Dragon Issue 279: January 2001


part 4/7


An elven lexicon: As is their habit whenever they have a race themed issue these days, they do a basic language primer to fill in a few pages. This hasn't really thrilled me before, and doesn't this time either. Their usual elitism is in full force here, with other races struggling to learn it simply because it takes such a long time to truly master, and there are so many words for subtle variations in various things. Their writing uses far greater complication in it's punctuation, methods of emphasis, prefixes and suffixes than english. Which means even more than ever, it really really needs multiple books by an obsessive linguist, not a four page article in a magazine to properly convey. Come on, Klingons got their own language, and I'm pretty sure they're not as popular as Elves.


Truth or Damodar: Oh, Bruce Payne. The only guy who appeared in both D&D movies. Why did you do it? I guess it actually wasn't too bad an experience for him. He got to do some ear raping, which I'm sure was fun to act out, he got to wear a cool outfit, and his suggestions were listened too by the director. Ok, the blue lipstick didn't turn out to well, but you can't have everything, and they did get rid of it in the sequel. They're still being pretty positive about this, and since googling shows he was one of the better received parts of the movies, I guess they're justified this time. You certainly can't say this killed his career, looking at IMDB. I wonder who else they can get in to do an interview. Somehow I doubt Jeremy Irons'll be amongst them.


Unusual suspects: The final article in this little series deals with Monks and Druids, unsurprisingly. Since they have fairly strict alignment restrictions, they will be more culturally ingrained in some races than others, but James finds at least two credible sounding excuses for each of the corebook races to play each class. I think this symmetry has been filled pretty solidly, and with surprisingly little complaint from the letters and forum crowds. Now hopefully we can incorporate other non-core classes and races, (quite possibly combined) with similar lack of drama in game.


Fiction: The sleeping tide by J Gregory Keyes. Fool Wolf finally stops being involved in standalone stories, with one that brings together threads from several of his previous encounters, and doesn't resolve neatly at the end either. And the plot definitely thickens, with character development from all involved, even Fool Wolf's trapped goddess. We've had enough time to establish a little emotional investment, so this turn of events leaves me very eager to find out what happens next, if there'll be a resolution to his tales, or he'll just keep going through life being a massive liability to everyone around him. It may sound cool being a wandering adventurer, but when you don't have a choice, it gets very exhausting. Don't make me wait 6 months for the next instalment.


VS Fiends: Oh boy, if any creature is an almighty pain in the ass to defeat, it's demons, devils and their lower planar compatriots. When a creature has teleport without error at will, multiple immunities (which vary quite a bit depending on individual creature. ) an extensive selection of spell-like abilities and the brains to use them, you really do need to bring your A game if you want to win, because if they don't want to fight, they can get away any time unless you've dropped a dimensional anchor on them. Still, at least they can't summon cascade like last edition, and there are more abilities specifically designed to do extra damage to them. Plus anti-teleporting magic is in the corebook, not some obscure supplement. It's definitely a fairer fight now than it was before. Just don't ever get complacent, for they have long memories and lots of favours to call in. They can afford to wait a few decades until you're vulnerable, and then snatch you away for eternal torment. This only really covers the actual combat side of interacting with them, which is rather limited really. They can be so much more to your campaign. I'm still not very impressed with this column.


The adventures of Volo: More Cormyran legends this month. Like the Rayburtons, the Rallyhorns have some substantial treasures, much of which is valuable. Or at least they did, until they sealed it up in a tomb, which was subsequently looted, and not there when cash-strapped descendents looked for it. (Really, that's like putting up a big neon sign saying "come take my stuff!", no matter how many traps and wards you also put in there) Still, doing so without ruining everything, and then disappearing without a trace shows a little more style than most adventurers manage. The mystery remains unsolved to this day. Elminster actually bothers to put in a few minutes work this time, to heap his usual disdain on Volo's reporting methods. Still, that element feels a little forced. The rest of it's fun though. It feels as though he's getting vaguely bibilical, with all these family trees. Wonder if we'll get to see a big joined-up version like the ones in the Silmarillion any time.

Dragon Issue 279: January 2001


part 5/7


Class acts is in on this month's theme, with the Ancestral Avenger. For elves who really really hate the drow and want them exterminated. They're a fighter/ranger type which get lots of bonuses not only against drow, but against their partners in crime spiders and demons. This does mean that like clerics, they'll be less useful when their favoured enemy isn't around, but if you're playing one of these guys, you should be proactively seeking out adventures where you fight Drow anyway. They seem both fairly solid mechanically and flavourwise, with no obvious foul-ups in their design, requirements or powerset. You will have to select your skills carefully though, as they have a pretty good set, and only 2+int to choose, which may be frustrating if you're coming off from ranger. Can't have everything, as usual.


Giants in the earth: Ha. It's an article on the greek-persian war, as seen in the comic book and film 300. That's quite fitting for a fantasy magazine that's trying to up it's badass quotient. They did heroic stuff, that has since become magnified by stories until it's fairly legendary. And none of this CR equivalent opponent stuff either. Real heroes don't let impossible odds stop them from trying. Roll the dramatis personae.

Xerxes is the persian king, proud and commanding, determined to make his country into a world power. He did indeed assemble a pretty impressive army, and got quite a long way before finally being stopped. He is a straight fighter though, when as a hereditary ruler, he ought to have at least one aristocrat level for the social skills. Leadership is not all about who can kick the most ass on their own.

Miltades is the old but still badass guy who beat the persians last time, leading Xerxes to hold a grudge and come back with a bigger force years later. Things like this don't happen in a vaccum, and it can be hard to say where they truly start and end.

Leonidas does indeed look quite like he did when yelling THIS IS SPARTA! He's buff, has a badass beard, and is quite capable of inspiring loyalty in an army. Having a decent supply of smart one-liners definitely helps with this, as does being willing to die for your men. If anyone's the hero in this story, it's him.

Epilates sold out to the persians for money, and spent the rest of his life paying for it. Your basic out for himself weasel, he's no real threat physically, but don't trust him with any secrets or you'll regret it. Still, this is a good example of how being trustworthy is generally more profitable in the long run.

Megistias is the oracle that advised Leonidas & co, trying to interpret the visions of the gods as clearly as possible. He didn't survive the battle, and indeed, knew he was going to die, but went in anyway. He got pretty high posthumous praise for that bravery, which makes sense.

Artemisia is another ruthless mutha who switched sides repeatedly during the war. Somehow, she managed to keep her respect anyway. It's not easy for a woman to become a military commander full stop, so she must be a pretty smart cookie.

Themistocles is the guy who finally stopped the Persian invasion for good, although the methods he used to win made him pretty unpopular afterwards. Such is the life of a politician. If you're too clever, people won't appreciate it, even if you are acting in their long term best interests, because life is complicated, but people secretly want a leader who offers simple solutions and tells them what they want to hear. And overall, this collection reminds us that in real life, events are rarely as neat as they are in stories, despite our attempts to force a narrative on things. It's quite interesting for that.


PC Portraits: No beards on the elves this time round, and in general they look a good deal more alien, with oddly shaped faces and very noticable pointy ears. In fact, they're sufficiently uncanny valley that I'd have a hard time finding myself attracted to creatures that looked like this, which is a definite change from the fetishised sexy elves. Plus they look like they had more work in general put into them than the collection in issue 251. I think this is a case where the newcomer definitely wins against the incumbent, having a more distinctive aesthetic, while also presenting us with plenty of variety in character concepts. Not all rehash is bad.


Dragonmirth dices with death and mindfucking again. Nodwick starts revisiting dungeons. Plant things and mecha, what a curious combination. How do they get along? I couldn't say.

Dragon Issue 279: January 2001


part 6/7


Forum starts taking the supplements into consideration. Psionics are coming. What are you planning to do with them. I suppose that depends what they think of the changes. Still a bit up in the air, you know.

Scott Sloan has no problem with the dungeonpunk aesthetic. Since one of the important things about 3e is sweeping away all the built up cruft, it seems very thematically appropriate. All the more fuel for shouters of betrayal.

David Werling was a skeptic, but rapidly converted when he realised how much better the new rules were. Plus not needing all those supplements is a huge weight off your shoulders. (literally if you carried the books to the game in your backpack)

Jeff R Taylor reminds us that D&D would have died entirely if not for the new edition. The playtesters and writers are saving roleplaying, not betraying it. I'm shocked at the sheer venom of some of the people writing in.

Jeff Dern likes some changes, but confused by others. His main hope, however, is that the old campaign worlds get brought back. 2 generic ones just isn't enough really.

Randy Donahue has been away from D&D since 2e came out, as he moved on and craved new experiences. But now he's back, and thoroughly happy with the improvements. They really are bringing back more people than they're losing.


Role models: Another round of painting advice. Here we go again. Must not fall asleep and skim over. Must make effort ....... to ....... judge ........ on ....... own merits. It looks like our new writer is set up for the rest of the year at least, so he's decided to plan ahead and go for the same decompressed doling out of information as Ray. Which is already better than last year's flailing around, but less useful than the 1999 ones where they were cramming in as many ideas as they could into the small space they had. And this actually goes into quite a lot of detail on painting techniques, and getting everything ready to work on your own minis without making an awful hash of them. Taken alone, it's pretty good. There is the inevitable rehash problem, but no escaping that really. And the photos are clearer than ever. With digital camera and desktop publishing software, you cut out several layers of inconvenience and analog degradation that used to be a real pain. But writing engagingly remains as big a challenge as ever.


The play's the thing: Speaking of engaging writing, Robin Laws does a little better here, in his first regular column than earlier on in the issue. Battle cries for your character? That's a vein of characterisation that's rich in comic potential, both intentional and unintentional. It's also one where it's all too easy to overthink things, come up with one that looks good on paper, but is a mouthful that doesn't come out clearly or leaves you open in an actual battle. It's hard to be threatening when the enemy asks you to repeat yourself three times before they get it. A good standard to see if it'll stand up is if you can imagine it being chanted by thousands of football hooligans. Most of the examples here are probably a little too verbose to stand the test of time, but they are interesting, and tap a wide variety of literary sources. And the formatting is very interesting, with bloody lines breaking things up in uneven patterns that make reading this a less linear process. This is another neat little bit of characterisation you can add to your game easily enough, but probably won't have thought of.

Dragon Issue 279: January 2001


part 7/7


Sage advice: How much does it cost to scribe 0 level spells (1/2 that of first level spells)

Do you have to select your target before or after you finish casting a spell (After. A lot can change in a round, and it's good to be adaptable.)

Do sorcerer's need material components and focuses (Yes. Just because it's instinctual, don't mean they don't need the tools. )

Can spontaneous spellcasters use quicken spell(They can, but to no benefit. Congratulations, you've just wasted a feat and four spell levels. )

Do you get to control who sleep puts to sleep. (Clever positioning of the spells area of effect. Best to use it before melee starts. )

If an AoE extends beyond the spells range, it gets truncated. That's weird. (We have our reasons for making that change. Not that most of you'll remember it.)

What does 1 target per level, no two of which can be more than x feet apart mean ( Geometry, my dear boy. Tales of topographic twattery. )

Do you provoke an attack of opportunity every round you cast a lengthy spell (no, just the round you start.)

If a wizard moves away and casts a spell, will the AoO disrupt the spell. (no. The AoO is for the movement, you aren't casting the spell yet. )

Can you ready an action to follow someone and still get an AoO (yes)

Can you ready an action with multiple conditions (That seems a bit pointless to Skip. )

What's the point of the healing domain if any good cleric can spontaneously cast spells from it (You misunderstand the rules. Fortunately, Skip is a prescient sage, and has an explanation all ready for you. )

Can Diviners prepare detect magic as a bonus spell (No. Counterintuitive rules fixes strike again.)

What does Nystul's undetectable aura actually do. (Blocks detect magic. That's it. Circumstantial evidence may still allow people to deduce magic is involved. )

Does shocking grasp dissipate if you miss (What is this bollocks. Not even 6 months in, and you're already recycling questions. Didn't you understand the general answer about holding the charge on touch spells. Skip is not amused.)

Can you two-weapon fight with chill touch and a weapon in the other hand (yes. It even counts as a light weapon. Pretty neat, huh?)

Fireball's range is way longer than lightning bolt's now. What gives? (We wanted to increase their differentiation, making them very different tactical choices)

Does fireball expand to fill the area in enclosed spaces now. (We decided to get rid of that quirk. It caused way too much grief for both players and DM's. )

If silence is an illusion now, can you disbelieve it (No. If it don't say disbelief in the save, then your ego will do you no good.)


Dungeoncraft: Ray reminds us that when adopting a new edition, it's important to suspend your preconceptions about how things ought to be done. This is even more important than when playing a whole new game entirely, as subtle changes can catch you out more easily than obvious ones, and you need to relearn your reflexes accordingly. A big one is that character generation now takes quite a bit longer, so devoting a whole session to it, allowing the DM to have oversight over what supplements and combos are included in their builds becomes a more sensible idea. Another one is that positioning is more important, thanks to attacks of opportunity, so minis, or at least a way to mark position do come in handy. On the other hand, characters are a good deal less fragile now, so you can subject them to onslaughts of adversaries that would have seemed excessive last edition. So while he may have been a latecomer to the new rules, his analytical skills are fully functional, and he's already aware of the main strengths and weaknesses of 3e. So follow his advice, and make sure you're doing everything by the book for the first few sessions, not applying stuff from 2e that isn't actually there anymore. Your gaming will be more versatile for it in the long run.


What's new demonstrates how not to live eternally when you can. The snail is nearly halfway across the page, by the way.


Can't say I was very keen on the themed stuff, which felt like they did it because they were obliged too after the dwarf one. Plenty of other interesting stuff going on though, as the first supplements come out, and people react accordingly. While they are putting more emphasis on tactical play, there's still plenty of roleplaying advice and system free material that's useful for anyone reading the magazine. The whole thing definitely feels like far less of a grind than the final 2e years. Now, will halflings and gnomes be forced to share a themed issue this edition? And will orcs and half orcs ever get their turn in the sun? I'm sure we'll find out in due time. But will it be next issue?

Dragon Issue 280: February 2001


part 1/7


116 pages. The price goes up to $5.99. Knew it couldn't last forever. Inflation is an annoying fact of life in an economic system based around perpetual expansion, and even collapse won't stop people industriously rebuilding again, making the same mistakes. The theme, on the other hand is brand new. They're giving sorcerers an issue in the spotlight, showcasing the spontaneous magic that many people dreamed of being able to do, but couldn't using AD&D rules. So let's blast our way through this issue using excessive force, and exhaust our liberal supplies of spells. After all, they all come back easily enough tomorrow. It's not like it takes longer the more spells you have to memorise anymore.


Scan Quality: Ok, unindexed.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: Unsurprisingly, the editorial apologises for having to raise prices, and encourages you to subscribe now, before they raise the prices for that as well. They will try to put more cool bits and pieces in to make up for that, but I suspect many of those won't make it to the electronic format. In addition, the plan to add d20 material to the magazine didn't go as they say here, with that being merged with Dungeon rather than Dragon. (which means I won't get to review it) This is one of those reminders that they aren't free to publish what they choose, but bound up by a larger corporate structure that can mandate big changes if they please, and make the staff go along with them. Such is the price you pay to play in the big leagues. We'll go along with it, but not without a good few grumbles.


Scale Mail: Our first letter strongly praises Tracey Hickman for his recent roleplaying advice. Sacrifice your character for the greater glory of the group! He'll be back soon.

Second, we have one Justin Carmical writing in to praise the odd fonts they've used recently. Jew Wario?! Seems quite probable, since I know he's another TGWTG gamer, even if his show is more about computer games. Googling says he was indeed part of the Star Trek fanclub chapter of Tallahassee around that time. That IS a turnup for the books, and shows how small the internet can make the world seem, and how multifarious his geeky interests are.

Our next suggestion is more mundane. Put some landscape posters of the right scale to make a good minis battleground in the magazine. That's certainly a decent idea to put in the slush pile.

Another request is for full stats for Lidda, Mialee & co. That's one they'll definitely get round too at some point. Turning their cover logo into a full font, on the other hand, they may well not have the time to do.

Completely unsurprisingly, someone praises the dwarf issue, and asks for an elf one to follow it. If you'd checked the previews you'd already have known it was right around the corner. Pay attention! It's people like you who clog up Sage Advice with questions he's already answered.

Yet another person says they like the articles, but dislike the dungeonpunk visuals that have come with them. This looks to be one complaint that'll run and run and run.

The Realms continues to have an enthusiastic fanbase who want all the articles and books from the old edition updated to the new. Steady there. We could do that for years, and we'd never have a chance to add on new stuff. We'll stick to bringing back the good bits, thank you very much.

Our next request is for them to bring back the Bladesinger. We're onto your games, sonny jim. It'll be back, but don't expect it to be overpowered like last edition. How dumb do you think we are?

A rather more surprising request is for them to not put spoilers for modern modules in Nodwick. The old ones are OK, as everyone ought to have read them anyway, but we might want to actually play these ones. I find this very very amusing, but I know some people take spoilers seriously. And so the editors decide to indulge that request.

Finally, (and this letters column has felt pretty long) is a letter from someone who's been wargaming for decades, but only now tried out D&D with the new edition. Guess they have made it more accessible to get into than it was for quite a while. The evidence keeps mounting up.

Dragon Issue 280: February 2001


part 2/7


PROfILES: Looks like the many complaints in the letters have been listened too, because this is back on it's own separate pages again. An improvement, methinks. Aaron Williams (not to be confused with Aaron Allston, who has also done awesome D&D work) is the artist responsible for Floyd, Nodwick, and lots of illustrations, particularly for Dragonmirth, which would have been a lot less colourful without his sense of humour. He's another workaholic, having finally hit it big with nodwick, he's milking it for all it's worth, producing stuff faster and faster (and the amount of attention to little details is dropping in response. The early Floyd stuff looks considerably better than his current output. :\ ) Ahh, the joys of commercialism. Still, as long as he's having fun as well, and people are enjoying something he's producing, it's a lot better than being a starving artist, or having a boring day job.


Up on a soapbox: The first results are in, and Gary looks at the first 4 elements on his list in alphabetical order. Here we see a fairly substantial gulf appear straight away, with building stuff and running businesses being very much niche concerns, while character development and combat are front and centre in most campaigns. This doesn't surprise me in the slightest. For all that roleplaying allows us to do things we couldn't in reality, most people still stick to human scale, rather than playing out the complexities of entire organisations or nations. Plus they seem to be harder to design simple, effective rules for. And a good battle always draws in the punters. So far, so predictable. Let's see if economics and politics stick to that trend next month.


The mailbag: Woo. Statistics. Fairly interesting ones too. Despite the new edition just being out, there are fewer questions on it than there are requests for more support of their various settings. And a quite ridiculous proportion are press releases, presumably for other RPG's and various products that they quite possibly don't even cover. Companies have to deal with spam as well, and I pity the person who gets the job dealing with that, especially when they put something they shouldn't have in the bin and get shouted at later. Still, at least now we know the approximate odds of actually getting printed if you write in. (somewhere between 1-2% Persist and you can probably make it. It's always worth noting that much of the obstacle to achieving things is in your mind, and those around you who think the social order is bigger and more inflexible than it is.


Nodwick adapts to the developments of the new edition. And gets suitably spontaneous.


Previews: The Realms continues to release gamebooks despite technically being on a countdown. The Faerun monster compendium comes along, and sticks rather closer to the old ways of ecology and setting integration than the corebook. Well, Ed did pioneer these things. He'd want it that way.

Our other big deal is the new D&D miniatures line. The first 6 sets of heroes and monsters. Hello to another big moneyspinner that we'll see plenty of bitching about over the years. ZOMG they're making D&D into a boardgame.

And this month's novel is The Messenger, by Doug Niles. The Elves of Silvanesti continue to be bitchy pains in the ass who produce adventures by social ostracism. You're just making more trouble for yourself in the long run.


Countdown to the forgotten realms: 4 months to go, and they give this column 2 pages this time to make it a bit less insubstantial. This time, we find out that there's going to be a bit of power creep in the divine department, as they more than double your selection of domains, and introduce the divine champion prestige class, which is just plain better than a regular fighter in all ways, having the same BAB and feat progression, plus good reflex saves and a decent subset of paladin's abilities. It's available to a follower of any deity, and the requirements aren't onerous at all, so you'd be a mug not to pick up those extra powers. Or just not play a fighter in the first place. Yeah, that seems like the better course of action. They aren't wasting time to power up the weak options, are they.


Dork tower goes off on a tangent. And probably has more fun that way anyway. So it goes.

Dragon Issue 280: February 2001


part 3/7


Your sorcerous life: The speed and enthusiasm with which sorcerers were accepted has a good deal to do with the fact that there was a literary niche just waiting to be filled there. They've only been around a few months, but they already have a clear idea of how to make a compelling character that's different from a wizard. And if you don't, here's Robin Laws to spell it out in a clear step by step fashion with random tables. It obviously skews heavily towards them being angsty outcasts, who can't trust anyone, especially not other sorcerers. As such, it's good for people who haven't played one before, playing in standard fantasy campaign, but will rapidly lose utility the further you go from that assumption. Still, as I've said before, everyone is starting 3e on an equal footing, so this is cool for now. But 12 years in the future, it may seem a touch dated. Once you've done the obvious stereotype, you'll probably want to try something different for subsequent characters, and skip the adolescent angst.


Polymorphology: Ah yes, shapechanging. If any power gets a rough ride over the revisions of 3.5 and 4e, it's this one. First they tried nickling and diming it's versatility away and presenting lots of more limited options, before realising that wasn't going to work, and just rewrote the whole magic system without all the versatile world affecting powers. Very much a case where they were put in a no win situation though, with one contingent constantly bitching about them being overpowered, while another wouldn't want to play in a game where you can't do such a basic and common literary concept as flexible shapeshifter. I'm very interested in seeing what 5e will do to bridge this particular rift in the D&D landscape. But anyway, this is one of Johnathan M Richards more playful articles. Because who would know more about the tricks you can pull by shapechanging into various creatures than the ecologist? Even mundane ones have some fairly decent tricks for you to take advantage of and surprise your DM with. And once you get to Polymorph any object and Shapechange, the world can literally be your oyster. In addition to the copious amounts of advice on how to exploit the existing spells to your advantage, there's also a new one called Swarm Form which lets you pull some tricks regular shapeshifting can't because you're limited to being a single creature, and also errata for polymorph other, which means they now keep their mind and skills when they didn't in previous editions. It's a good example of how at this point they're encouraging people to explore the system and find exploits for their characters. After all, there is a lot of fun to be had in simply exploring all the options, especially in a system as expansive as the d20 one.


Magic in the blood: Our second sorcerer specific article covers similar ground to Robin Laws' one, but skips the random bits, and sticks to advice. Where do your sorcerers get their power from? The answer will have a fair amount of influence on how you play your character, and possibly how you build them as well. This has sample spell, skill and feat selections for 5 of the most obvious ones. This illustrates that before 3.5 introduced the Warlock, the Sorcerer has to cover a wider spectrum of power sources, including pacts with supernatural forces as well as ancestry. In fact, that's an interesting matter in general. The introduction of more classes can retrospectively force previous ones into a narrower focus. This has definitely been the case with Fighters as well, who have seen themselves squeezed from covering any primary weapon user to heavy armor melee combatants with few powers for lighter weapons or ranged combat. I think this once again illustrates one of the big differences in design philosophy between 3.0 and 3.5, along with the Class Combo articles.


Better living through alchemy: Alchemy isn't specific to wizards and sorcerers, but it's certainly more common among those classes than others. So including an article on it in this issue makes sense. And for a low-mid level wizard who doesn't have that many spells to spare, having a few alchemical concoctions on hand will increase their versatility a fair chunk. This is an extension of the same kind of thinking that results in adventurers carrying 10 foot poles and vials of oil and messing up the DM's carefully laid plans by making clever use of seemingly minor items. And since it features 19 new low key but generally useful items, along with costs and alchemy DCs for making them yourself, it's one that has quite a bit of utility. If you have a few spare GP, drop them on some of these and you won't regret it. You might well get more bang for your buck than spending the same amount of money on potions and scrolls.

Dragon Issue 280: February 2001


part 4/7


Mastering chance: They have a random dungeon generating system in the 3e DMG? I don't remember that at all. Goes to show that it's been quite a while since I looked at the 3.0 stuff. And looking at it, it isn't nearly as random as the old one from the strategic review and 1e DMG, with the power levels of encounters pretty tightly indexed to the character's levels. And of course, the more you reduce the randomness, the more the DM has to interpret and build upon the results before you're ready to play, which will increase the time it takes quite a bit. So really this is saying that even if you do use random generation methods, you should still customise the results afterwards. It's almost as if the designers aren't that keen on them and only included it for old times sake. If you already have plenty of ideas, this is kinda redundant.


Just the facts, mage: Our second Robin Laws article this month isn't really in theme (despite it's title) but is also fairly interesting. It covers the ways and reasons NPC's might be obstructive when PC's are trying to get info out of them. A fairly quirky topic, but once again, a helpful one. after all, even those who are good at social dynamics may not have sat down and though formally about how to categorise the ways people act in response to particular behaviours. (if anything, if it comes naturally to them, they're less likely too. So once again, this is an article that may seem utterly invaluable, or completely obvious and pointless, depending on where you fall on the social spectrum. Since I'm pretty crap at the whole being human thing, but would like to be better, I'm once again going to have to say this is relevant to my interests, and I approve of him writing this stuff. No-one's covered it in this kind of depth in the magazine before, and it is of use, plus it's good for any game. It's good that they're still finding new things to write about in a roleplaying context.


A little more familiar: Articles expanding on familiars were a fairly regular occurrence last edition. Why mess with a winning formula, especially when you can put all sorts of upgrades as feats now and not worry about it breaking the game. Mind you, I'm not entirely sure how much of a benefit making your familiar undead or a construct is, and if it's worth spending a feat slot. I think that like Toughness, it might be worth it at low level, but will then rapidly become pointless, since you'll soon hit the point where you could have done it manually in play with spells anyway. On the other hand, the ability to poof them away when not needed, (don't a lot of people do that anyway ) automatically share your buffs with them, and have multiple familiars do seem quite worth the expenditure if you're built right. The new spells are pretty handy too. Casting spells through your familiar. Sharing HP with them in a pinch. Teleporting them back to your side. And of course the more tricks and spells you devote to them, the more their effectiveness is multiplied out, in classic quadratic wizard fashion. An excellent example of how you should pick powers that'll remain useful at higher level, not just now, especially as they haven't instituted retraining yet.  


Reel Heroes: Our longest promotional article yet for the D&D movie stats out all the major characters, and has an interview with Zoe McLellan, the wizard of the party. Unsurprisingly, the PC's are completely outmatched on paper. A bunch of 3rd level characters vs a 10th level fighter and a 15th level wizard? That isn't even on the xp award tables. Similarly, there's no way they could put a price on the rod of Savrille, so that's relegated to artifact status. Game balance? CR appropriate challenges? Does that make a good movie? Good question. You almost definitely could make a better movie than this using only CR appropriate challenges, and building the heroes up for the final climax. The interview is fairly informative, particularly about her earlier life, and the fact that she's not worried if this fails, because she's signed up for a development deal with WB studios. And since she has had fairly continuous TV roles since then, I guess that confidence was justified. It must be nice being part of the in crowd. Since this actually has game information, it's obviously more useful than the previous articles, which were purely promotion, but it still feels unjustly smug, especially since the film has been out for a while now. It might be time to cut their losses and move onto the next project.


Fiction: The opal of nah by J Gregory Keyes: Fool Wolf's story continues directly where last month left off, as he tries to figure out who or what is calling him, preferably without being trapped by their manipulations. And since nearly everyone from his previous stories who survived seems to be here, it's obvious that the stakes are pretty high. In fact, we're escalating all the way to world threatening monstrosity. They're not going to be able to continue the series in the same way after this is over. And indeed, it looks like there's another instalment next issue, and then that's it, so I seriously hope there'll be a decent payoff after two issues of ratcheting up the tension.

Dragon Issue 280: February 2001


part 5/7


Vs Sorcerers: Ooh. This column is getting in on the issue's theme for a change. And is twice as long as usual. This is interesting. Since Sorcerers are new creations as well, they have to figure out the tactics from scratch. And in the process they highlight several ways 3e differs from 2e. The most important one is that you will be more likely to fail when rolling your weaker saves against an opponent of similar level as you advance, whereas before you were always more likely to succeed. This makes save or suck spells a more viable way of taking down enemies than hit point attrition at higher level. Of course, he who lives by the save or suck dies by the save or suck, and with tons of spells but only one good save, sorcerers are both the most able to dish out spells like this repeatedly, and one of the classes most vulnerable to them. Counterspelling is also much easier when the enemy has a limited spell selection that you can learn in advance with a bit of research. The other advice, of closing fast so they can't use AoE attacks to devastate the party, grappling, and using silence to disrupt their spellcasting is really just as applicable to any spellcaster, including ones from previous editions. Really, your big advantage will likely be that you're part of a party, and one person can devote their action to locking them down while the others dish out the serious damage. So this is a definite improvement on previous instalments of this series, while also highlighting system quirks that the current crop of writers thinks are good, and encourage character building exploits and tactical play, but the subsequent ones will dislike and try to stamp out in late 3.5 and 4e. It's quite worthy of note for that.


The adventures of Volo: A third instalment of Cormyran treasures and geneaology here it seems. They'd like to hang on to this stuff, but it keeps on disappearing, with the records and stories becoming decidedly sketchy as well. I guess it's just a smaller scale version of the same process that resulted in the destruction of all those magical empires. And without that kind of stuff, the realms wouldn't be able to support a fraction of the adventuring population it does. So here's some very fallible legendry indeed, involving magical harps who's precise powers have been lost to the mists of time. Once again, this feels like casual musings Ed couldn't find a place for in any of his books, flitting between several, semi-connected subjects. I wonder what his notebooks look like, and if deciphering them gives editors headaches. Trying to find the connections between various articles he's done over the years is certainly starting to give me headaches. Not nearly as enjoyable as most of his output.


Class acts: Another slightly awkward prestige class this month in the Eldrich Master. This seems to be designed for sorcerers and bards who want to know lots more lower level spells at the cost of slowed advancement in higher level ones. A wizard could theoretically take this class as well, but it'd be rather suboptimal. Still, this is a massive improvement on earlier magical prestige classes, with full caster level advancement, and 1/3 spell level advancement meaning they won't fall too far behind. With their various extra abilities factored in, they might be able to just about hold their own against a straight primary caster at upper-mid levels, though it'd be touch and go. However, this prestige class can really be made to shine at epic levels. As so many of it's powers scale regularly, and are stacked on top of your regular spellcasting abilities, it's perfect for a 20th level sorcerer frustrated at their limitations on spells known. You effectively get the equivalent of 2-3 epic feats per level by advancing in this, plus full caster level and better skill points. You might even be able to compete with epic level wizards. Of course, Monte wouldn't have known this at the time, but hey, finding and exploiting these tricks is a big part of the fun of playing 3rd ed. So if you want to play one of these guys, have a little patience.


Invaders of the barrier peaks: Oh, S3, you have become infamous over the years. Not quite as much as the GDQ series or tomb of horrors, but if you want the playful, genre bending side of old school D&D, this is one you go to again and again. And it looks like James Jacobs is continuing his policy of tying his new monsters into established places, while also making them alien and scary. Well, since these ones are literally from another world, he has pretty free rein to make them as bizarre as he likes. And as his imagination has proven pretty fertile before, I'm quite keen to see what he does with this theme.

Bonetrees destroy and consume your bones while leaving the surrounding tissues unharmed, and then use the bone to create armor and quills to deal with any still mobile companions to their victims. That's a pretty inventive bit of body horror. If D&D was a more realistic system then the harm would be rather more permanently crippling than a bit of Con damage. I can definitely see an awesomely gruesome movie being made out of these.

Ragewings are scavengers that drive other creatures into frenzies, and then feed on the losing side, whichever that may be. This means they're one you might not be fighting directly, but will nevertheless want to take out. Still, since they don't have any stealth skills and look pretty bizarre, it shouldn't be too hard to spot them flitting around the edges of the battle.

Razortails look like something from the deep sea crossed with a displacer beast, and attack with their multiple barbed tails. They can also shoot beams of radiation, which certainly doesn't sound pretty. Just be thankful it still counts as heat damage for purpose of immunities.

Treeleg Stranglers look like mangrove trees, then drop on your head and eat you when you pass underneath. If that's not enough, they release bursts of radiation to weaken everyone else around. They make good use of environmental features, and take a lot of hacking to finish off for good. Nothing good lives in swamps, except maybe flumphs, and they don't have much hope in a fight against any of these guys. They more than fill my sadism count for this issue.

Dragon Issue 280: February 2001


part 6/7


Dragonmirth makes both ancient history and brand new developments look silly. Nodwick gets elemental. Elemental evil!  :jazz hands: Just can't get the budget for good jokes these days.


Forum: Julie Ratiff jumps on the statements about gender pronouns in the new edition. The company has become much more progressive in the past 10 years, and this is to be lauded. I guess we haven't seen any sexism wars since they turned the forum into a vehicle for free edition change advice. It's almost refreshing to see this old canard back again.

Anonymous writes in, as it sometimes does, to directly contradict the last letter complaining about WotC's politically correct agenda. Looks like these'll be flaring up again now the edition change is mostly over.

Allen Cohn is furious at the lack of compatibility with the old edition. It's as if microsoft released a new version of windows that all the old programs were incompatible with. Um, that is still standard with consoles, and I don't see many people complaining about upgrading those.

Juan Calle reminds us that most people have substantial neutral tendencies. Whether good or evil, they can have some contradictory traits and get on with people very different than them. Look to both reality and literature for examples.


PC Portraits: Since Sorcerers don't have to spend nearly as much time studying as wizards do, they have more time to work on their fashion accessories. And this lot truly are dungeonpunked up TO THE MAX!!!! The sheer amount of piercings, tattoos, and high maintenance hairstyles is rather amusing, and drives home again that these are not your father's wizards. They might have long beards and wear big hats, but even if they do, they'll do so with more style and verve than most wizards can manage. They're also freer to be lazy, since they don't have to work as hard for their power, as the fat elf demonstrates. This is quite amusing, even if I can't see myself creating a character that looks like these portraits. Ah, dungeonpunk. You did make yourself easy to laugh at.


Role models: Our painting advice this month is pretty familiar. Advice on how to handle your shading better, so it looks like a real thing scaled down? Yeah. we've done that before a few times. The trick of course, is layering and planing ahead. Go for the most significant colour first, then wait for it to dry before moving on to the finer details. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it. The tricky part comes in getting into those little nooks and crannies. In cases like that you may want to add the shading first and layer the colours on top of that, doing the easy bits afterwards. If those two bits of advice seem contradictory, then you have the right idea. You'll have to use your brain to figure out which takes priority in a given situation. Once again I am reminded how tiresome advice aimed at newbies can seem to everyone else.


The play's the thing: Robin does some more amusing and very specific advice, as he talks about naming your weapon. And completely misses the idea of giving it a woman's name. (what? It seems common for ships and guitars.) He does favour short, snappy, easy to remember ones though, which makes sense (especially if you're going to use them in battle cries ) He also favors a certain aggressiveness and descriptiveness in his naming, which may not suit warriors with a pretension towards combat as an art form like swashbucklers and samurai. This very straight presentation is punctured by a rather amusing John Kovalic illustration though, which is worth the price of entry. So while this is probably the weakest of his articles this month, it's not actively terrible, just doesn't catch as many tricks as the other ones. Funny that it would be the one in his regular column then. What's with that?

Dragon Issue 280: February 2001


part 7/7


Sage advice: How does a tower shield work (It's a movable wall. It provides the same protection and drawbacks as having an actual bit of wall in front of you. This means it isn't that great in melee unless you make a phalanax and then use polearms to attack over the shield wall. And you'll need quite a few fighters to make squad level tactics like that viable. )

Does a tower shield protect you against area effect magic (Sometimes. Depends on size and direction. )

Do you get shield bonuses when flat-footed (yes)

How does the shield spell work (Like an infinite barrier that doesn't impede you. Look. Pretty pichures.)

So does the shield spell make you immune to attacks of opportunity (From anyone on the right side, yes. Watch out for enemy rogues.)

Does shield add to armour bonuses and so forth. (Yes, as per the usual typed stacking rules. A definite step up from the previous editions. )

Can you cast two shield spells simultaneously to block in both directions (no)

Can a hasted character cast two spells in a round (For the moment. Special offer, good until the next rules revision. Take advantage of it while it lasts.)

Can sorcerers learn spells from other spell lists (No. Development errata. Ignore that statement.)

Can you fight defensively while casting as spell (Is that an attack? Skip thinks not.)
If I cast a ray into melee, do I suffer the attack penalty (Oh yes. Once again, use the artillery before you close. )

Does a quickened spell still require all it's components (unless you use yet more metamagic feats. You'll have to be ridiculously high level to do that )

Do you have to make a roll for opposite spells to negate each other (no. Special exception. Those are the rewards of being prepared specifically.)

Can you share spell-like abilities with your familiar (No. T'aint part of your class features.)

How do you compare skills and decide which is better (Higher number good. Higher number always good.)

Do Con bonuses, toughness feats, etc add to your familiars hit points (As partially as anything else.)

Do you only get one extra attack per round when hasted (Yes. In many ways, it is a step down from previous editions. Still, at least you ain't losing a year from your life every time you use it. )

Half orcs charisma penalty makes them crap at intimidating. This ain't right. (Oh, just substitute strength. It works well enough for those froofy WoDites.)

Can you cast light on someones eyes (not anymore. Oh, aren't we mean.)

When do you use sense motive ( Use your judgement. We can't completely abstract social skills inside the game, however much we'd like to.)

How hard is it to hit a figment. How likely are they to realize something's up. (Pretty easy. Depends if it reacts properly or not. )

Do monks base and unarmed bonuses stack (Didn't Skip answer this just a couple of months ago. Skip hopes this isn't going to become the new multi vs dual classing or something. Skip'd better waste this sucka just to make sure word gets around, and people don't come to skip with this question again. )

Do monks have to use their unarmed bonus when making an unarmed attack (No. As with subdual, they can be deliberately incompetent if they like. )


Dungeoncraft: Ray decides that since it's a new edition, he's going to leave behind the campaign world he was working on before, and start a new one. And where that was a pretty straight fantasy world, this one is going to be very dungeonpunk, focussing on the fall of the dinosaurs and rise of humanity, in a world where the two uneasily coexist. Yup, sounds pretty punk anyway, although we have yet to find out where the dungeons come in. This definitely has my enthusiasm, as he's already talking about such radical ideas as leaving some of the classes out, and altering others to fit the environment. Thank god we have spontaneous spellcasters allowing us to leave out the wizards without messing up the whole D&D party dynamic now. This also shows why having two or three campaign worlds active at once is better for D&D than only one. If you only have one, it's pretty much guaranteed to be a generic one (and at this point, I don't think anyone's going to unseat the forgotten realms. ) Having several allows you to intentionally contrast them with one another and win a larger overall fanbase by keeping people's natural tendency to factionalise within a larger tent where they're still supporting D&D whichever world they favour. So I'm looking forward to seeing just how unusual he makes this new world.


What's new? Dixie gets cosmic power for the price of some ruined footwear. Now that's a bargain that must be too good to be true.


Robin Laws pretty much owns this issue, contributing two strong articles and an ok one. it's been a while since I could say an individual author dominated proceedings like this, so that's worth noting. He's not as prolific as Ed yet, but he is having quite an effect on their overall output. James Jacobs is also proving himself as worth watching in the future. And the fact that they're tackling a mostly new topic makes even the more mediocre articles a little more worthwhile. So not a bad issue at all, overall.

Dragon Issue 281: March 2001


part 1/7


116 pages. Here comes the psionic issue. It's popularity may not have been the greatest ever, but it did have more than enough fans that it was near the top of things they wanted to revive for 3e. Course, they made some pretty substantial changes in response to the many people saying psionics was unbalanced before, in the process rendering them much closer to ordinary spellcasters. As with the sorcerer special, that makes it very unlikely the contents of this issue will be rehashed, because even if they do return to topics, they'll have to implement them in very different ways. Once again I can go into this issue feeling fairly positive about the outcome. Don't let me down.


Scan Quality: Excelent, unindexed.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: Unsurprisingly, the editorial tries to sell you on the new psionics system by talking down the old one. It was unbalanced and didn't interface well with the rest of the system. Which is entirely true. But it was also far more distinct from magic than the new one, able to do things magic couldn't while not doing quite a few things spells handled easily. And if you don't make new classes different from the current ones, there's little incentive to buy the books they're in. Balancing acts are hard work, and sometimes a game is more fun if you don't bother with them at all. I am left suspicious again. This sales pitch is all too familiar, and I can see the strings behind it.


Scale Mail: Our first two letters see Monte Cook and Tracey Hickman pitted directly against one-another, trying to sell the case for their playstyles to the general public. They're actually in agreement about far more things than they are conflicting, but that doesn't make a good headline, does it. And in the process it definitely makes for a good story. Who will you side with? The current new hotshot, or the one who created Dragonlance and Ravenloft. Both have fairly substantial fanbases, so this could get ugly.

We have another request to convert some more stuff from the old edition, particularly old races and the siege engine rules. Yeah, we could do with some decent mass combat and domain rules for 3e, couldn't we. No arguing there.

Similarly, some generic bits of setting, like taverns, castles, shop etc would be quite handy. They may well have something in the pipeline. Got to keep variety up in the content they give us.

And finally, we have a rather interesting elaboration on the rudiments of the dwarven language they gave us. With a sufficient vocabulary, you can construct compound words that fill all your other descriptive needs, except perhaps brevity.


PROfILES: James Wyatt is a pastor turned D&D writer. Another reminder that for all the accusations of satanicness, both the founders of D&D were Christians, and plenty of it's other important writers have been over the years as well. He had a tricky job getting into the company, as he tried to join up just as TSR went tits up, but persevered, played the freelancing field until he'd built up enough respect to get in. And now he has a whole bunch of projects in the works, including the second splatbook, the FR monster book, and something top secret (although not actually Top Secret) that he can't talk about yet. He's one of those people who delights in breaking stereotypes, and is very pleased by 3e's massive increases in flexibility. And he's another person who's best work is still to come. We'll be seeing him around these parts plenty more these next few years.


Up on a soapbox: Last month, we had a fairly clear delineation between the common and rare elements in people's games. This selection muddies the issue a bit. Exploration and Intrigue both get fairly high marks, while Economics gets a low one, but Politics is somewhere in the middle. Seems to me that is't pretty difficult to do politics without including elements of intrigue and economics as well. After all, if there's nothing to gain or lose, then you're just engaging in social sniping for the hell of it, which even vampires have reservations about. Once again, it shows that going out and seeking adventures in odd locations is still the core play experience, despite all the diversification that's taken place. An adventurer might settle down temporarily, but as long as there's life in the old dog, part of them'll still itch to leave it behind see what's over the next horizon. Of course, if the country you're in tries to restrict travel, that makes adventuring inherently political.  But how many DM's put their players through highly realistic problems like that? So once again, Gary's ruminations have been the spur for a fairly interesting chain of thought. It's good to have things to debate about.

Dragon Issue 281: March 2001


part 2/7


Previews: Another big release this month. The Psionics handbook shows that once again, they still aren't quite up on the quirks of the new system, with the most MAD suffering classes evar. Still, they've managed to put in a fairly balanced point based magic system, so you have that option. Roll on the revised edition.

Diablo has been converted now. So here's the tie in adventure, To Hell and Back. They try and sell this as an epic adventure, but I suspect executive meddling was involved in it's creation. Anyone know what this license was like?  

And there's the usual pair of FR & DL novels. The Summoning by Troy Denning, and Downfall by Jean Rabe.  An epic tale of ancient wizards trying to take over the Realms and another step in the redemption of Dhamon. Just how many do they have now?


Countdown to the forgotten realms: 3 months to go. This month's teaser basically just recaps the secret societies of the Realms. Most of them are familiar, and I suspect the others would be too if I'd read all the supplements and novels. You can bet most of them will have custom prestige classes, feats, magical items, and other cool stuff to make you want to join. But what they might be is not revealed here, as this is another single pager. So not much else to say here. Once again, it does the job.


Piffany is still intentionally missing the point in Nodwick. Dork tower still don't want to face reality either, even when it looks pretty pleasant.


Mind lords of Talaron: Unsurprisingly, our first psionic article is a fairly big one by one of their official writers. Even more interestingly, it's one that'll be converted to 3.5 and appear in the Complete Psionic splatbook later on. The 6 noble houses of a lost world, each naturally talented at a particular psionic discipline, now living secretly amongst normal people and trying to keep mind flayers from ruining this one. Interestingly, the codified mechanical distinction isn't introduced here, making the difference between the houses and regular people purely in the class and feats they select. However, they do have more room to go into their backstory and adventure hooks for them here, which is quite interesting to see, and means the two appearances are complementary to one-another. The result is particularly interesting in hindsight, showing that they will return to ideas and improve on them over the course of 3e. And as there's plenty of adventure hooks here, this definitely qualifies as both a notable and useful article. Good show. :claps:


Calm amid the storm: Even more interestingly, Bruce Cordell follows up with an article containing two githzerai focussed prestige classes, one of which will get updated for 3.5, while the other won't. Very curious indeed. Zerth Cenobites have the same basic concept, learning to see into the near future to boost their monkly abilities. However, the implementation of the two versions is very different, with both their prerequisites and power selections substantially altered. And taking a good look at the two, it once again looks like the 3.5 version is somewhat better mechanically, having easier to use powers, plus a minor psionic progression on top of that. The Arcanopath Monk is a prestige class intended to kick the ass of spellcasters, and is also interesting, because at the 10th level, it has the power to permanently erase spells from the minds of people hit by them, which is the kind of thing they'd move away from even further in 3.5. As with any case where they try and make nonspellcasters good at taking down spellcasters, they may succeed at their job, but they'll still be far less powerful overall and certainly less flexible, which leaves them lacking if their target has a chance to prepare. So this issue is definitely turning out to be a good demonstration of how much they have to learn about fine-tuning the d20 system. Fitting really, given the book they're drawing upon.


The splintered mind: Greyhawk isn't particularly well known for it's psionics. But neither does it exclude them entirely like Krynn. And since it's the core world for this edition, they have to be inclusive of all the stuff in the generic books. So where would a psionic organisation fit in? Well, the scarlet brotherhood has potential, filled with monks as it is, but as an evil organisation, this is a problem for players. A splinter organisation dedicated to overthrowing them, so you get the angsty rebel cache to draw players in? Well, it's a pretty well proven cliche by now, so why not. So here's one of those articles that mixes setting stuff and multiple types of new crunch fairly seamlessly. Three new exotic weapons. A prestige class. Six new psionic powers, and three sample multiclass progressions for building NPC's. The weapons have fairly typical exotic weapon bonuses, 2 double bladed two weapon fighting ones, and one that's exceedingly good at disarming. The prestige class is another monk/psionic hybrid, skewing a bit more towards the psionic side, and able to share minds with other teammates for mutual benefit. (which is one thing 2e psionics did better than 3e. ) The new powers are all Telepathy or Clairsentience ones, and also feel less like reflavored spells than a lot of the powers from the new Psionics handbook. So this isn't the most high-powered of articles, but is pretty pleasing flavourwise.

Dragon Issue 281: March 2001


part 3/7


By any other name: A bumper pack of monster races get their naming conventions explored this month. Derro, Duergar, Svirfneblin, Kuo-Toa, and particularly bizarrely, illithds as well. Since these guys are pretty different, despite living in similar conditions, their name structures are quite different as well. This particularly applies to illithids, where people are trying to vocally approximate the horrible combination of mental transmissions and writhing tentacles that is their communication. There's less to draw upon for these races, but it still seems like the author has done their research, keeping the names produced consistent with ones from previous modules and sourcebooks. Having exhausted the core races, these are rather more interesting, and I wonder if they'll consider it worth their while to do any more. I'd like to think so, but you never can tell.


101 Wondrous whereabouts: Our system-free article this month raids the mythology books to remind you to make your adventure locations cool, memorable and epic. Dungeons where all the rooms look the same and treasure is primarily measured by it's GP value are so 80's. Far better to have one big reward at the end that'll be a real game-changer like a wish or immortality. Some of these have been slightly altered to make them more gamable, or simply genericised, but most are presented straight. This does mean they might not quite fit into the D&D planar cosmology, but hey, that's not too hard for a DM to deal with, especially if you change the names for your own campaign.  And really, you should be using this for inspiration rather than wholesale thievery. A lot of the time, the difference between being considered original or a copyist is how good you are at hiding your sources. As with most of the 101 articles, this is pretty handy.


Logjam busters: Robin Laws continues to deliver multiple articles of play advice this month, showing you how to get stalled sessions going again by psychoanalysing the players and DM. You've got to figure out what everybody wants, and how much they're prepared to compromise on their personal desires for the good of the group.( And if you can't come to an agreement, who needs to be kicked out to get the group into some form of harmony. )This will of course be very contentious for people who distrust psychiatry and being analysed. (But would you want to game with scientologists anyway? ) But does seem more likely to productively resolve a troublesome session than the Tracey Hickman method, in any case. This is a good example of how you can steal ideas from something seemingly unrelated to gaming, and apply it to good effect, and also his general love of taking the responsibility of power from the DM alone, instead sharing narrative control with the players. Just don't become a total pushover who gives them exactly what they want without working for it, or the game won't last that long anyway.


Fiction: The hounds of ash by J Gregory Keyes. Well, that's Fool Wolf's story over. He's saved the world, discovered what's really going on with that imprisoned goddess of his, accepted that he'll need to put up with her for the rest of his life, and got himself a similarly immortal and untrustworthy (but also smokin' hot) girlfriend. There's room left for further adventures here, but I guess after this climax, writing more didn't seem worth it, so it's as good a place as any to draw the curtain. He didn't manage quite as many adventures as Niall, but he did manage to get laid as often, and solved more problems using his own brains, plus the enemies he faced were smarter and less caricatured as well, so I'm going to have to give the edge to Mr Keyes for better quality writing. This is one bit of continuity in the magazine that I'm definitely going to miss.


Dragonmirth is in theme as ever, ie, just barely.


VS Psions & Psychic warriors: This is a bit of a tricky one, really, as psionic characters are almost as versatile as wizards in some ways, and considerably more in others. Grappling them or stealing their stuff will be pretty much a waste of time, for example. To prepare decent countermeasures for psionic characters, you need to know their specific powerset, since they generally have a smaller selection than spellcasters. This will also tell you what their strong ability scores are likely to be, and a decent amount about their personality. The only bit of advice that remains universally applicable is that you should always buff your will score if possible, since so many of their powers target it. Fortunately, there are quite a few spells and items that do just that. If they've read your mind, then any clever tactics you've come up with will be mostly useless anyway. Basically, this is the problem when facing anything with lots of discretionary powers to select. General advice doesn't do much. Better get your divination spells out before the adventure then, and hope they don't have anything to block those.

rich russian girls amputee women and sex videos pictures asian rape porn    
http://zippic.info/?profile-MARSHA
http://xaijo.com/?sexy-RONNIE
http://adult-story.info/?profile-DOMINIQUE
  free sexy vedio gianna michaels bukkake shemuscle lesbians teen summer clothes free exploited teens videoclip olga ketty dreams teen big boob asian kianna catfight gangbang mobile school proxies valeria golino slaughter of the cock mother and little son fucking videos pornhup xxx arabic lesbian on you tube tzeni mpotsi porn vids korea internal cumshot jitehic sarah big butt hack spanish girl fucking.com edward hopper pictures what are ball joints audi a6 japanese girls masturbe video