Dragon Issue 348: October 2006


part 3/6


Bestowed curses: In the old days, Bestow Curse and Cause Disease were some of the scariest spells around in the hands of an imaginative DM, for you could all too easily stretch your imagination to inflict effects that weren't lethal, but quite possibly worse than death for their victims. In 3e, of course, they're obsessed with balance, and so this is not an option. But there's still demand for inventive results than a generic penalty to ability scores, so here's a list of alternate effects you can inflict on someone with bestow curse, or it's higher level variant which they also add here. So this is a bit dull, but handy because it lets you know exactly what you can get away with under the current ruleset, which should help defuse any rules disputes on the subject. As Sage Advice's continued appearance every issue shows, they're never going to get everyone to agree perfectly on what the rules really mean, and if they're good or not, especially since WotC is so keen on radically reworking the rules for each edition, but by doing articles like this, at least they're trying.


Bloodlines: Vampires still haven't lost their popularity all these years later. In fact, thanks to Twilight, a whole new generation is just being introduced to the idea of vampire as forbidden romantic figure. So I'm not at all surprised to see another set of vampire variants. We've already had several extensive articles on weird blood-sucking undead from around the world. Can this contribute anything new to the pot?

Savage Vampires are your basic stalkers in de niiight, jumping on people, quite possibly in animal form, and ripping them to shreds to sate their appetites. Meh.

Shadow Vampires fade into the darkness and teleport through it, making them scary and mysterious, but thankfully even more vulnerable if you can turn the floodlights on them.

Terror Vampires aren't so interested in feeding on blood or life force, but fear itself. (reflected mechanically as wisdom damage) This means that unlike some other vampire variants, they'll never be able to overcome their monstrous natures. (although they might be able to turn them to good by playing batman and only scaring other things of darkness) However, the need to keep their victims alive and mess with their mind for quite a while is an exploitable weakness, especially if you remember not to split up the party. And at least they don't drain levels. So these are pretty obvious alternate archetypes, that don't come anywhere near the imaginativeness of previous articles on the topic, but they're done well mechanically. Scary and mysterious needs to be balanced with working well in game, and at least they've got that in their favor.

Dragon Issue 348: October 2006


part 4/6


Horrors of the Daelkyr: In the past we've had october issues with an undead focus, a fiendish flavour, and a sanity-imperiling lovecraftian one. Looks like they're mixing it up this time round, with both undead and Cthuloid gribleys from other universes. So let's see what unique spin Eberron puts on the idea of an invasion from another universe, and it's fallout. The Daelkyr tried to take over the world several thousand years ago. Thankfully Eberron's natives have plenty of tricks of their own, so they managed to foil this and seal the gate in the end. But the creatures left behind haven't given up, and they've created new minions by mutating and crossbreeding natives as well. This has plenty of potential to put a cool new spin on existing ideas by recombining existing ideas.

Akleu are transparent-skinned humanoid shark things from Xoriat. Excellent at stealth and climbing, they're dangerous ambush predators now they're stuck on eberron. They really ought to be doing more with their intelligence, but you know what monsters are like. Just can't seem to co-operate like humans despite their greater individual power.

Dolgrue look like bad imitations of Glabrezu. Created from bugbear stock, they spend their existence in perpetual agony, only briefly relieved by torturing others. Which means they might not be inherently chaotic evil like real demons, but only the very strongest willed of them will be able to rise above their baser natures. Polymorph them into something more pleasant, and they'll probably be eternally grateful.

Kyra look like relatives of Grell, giant brains with 8 wings replacing many of their tentacles. They're another genius, but insane creature that lives to trick and create misery for all they encounter. A shame that creatures like that can't turn over a new leaf when stuck on a less hostile plane, but have to go to so much effort to make it more like home.

Opabina are a prehistoric creature we've seen grown to giant size several times before in the magazine. (issues 176 and 204) They actually move at a decent speed this time around, and have reach, which makes them slightly scarier. They're still annoying aquatic grapplers though. A fairly faithful conversion.

Xenostelid are another attempt by the daelkyr to make themselves feel more at home by crossbreeding lots of different insects until they're gigantic freakish monstrosities, all legs and pincers and mandibles. With webbing, poison, and a deadly screech, they're pretty versatile, and make quite scary shock troops if put in a team.

Xorbeasts are the most alien-looking of these, slimy creatures that exist to trap things in their folds, and take them back to their masters for gruesome experiments. I'd certainly be scared seeing one of these sliming around trying to grab me, so I think this article is a success in twisting things to give them a new, but still scary flavour. Can't neglect your body horror as well as the more psychological sort if you want to keep players on their toes.


The ecology of the wight: Another halloween appropriate article here. Wights don't have as many literary antecedents as ghouls, and their name is a bit suspect, but if you asked parties of adventurers which they're more scared off, 9 out of 10 would say the one that drains your levels. Trying to differentiate them from the other low level undead, this sets out to tie them a bit more closely to their celtic barrow origins (making them the northern counterpart to mummies, amusingly) while still giving them some extra versatility. They already have several variants, including the terrifying epic level ones. They're also differentiated by being more warrior focussed than most undead. Mummies are usually priests, incorporeal ones pretty much have to be spellcasters, vampires do everything, zombies have no finesse at all. Seems to work. So I guess this is another decent but not exceptional ecology.

Dragon Issue 348: October 2006


part 5/6


Savage tidings: So here we are, at the third adventure path, and the second one to be extensively supplemented in Dragon. We've already faced down Kyuss and his exceedingly icky servitors. What will this one entail. I already know it involves demons, Demogorgon, people being transformed by savagery, the sea, and the isle of dread. But it's the specifics that are important. Will I enjoy them? No time like the present to find out. Note that once again, I have not read the corresponding adventures.

Our first instalment gives us more detail on the city of Sasserine. The 7 districts get a few lines each, and then we get 6 full page writeups for various affiliations that the players will either want to join, or oppose. This isn't really quite enough to play there, but I assume that more information is presented in the corresponding Dungeon issues. I do get the feeling that they're setting up a status quo, but it'll be knocked down relatively quickly into the adventure, Orpheus style. So far, it's not particularly gripping, but as we know, there's no point destroying something the players aren't attached too. Lets see how long it'll take to kick into high gear this time round.


Spellcraft is once again tied in with recent releases, with a bit of ravenlofty goodness. Now unlike Dr Dominiani in issue 339, Strahd is well established as a wizard both capable and willing to develop his own spells. If he were a little more motivated in this area, he could probably overtake Azalin given a few more decades practice. But at the moment, he's still not the most powerful darklord in Ravenloft, just the oldest and most famous. So the only real continuity error will be if this has 9th level spells in it, or stuff from his forbidden schools.  

Bloodstone's Frightful Joining is from the old Tome of magic, and ironically was one spell that didn't work too great in Ravenloft, due to close exposure to undead thoughts being extra maddening around here. Strahd also developed a reverse version of this, although curiously, that isn't mentioned here. It's actually a lot safer than it used to be, with both the chances of damage and insanity eliminated. Guess someone's been doing some refining work in the intervening years.

Curse of the Gypsies doesn't seem to be from a specific source, but isn't too surprising, given the role the Vistani have in Ravenloft. It's actually less impressive than the regular bestow curse spell, so this won't be doing the epic stuff the tales have done in the past.

Rain of Terror was from the 2e box set. It has a typically reduced 3.5 style range and duration, and more defined mechanical effects, but the visuals are the same. Gross stuff keeps falling on your head. This may be a bit unnerving.

Strahd's Baneful Attractor was also introduced in the 2e box set. it gets a bit of a nerfing too, being restricted to damage dealing spells rather than messing up all the targeting in the area. They really are cutting down on the amusing unintended consequences these days.  

Wraithform was originally from the 2e PHB. Not sure why it never got converted to 3e. It's surprisingly little changed, with only a bit of math conversion needed. The whole thing's a bit boring really. You're just trying to feed of nostalgia.

Dragon Issue 348: October 2006


part 6/6


Sage advice: Does a dwarf barbarian wearing heavy armor retain fast movement (no)

Can a bard use bardic knowledge to substitute for any knowledge score (no)

Can a dragon shaman choose dragons not on the base list as totems (if you sstat them out, yess. Remember to keep them balanced, collins collins)

Can you use touch of vitality to restore a lost level (Only before it becomes permanent)

How does a druids animal companion advance at epic levels (It sslowly falls behind, collins collins. Ssoon it will be useless in battle.)

Can you clarify how mettle works (If it would have a partial result, it doess absolutely nothing. Very annoying, collins collins)

Do monks live forever when they reach 20th level (No. The book ssays that clearly)

Does a paladin with a special mount need to train it (not if itss intelligent, collins collins. )

How does ghost step work. Does it end when you attack (No. Ninjas are nassty killerss, yess. )

Can a soulknife create an alternate form soul blade right away (No, they have to make it, then resshape it. Ssorry.)

Does a soulknifes psychic strike apply to both blades if they're dual wielding (Yess)

When a soulknife uses bladewind, how many targets does it affect (Jusst one)

Can a warmage benefit from the extraspell feat (No. They already know all the ssplellses on their list, preciouss.

Can a wilder use wild surge while affected by timeless body (no. Both the benefits and penalties are negated )

Does practiced spellcaster help you get into prestige classes (No. Jusst like skill focuss won't help you meet skill requirements. Itss sso unfair.)

What can an assassin do while studying for death attack (anything, ass long as they keep the target in view. A good assassin sstays inconspicous)

Do children of the night become able to cast higher tier mysteries (yess. Nice shadowcassting. Andy liksess. )


Class acts: Adventurers get Mountain Ghosts. Dwarf ninjas may sound silly, but even as far back as 1st ed, Assassin was the class dwarves could gain highest level in apart from thieves (which were unlimited for nearly everyone) Don't underestimate their ability to be sneaky bastards when there's large quantities of money at stake. Exploding crossbow bolts, Repeating crossbows, Silk armor for stealth, comfort, protection and style. Noise dampening oil to apply to your equipment. More fun stuff for you to spend lots of money on.

Arcane casters gain Unfamiliar Territory. Of all their class features, familiar is the one that most often doesn't fit a particular concept and gets ignored, so here's 9 more things you can exchange that class feature for. Will you save your power and learn how to reabsorb it in the face of adversity, or put in an inanimate object instead like psions. Both seem like pretty decent options, the first particularly if you plan to go for a prestige class which doesn't advance your familiar.

Divine gets wild shape guide. A compilation of animals druids can become, and another pathetic attempt to get people to adopt the mid-edition nerf to their powers and shapeshifting in general. Ha. Good luck with that one. NOT!

Warriors get Marshall of Battle. An update for Marshals, including a bit of errata, and a whole bunch of new auras. Command large numbers of troops, and use them to whup enemy ass. More obscure class wuv for those of you that crave that kind of thing.


Nodwick finds undead pirates. After the past couple of issues, that seems more like a vacation. Dork tower try the healthy snacks again. This time even Carson is horrified. Honestly, have you no memory at all. He likes that stuff. Zogonia find out just how much they missed in the last dungeon. OotS suffer from too much inaction as they fight a large battle.


This one would be above average if it were any other month, but is fairly middling for an october issue, as it does have a fair amount of rehash. While they do have a few cool new ideas, there's also quite a bit of regurgitating old ones too, and blatant self-promotion for their new products. Still, it's not as if I can't look back, and as long as they're adding at least a little cool new stuff each time, the journey has not been in vain. That remains the case here.

Dragon Issue 349: November 2006


part 1/6


74 (100) pages. Someones been playing too much Zelda recently :cough:/ripoff/:cough: Time for another elf on the cover, and another issue without a theme. We've had plenty of both of those, so it's once again time to judge individual articles on their own merits, rather than as part of a larger plan, and see if we can come up with our own schemes to combine them in cool ways.


Scan Quality: Blurry, low-res, indexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


Editorial: This month's editorial is another reminder that in the real world, adventuring is HARD. Dealing with rough terrain, darkness and lugging around 50 pound backpacks is not glamorous, and will have pampered modern folk whinging after less than an hour of trekking. Hell, even a bit of LARPing serves as a good reminder of the realities the magazine's writers work with every day. Balanced encounters? They had trouble just keeping track of their stuff in the dark. In conclusion, they'd rather keep their fantasies fantastical, not try and make the game too gritty or go off and try to become adventurers in real life. Buncha wusses. Not impressed at all. At least Roger had his army experience to draw upon when writing. Go out, experience harsh conditions and come back. Then you might be able to write adventures that genuinely resonate with us.


Scale Mail: Our first letter is from someone who liked the Impiltur article, but found it woefully incomplete. Given how much Realmslore there is by now, they could fill a whole issue on a single country and still miss something. The same will definitely apply to the Horde one this month, since that was originally a full boxed set, plus novel and adventure trilogies.

Next, we have a letter from an eagle scout trying to earn a merit badge. This is cute and unusual enough amongst their normal selection of letters that they just can't resist helping out. Next thing they'll be printing complaints from people's mums again.

A second letter also praises the Implitur article. With demand like this, they really are thinking about bringing back a regular monthly column of realmslore. It's good that the readers made that very clear to the staff.

And once again, we finish off on some historical nitpicking. The 5th element (according to the greeks) was Cosmos, connected to the 12-sided platonic shape. Milla Jovovich and Ma-Ti can go fuck each other. ( which I can't find fanfic or art of on the internet, in blatant violation of rule 34)

Dragon Issue 349: November 2006


part 2/6


First watch: Our environment books go back to where adventures often start with Cityscape. Once again they show us that you don't even need to go anywhere, with lots of stuff useful for both players and DM's. Selective AoE spells? That's always incredibly handy anyway, given dumb players. But what races will they focus on?  

Eberron gets Dragonmarked. The spotlight goes on one of the biggest sources of cool new crunch and setting associations. If you want to focus on this side of your character a little more, then now you can. Prestige classes. Getchore prestige classes here! Join the queue mate.

Following up on the new basic set, we have Scourge of the Howling Horde. An introductory adventure for 1st level characters, designed to hold a new DM's hands through the experience. Jump on board, the water's lovely.

Out in D20 land, Goodman games are going for a major nostalgia hit with Gazetteer of the Known Realms. See the adventures that came before put into context, in classic fashion harking back to old mystara and oerth. Yay for that and yay for boxed sets.

Also quite possibly nostalgia inducing is the complete D&D cartoon boxed set. Seems like they've mentioned it here recently more than they ever did back when it was actually on. Another one of those slightly baffling turnups for the book, especially as time has not been kind to it.

The Blood War minis set gets unleashed upon the public. Not just fiends, but all sorts of other planar creatures as well for you to fight. On the third party side, Magnificent Egos release a Kraken upon us. Other worlds vs the watery deeps. Pretty decent fight actually. There's also a whole range of wooden environments from Laser Crafts, including a rather nice ship to facilitate water battles. All ties together surprisingly neatly.

Our game aid this month is another easily erasable initiative board. Seen them before, may well see them again.

If you're interested in card games, there's Rise of the Shogun. Like the warmachine/beasts, this is a selfcontained game, but can combine with other games in the series to make something bigger. No great surprises here either.

Our book is slightly more interesting. The art of the Cthulhu Mythos draws from tons of products from the last few decades, including the RPG. If you're a collector, then this'll give you something to display, and quite possibly an idea of what else is still out there to track down.

Order of the stick gets The Dungeon of Dorukan. A fun little game starring all our treacherous, unstable and incompetent friends we've come to know and love over the years. Who will win this battle and get the bragging rights?

And finally, they promote a company that makes replica swords of the ones you see in movies. That's entertainment. Nothing you can't sell or buy, if you know the right people and pay the right PRIIIIIIIIIIICE!!

Dragon Issue 349: November 2006


part 3/6


Final fantasy XII: Immediately after First Watch ends, we have another article that's just pure promotion with absolutely no usable material. I know the final fantasy series is a big deal, but you at least managed interesting conversions of stuff before in the Silicon Sorcery column, and those were usually only 2-3 pages long. Instead, this is just a basic description of the game with a bunch of artwork, with neither game material or critical reviewing involved. So this is an area in which they have definitely continued to get worse after Erik took over. A shame.


Hitting the bullseye: As they did with polearms in issue 331, here's a comprehensive guide to various ranged weapons in D&D, with their specific benefits, weaknesses, and costs detailed and a few new ones added. The kind of thing that doesn't have the same kind of glamour as new spells and magical items, but is actually less common, and oddly enough easier to use in everyday play, as the things it details are more affordable. As much attention is put on the ammo as the things firing it, with a fairly unsurprising set of trick arrows for those of you who want to play hawkeye or green arrow. The only thing missing is new feats that enhance your shooting skills, since we have plenty of those in our two rounds of splatbooks by this point. It's just a shame they don't cover slings too, because they're seriously underrepresented in the magazine, with not a single bazaar devoted to them in any edition. That seriously needs fixing. So this is decent, but not great.


Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Dagon. Another iconic demonic name gets a fairly substantial update this month. Their simultaneously new and shiny, and older and more primordial epic demon type continues to get love, as they retcon him into an obyrith. Which does actually make sense, considering the mythology that surrounds him. His statblock has some particularly nasty special powers that mean  anyone without access to a powerful cleric will likely be permanently fucked up even if they do defeat him. His thralls also have some interesting benefits and penalties, with the expected innsmouth look stuff being supplemented with some musical tricks, and lots of nicely backed up flavour. It's back to these being tremendously fun reads, filled with all kinds of neat bits and pieces that you can use individually, or weave into an epic plot culminating in a confrontation with the demon lord himself. How very pleasing.

Dragon Issue 349: November 2006


part 4/6


The horde: Well, this is pleasing too. They're actually updating the timeline properly in this return to a long-neglected area of the Realms. That's a positive development indeed. The Horde may have been defeated a generation ago when they tried to attack the western Realms, and been mostly forgotten, but they certainly haven't forgotten in turn. Like the gap between WW1 & WW2, there's now a new generation of angry young men who want to try their luck, while the old are still healthy enough to take part and eager to avoid the mistakes they made last time. Of course, not everything has changed, and there's a fair bit of regurgitating basic info about the geography and culture, but the big players have been updated, so this is still useful to someone who has the boxed set, and vice versa. They also update the dzalmus dragon, which curiously enough wasn't in the boxed set, but the bonus material in Dragon 163. It does seem more than enough to work with if you want to bring back a bit of that exotic flavour. Now if only they'd do a big feature on australian, south american or polynesian adventuring and myth, all of which are sadly lacking because no-one could be bothered to do the research, or the people at WotC don't think they'd have a wide enough audience appeal. (which ironically results in them having less racial and sexual diversity in their articles than the 90's) You've managed quite a few themes they missed in the old days. Don't let the magazine die without leaving out these obvious ones.


The ecology of the ogre mage: What, when you haven't done regular ogres here yet? :shrug: If you say so. I suppose they do make more interesting characters, being intelligent, magical, having a proper society and all that. Like rakshasas, they originally derive from eastern myth, and like them, they have a definite fiendish flavour without actually being extraplanar, making this extra appropriate following on from the last article. This lampshades that, by providing a creation myth that has them descending from the children of gods, and creating two new variant subspecies that make that option extra appealing. It also makes them seem more likely than most races to add to their power by taking class levels. With fairly solid ties to both D&D and real history, this is another quite decent ecology, adding quite a bit of stuff that should be useful in actual play. No objections here.

Dragon Issue 349: November 2006


part 5/6


Savage tidings: We continue to set up the basic setting here, with a map of Sasserine's immediate environment, and a whole load of potential encounters for your players to enjoy as they explore it. Plot hooks everywhere they go, they'll certainly have no shortage of. Unfortunately, the poor scan quality makes the key illegible, so this isn't very usable to me. Still, it certainly looks like this section of the adventure has a nice little sandbox set up for the players to explore before the really heavy stuff hits. The sense that beyond the city limits, it's a pretty wild place is well put across. They also have some advice for integrating new characters into the game if starting ones die. Another hint that this definitely is not going to be a cakewalk. Another solid, but not hugely captivating instalment.


Sage advice: Can you activate magic items inside a silence spell (If they don't need a command word)

If you attack someone with a magic weapon from inside an anti-magic field, and they're outside, do you get the bonuses (no)

Can a monk get their unarmed strike enchanted (Not easily)

Do bracers of quick strike grant two extra attacks when fighting two-weapon style (No. Only one. )

Does the circlet of persuasion boost your turning checks (yess)

What bonuses does a dancing weapon get. Does it make multiple attacks (Your BAB + it's enhancement bonus, yess? If you have iterative attacks, it does too)

Can you make an eternal wand of cure light wounds (Yess. Very useful for party without cleric, yess?)

Does being glamered change an item's properties (No)

Does the ivory goat of travail have all the nightmare's special powers (no)

Can a wizard with a metamagic rod choose which spells they apply to on the fly (yess. Very usefull for wizard especially, yess)

Does a monk's belt boost a nonmonk's AC (Only if they're unarmored)

Is a pearl of power use activated (yess, sort of.)

Can a pearl of power restore a lower level spell than it's maximum (no)

is there a limit to the number of pearls of power you can have (no, they don't take up a sslot, preciouss)

Can you use a portable hole to go through a wall (no)

Does a ring of force require you to keep your hand on it (Andy thinkses so)

Do seeking weapons negate AC bonuses from cover (no, just miss chances)

Do you maintain momentum when teleporting (generally, yess. Can get nassty)

Dragon Issue 349: November 2006


part 6/6


Class acts: Adventurers get a Poisonmaking Guide. Getting hold of raw materials and brewing them up is something you often can't trust to other people, especially when it's illegal, so it might be wise to learn if you're that way inclined. Here's a whole bunch of DC's to standardize this process.

Arcane gets Psiotheurgy. Arcane and psionic powers have more in common than most of their practitioners will admit, and are deadly when combined, as Dark Sun's advanced beings demonstrate. Here's 8 more feats that you can use to make a really badass cerebromancer (as even with them, the split spellcasting progression problem will still render most other arcane/psionic builds suboptimal. )

Divine gets Animal Battle Gear. Hee. Tiger spectacles. Yet more ways to spend money on improving your companion, plus a reminder that they did this before in issue 334. Buy it now! :teeth ting: Mutter mutter mutter.

Warriors get Law and Chaos. A bunch of variant class features for Barbarians and Paladins. Yet more options for you to customize yourself with, and possibly twink out if you play your cards right. Get a pokeweapon instead of a pokemount! I can definitely see the use in that.


Nodwick has another long day of dying repeatedly ahead of him. Dork tower reminds us that even the best MMORPG can't replicate a real GM. Zogonia has an attack of culture shock. OotS has an attack of very poor taste. But clever poor taste.


Another issue that takes lots of old things and builds upon them nicely, while not making it inaccessible for newbies. Which makes me happy as the magazine draws to a close, because it gives me more excuses to look back on my journey and see how the old and new things really measure up. And once again, I'm forced to conclude that while they have far less variety these days, the things that they do do, they do better on average. It's just a shame that christmas celebrations probably won't be one of those things. Let's see if they consider 350 a big and round enough number to push the boat out at all.

Dragon Issue 350: December 2006


part 1/6


77 (100) pages. They find a new way to cross-promote this issue, with one of their latest minis blown up to cover size and given a backdrop. You can see the expressions still look a little more plastic than they should. Well, at least they are usually doing backdrops again these days, even if they do still zoom in a little too much to represent a scene rather than just a character. Let's see if the contents are as plastic and unrealistic as the cover, and if they can make being unrealistic seem more exciting than low-key realism anyway.


Scan Quality: Excellent, indexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


Editorial: Monte and his groups have been playing in Ptolus since before the release of 3e. Now, with the edition drawing to a close, and the official book out, things are finally being wrapped up before they move onto new adventures. And thankfully, the ending was not an anticlimax, letting Erik resolve one of the plot points that his character has been carrying around the whole time and turn it to his advantage. And the best thing is that it happened naturally, rather than being scripted in any way. Monte could never have predicted that he'd pull out a wish spell and use it creatively, and it's testament to their belief that the rules serve the story that he let the cool idea work. This is how you actually win the game, not by playing to 36th level twice. If you come up with an outcome that both pleases and surprises, then the rules have done their job in doing what straight fiction cannot. So this shows whatever crap corporate mandates in the articles, they can't stop the actual play from turning out like this. Play whatever way works for your group. There's still no canon police out to confiscate your out of print books and arrest you for having badwrongfun. And unless they're dumb enough to take down all the 4e online content when Next comes out, that will remain true in the future.


Scale Mail: Our first letter asks for more material from Gary, preferably about what inspired him to write certain parts of D&D. They'll print virtually anything he gives them. it's just a shame he doesn't have the energy to expound on matters with the same verbosity he used to.

Next we have someone disappointed they've cut down on the new core and prestige classes in favour of more joined-up material. As usual, any change will get some complainers, but no change will gradually kill things anyway due to diminishing returns. 3e has so many classes already it's not easy to come up with stuff that's new and different, but not unbalanced.

We have another young person who can't figure out how to put a group together. All it takes it enthusiasm without being creepy about it. As the editorial showed just a page ago, there's no strict rules about it, especially when you're all starting together.

And finally, we have an amusingly articulate from another person who's found roleplaying very helpful in expanding their vocabulary, which has probably helped them get good jobs as an adult. Take that, all you parents panicking over what their kids are doing for entertainment.

Dragon Issue 350: December 2006


part 2/6


First watch: Our big D&D release this month is the second Fiendish Codex. So it's the Baatezu's turn to get the spotlight. Lots more devils, plenty new prestige classes  to help fight them. I wonder how much of this'll be familiar to old time planescape readers.

Two new adventures as well. The shattered gates of slaughtergarde follows on from the howling horde for 2nd level adventurers to enjoy, while Frostfell Rift is another location with big pretty battle maps to facilitate your minis. This time, they have lots of different encounters using the same locations, so it's useful to more than one range of levels. Very clever.

Speaking of minis, it looks like Anima is getting in on the act with Anima tactics, a minis game. Guess they want to be multimedia right from the outset. If that's not your thing, you can go for Dwarven Forge's latest bit of landscaping. Den of evil? Looks like it'd be pretty good for Ptolus's Jabel Shammar actually. I have no problem with that at all. And if you want something artistic, Kotobukya are your people, with large translucent figurines, including some licenced star wars ones. If you smite them down, they shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

If you don't like minis, but still want to represent positioning of characters in a literal manner, you could get some Conflict Chips instead. They have the advantage that you can put smaller creatures on top of larger creatures to represent riders. (or beneath if they have some kind of crush or swallow attack Once again we see how changing the technology can influence how play goes.

On the D20 side, we have Fallout D20. Another computer conversion that seems a little superfluous in the profit stakes. Maybe the people from the company are gamers and doing it for the love. Wolfgang Baur also starts on a new adventure, and you can get in on the ground floor if you'll just pay a small price. What fanboy could resist?

In other RPG news this month, Ninja Burger gets a new edition. Now with more Career options and obstacles to get in the way of a successful and timely delivery. Still a fun business.

Tony Diterlizzi's latest project gets a little love. The care and feeding of Sprites for The Spiderwick Chronicles. Ecology lovers should definitely find something to appreciate, and possibly steal from here.

And now for the weird stuff. Replicas of all the props from the recent Call of Cthulhu film. Penny Arcade's charity collecting toys and video games for sick children. And Peter Adkinson's attempts to get Stephen Colbert to come to gen con. People will keep making choices that you never even realized were an option. I guess RPG's do encourage that obliquely.


Core beliefs: Wee Jas. We've already had profiles here for the god of magic, and a god with a strong undead association here. In some respects, Wee Jas is an odd duck as a deity, having partial dominion over a whole bunch of largely unrelated areas of life. This actually makes her considerably more badass and interesting overall, rather than being some inhuman, utterly predictable exemplar of an archetype, you actually get the sense that you can negotiate with her, even if you might well wind up being denied. Her church is similarly versatile. Paladins may be rare, but they aren't unknown, they can work both with and against undead, and she has no objection to her clergy summoning and exploiting chaotic monsters and energies for their own ends. Plus death & occult = goths. Is it any wonder she's a PC favourite OOC, and her clergy get more action than even ones of Olidammara IC. This is a fairly significant one for me, as I remember reviewing her initial appearance in issue 88, a good couple of years of real time ago, and this really feels like reaching the other end of a huge journey, going from experiencing the past as if it were the present, to looking back on history as filtered through the minds of the new designers. It really is quite a rush actually. I'm also pleased to see the old issue of her relationship with Norebo canonised, despite the fact that he probably hasn't been in official publications for yonks. It feels very odd to have this level of nostalgia for something that I forced upon myself only fairly recently, and have actually found pretty gruelling during much of the process of living through it. But this really is an absolute joy. I guess It's finally hitting me that this will soon be over. Let's hope that this mood'll last.

Dragon Issue 350: December 2006


part 3/6


Magical Pollution: We've talked several times about the things high level adventurers do that essentially create dungeons for the next generation of adventurers. Some of them are intentional, like building castles full of traps to protect their wealth. Some are not, like your dumped waste products producing defiled lands and mutants that come back to make your life a misery. Of course, the thing about pollution is that you can rarely predict what long-term effects it will have, save by trial and lots of error, as it involves small amounts of lots of different waste products being thrown together and interacting. So this article is another grab-bag of stuff built around a theme. Three different templates that represent the mutations this might cause: Arcane-blooded, poisonous and stonebones. Two prefab adventure locations for you to put down anywhere, with social and research challenges as well as physical ones to deal with. And three more smaller hazards that are more obvious challenges to be avoided or suffer in the process. So this is for the people annoyed by everything having implied setting stuff, who just want their crunchy material so they can make better campaigns on their own. They're hardly going to neglect them, despite what some letter writers might think.


Creatures of corruption: Continuing directly on from the last article, even though we don't have quite enough material to make Pollution a full theme in the issue. Now there's an idea. We've had war and death themed issues. I'm sure there's more than enough article ideas to make poison, disease and famine themed issues in the future. Hell, on that note, a biblically themed one would be cool if they could get over their fear of causing controversy. But anyway, back to the monsters formed by our own despoiling of nature. Will they be suitably ironic in the deaths they inflict upon players.

Alchemical Undead are your basic shambling monstrosities in eternal torment, only with extra toxic breath and damaging explosion when killed. Pretty familiar really. I'm sure you can visualise this from any number of media properties.

Corrupted is a template that YOU could well wind up with if you fall in the wrong mutagenic slime. You might look ugly, but you also get superhuman strength and toughness, natural weapons, regeneration and poisonous bite. I'm sure you could get an adventuring party to accept you anyway, and if not, there's plenty of precedents for a heroic party composed entirely out of mutants, fighting to get a cruel world to accept them.

Toxic Oozes are as hard to kill as most of their relatives, eating away at any weapons or armor (or your flesh) that touches them. In addition, they emit toxic fumes that'll do slow con damage even if you don't touch them. You probably want to kill them with cold rather than fire if possible, as it'll be more pleasant smelling afterwards. So these monsters are once again going with the obvious and archetypical, rather than unique spins on an idea. Well, they were dealing with newbies again in the letters.

Dragon Issue 350: December 2006


part 4/6


Planetouched of Faerun: Virtually everyone knows that the forgotten realms pretty much is generic D&D, and has been for most of their lives. So branding an article like this a FR one means little, it just lets them give specific examples of how these new creatures can fit into an existing setting. And since we're dealing with new Planetouched here, it's particularly easy to get them into whatever world you want, even if they're not native to it. The important question is: would you want too?

Azerblood mix dwarves with azer, which is fairly obvious combination. Adding fire resistance and the ability to zap foes with heat metal let you be extra effective both in the forge and on the battlefield, making it easy for other dwarves to look up to them. I'm sure they'll have no problems getting hot in the bedroom either.

Celadrin are crossbreeds of Elves and Eladrin, which is such a no-brainer combo as to be amusing, especially knowing what they'll do to eladrin in 4e. They trade wizard for bard as a favored class, and get appropriate bonusses on their social skills. If all else fails, they can burn you with their eyes once a day. Also seems fairly typical for a Planetouched's power level.

D'hin are a mixture of Djinni and halflings (and god is that a terrible pun name) Their halfling skill with stealth and ranged weapons combines pretty well with the low level wind control powers from their magical side, so this makes more thematic sense than first impressions show. Shame they don't get a boost to their move speed so they can do a little better at hit and run.

Worghest are what happens when Barghest breed with regular goblins during their prime material jaunts. As LA+2 natural shapeshifters, they have some quite handy tricks that make them handy for a party, from both their goblin and barghest sides. Just preventing enemies from being resurrected alone is worth the price of admission at low levels. These four can definitely have a place in my game.


The ecology of the clockwork horror: You are imperfect. You will be assimilated. Well, your metal would be anyway. These are the ultimate army, who's sole purpose is killing everyone and taking their stuff to make more of them, so they can kill and take more stuff faster. Now that's automation. Guess even adventurers can lose their jobs through mass production doing them better. Can you be the John Henry who fights the tide, and proves that the personal touch is to be preferred by monsters, when it becomes time for them to lose their life and property? I think I like my version better than the one in here, which tries to play the unstoppable force trope straight, and doesn't really manage to build the needed atmospherics. It also makes the newly introduced variant integral to their society and more common than the existing types put together, which seems a bit of a bait and switch. So it's another solidly written ecology, but one that makes some stylistic choices I disapprove of. I can live with that.


Savage tidings: The action moves up a notch as our heroes set sail for the isle of dread. With a name like that, you know there's going to be trouble. If you have any grounding in D&D history, you also know there's going to be some serious nostalgia triggered. Originally appearing in the expert D&D set, the isle of dread was the grain of sand that the entirety of Mystara grew up around. Somehow, it has now transplanted itself to Oerth. Well, I guess they already have Blackmoor in their common history. It's not too surprising that other bits of geography are also duplicated. This'll both grab people's attentions, and up their standards for the handling of this adventure. Once again we get a whole grab bag of stuff. Histories, advice on incorporating new characters (admittedly tricky in this section since you're mostly trapped onboard a ship. ) some sample cohorts, 4 new regional feats, a new affiliation, and a bit of errata. A bit random out of context, I can certainly see how this stuff would be useful. But now my appetite is whetted, and I really want to keep moving and see how they handle the isle of dread. In it's original form, it was one of those 32 page modules that somehow contained enough cool bits and pieces to allow for months of adventuring, with loads of choice in how you tackled it. How will that translate to the 3.5 style? Hopefully all will be revealed next month.

Dragon Issue 350: December 2006


part 5/6


Bazaar of the Bizarre comes to an end with another collection of items to aid wizards in their spell research. Make stuff to help yourself, and you can do more to help others in the future. Or crush them under your high-heeled jackboots better instead, if that's the way your tastes run.

Arcane Fences are another way of setting up a guarded perimeter so you can have a good snooze. They can even play you a lullaby if that's what you need. Your adventurer friends may laugh at you, but then they'll have to deal with mr tedddikins coming to life and ripping their throats out.

Containment Cloths are instant summoning circles you can then just rub down and use as a tablecloth. Don't let the kids realise this, and don't try and summon Rilmani with them. Business as usual here.

Failsafe Rings cast a buff on you as soon as you get hurt. It might be better if they could do it just before, but we're wizards, not miracle workers. That'd take permanent foresight, which would be very expensive indeed.

Occulus are goggles with instant identify spells up to 5 times a day. And if you're getting magic items more frequently than that, your DM is probably a serious monty hauler. I think this'll save your wizard many days of tedium and expensive material components.

Researchers are little scuttling eyes on legs that act like an internet search engine for your library. Only slower and with a smaller pool of info to draw from. Sigh. Fantasy just doesn't seem very fantastical when it's doing things reality does better I'm afraid. These writers really have got to get that through their heads.

A Thaumatoscope is a spyglass with permanent detect magic. Rather more portable and unobtrusive than the old mirror which does the same thing, but still not paradigm shaking either.  A bit of a limp ending after the last few columns really.  


Spellcraft also comes to an end quietly as they prepare to do a few lineup reshuffles for the new year. This month's theme is Chronomancy. Given their current degree of drawing on old products, I wouldn't be surprised if many of them are updates from the old 2e book of the same name, but I'm currently unable to check that supposition. I'll just have to judge the spells purely on cool & power, rather than comparisons.

Aging Touch may age you temporarily, but it wears off. You'll have to wait for the epic version to get that kind of power as a PC these days.

Skillful Moment allows you to take 20 without taking 20 times as long. This is about equal to the +10 bonus similar spells of the same level have granted in the past, but more reliable. The choice, as ever, is yours, as one method may be more advantageous than the other, given the situation.

Temporal Jolt inflicts fairly minor damage on living things,but really does a number on your items. Muahahahaha! Always love it when they do that.

Temporal Repair is the obligatory counterspell. If they kill your granddad while this is up, then you're fine. Ha. The duration isn't that long though, which means any superparanoid wizard'll be making an advanced version a priority, right after preventing teleportation, scrying and extraplanar screwage.

Time Shield halves the duration of spells within it. This is really quite brutal, assuming your fights last more than 2-3 rounds anyway, which I know some parties don't usually. I guess so much of that is up to the DM. Can't say I have a problem with this selection at all. Just wish it was longer, like so many of the articles these days. 5 spells in 3 pages still feels both slight and inefficient compared to the old days where they could sometimes put a dozen on a single page.