die suddenly from misadventure.

In the meantime, I'm looking for a more permanent place to store these, so people can find and comment on particular issues easily. Which blogging sites let you change the dates of your posts easily, so you can set them even to dates before you signed up?

Dragon Issue 341: March 2006


part 5/6


Wormfood: So we approach high levels in our adventure path. This of course means gamechanging powers start to have serious ramifications on your adventure design. Here we examine the effect they have on wilderness travel. Mere distance is no longer much of an obstacle, with flight and teleportation able to transport individuals easily, and whole groups with a bit of effort. On the other hand, it's still a big world out there, and magic can only find things if you know what you're looking for in the first place. You're not free from legwork and logistical hassles by a long shot. Obviously, this can't cover all the stuff from the many supplements and even more third party products, and you know how much those empower clerics and wizards in particular; but it manages to touch the bases. Still, this is one article that feels way too short. They really need to put more detail into advice for running high level games, to match up with the increased complexity and decreased experience people have in that area. Overall, I'm not satisfied with this.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Another burst of magitech here. Well, it's in theme. And it gives you easy options by taking stuff from reality. A bit lazy though, given the number of times they've done it in the past. Just crank the formulas, that'll get us through another month.

Battering Balls don't need no chain. They'll break down your door and bash out your brain. Fo shizzle. Gnomes in da house again.

Clairaudience Beetles scuttle around and record stuff for their masters. Seen you before. Will squash you if I see you again.

Floating Books come when called and hover in a position convenient for reading. Now that's what you get the wizard who has everything. They'll then spend tons of time and money rebuying their existing stuff in the new format. Now THAT's progress.

Flying Lanterns do much the same as flying books and continual light balls, only with better decoration. It's all about the ergonomics dudes. Now sponsored by Apple.

Poison-dart Wasps are for when your spy beetles have gathered enough info to know someone needs taking out. It keeps on attacking until it hits. Send several at once and you can be pretty confident they won't swat them all.

Trick Coins let you win bets effortlessly. Ahh yes, this oldie but goodie. See how much you can make before they catch on and you have to skip town.


Spellcraft is tied in with our new book this month, in a way of giving readers a peek at the mechanics, and therefore encouraging them to buy it. Binders are the first new class, and they're also the one that time has been kindest too. It's no surprise that they're getting the attention here. Nicely though, they avoid rehash, and present us with two new vestiges, making this still useful once you've bought the book. There have been some bad tie-in articles over the years, but this is not one of them.

Kas should be pretty familiar to you, as with many vestiges. Along with his sword, this is another avenue for him to affect the world, and try to somehow get revenge on Vecna. In the meantime, he encourages you to be superficially friendly but treacherous to those around you, and his powers let you be a backstabbing bastard better, with bluff bonuses, blinding crits and the chance of negating other's crits. Pretty decent suite of powers really.

Primus is not the current one, but the one killed by Orcus during the events of The Great Modron March. It's obviously not happy about this, and encourages you to spread law across the multiverse with greater ruthlessness than the current Modron hierarchy. It's powers are actually pretty quirky though. Bonuses for repeating the same actions in successive rounds. Chaos smiting, magical commanding without them being aware of you. Again, both good powers, and cool. This has been a refreshing article, doing something a little different, and doing it well. Hopefully shadow mages and truenamers'll get some love too in future issues.

Dragon Issue 341: March 2006


part 6/6


Sage advice: Can a monk make disarm, sunders and trips during a flurry of blows (Yes. But not attacks you can't do with a monks weapons, like bull rushes and overuns )

If a rogue gets multiple attacks, can they sneak attack for all of them (If they meet the requirements each time. Rogues is much nasstier in battle than 2nd edition)

Do you apply all bonuses from the previous attack to the attack you get from cleave. (Unless that makes no sense, precious. )

If you have 0 HP and you cleave someone, do you drop to -1 before or after handling the extra attack ( Before. If you have great cleave you can cut down lotses before you collapse. )

Can you cleave if you drop someone with an AoO (Oh yess, preciouss)

Can you trip someone with an AoO (Yess.)

Does that let them attack you back if you fail (yess. Revenge is sssweeet.)

Does uncanny dodge let you ignore feints (No)

Can a rogue feint, then use a missile attack (no)

How many attacks does a creature with multiple natural weapons get while grappling (All of them. Beware grappling hydras. Nassty things.)

When using power attack or combat expertise, do the penalties apply to opposed attack rolls and grapple checks (yes and no. Grapples aren't attack rolls, so they don't apply.)

Can you score a crit on a grapple roll (no)

If you threaten a critical on a true striked attack, does the bonus apply to your confirmation roll  (Yess. Not likely to fail, are you, preciouss. )

Can you perform a coup de grace with a ray spell (no)

Is a coup de grace an evil act. (What'sss so wrong with putting them out of their missery, huh?)

If you ready your spear, do you have to attack whoever charges you (no)

Is a double weapon considered two handed or light (Either, depending on how you usse them. Very verssatile, yess?)

Can you make a shield attack as your primary weapon. (Ass long as you're prepared to make your actual weapon the secondary attack.)


Class acts: Adventurers gives us some Soulknife love this month, with 10 new Mind blade feats. Once again their new method of organization lets them do stuff they couldn't before, and support classes from the supplements. Now you can really specialize in slicing people to shreds without worrying about it being suboptimal compared to someone with a big magic weapon. Maybe you could pick up vow of poverty as well.

Arcane gets familiar flavoring. 7 new familiars for your wizards and sorcerers to pick up. Nothing particularly surprising here, apart from the Dark Chanting Goshawk. (is that a real animal? Why that over any other subspecies? Strange.)

Divine does for druids and rangers what it did for clerics last month, collating the spells in the corebook by school. Which is similarly dull. Definitely filler material.

Warriors get Martial Cultures, 12 new backgrounds that show you how you can adapt rangers and barbarians to the various demihuman races. These are rather more radical than most backgrounds, including modifications to their racial abilities and class features. Once again, we see how small changes to actual abilities can be parlayed into massive fluff recontextualizations. I approve.


Nodwick is possessed by tharzidun. This is obviously not good. Dork tower tries to rules lawyer in a stupid way. Zogonia is inspired by surrealism this month. I'm not sure I approve. Order of the stick pays back their unpaid for hit points. With interest.


Not really that keen on this issue, as it has an annoying combination of churning the formulas and forgetting the past. When you're adding setting stuff, you need to pay more attention to what came before than new bits of disconnected crunch. Plus it's particularly problematic when the new things that replace the old are quite noticeably less interesting. It makes me wonder if there's any good new ideas in the world. Oh well. I'd better see if they've got any new jokes to tell next month. After all, the internet has certainly thrown up a good number of them, so all they have to do is google and convert them to a roleplaying-appropriate form.

Dragon Issue 342: April 2006


part 1/6


74 (100) pages. As we begin the runup to the 30th anniversary, it looks like we have another run of dragons on the cover. First up, a white dragon (that's tinted purple on the cover, and blue on the inside) ensuring that any adventurers who want it's treasure can be stuck with it, permanently. It's not quite genie level of sophistication in ironic humour, but it'll do for a start. Let's see if they have any better gags inside.


Scan quality: Blurry, low res, Indexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


Editorial: Erik's editorial this month is once again him wrestling with how much humour to put in this issue. And after way too much thought, he once again goes with one joke article to placate the die-hards and keeping the rest sensible. After all, it's a lot harder to make players take a joke scenario seriously than it is to add a few amusing twists to an otherwise serious adventure. Greyhawk is still trying to get people to overlook the terrible pun names and adventures like WG9, while Dragonlance has so much comic relief baked in that people still debate if it's possible or desirable to reboot it. Do we really want that to happen to the magazine? Probably not. So they will continue their trajectory of gradually becoming more focussed and serious until they can't go any farther in that direction. Maybe if they do it gradually enough, people won't notice. Call me again in 10 years time and we'll see.


Scale Mail: Our first letter points out that Solomon Kane used a magic staff, and he certainly wasn't a wizard. There's plenty of precedent for more physical characters to choose that as their weapon of choice, particularly in the martial arts genre.

The second one is equally nitpicky, complaining about using a lovecraftian phrase when most of the issue wasn't devoted to him. Given how many issues recently have been, I shall give a resounding to that.

We do have a fair number of heavily positive letters though, with two from long-standing players who are very happy with what the magazine has done, and continues to do for D&D as a whole. Since so many of their writers are now part of the WotC staff, they can hardly help taking ideas and reusing them. And this will only become more true next edition, with everything in the magazine going through exactly the same development process as the books.

Finally, they stir the pot by including a letter from someone who thinks the LotR movies were a dull and unfaithful adaptation of the books. Just because they weren't perfect, doesn't mean they aren't technically superior in many ways to the fantasy movies of the 80's and before. I think the extensive behind the scenes documentaries in the extended editions make that very clear.

Dragon Issue 342: April 2006


part 2/6


First watch: Splatbook time again. They've exhausted the core 4 roles, so now it's Psionics turn to get a Complete book adding to them. New classes make an all psionic party viable, new powers help, but still don't catch them up with spellcasters. Plus some slightly iffy errata, the joys of heritage feats, and the obligatory usual prestige classes.

Eberron gets Voyage of the Golden Dragon. An airship's maiden voyage runs into a little trouble. A combination of sourcebook and adventures, this reminds me of the princess ark series, and looks pretty cool. Giving players control of their own flying vehicle always tips the game heavily into the awesomeometer.

Another adventure plus a bunch of physical stuff this month. Fields of Ruin seems to feature a chimera, and other monsters from their new minis set, plus big maps for your minis to fight on. Tie it all together, and hopefully more people'll buy it. We've heard that line before.

Green Ronin continues to be Dragon's most popular D20 company. Mansion of Shadows and the True20 Bestiary are their latest products. Seems like they're almost as prolific as WotC, if not with quite as high production values. Also on the D20 side, oddly, is the latest Dragonlance adventure. The price of Courage. Ahh, yes. The licensing business. Funny what it did to their 2e campaign worlds in this era.

Also on a Dragonlance spin is another redoing of the original novels, this time in comic format. Didn't they already do graphic novels, back in the early 90's. Seems like people keep coming back to the beginning, in a way they don't with the Realms.

Non D20 products that have grabbed their interest this month are BESM 3rd edition, and call of cthulhu's Malleus Monstrorum. Two more gamelines that have produced awesome work in the past, but are now hanging on, and not going anywhere fast. Damn shame really.

On the minis side, we have Hordes, a new wargame from Privateer. Giant warbeasts and risk/reward tradeoff gambling. Interesting. It's all compatible with Warmachine too, so you can mix and match the creature types and their different ways of operating. Curiously, we also get Dracula minis from McFarlaine Toys, based upon the 1992 movie. What an odd conjunction. It's not as if that version was particularly popular.

Another boardgame out now is Grand Tribunal. Loosely based on Ars Magica, the goal of the game is to invent the coolest and most powerful spells and items, and then decide who did the best. You can be backbiting politics will be involved, if I know the Hermetics.

On the game aids side, we have an amusing little entry. D'oh dice. Dice, with the 1 replaced with a D'oh. A good example of how culturally ubiquitous the Simpsons has become. Amusing once, then I lose interest, so probably not worth the purchase.

For computer games, they promote Heroes of Might and Magic V, and Horizons: Empire of Istaria. Both are RPG's and have fairly substantial internet multiplayer options. No change in their priorities there then.

Another book this month is The Art of Ray Harryhausen. The old god of stop-motion gets a big coffee table book. Lots of colour stuff from the movies, plus sketches, and behind the scenes stuff. Sounds fairly neat.

And finally, there's the GOBLIN podcasting network. The new cool thing, as adding Garageband to every mac and various advancements in computer recording and compression technology have made it accessible to the average person. Which means even a market as niche as ours has dozens of people doing it themselves. Just like punk, only with less safety pins. I very much approve.


Domain power: It looks like the real theme this month is deities again, with 5 articles devoted to godly power, compared to just one joke article. Hang on a minute, didn't they do that just 4 years ago in issue 294. Repeating topics I can deal with. Rehashing exactly the same combo of topics when combinatoric theory says you should be able to pick and mix any two or three for hundreds of years without hitting exactly the same ones, that's just careless. I'm exceedingly unamused by this twist of events. My mood is not improved by reading the first article, as it's very much one of those ones where they have a single good idea (spending a feat to improve your domain powers) and then just crank the formula until it covers all the domains in the corebook. (and believe me, you'll have no trouble coming up with similar effects for the many others in supplements.) Booooooooooooooooooooring. Waiter! Next!

Dragon Issue 342: April 2006


part 3/6


Full frontal nerdity weirds out it's players. Who is responsible? Do de do do, do de do do, etc etc. They also have tons of other strips. This is rather disconcerting. Just how popular is Aaron?  


Beyond the pale: Now this is a topic that's lain fallow for a little longer. Bringing back the dead last got a big article in issue 210, which did quite a bit to look at the logical consequences of it. This is related, but far more mechanically focussed, as is their wont these days, talking about ways you can tweak resurrection in your games to make it seem more consequential. Most of them are ways to make it harder to do, but some are interesting things that could happen to you mechanically or socially after coming back to life. Overall, i don't think it's quite as good as the 210 one, but the amount of overlap is small enough that they complement each other rather than turning into a rehash, so it's still a positive result in terms of adding to the magazine as an extended body of lore.  


Core beliefs: Olidammara. Ah, the laughing rogue. The perfect justification for having a cleric/rogue in the party. And also, if this stuff is read wrong, an entirely reasonable setup for having a character who plays pranks on their companions on a regular basis, for part of their duties is making sure no-one gets too bogged down in habits or takes life too seriously. Damn good thing there's no kender on Oerth, or he'd be a scary powerful deity. Of course, there are certain other pranksterish sorts, and he has a rather interesting relationship with them. Zagyg imprisoned him for a while, but he managed to turn that to his advantage, and they're now more friendly rivals than mortal enemies. And like Boccob, he has his own demigod sorta-servant, Rudd, who's all about the fine line between luck and skill, and so seems another one likely to be popular with adventurers. As with last time, there's plenty of stuff for players to use, including a rather good new spell that gives them limited access to bard spells, while avoiding the twinkery that unlimited supplement access brings, and a slaad proxy who isn't a complete dingbat. It's all rather good. It may have taken quite a bit of perusal to assemble the scraps of info from the old Greyhawk books, but there was plenty of good source material to draw upon in this case, and Sean continues to tread the fine line between reverence and expansion well. The main worry now is that like the Demonomicon, this series may lose it's shine over time through sheer predictability.


The power of faith: From feats that boost the powers of your domains, we go to feats that give you extra powers if you worship a specific deity. Clerics really are spoiled for choice when it comes to buffing themselves up and specialising in particular parts of their portfolio. Unlike the previous article, which was usable right from 1st level, these require you to be a 3rd level spellcaster or better to take, and the tricks they give you are somewhat more powerful. They still follow a pretty strict formula though. One special ability or a buff of an existing power, plus adding 3-4 spells to your regular spell list that are normally wizard ones or domain exclusive. (and in a few cases, are new spells only accessible through these initiate feats. ) Once again, this feels like it would be very easy to expand on, creating similar feats for the many other gods out there in D&D supplements, especially since so many of the spells are merely more powerful variants of existing ideas. I find it very hard indeed to be excited by this. Oh well, let's hope they work out well in actual play, like so many of these articles that don't make great reading, but have solid crunch behind them.

Dragon Issue 342: April 2006


part 4/6


The ecology of the adventurer: Our token joke article this year is this little piece by Tony Moseley. Essentially the Scary Movie to the Ecology of the Kobold's Scream, this is a whimsical little IC one in which the kobold shaman of a tribe talks about their experience with adventurers, and the horrible deaths that likely await members of the tribe. A ridiculous scenario is set up, and then used as a way of riffing on all sorts of subjects. We see a parody of the old 1st ed players handbook cover. Morgan Ironwolf returns as a truly ridiculous multiclass character that I'm not sure whether to be scared of, or to laugh at how suboptimal she is for a 20th level character, we get feats that rival last year's commoner entry for sheer stupidity, it's all rather gonzo. While this does manage to raise a few vague smiles from me, what it really does is remind me of the association of monster hunter ecologies, and how much I miss having fiction in here regularly. Their april ones managed to be both funnier than this, and still have more stuff that you could actually use in a serious game. :sigh: You can do better than this.  


Wormfood turns into a bazaar of the bizarre. The players have (hopefully) just unearthed the ruins of a secret order, which holds vital clues to the defeat of Kyuss and co. Can they capitalise on this to bring about a suitably dramatic conclusion to the adventure path? I guess that's up to you, but this list of treasures certainly can't hurt.

Amulets of light give you permanent consecration. Isn't that more a landscaping thing than personal wear? Well, if it stops undead walking all over you, you'll thank the designer.

Breathdrinker swords can absorb breath weapons, and then unleash them on the next creature you hit. As usual with something like this, save the effect for something that isn't immune to their own damage type.

Cloaks of the Sorcerer-King give you various dragon emulating powers. How very athasian of you. Enjoy the versatility of being able to choose your aspect and which energy type you're going to enhance today.

Corporeal Lodestones shield you from ethereal screwage. Not useful all the time, but the kind of thing the paranoid delight in packing just in case.

Doomslayer Bows let you emulate Bard the Bowman, and find the weak spot on whatever you're fighting. They're pretty neat in general combat too. Strength bonus on top of the regular enhancement bonus. Someone's been boning up on how to twink the item creation rules.

Dragonbane Scepters help you penetrate draconic SR. What spells you can bring to bear on them is of course up to you, unlike most staves. The kind of thing you only pack if you know you're going to need it.

Elixirs of Draconic Essence also give you powers based upon dragons, with general physical enhancements and a breath weapon appropriate to the colour.

Phylacterys of Protection from Evil give you a permanent spell effect as long as you wear them. Again. Just wear a cross like any good christian.

Quicksilver Cloaks let you get in and out of places with ease, and protect you from paralysis. Another good reason to strip captives before you tie them up.

Rings of Death Ward give you the effect of that spell as long as you wear them. Meh. Do we need stuff like this for every spell in the book?

The Shield of the Sun looks good and unleashes sunbeams on command. That'll make having a cleric in the team slightly less essential.

The Shroud of Undeath makes undead fail to notice you. But you do have to wear it on the outside and look stupid to any living people around. Yawn Seen stuff like this before. And really, who's going to call adventurers on their stupid outfits these days when they're all wearing them.

Skulls of Dragonform are yet another draconic transformation device. Have the PC's just been fighting dragons in the actual campaign? Are they about too? This definitely seems like a pretty pointed hint. Better watch out, given how scary dragons can get these days.

Dragon Issue 342: April 2006


part 5/6


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Healing? We haven't had a bazaar devoted specifically to items that cure you before, curiously enough. Although we have had several Arcane Lores. But of course they're mostly for your clerics and druids, while items are often usable by any class. And many people do want to decrease their reliance on the healbot, so this is all to the good. Let's finally fill this niche.

Amulets of Preservation stop you rotting, and pause the clock on your raising time limit. Better hope you don't have too many in the party at once then.

Bolts of Healing, like the old arrows from the 80's, heal damage instead of inflicting it. Watch you don't shoot the enemy with this one by accident, as if you needed warning again.

Calming Stones are better than a slap on the face for dealing with hysteria. Course, like most items these days, they only work a few times a day, so mass panic'll be a bit of a problem. No scaling, that's the big problem with magic these days. Get offa mah lawn!

Detoxification Orbs are another one that'll save a few lives, but then give up the ghost. Still, poison is a problem, so you want to get it treated ASAP, but might not always have the appropriate spells memorized.

Gems of Poison Detection don't run out, on the other hand, and are cheap enough that most adventuring parties could afford one. They even work at range. This should help you ensure a whole banquet is safe before tucking in.

Healer's Masks help keep the doctors alive in a plague situation. And don't look as freaky as the real ones, hopefully. God, those beaked things can be nightmare fuel and a half.

Medic Hats formalize the red cross agreement that medics are not to be attacked by either side. Saving lives is important! Otherwise we would be just monsters. Yeah, it's hard to create rules of war that stick in these parts. No wonder they need magical enforcement.

Rods of Disenchantment do for people what the old ones do for magic items. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on if it gets rid of all your buffs, or removes a nasty curse. Either way, profit for the user, hopefully.

Tholveg's Final Prayer are little marbles that you smash to release the healing. Quicker and easier to use in a pinch than drinking a potion, if a bit messier. But if it's a question of my life or a bit of broken glass on the floor, I know which one I'm going to take.


Spellcraft: Another nostalgic magic collection here, including spells from deities who are now out of favor in the official books. The campaign classics stuff seems to be creeping into the other issues. Not that that's a bad thing. Many of them are cool ideas well due updating and maybe even expanding upon.

Black stench of Laogzed makes standard troglodyte stink seem somewhat anaemic. Behold the power of epic fart! You can't see through it, and it'll eat through your clothes too. Why isn't there a god of frat-boys? They'd make an absolute killing with stuff like this.

Brain slave of Illsenine lets even a non-illithid remotely extract brains for their later use. This is quite brutal, and certainly makes a decent alternative to regular death spells.

Nails of Luthic are also fairly brutal, mainly due to dex draining poison. At higher levels, this seems like a decent one for incapacitating without killing.

Throwing arm of Iallanis isn't too impressive for human spellcasters, but becomes more so for giants. I think I'll stick to the regular blasty spells.

Touch of Blibdoolpoolp gives you a big claw. This isn't too impressive damagewise, but does have reach, which does make it tactically handy after all. Think carefully before selecting and casting.

Dragon Issue 342: April 2006


part 6/6


Sage advice: Can you read in the dark with darkvision (yess. Not like ssilly old infravision. Andy hated using that in cold caves, collins collins. It wass still hard to tell where the walls was, because things were all nearly the ssame temperature.)

If you permanently change your type, do your BAB, saves and skills change (no)

Do monsters ability scores change with aging (Probably, but it's not worth making aging tables for every mortal race and tracking it. Ssave it for named NPC's)

Do undead apply aging effects (Andy thinkses not. They don't sseem to get any smarter when they hang around a few centuries, jusst more insssane and pretentious. )

If you're swallowed, do you treat the monster as flat-flooted (Yess. This is why you don't eat rogues. They'll ssteal your heart from inside you and cut their way out.)

Do you get XP for killing summoned monsters (Only prexisting ones, not temporary one ssummoned in the heat of battle. Stupid resource management system counts them ass part of their summoner.)

What happens if your int is damaged when you gain a level (Nothing. Only innate permanent changes affect your skill points. Otherwise things would get ssilly.)

How do you determine starting gold for a 1st level monster PC (ssee what class they're mosst suited too.)

If your familiar dies and you raise it, do you get the XP back (No. Sstupid ssentimentality. Jusst get a new one. Much cheaper and jusst as powerful.)

If you're multiclassed and raised, which class do you lose the level from. (Andy thinks the mosst recent one, yess? )

YOU HAVE MADE MISTAKES AGAIN!!! DO NOT CONTINUE TO DISAPPOINT US!!!
Ssorry, collins collins. Andy promisses. Andy won't mess quick draw up again.


Class acts: Adventurers goes oriental this month, with the Art of Kuji-in for Ninjas. Learn how to channel your ki in new and devastating ways with these feats. Shatter armour, change your appearance, and make swift escapes. Once again, they become more able to specialize in their abilities, helping them keep up with the core classes. The line between being under and overpowered is a precarious thing, and every new supplement redefines it for the classes given new stuff within.

Arcane gets Subtle Spells. This is basically the same as they did for the divine classes the last couple of months, only applied to the assassin and bard class. Guess we're still gonna have some formulaic rehash in these entries.

Divine gets The Wild Hunt. The horned lord who rides abroad on nights of fog with his devil dogs. Or something. Join his priesthood! Meet new and interesting people,   strip them naked and chase them through the woods at night. Fun team building exercise for all the family. Even if you don't, you can still make use of the new domains and feat introduced here. Definitely one of their more interesting new creations, even if we've seen this fluff before.

Warriors get Tribal Halflings. As anyone who's played dark sun knows, this can actually be pretty scary. Here's a trio of substitution levels for the discerning halfling barbarian, letting them overcome that size prejudice with aplomb, while still retaining the good aspects of their small size. Not that anyone with any brain would underestimate someone who's teeth are at groin level, but some people need safety warnings with everything.


Nodwick solves another problem by creatively looking at the facts. Dork tower try to protect the rights of their characters. I don't think the GM is going to sign this magna carta. Zogonia has more PvP. They really ought to get a stable of recurring NPC's.
Order of the stick once again run into the oddities of their universe.


After a year in which the formula was constantly being tweaked, this sees them settling into a routine again, and consequently, starting to become less interesting to me as well. That or they're putting most of their effort into the big birthday issue and let this one slide a bit. Once again, I guess I have to accept that they're not getting funnier anytime soon. So let's see if they can get cooler.

Dragon Issue 343: May 2006


part 1/6


81 (100) pages. A mummy dragon and lots of little baby dragons. That'll make adventurers feel a little less heroic about their brutal slayings. Once again, it looks like monster hunting is our focus this issue. And well they ought to return to it, as it still supplies the majority of our XP, as it has since 1e ended. As usual, let's see if it's advantage players, advantage DM, or all love in here.


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


In this issue:


Editorial: Erik's editorial is once again about the 30th anniversary issue, and his ambitious plans for it. Twice now, his plans for landmark issues have been mired down in office politics and compromise, and now he's in the big seat, he's hoping it's third time lucky. Which is reasonable enough. If you've seen your artistic vision crushed several times as you work your way up, a little self-indulgence seems completely understandable. It shows your spirit hasn't been beaten into submission by day-to-day life. So let's hope he'll be able to reminisce positively about this time in his life, rather than with frustration. Sometimes, it would be nice to have things just work out for a change without working yourself so hard to make it happen that you don't really get to appreciate it anyway.


Scale Mail: First up, we have a request for more Realms based stuff, templates in particular. Oddly specific, but I suppose that just makes it all the easier to satisfy.

Second, we have some talk about the proportion of adverts in the magazine. Those cheap yet glossy magazines you're comparing with are often more than 50% adverts, particularly the women's beauty & gossip ones, which can go over 75% and are basically just mouthpieces for their sponsors, since they're so dependent on them financially. As the DDI shows, Dragon is quite capable of surviving without adverts from other companies. (although they wouldn't be able to pay their writers as much)

The issue from 2 months ago gets high praise, as is their habit these days.

Also praised is the dragon compendium, along with a request to do more similar stuff in the future. Since it sold out and got reprinted very quickly, they certainly intended to do more. It's just a shame the licence got pulled before they got the chance.

They reprint the Valley Elf filk at the request of a reader that barely remembers it. It's funnier than anything they've managed since 2001. I really can't see a similar request for the ecology of the adventurer to be reprinted in 20 years time, unfortunately.

And finally, we have another request for them to update not only the mechanics of old settings, but also the timelines. They might slip in a few hints, but solid geopolitical shifts? That'd be too dangerous for them. After all, metaplot is what killed Dark Sun and Planescape, and caused Greyhawk and Dragonlance huge amounts of grief when people disagreed with the changes. These days, they want to play it safe.

Dragon Issue 343: May 2006


part 2/6


First watch: After the fairly substantial success of the DMG 2, we get the Players handbook 2. 4 new core classes, a ton of new feats, including quite a lot specifically for beefing up high level fighters, plenty more bits and pieces, and yet another riff on the original PHB cover. Most. Imitated. Artwork. Evar.

D20 modern gets Critical Locations. No, not a gruesome critical hit system. Just a load of maps of likely places for you to adventure. Well, you can't use all those dungeons, can you?

Also on the D20 side, from third party companies, we have quite a bit. A players guide to Ptolus is out, teasing things a little more for the big release, while not spoiling the big secrets. Plus a bunch of miniatures representing characters from the city, and a comic series. Monte really went all out to make this his masterpiece, and it shows. They also promote DCC 30: Vault of the Dragon Kings, and Green Ronin's Dragon Fist. Plenty of small stuff to tide us through 'till the big releases.

Lots of computer stuff too. Campaign Cartographer 3 keeps this series up to date with advancing technology. Conan gets it's own MMO. And dozens of websites do things that the official products don't, including indexes that would be out of date in no time in a paper format. They're proving their value again and again. (I say, typing on my own laptop)

WotC is also happily licensing stuff out to other companies. Official D&D t-shirts, with more snappy sayings for your enjoyment. And more comic adaptions of old Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms stories. Drizzt & co continue to justify themselves even if the new stuff isn't coming as fast as it used too.

On the minis side, we have lots more bits of landscape to build your dungeons with, courtesy of Dwarven Forge. Very appropriate name, really. And a big box designed to neatly contain your minis. Nothing much to say about these.

On the other hand, Sean K Reynolds' hubby's little venture, where she puts dice inside translucent soaps, has me wanting to say a lot, but not sure where to start. It's ....... different, I'll give them that. Not sure if it's a brilliant idea, or just utterly inane. But it's certainly memorable. Wonder if it actually made much money, or it was just a whimsical art project.


Take Cover!: Huh. An article on dealing with monsters that have forms of movement the average PC lacks. Well, it certainly makes sense, as mobility and reach is one of the things that hugely changes your tactics, and enables weaker things to beat stronger without even getting hurt. Flying, swimming, and burrowing are the most well known, but climbing, jumping, web movement and extradimensional movement are also interesting options that add to an encounter, and can really scare people if used effectively. They start with the more mundane options, and then move up to finishing with monsters that can teleport at will, which are near impossible to finish off if you lack magical tricks of your own. They then detail 5 new feats which will help you counter more mobile creatures, either by enhancing you, or reducing the effectiveness of their special powers. They're probably not as good a use of your resources as learning a spell which lets you fly, climb, turn invisible, etc, though. It's all pretty interesting, as they do think of tactical tricks and considerations I haven't realised before. It's important to keep fights interesting, and this article does it's fair share.

Dragon Issue 343: May 2006


part 3/6


Creature catalog V: This time, it's not just pure nostalgia in our second expanded collection of monsters this year, but some new stuff as well. Not that they couldn't have, given the number of unconverted monsters still languishing in the OotS vault, but the creativity of the modern writers will not be denied! If it's any good, on the other hand, is a different matter, as usual.

Chupacabra haven't appeared in the magazine before, which is surprising when you consider how many vampire variants have turned up over the years. They aren't too badass in combat, but the fun is really in hunting them down before they suck too much of the livestock. Not very surprising really.

Hex Dragons are an unpleasant, magically powerful lot who are more likely to act in disguise and do the whole Xanatos gambit thing than regular dragons. Curses and cheating, they seem like a nasty one to fight.

Tome Dragons are slightly more pleasant, but still exceedingly cerebral. They do like a good cuppa though, so bring your own if you want to talk ancient lore with them. Nice to see someone still likes that kind of whimsy.

Rune Golems seem curiously familiar, but I can't remember from where. Oh well, so many golem types over the years. They're suitably intelligent and magical for their name, with several druidish powers and quite a nice look to them.

Gray Shivers are what you get when you don't clean up a lich's remains properly after killing them and smashing their phylactery. Any bug taking up residence in their skull gets bombarded with megalomaniacal memories, with hilarious results. That's both inventive and funny, and reinforces the fact that they're near impossible to get rid of. I like this one a lot.

Hellchain weavers are gigantic spiders made of chains that scare even Kytons. They'll turn a whole area into a chainy nightmare realm, and then pick you off, proving surprisingly adept at hiding despite their size. It'll take godzilla to stomp on these, and he'd probably hurt his feet.

Living Walls are one of our notable missing monsters from old editions. Despite what Skip has said in the past, they decide to make them undead now rather than constructs, which seems more intuitive. They are however an almighty pain to stat up decently now, since you have to individually detail all the things absorbed into it.  Needs a more streamlined method.

Malfera are originally from the D&D Companion set, and an awesome disturbing monster I'm quite pleased to see again. They get all the powers they used to, and a few more too, like being able to enter people's dreams and turn them into nightmares. They seem like a good candidate for being made into an affably evil recurring NPC, curiously enough.

Norkers were the 1+2 humanoid variants, placing them just above hobgoblins on the pecking order. In conversion, they retain their natural armor bonus, but get substantial mental penalties to their stats. Whether they're worth it as a LA+1 race is debatable.

Nuckalavee are vastly more powerful than sahuguin, but occupy a similar niche, aquatic reptilian humanoids who are also reasonably dangerous for short periods on land. Not very similar to their previous incarnation, for some reason.

Warturtles, like warhorses, do exactly what they say on the tin, only for aquatic riders. They have spiky shells, so they can do the good old fashioned barrel rush and hurt lots of enemies at once.

White Harts are the generic version of the mary-sue leader of Blue Rose, elven connected, quite powerful magic deer that you have to be very nice indeed to ride. Don't we already have unicorns for that job? So overall this is a bit better than the last one, but still has it's daft moments. Still plenty of usable stuff though, and I guess that's what counts. Keep spoiling me with options right till the end.