Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 346: August 2006


part 5/6


Impilitur, the forgotten kingdom: The Realms gets another bumper sized article to make up for it's time off. Impilitur is another of the many places that hasn't been revisited in detail this edition. And at a full 15 pages, this easily feels like it could be a proper chapter in a more general regional sourcebook. And as a place that's dealt with a demonic invasion in recent history, there's plenty of reasons for adventurers to want to go there, even if the people are generally good and committed to their gods. With both a map and a timeline along with all the info on NPC's and places to go, it feels like they've gone to some effort to keep it friendly to casual readers, but it's long and detailed enough to give something new to the hardcore fans too. I must admit that I found myself skimming rather than reading properly at some points, but this is still pleasingly ambitious, and as a 5th article in a row that's light on mechanics, I think it shows them reaching the limits of what they can do in this direction again, short of doing connected multi-parters like the 9 hells or Incursion. Still hoping Erik has a few more strings to his bow he hasn't shown us yet.


The ecology of the rust monster: Rehash again? There are plenty of screwage monsters you haven't covered yet. Couldn't you do nilbogs, yellow mold or something? And since Ed did it last time, you've got some pretty big shoes to fill here. Curiously, they do try and make the coverage quite different, avoiding the complex biological/rules lawyerly questions Ed tackled for a combination of descriptive stuff, IC legends of the creature, and OOC stories from big game designers about the OOC history of the creature, including Gygax recounting the tale of how he based it off a little plastic toy he picked up on the cheap. Although it has less game useful material than the old ecology, and loses marks for being rehash in the first place, I think it just about justifies it's place, reinforcing that this is one of the more important creatures in D&D's history as a whole, as well as having a slightly different format to most of the recent ecologies. Now, if only there were some big important creature they haven't covered here before, so they could really go to town.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 346: August 2006


part 6/6


Sage advice: When an artificer scribes a scroll, is it arcane or divine (they can choose. They're good ssneaky imitatiorss. )

Do artificers have to use arcane material components or divine foci (No. They can use the besst of both options.)

Does making an item class specific and extraordinary artisan stack (Yes. Big bargainss allow you to undercut your competitorssss, collins collins.)

Can a half-dragon elf or elf lich gain a mark of shadows (no)

Is a warforged juggernaut affected by Quori nightmares (yess. They laugh at your puny attempts to be sscary.)

Can a warforged juggernaut become reforged or vice versa (Yess, but it would be a ssuboptimal combination. ssorry.)

Does a shifter druids beast spirit power stack with the 9th level moonspeaker power (Oh yess. Thatss very twinky.)

Can a spirit shaman chastise a quori (Yess. Naughty quori, needss a good sspanking.)

What's the difference between the polymorph spell, and the polymorph subschool (ones a spell, the other's a trick to nerf a whole bunch of existing spells retroactively. :spits: )

YOU HAVE ERRED AGAIN TWICE!!! WE ARE VERY DISPLEASED. IF YOU CONTINUE LIKE THIS WE WILL TAKE YOUR JOB AWAY FROM YOU!! No. Pleasse, collins collins. Don't take my preciouss away from me. Andy is a good sage, collins collins. Andy will never insult you like Sskip. Andy promissesss!!!


Class acts: Adventurers get Scout feats and options. Pretty self explanatory. 6 new feats, and 2 new class variants for another mostly ignored non core class. Just the thing the magazine should be doing, and some of the feats are useful to rangers, rogues, and other wilderness and stealthy types as well. Never underestimate the value of a good reconnoiter before a fight.

Arcane gives truenamers from the tome of magic some love this month. 6 new debuffs based upon turning the truename of a creature against it, plus three new feats that give you even more uses for truenames. Once again, this is primarily aimed at a single class, but can have limited use for other ones dabbling in the art.

Clerics get Sacred Enforcers. Monks devoted to a particular Lawful deity, and with various alternate sets of fighting styles and class features, these are good incentive to make monks actually religious, rather than just generalised zen badasses. Let the fluff and crunch unite, to form the ultimate food of entertainment!

Warriors get Eastern Cataphracts. Another real world variety of warrior gets it's equipment detailed for if you should choose to imitate it. Yawn.


Nodwick solves the problems, but not to the satisfaction of his employers. Dork tower once again show how utterly stuck in a rut they are, unable to even see outside the box, let alone think outside it. Zogonia come up against the lack of equipment conservation in a fantasy universe. OotS wishes what's new was still here. Intriguing to know.


Well, this has easily been the most useful issue in a while for people who aren't playing 3e D&D, with some stuff for the old schoolers, and some stuff that's just generally handy for everyone. It'd probably take a lot more effort for Erik to actually include material for other systems, but this does once again show that they're working at putting the quirky and the lengthy back in the articles. Now they just need to keep pushing for the variety as well. Onwards and outwards, not settled down!

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 347: September 2006


part 1/6


82 (100) pages. Well, just a year to go before the magazine comes to an end. And it looks like they're struggling to think of new topics again. The elements? We did that less than 3 years ago in issue 314, not even half an edition gone. Well, let's hope that like horror, it's because they've been getting lots of good submissions on the topic, rather than feeling obligated to stick to a tried and tested formula. Let's open the pages, and see if I'm nicely refreshed, or left burnt and then soggy.


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


In this issue:


Editorial: Oh god, the old met at a tavern cliche. I'm fairly tired of it, and after several years at the editorial helm of Dungeon, I can quite understand why Erik would be even more so. Yet at the same time, cliches become cliches because they work, so you can't completely ignore them. What you can do is go back to the source, study it, see how it varies in different cultures in the real world, and then put a fresh spin on the idea. The idea of a place to meet up, drink and socialise varies so much not just from country to country, but also on an individual basis, and even within the same place at different times of day, and the people that come there regularly might not even realise it, being so caught up in the patterns of their own little lives. As always, you can make infinite permutations out of combining a limited set of elements in different ways and proportions. Which hopefully also applies to the theme of this issue. Look closer, and find the many small variations in what seems monolithic. I've done plenty of that, and hope i can keep it up for a year longer.


Scale Mail: Our first letter is another one who thinks they swung too far towards fiction in issue 344. Erik assures them that they will swing one way, they will swing the other way. But as long as he's in charge, they don't intend to go completely straight.

On the other hand, the combination of setting detail and obscenely powerful stats in the Demonomicons continues to be very popular with the readers indeed. It's just a shame they aren't covering other extra-planar celebrities with the same enthusiasm.

The ecologies are also exceedingly popular with both readers and freelancers, but there's still one gripe. If using an obscure monster, tell us where it's published please. You know, that kind of info is only a google away. Expecting to be spoonfed won't win you legendary adventures.

Looks like dragon still has some goth readers, with a letter that thinks the Gloom Dragon was cute. Huh. It takes all sorts. Still makes more sense than trying for a relationship with an omnicidal antipaladin.

The equipment arrays are also a fairly niche thing that gets praised. This pleases Erik, as it shows he might be able to get away with a few more articles of that sort.

Far less surprising is a request for a demonomicon on Demogorgon. Equally unsurprising is the reply that they're already working on it. It may be a while though, because they have another 12 part adventure path to get through, and they wouldn't want to spoil things by having him show up at low level.

And finally we have two letters asking about long out-of-print material. Actually, your options on this are better than they've ever been, both legal and illegal. The internet makes matching up the supply and the demand wherever you are in the world a good deal easier.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 347: September 2006


part 2/6


First Watch: Dragon Magic. If you're looking at numbers sold and correlating it with words in the title, this seems like a perfect product to marketing androids. Still, it gives the warlock a rival in the going all day stakes, and a few new powers to virtually every power system they've added over the years, so it's not a bad book, just very inessential, and dependent on having lots of other supplements to understand everything. If anything says we're drawing to the close of an edition cycle, it's something like this.

Eberron gets Faiths of Eberron. Another setting specific application of general splatbook principles, with prestige classes, roleplaying advice, stuff on how they're integrated into the world, etc.

The Realms gets The Twilight Tomb. An adventure for 3rd level characters, this looks like the kind of thing that can be slapped down nearly anywhere and fill an evening or two. Does it have anything to make it stand out from the crowd?

And finally, they release a new D&D basic game. If you want to not even get to 3rd level, this is for you!! As with the last one of these, this holds no attraction for me. What is it that the early 80's versions had that these just can't replicate? I wish we could figure out.

On the D20 side, they try and resurrect one of their old products. Dark Matter first appeared under the Alternity system, shortly before it was cancelled. Will it do any better under D20 modern. The system's already survived longer and got rather more stuff, so it's not beyond the bounds of possibility. No? Oh well then.

Our minis products this month are mostly more environments for them. WotC release some more official dungeon tiles. Dwarven Forge stop delving and let us make some buildings to adventure in. And Magnificent Egos release an 24 inch dragon that will loom over WotC's official offering from last month. Raaaaar!!!! Now that's scary.

The video game they choose is Ninety-Nine Nights. Massive battles, epic plots, multiple playable characters, choice of if you want to fight for good or evil, sounds like it could be fun. Ready for the meatgrinder?

Another interesting choice here. A few months ago, they mentioned Labyrinth. Now it seems like it's getting a Manga sequel. Well, Jareth did inspire the hairstyles of many a bishi, so it's a good meeting of format and subject. Will Toby succumb to temptation where his sister resisted?

They also promote a new competition. They've noticed that ordinary people are making geeky movies, and decide to encourage the process with their own little festival. Mind you, the deadline's a bit tight. It'll be tricky getting up a decent cast and props and editing and special effects and everything in less than a month.

And finally, on a more sobering note, we have an obituary for Tim Hildebrandt. Another person who had a longtime association with gaming checks out for good. The adventure is drawing to a close, and we'd better hope that there are people ready to take up the mantle.


Chicken Carcass Colossal dragon is amazing. So much so that it convinces the scanner to leave the ad in. I'm highly amused by this.


Off to see the Wizards: At the end of 2004, we had a bunch of little snapshots into the WotC design process for their products. They've changed their article style quite a bit since then and decide to give us a more extended look with plenty of photos. However, going into more detail also makes it very clear that the process of book design at WotC is like sausage making, and you don't really want to know about all the arguments, compromises and changes they have to make, which may make the product more solidly built, but also include changes from marketing which are purely for commercial considerations, and tradeoffs needed to hit deadlines that can put people under incredible pressure. People burn out as often as they get fired, and your best protection is having multiple manuscripts on the go at all times so they can't simply drop you without losing a ton of time or leaving those books unfinished. Even with the positive spin they try to put on it, they can't hide that it's not the most pleasant of workplaces. Still, you get to control the future of D&D, and that's more than worth it. And as long as there are tons of people trying to break in, it's not as if they'll have trouble replacing people who flag. So you'd better keep up those 12 hour workdays. Life's a bitch. Gimme another pen.


Full frontal nerdity know the rules all too well. Doesn't stop them from trying to bend them.

 

[(un)reason]

Well, I've finally started copying this stuff over to a more permanent and easily searchable format, http://periodicaly-mad.livejournal.com/ Each issue will be dated on the month it came out, which should make finding the entry you want really easy. If there's something you wanted to comment on, but didn't get the chance first time around, now you can.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 347: September 2006


part 3/6


Princes of elemental evil: The demonomicon has been bringing back plenty of old favourites, expanding upon them and upgrading them to fit with the new edition. Looks like they're spreading the love around a little more, with this piece on the big ugly elemental guys from the fiend folio. Let's see just how much character development they can manage to squeeze in between the big epic level statblocks this time, which is what'll keep the article useful for fans of any edition, not just 3e.

Cryronax looks less yeti-like and more alien than his old illustration. He remains the odd one out among the archomentals, with the desire to upset the natural order and turn the paraplane of ice into a full one. In doing so, he meddles with forces beyond even his power level, and who knows what might happen. You may well have to be the heroes forced into an alliance with other odd monsters that foil him this time.

Imix is still just a vaguely humanoid 18' tall firey pillar. He's the most impulsive of the archomentals, but he's hardly stupid, and you'll have trouble keeping up with him physically or mentally, or even surviving in his presence. He does have a fair few monsters under his command who can take the heat, including more than a few traitorous devils who find the plane of fire a good home from home. He just needs a little more organisation to pull off long-term schemes like them without getting distracted.

Ogremoch has definitely had a lot more work done on him since 1e, looking almost handsome instead of just a blank-eyed blob. He's the highest CR of them, and has plenty of interesting history tied into the old Rod of 7 Parts adventure. Anyone who underestimates his intelligence or malevolence just because he sometimes moves slowly is likely to regret it. Remember he can travel through the ground, so unless you can fly, you never know if he might be spying.

Olhydra is probably the closest of these to becoming an actual god, with a substantial cult of watery monsters. Unsurprisingly, this makes Imix very unhappy indeed, and they fight constantly to establish dominance. Since fire is vulnerable to water, it's obvious who would win in a direct confrontation. Which is why they put so much effort into the long-term schemes.

Yan-C-Bin remains invisible to all but the strongest magics, so an illustration is kinda irrelevant. He might be flighty and have his head in the clouds (badum-tish) but he does have some degree of honour. The many flying demons that follow him won't share that of course, so don't think you can get leverage over him unless you also have power. While it does fall into elemental stereotypes quite a bit this article does serve to give these guys more personality and history, while remaining true to what we've already seen of them in other modules. Erik's encyclopedic knowledge of D&D lore continues to be put to good use in the magazine. And it also leaves stuff open for a future article. Who are the elemental princes of good, and will we get to see their stats and story? Better submit fast, and see if they can get that through before the edition change.


Nodwick gets a half page strip in the middle again. This time, they try and teach him to fight. As if he wasn't doing enough of the work anyway. I think he should stick to henching. They'd probably have to up his rates if he learned how to fight.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 347: September 2006


part 4/6


Elemental hazards: One problem that crops up again and again when people talk about why they don't travel to other planes in their games is that of variety. To an outsider, another universe can seem like a one-note place, with the obvious feature it's named after drowning out everything else. This is not the case, as anyone who's ever studied lava flows, rock strata or the weather will tell you. And with the other elements mostly removed, the elemental planes are free to develop their dominant one into even more exotic forms. This article gives us a good dozen for each elemental plane. Some are hazardous, some are cool opportunities, and some are merely flavour encounters that spice up the visuals as you travel through, but they are mostly pretty interesting, and serve to show how other universes can still have an ecology despite the things there being very different. With three monstrous compendia devoted to the planes, I don't think we have trouble finding creatures for any but the most obscure ones, but this is still a handy niche to have filled, especially as they include random encounter tables so you can see how common each of these occurrences is by comparison to each other. Hopefully this'll put the accusations of elemental planes being boring to ground along with that of paladins all being the same, which the magazine has also done a good deal to refute.


Paraelemental paragons: Before we get to the regular columns, we round things off with a bit of boring symmetry filling. Stats for paraelemental monoliths, and parelemental templates to represent regular creatures native to those planes. Each is pretty much what you'd expect in terms of boosting stats and adding special abilities, with a scaling CR adjustment based on how many HD they have. Useful, but formulaic, this shows that not all their articles are going to include setting details, even though they have increased that quite a bit. At least the illustrations are good this time round.


The ecology of the elemental weird: Hmm. These guys have got a substantial revamp for the better in 3rd edition. Before that, they were just another lurking strangling monster, trapping you and gradually killing you. Now, their name seems appropriate to it's linguistic antecedents, with their new ties to the concepts of fate and prophecy. I really rather approve. Unlike with the inevitable one, despite technically tackling four creatures, they're closely connected enough this time that the ecology doesn't feel too thinly spread, and the new crunch is pretty decent, focussed as much on helping PC's as hindering them. And if you aren't happy with the changes made, they even give you stats for a creature closer to the old version of weirds. Win-win, really.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 347: September 2006


part 5/6


Bazaar of the Bizarre: My oh my. Don't tell me the Bazaar never got round to doing a special on elemental magic items before. They may not be producing them as frequently this year, but they are seriously cutting down on the rehash problem. That definitely deserves kudos. Hopefully the individual items will also find new niches to fill.

Boots of fire walking even let you walk on lava comfortably, rather better than advertised. Not many heroes who can do that. Take some positive steps.

Bracers of Whirlwind sound very engrish, but the ability to emulate a djinni is not to be sneezed at. Become a spellcaster and dress like one too, and pull wish scams for fun and profit.

Candles of Sweet Breezes are a way of eliminating manky air and poisonous gasses. One every dungeoneer should have, really, if the DM kicks it old skool. After all, rings of survival only save one person.

The Choker of the Sirens lets you breathe in water, sing hypnotically a la their namesake, and synergizes interestingly with a pearl of the sirens. Another pretty well designed device.

Elemental Elixir lets you turn into an elemental temporarily. I'm pretty sure this was a potion in the old edition too. Meh.

Gloves of Burrowing are another familiar power that's had several iterations in the past. Guess the good ideas couldn't keep on flowing.

Lascit's Aquatic Earring lets you talk to sea creatures both smart and dumb. Another fairly familiar idea with a slightly different specific application.

A Ring of Immolation yet again recycles an idea previously seen in the magazine. Put it on, burst into flame, enjoy the pain you get to inflict on others via physical contact.

Sling Boulders, on the other hand, I've only seen once before, in the 2e Tome of Magic. I think bringing back pebble to boulder in a more fighter friendly format is quite useful too.


Spellcraft: The bazaar may not have done elemental specials before, but our spell columns have had tons of them, both individual and collective. So I can't say I'm as excited about this as I was last article. They've combined it with another recent favourite. Eeeeevil spells. You know what that makes? Elemental Evil! Why, we've never had a whole module on that. [/innocent] Whoever came up with this rather good idea.

Blaze Bones allows you to sacrifice undead to make them temporarily more badass. Poor expendable minions. They try so hard for you and get no respect.

Burning Hate not only hurts, it brands you and makes you thoroughly dislikable. Another one for bad guys with lots of minions, given the way it works.

Caustic Disdain is pretty similar, with it's side effect making it hard for your allies to help you out. Yup, that's pretty evil alright. Good guys don't even need to try to turn the bad guys on one-another.

Cold of the Grave is essentially a souped up chill touch with range. A mixture of cold damage, negative energy damage, and strength drain, this seems very amenable to repeated uses. Probably better picked by a sorcerer then.

Liferot brings Zuggtmoy into the equation, infecting you with fungal nastiness. You know, she isn't elemental, she just likes to use them as a front.

Storm Slave gives you the option of slowly frying in electrical shackles, or becoming the willing slave of the caster. Now that is a nice dual purpose spell that combines the carrot and stick design to good effect.

Summon Avatar of Elemental Evil does exactly what it says n the tin. Big smashy thing come kill your enemies. Be careful it doesn't break control and smash you instead. Me-e-e e e-e-e eh.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 347: September 2006


part 6/6


Sage advice: What are the CR and ECL adjustments for awakened animals (Not that high, really, ssir.)

Does an awakened tree get skill and feats (No. Andy, thinkses not)

Do awakened undead gain any skills or feats (Only the ones indicated.)

What happens when you're dominated by multiple creatures (Opposed charisma checks whenever the orders conflict. Already taken care of, yess)

Will Evard's black tentacles attack you again if you break free (by the RAW, sseems sso)

Does evards black tentacles penetrate damage reduction (no, it ignores it, like mosst spells)

How do they work on the ethereal or astral (Not at all, unless you can find a ssolid surface for them to come from. Guessss you'll have to use ssomething else)

Can you detect explosive runes with detect magic (ass long as you don't read them, teeheeheehee)

Do you have to roll to stay balanced when you leave an area of grease (no)

Are you flat-footed in an area of grease (yess)

Do you have to check to stay balanced if you're hit in a greasy area (yess)

Can you use a full round action to move 5 foot without making a balance check (no)

Can you choose not to bring along objects you're holding when teleporting (Yess. Leave thosse chains behind.)

Can wish restore a disjoined magic item (yess, but extra expensively)

Can an intelligent magic item be disjoined (Yes. Nassty nassty Mordenkainen. We hatses him and his preciouss desstroying sspell)

Can you disjoin items in a bag of holding. (No, but you can disjoin the bag, and loose the items inside, yess.)

Does the size change from righteous might reduce your dex (no)


Palladium's crisis'll get no sympathy in here. You suck, guys.


Class acts: Adventurers get Wilderness Markers. Like the urban ones a few month ago, these might save your life, or they might be a trap set by monsters to help them get some easy meals. You never can tell.

Arcane gets Archaeologists. As I've said before, this is an important but neglected adventurer archetype. It may be a bit boring at times, but digging up ancient relics involves venturing to dangerous locations, dealing with the natives, and getting the items out safely. (and in a magical world, dealing with the items unearthed themselves. You never know when you're going to unseal a world destroying artifact and have to deal with the consequences.) This includes equipment, skill advice, and a bunch of new feats. A well rounded set of stuff to help build the character.

Divine gets Lost ones. Sometimes a character has doubts about their faith without losing it, and the powers granted by it entirely. Here's a whole bunch of alternate class features based around this idea. If you want a change, you can use the retraining rules to swap out old ones for new. You even have a good justification to swap them back after a while, if you tire of playing a conflicted grimdark wanderer. Another case where the fluff and crunch combine to good effect.

Warriors get the Ranger Guide. A quick compilation of all the tables and abilities that they regularly employ, this is another bit of filler that doesn't really add anything new. Only useful for people who can't remember a whole corebook.


Nodwick turns this into a console RPG. This disconcerts his party, quite rightly. Dork tower takes a leaf out of OotS's book and shows us the secret life of wandering monsters. Zogonia wrestle with the concept of justice in an uncaring world. OotS, yeah, has more in the secret life of wandering monsters. Yeah, this isn't quite working. You need to collapse that random pattern.


This issue also manages to balance things nicely between disconnected crunchy stuff and filling in and expanding upon D&D's default setting. That means it has stuff that's both instantly useful right now, and stuff that continuity geeks will still be referring back too decades later. You've got to think of your legacy, not just pleasing people right now at the expense of everything else, and it's interesting to see the magazine finally doing that instead of living very much in the now. Let's see what kind of mark they can make with their final year before it all gets rebooted anyway.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 348: October 2006


part 1/6


81 (100) pages. Pull yourself together man! Vecna really has not been paying enough attention to his corporeal body lately. It's a wonder he can still cast spells with somatic components at all. But then, again that's the kind of thing that makes undead scary. They defy the natural order and keep on going on raw willpower when it should be impossible. I can definitely empathise with that at this point. So let's see if our final october horror issue still has what it takes to scare me, 30 years on.


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


In this issue:


Editorial: 23 years ago, they first released the Ravenloft module. 3 years later, they did a sequel. 13 years ago, they remade it, bigger and better as House of Strahd, with an entire campaign world surrounding it. Now, here they go again for 3.5. And once again, they're hoping they've improved upon it both in size and ability to support different styles of play. It's not quite the same as it used to be, but then, they wouldn't want it to be. After all, they have learned a lot about game design since then, and technology lets them edit and lay out stuff with considerably greater sophistication. The danger is that like modern remakes of movies, it'll still wind up losing spirit in the process, even if the effects are better. And given the critical reception most of WotC's original modules get, I can't be too optimistic about this. Given their more rigorous design process, it's baffling that they manage to be so much worse at making memorable adventures than TSR was. I wish I knew why, and I'm sure the writers there do as well. Well, at least we can rule out shakycam. Oh well, on we go, and hope that even if 4e has failed at this, they'll manage to pull it off for Next when they finally get there.


Scale Mail: We start off with another letter from someone who found recent issues anticipated what they wanted to put in their game with spooky accuracy. It's nice when the designers are naturally on the same wavelength as the fans.

Another person not only loves what they're doing but wants to see the magazine bigger, and with more supplemental gubbins each month. If they can afford it, they'll do it. Remember, they do get an order of magnitude more submissions than they actually use.

And finally, in typically contrary fashion, we have someone who'd really like more fiction and cheesecake covers on the magazine. Since it turns out they do boost sales in the short term, you can expect to see them turn up again. Sex sells, and given the choice between money and political correctness, they'll still take the cash. You want to change that, vote with your wallet next time they cheese it up.