Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Annual 2000


part 5/7


Mentors: Don't tell me we haven't had an article about mentors before? Really?! Well, I suppose it's another one of those things I've never really used in my games, despite this writer thinking they're an essential part of a story. It's never something I've had personally, as I've always wound up doing most of my learning from books or original research rather than a teacher, so of course my perspective on it would be an outsiders one. And this shows that as long as you avoid the pitfall of the mentor being a deus ex machina who could easily do the jobs they're sending the PC's on themselves, there's plenty of plot options you can open up by having a mentor or two for your PC's. (having multiple particularly helps, as it gets the message through much faster that they're not infallible, and their goals probably aren't purely altruistic. ) They can run the gamut from accessible to mysterious, slightly more experienced (but possibly with age or combat based injuries that keep them from the front line anymore) to godlike, heroic to secretly malevolent and manipulative. So this article is very aware of both the upsides and downsides to including a mentor in your campaign, and does quite a bit to help you get good results out of doing so. Plus it's another good example of how they've actually reduced rehash after the revamp.


101 evil schemes: We've already had 20 adventure seeds this issue. Here's 101 more! How very generous of them. These aren't railroady either, ands many of them won't be combat heavy at all. Of course, they're just stat free synopses, so you'll still have to do all the heavy lifting yourself, and some of them are definitely aimed at higher level characters. Still, quite a few of them inspired a good old muahaha in me, and they are pretty interesting ideas, avoiding or subverting the obvious plot ideas. This issue is definitely racking up enough stuff to keep your campaign running for quite a while.


Class acts: Oh dear. Another attack of hyperstereotyping this issue with the Gnome Trickster. Once again we run into the same design flaw that Mystics suffered from. They have lots of powers that enhance their illusion magics, but no actual spell progression. This means that they'll end up with fewer, less powerful spells than an illusionist who simply sucks up the metamagic feats to enhance their spells. They really are still making the most elementary design errors. In other words, this fails from both a flavour and an optimization point of view. No way I'd take it even if I did want to play that archetype.


The royal heralds: A second prestige class in quick succession. Heralds were quite an interesting Bard Kit last edition, sacrificing skill in ancient lore for being in touch with the pulse of the streets and knowing tons of languages. I'm not surprised they were popular enough to be brought back. As with that incarnation, there's a certain emphasis on the james bond shenanigans, where they're suave and well versed in international etiquette, but also get up to behind the scenes adventures as well. They are a lot more combat focussed than before though, with full sneak attack progression, and uncanny dodge as per a rogue. They get spontaneous spellcasting of about the same level as an Assassin or Blackguard, which means a Bard moving into this will have tons of low level spells rather than progressing to mid level ones. In general, they're somewhere between rogue and bard, and will be useful if you want to concentrate on this particular subset of their powers rather than multiclassing between the two and having to pick up extra class features you might not use. So this isn't quite as flavourful as last edition, but not terrible either.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Annual 2000


part 6/7


Nodwick is taken over by John Kovalic. Not as convincingly as phil's try, though.


Class combo's: We saw the second instalment of this out of order last time round. Now I get a good look at the proper introduction. Now, there are advantages to taking certain classes at 1st level, particularly rogue and barbarian, but even they'll be offset by the fact that you're not completely specialising in whatever you want to do, which is particularly important for spellcasters. Taking a level or two in fighter or ranger later on can also offer advantages to a build, as these classes are particularly front-loaded at the moment. Even splitting, on the other hand, is one of the worst things you can do, despite it being encouraged by the xp penalty system. Despite that, nearly half of these are even splits, as they try to give us the obvious iconic multiclass options first. Champion (1/3 fighter, 2/3 cleric) Nature's Champion (1/4 ranger, 3/4 druid) Scout (1/2 ranger, 1/2 rogue) Skald (1/2 Barbarian, 1/2 Bard, another resurrection of an obvious kit from 2e) Spellfilcher (1/3 Rogue, 2/3 Wizard) Spellsword (1/3 fighter 2/3 wizard) and Tracker (1/2 Barbarian 1/2 Ranger) Note how it's already the part spellcaster builds that skew unevenly towards them. While I can see the value in trying to get people to fulfil their character concepts by working within the existing class system rather than creating their own, this series seems likely to suffer diminishing returns very quickly, as while you can create near infinite combinations, the obvious ones will disappear quite quickly. I can't see it having that long a lifespan.


The ecology of the Feyr: Paranoia. Mistrust of the enemy among us. A theme that would go up in profile quite a bit this decade. They don't know that yet, but that doesn't mean this doesn't work. This is one of those ecologies where the narrator is in cahoots with the monster, and giving out the information to stir up further trouble. Which is, of course, just what the feyr thrives upon. Once again, they also use this magazine as a way to update creatures that didn't make it into the monster manual. Is this going to become a regular thing? In any case, this is a competent but not particularly groundbreaking ecology.


Forgotten realms 2000: Here's some mechanical updates for the Realms to complement the setting ones earlier. Can't wait for the corebook to come out? Here's the spheres for the gods, conversions for 13 magical items, a spell, and all the subraces that we've come to know and love. Plus there's the new stuff. Three sample regional feats, including Luck of Heroes, which show that yes, the power creep is small, but has already started. And a relaxing of the multiclassing rules on monks and paladins, as followers of specific gods get special exemptions appropriate to their portfolios. They're not going to stay bound by the standards they established in the corebooks. The realms has always been a high power setting, and they don't see why they should stop now. I mildly disapprove. They should at least stick to their guns long enough to see where the problems are before patching them, otherwise they'll just make new ones. Let the flamewars ……. continue.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Annual 2000


part 7/7


Rogues gallery: Oh, don't tell me the Cult of the Dragon are making another doomed attempt at world domination. You're always going to be the second stringers as Realms villains go. But they try harder, and this time they're going multimedia! Yes, it's time for the stats of characters from a novel based on a computer game. If anything is going to cause conversion confusion, it's a chain of events like that. It's also likely to cause very rapid levelling up, given both the nature of computer game grinding and the new 3e advancement rules. Which means these stats are only accurate for a very short portion of the novel. Makes you wonder why they bothered, if your PC's are never going to get to encounter them in this stage of their development without screwing with the established timeline.

Kestrel is the embittered self-reliant rogue, who has to learn how to get along with her companions if they're to succeed against all the trials ahead. That's pretty predictable. Now, what kind of person would a girl like that wind up in conflict with?

Oh, surprise surprise. Corran D'arcey is a lawful dick noble-born paladin who has to learn actual compassion and understanding for those who didn't have the same opportunities and easy childhood he did. He tends to be bossy as well, which means he's also going to have to do some serious character arcing to do.

Ghleanna Stormlake is a somewhat animeish looking half-elf who contrasts quite a bit with her more rugged companions. As one of the new breed of sorcerers, she's a mystery to even Elminster. (at least, until the Simbul gets retconned into one. ) Like most sorcerers, she's a misfit despite her high charisma, and has turned into a mediator in an attempt to stave off further abuse. Which means she gets to be right in the middle when the previous two butt heads. Yick. This is starting to remind me of my old band.

Durwynn is the straight fighter of the team. This means he's the quiet one who gets along with everyone, and has a surprising number of good ideas. Every group needs a no-nonsense, no drama guy who shows up on time and gets the job done. Otherwise this group would have died long before they got to this level.


Aaron Williams completes the artistic round robin by doing What's New. In theory, anyway. Phil & Dixie are reduced to cameos in their own comic. Stick to the script, people!


This is a pretty good annual, which has a lot of information about how they're developing the new edition, plus a decent amount of system free stuff as well. Once again, the Realms gets the lions share of the attention, making Greyhawk and everyone else look a little neglected, but as long as the information itself is good, I can survive that. They just have to make sure that the setting has progressed enough that when they cover various regions again in the new edition, it doesn't just feel like a retread, without alienating people, and hopefully winning a few new fans as well. And the same applies to the generic game as well. So let's see what supplements 2001 brings, and how they're received by the readers. There's tons of space to fill, and with the d20 system coming in, more competition than ever. WotC'll have to work hard to make sure their offerings are still the best.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 279: January 2001


part 1/7


116 pages. Elves get a themed issue straight after Dwarves? My degree of surprise is infinitesimal. Thought you'd get complaints if you waited even a couple of months to heighten the anticipation? Probably right too. Let's see if they'll be getting twinked new crunch, or just fluffy system free articles that could have been submitted any time in the past few years. Even with a life as long as theirs, you don't want to hang around getting bored.


Scan Quality: Good, unindexed, a few colouring glitches.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: Straight away, we talk about the difficulty of accurately portraying creatures that have such long lifespans. Sometimes they suffer from ennui. Sometimes they're aloof, as they don't want to be hurt when their shorter-lived companions keep on dying. Sometimes they're perpetual kids, playful and whimsical throughout eternity no matter how much gets thrown at them. Sometimes they're just plain alien. Who's to say which is most accurate, given that they're purely fantasy creatures anyway. I once again wish we would hurry up and create life extension methods, so we can see how people do act when given the promise of eternity in a young healthy body as long as they don't get killed by violence or accident. Let's avoid the accusations of badwrongfun until then, shall we. It might make sense for real world genders and ethnicities, but you aren't going to get the Elf Liberation Front jumping down your throat if you portray them wrong.


Scale Mail: We start off with someone who's pleased with the quality of the articles recently, but not the layout. Yeah, they've been getting that a lot. They're still fiddling with it, trying to get something that looks distinctive without enraging people.

Second, we have someone annoyed at graphic visuals in their adverts. What a bunch of wusses. Let them spend their money. It does not mean you have to buy the stuff advertised, or even pay any attention too it.

We then have someone raging about the canon police. Do not create new climate or terrain types for your monsters to dwell in? What kind of instruction is that?! Unless the existing ones are sufficiently broad as to be all-inclusive, that's a rule that begs to be broken.

Another person joins the ranks of those who think there's too much forgotten realms stuff in the magazine. Sorry. It started there, and it's not giving up it's place without a fight. If you really want to beat it, you need to control your own means of distribution.

On the other hand, we've got some happy customers as a result of the steampunk issue. Thank god for that, given all the complaints Alternity got in it's final year.

They also seem to be happy about the introduction of prestige classes. Oh, don't worry, you'll be seeing waaaay more of those, until you're mighty sick of them. Actually, I ought to count up how many kits 2e did, so I can see when they get overtaken in the magazine by prestige classes. Gimme a few hours.
Hmm. I count 159. They need to average slightly under 2 per issue to beat that before the magazine ends. The target is set.

We then have a complaint about agism in the magazine. Since Gary's the founder of D&D, everyone else is a young'un in his eyes. Don't read too much into it.

An amusing letter in which they like the new edition, but feel like they're betraying the old one by switching. Love is a many splendored, and often silly thing. Don't worry, you can do both on different days.

The rage mage gets it's errata sorted out. Silly writers copy and pasting without changing things.

And finally, the German correspondent returns another positive verdict, and asks when they'll be doing some psionic stuff for the new edition. Not long, not long at all. It's always had a fairly good niche, so it's one of the first things they scheduled. Bust busy busy.

 

[Orius]

Class combo's: We saw the second instalment of this out of order last time round. Now I get a good look at the proper introduction.

It perhaps wasn't out of order, because the Annual issues were published between the November and December issues IIRC. So the subscribers would have gotten this issue first.

Aaron Williams completes the artistic round robin by doing What's New. In theory, anyway. Phil & Dixie are reduced to cameos in their own comic. Stick to the script, people!

I kind of disapprove of the way Williams handled this one. Kovalic already did his take on Nodwick after all, and in fairness, this should have been a What's New strip with the Nodwick cast making the punchline. All in all, I think Phil handled his bit the best.

Dragon Issue 279: January 2001
Elf Liberation Front

Going with the recursive acronyms, are we?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 279: January 2001


part 2/7


PROfILES :sigh: Anyway, let's not dwell on the endless format stupidity. Jason Carl is our latest man in the spotlight. He's done modules for Dragonlance, the Forgotten realms, White Wolf, and various LARPing stuff. But his current job is splatbooks. Yes, he's won the enviable job of kicking off the supplement treadmill for the new edition. Which means he gets to design lots of new feats and prestige classes with which to bloat your options and upset the carefully considered balance of the game. He is not unaware of this danger, making sure he listens to the input of other writers and editors, making sure that while the system increases in versatility and depth, it doesn't get too far out of hand in the upwards direction. This one does get bogged down rather in the technical exploration and talk about the new edition, not giving me that much of a picture of the person behind it, outside his work. But then, many of the staff don't seem to have much of a life outside their work. The best they can manage is to choose what music they're listening too while writing. It's another thing that's a bit of a pain in the ass.


Up on a soapbox: Gary gets his act together, and returns with another plan after several months off. He's going to talk about exactly what a roleplaying game is. He's broken it up into a whole list of elements (not all of which will fit into a given campaign) and wants us to rate how important each of them are to us. This gives him well over a year's worth of material to talk about if he decompresses it as much as possible, and plenty of things for him to express interesting opinions on. And since he does have pretty interesting opinions, I'm definitely looking forward to reading future instalments in this series. Will he be be insightful, or in pontificating windbag mode?


Previews: The splatbook mill starts to really turn with Sword and Fist: A guidebook to Fighters and Monks. Lot's of new feats, prestige classes, and all that shininess. The first one I really remember, I suspect this'll sell rather more than the adventures. Speaking of adventures, this month's one is The Speaker in Dreams. They step out of the dungeon and back to the city for a little political fun. Can you get your players to play investigator properly?

Our novels this month are both rehash. Dragons of a Fallen Sun moves to paperback, or something, while Legacy of the Drow sees more of Drizzt's adventures compiled in omnibus form. Not a very interesting result really.


Nodwick becomes the bearer of puerile news. He may be shot for it, but nothing a little duct tape can't fix.


Countdown to the forgotten realms: 5 months to go. A very short article this month, giving us a bunch of little updates to the setting and timeline. The Red Wizards have set up magical shops, trying to take over via commerce rather than force. This seems to be working, making them a little less carton bad guys. The North has formed it's own league of nations to make things a little more civilised. Unther has lost it's god king and been invaded by Mulhorand. Oh, and the Simbul has always been a Sorcerer, not a wizard. Well, someone had to be, and of all the powerful spellcasters Ed's done over the years, she's one of the most unpredictable and primal, so it's a good fit. Any objections to these changes? No? Let's move on then.


Dork tower sends in the filk. Be afraid.


Leaf & thorn: Robin Laws decides he's got plenty to say about elves as well as dwarves. And he doesn't hesitate to contradict some of the stuff in the complete book of elves, cutting the time they spend pregnant from 7 1/2 years to a mere 12 months. But they're still very much better than you in all sorts of ways. They're in touch with nature and the cosmos, stick to the big rules but don't sweat the small stuff, can have sex without all that stupid worrying about if the other person is really attracted to you or not, and then move on easily when it's over, get to learn naturally at their own pace, and then accept death when it comes magnanimously. As pretty pure fanboyism, this is the first thing he's written I don't like. They do have problems as well, you know, not that this talks about them. Otherwise they'd completely dominate the world, which they don't seem too. Remove a good chunk of the saccharine, and call me again next month.

 

[(un)reason]

It perhaps wasn't out of order, because the Annual issues were published between the November and December issues IIRC. So the subscribers would have gotten this issue first.

In that my reviews are out of order, not that they released them out of order.

I kind of disapprove of the way Williams handled this one. Kovalic already did his take on Nodwick after all, and in fairness, this should have been a What's New strip with the Nodwick cast making the punchline. All in all, I think Phil handled his bit the best.

This certainly proved who the most technically adept artist of the trio is, whatever you think of the jokes.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 279: January 2001


part 3/7


Revenge of the spider queen: Well, this is different. Enough monsters, spells and magic items presented in isolation. How about a team of bad guys designed to work together, so the PC's can face them as a unit, complete with lots of tactical notes. We hardly saw any of those in 2e, and their rise is one aspect of 3rd and 4th edition that I quite approve of. They take a lot more work to build right than individual monsters, so some good examples are welcome. So let's start off with one of Lolth's personal strike forces, dispatched throughout the multiverse to fulfil missions for her. Which means you have a good reason to encounter them nearly anywhere, particularly in the underdark. The individual members are scary enough on their own too, making them suitable solo foes for lower level parties. Plenty of use for this then, and it should be a while before we reach saturation point if they do articles like this regularly.

Sierona is a succubus rogue, and sneakiness combined with demonic spell-like powers makes her very capable of getting that sneak attack bonus damage. She's very much into a little bondage and torture, which means the highest cha male of the party might be spared for a fate worse than death. Course, at the level you'll be facing them, that gives you a chance to escape and raise everyone else. That seems like an appropriately tricky second chance.

Phauman is a drow Fighter/Wizard who uses his spells primarily for buffing in combat. He thinks he's a ladies man, but with a mediocre charisma and wisdom, and no ranks in appropriate skills, he's really not. Catch him before he has time to power up and get him angry, and your chances of winning are massively improved.

Vinter is a Drider cleric, showing that Lolth can be forgiving on occasion, if it annoys someone else enough. He's very much the support character, buffing and healing the others, making them even harder to take down. A party that hasn't mastered the same kind of tactical efficiency will struggle even if they are higher level.

Krad is a half-fiend Dragonne. As he's part of a party that are vulnerable to it, his roar isn't so useful, but he will give you a good blast of horrid wilting to soften you up before melee. And as he has by far the most HP, he might well be the last monster standing, at which point that consideration goes out the window. Knowing your enemy and being prepared definitely seems like a good idea again.

Berkurt the Corrupter is a fiendish Stone Giant, and while big, is actually the weakest member of the team, with no real magic or particularly cool items. Still, a 30 strength is not to be sneezed at, especially when combined with smite good. He could still smash up a low level party all on his own.

Jaggedra Thul is easily the most powerful here, a Vampire half-dragon Drow Cleric who's stacked templates bring her up to CR 22. Monte is really enjoying exploiting the system he created here, and her statblock is as large as I'd expect for a high level character like this. More than half of her description is devoted to the buffs she'll use in combat as well. She's going to be an almighty pain in the ass to fight alright. This party could well beat even a group of 20th level PC's if they aren't careful. Monte definitely deserves some credit for doing the first 3e article really aimed at high level players.


The elven marketplace: While elves are well known for their magical skill, they can also produce quite a few notable nonmagical items too, such as lembas, and elven chain. While not as technologically minded as dwarves, they do have a long time to get good at whatever they choose to do, and so their craftworks tend to be very elegant indeed. This is another short article, and manages to squeeze in 5 new arrow types, 5 bits of general equipment, and two variant armor types made from natural materials. All are somewhat superior to regular ones, but way more expensive. Which is a way to maintain balance I suppose. No surprises here.


The myth of elves: Or here, which is another 3 page article that does exactly the same as it's counterpart last issue, recounting stories from centuries past, and how elves have changed in them. Really, they're not particularly nice a lot of the time, and even when they are, they're still inscrutable and magically capable. (except when they're reduced to comic relief) Trusting them doesn't seem like the best of ideas. But at least you have tons of quite different sources to draw upon, including quite a lot of books I've never got round to reading. Yet again, I can see the use of this, but don't find it very enthralling. I can once again say I generally prefer the longer articles to the short ones.

 

[(un)reason]

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.

 

[Sanglorian]

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