Dragon #298 contents: Drow, drow, drow...

[Flexor the Mighty!]

ugh...I'll have to read through the Greyhawk section at the store, maybe it's possible that there is enough there to make me want to buy it. Let me guess, the letters and Sage Advise sections only answer drow questions?

The last several issues have been...lacking IMO.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

Kabuki warriors

Were the Kabuki Warriors a prestige classes article designed around animals? If so, I am proud to say my husband did that one. We called it something different, because he based it on the 5 basic Shaolin animals plus an extra(mantis, I think). We weren't sure it was going in this one since it was all about Drow. Espescially since they were designed with mostly Barbarians, Druids and Monks in mind(although most anyone could take them).

Jennifer Younts

 

[Aitch Eye]

Of course you have to talk about evil a bit more often than maybe you'd like, because for DMs creating compelling villains is a crucial task.

If they'd done an issue entirely about all different sorts of evil, I wouldn't have complained. It's the one note of the evil that gets on my nerves. The first article very dramatically sets up how from before birth a drow is caught in a cycle of predation, murder, torture and degredation imposed on them by their goddess. It sets out very well the psychology of the race that results from it, and how nearly impossible it is for a member of the race to break free of evil. There's no doubt in your mind at the end of it that they are, quite clearly, the most awful people in the world.

And then you get another article on them. And on the stuff they use to be so awful. And an article on an organization of their enemies, which while interesting, still brings the subject back to them. And then there's a city of the awful people. And the heroic struggles of an outcast clan of them to be in a position to be really awful again.

I'd just like an issue that doesn't constantly remind me of malignant sadistic sexual and quasi-sexual pratices. Destroying planets, working entire populations to death to build giant statues of alien warlords, brain eating -- you know, variety -- that would have been fine.

 

[Desdichado]

Oh, well that's different. I guess I can see your point.

 

[Aitch Eye]

Re: Kabuki warriors

Were the Kabuki Warriors a prestige classes article designed around animals?

Actually, they're performers who use garish costumes, quips, sleight of hand, jugling, and illusion to distract, confuse, and trick their opponents. And humilliate them. It's obviously oriented towards bards and bard/fighters, though they mention that monk/illusionists are common, and there are some sorcerer/rogues.

I was quite taken with it, it's one of very few PRCs I'd consider playing. The Dragon Warrior was nice as well. The suggestions for using them in non-oriental campaigns are viable.

 

[Aitch Eye]

Oh, well that's different.

You're right. It wasn't really implicit in my initial rant. I should have been clearer.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

Re: Re: Kabuki warriors

The Dragon Warrior was nice as well. The suggestions for using them in non-oriental campaigns are viable.

Can you tell me the name of the author of the "dragon warrior" article?

Is it Patrick Younts?

Second, if you don't mind, can you tell me a bit more mechanically about it? If it is my PrC, when I submitted it, it was actually seven classes in one, using a single 10 level class progression to give out special abilities for characters based on the seven classic kung fu animal styles:

dragon, crane, snake, leopard, tiger, monkey and mantis.

If it's been reduced down to just Dragon, and the powers are altered, well......

that will take me right out of my happy place.

Thanks,

Patrick Younts.

 

[Aitch Eye]

The author was Cifford Horowitz. It was adapted from the real-time strategy game Battle Realms, which deals with the last of the Dragon clan nobility.

As for the class, they meditate to control the spirit of the Dragon within them. This allows them to give their swords the flaming enhancement and rage a certain number of times per day. They get a deflection bonus, damage reduction, and spell resistance through "Chi shield." Eventually they can become an avatar of the Dragon spirit. The abilities tend to be tied to their wisdom bonus.

I hope that's enough to go on.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

The author was Cifford Horowitz. It was adapted from the real-time strategy game Battle Realms, which deals with the last of the Dragon clan nobility.

As for the class, they meditate to control the spirit of the Dragon within them. This allows them to give their swords the flaming enhancement and rage a certain number of times per day. They get a deflection bonus, damage reduction, and spell resistance through "Chi shield." Eventually they can become an avatar of the Dragon spirit. The abilities tend to be tied to their wisdom bonus.

I hope that's enough to go on.

Thanks.

That actually doesn't sound like the class I wrote, which, given how different it is from my manuscript, is a good thing. Sounds like a pretty good PrC class though.

Huh.

My contract says issue #298. I guess they must have bumped my article.

Maybe it will be in #300. That would be cool.

Or, for the glass half-empty side of me, maybe they just hate me and they killed the article and are, even now, making plans to dance on my grave.

Ok. Probably not.

Thank you Aitch Eye


Patrick Younts.

 

[Tewligan]

(By the way, if you're using albino drow, be sure to check out the editorial. It's about Andy Collins using "pale-skinned, spider-eyed, demon elves" that were "in game terms, identical to drow" but gave a far different feeling to the game.)

Gasp! That gives me an idea. I wonder how it would look on a miniature to smooth over the eye sockets with putty, then add multiple spider eyes to it. I think i'll dig up an elf fig and give it a try this week. Man, somebody call the police - I'm stealing stuff for my drow like crazy from the threads on here.