Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 302: December 2002


part 5/10


Silicon sorcery: This column is both moved forward, and way bigger than normal, as they do a good round of backconversions from Neverwinter Nights. They have a whole range of interesting new golems for you to fight, which aren't of the "pick a new material" variety either. Let's see if they're as inventive as prime Ed material, or just more enemies for the sake of variety.

Glyph Guardians are golems further enhanced with magical runes, so they can zap enemies with energy rays and trap them in stasis for their bosses to deal with later. Their only drawback is that this limits their range of travel, you you know you can definitely run away if you're not strong enough to take them.

Old One Guardians are variant iron golems from a vanished civilisation. Instead of breathing poison gas, they produce a firey aura and elemental storms to make your life miserable. Like the regular ones, they're strong and dumb, and immune to nearly all magic, so you're going to have to bring the raw force to beat them.

Battle Horrors look like golem genies, top half the usual heavy construct, tapering off into glowing energy. Since that means they can fly with perfect maneuverability, they're a lot harder to get away from than most dumb constructs. Still, at least the glow means you can always see them coming.

Minogons are golems powered by bound minotaur spirits. This means they have extra damaging charge attacks, and can rage and stun with their roar. Still, unlike clay golems, they don't actually break free, which is a relief to their creator. All of these have pretty decent visual setups and aren't completely derivative, so I don't object to them.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Yet more magical armors. These are interesting though, as they're aimed at spellcasters. As our long-term ecologist points out, it would make more sense if they designed stuff for their own benefit, not some annoying trompy fighter. Let's see what the selfish spellcaster can do to save their own life.

Armor of Healing doesn't actually provide any AC bonus, but casts healing spells on you in quick succession. This probably won't save your life in a protracted fight against lots of bad guys, but is certainly better than nothing. Just make sure you have a cleric around to recharge it.

Flame Armor uses up lots of item slots, which makes it a lightly iffy choice. If you have nothing better to put there, a burning shield is a good deal better than nothing. Grapple the enemy to get the most of it's effects.

Fog Armor billows around you, and can grant concealment, or give you gaseous form. Since concealment scales differently from regular armor, this is valuable for both spellcasters and fighters.

Liquid Armor takes suntan lotion, adds woad, and makes it a hell of a lot more protective. A bit gross really. As it only lasts an hour too, I don't think this is really worth it.

Retractable Armor appears and dissappears with but a word. Exactly what that means ruleswise is not sufficiently specified. Obviously it would be a lot more useful if you can make it disappear and reappear again as free actions in the same round, only making yourself vulnerable while actually casting. Sloppy writing.

Retribution Armor splits damage between you and your attacker. Not as good as full on-reflection like we've seen in the past. Another one that works well fighting one-on-one, but swarming enemies'll take you down without too much trouble.

Stalagmite Armor lets you turtle, hiding you in caves with rather more safety than a mushroom cap. It'd be more useful if you could actually see out to know when to turn back. Once again the flaws of the items seem rather more significant than most articles of this kind. Here comes the slide towards the more brutal nerfings of 3.5 & 4e.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 302: December 2002


part 6/10


Elminster's guide to the Realms: This month's bit of Realms trivia is a trio of card games, giving it somewhat more universal applicability than just giving us yet another location would. Guess the place got a little more able to cater to people who want something on every detail of their imaginary world, because I don't remember them doing this before, despite Ravenloft getting a fair bit of card stuff back in the 90's. All these variants can be played with a regular deck, and are simple enough to fit into a column of text, so this is very usable indeed. Like info on food, musical instruments, or wedding arrangements, you never know when it'll come up, and you'll be glad to have this to reference.


Rogues gallery: Another column that's taken a break over the past year, the Gallery looks quite different this time around. But it's still completely Realms centric. And surprise surprise, they're busy with metaplot events. Involving Drow. Not content with two successful series featuring exiled drow, they're now producing one centered on Menzoberranzan itself. Milk that cash cow! Still, this means the guys statted up are suitably chaotic evil and unburdened by angst. You can extract them to use in your games and have your players kill them guilt free.

Pharaun Mizzrym is one of the head wizards of the Sorcere academy. This of course means he has tons of enemies, and no respect from the priestesses, despite being an absolute badass. Mind you, if Drow respect you, that probably doesn't bode well in the long run either. I suspect he won't die peacefully in bed.

Jeggred is a half demon, (Glabrezu to be precise, if his characteristics are anything to go by ) borne by one of Lolth's priestesses and raised to be her personal attack dog. He's not exactly stupid, but his physical attributes are his strong point, and he knows which side his bread's buttered on. As long as he gets plenty of opportunities to shred and slaughter, he's unlikely to turn on his mum. The family that slays together stays together.

Quenthel Baenre is the second in command priestess, with only her sister standing in the way of supreme rulership. She did get killed by Drizzt once, but this hasn't stopped her. Someone powerful must be genuinely loyal to her, which is a bit unusual around here. Of course, you can only fail so many times. Whether she'll get to the top or not will probably be answered over the course of the novels.

Gromph Baenre is her brother, and right at the top of the wizardly heirarchy. Nepotism is alive and well down in Menzoberranzan. With 22 spellcaster levels, he's comfortably brushing epic capabilities, and relatively content with his lot. After all, he trained most of the people beneath him, and knows where all the bodies are buried. You'll have to work pretty hard to get one up on him. I think getting in outsiders, like say PC's would be a scheming drow's best shot.

 

[LordVyreth]

Gromph Baenre is her brother, and right at the top of the wizardly heirarchy. Nepotism is alive and well down in Menzoberranzan. With 22 spellcaster levels, he's comfortably brushing epic capabilities, and relatively content with his lot. After all, he trained most of the people beneath him, and knows where all the bodies are buried. You'll have to work pretty hard to get one up on him. I think getting in outsiders, like say PC's would be a scheming drow's best shot.

Man, I don't care how many epic spells you have or how many drow you had to gut to get to the position, I'm never going to terrified of a wizard named GROMPH. Well, not a drow wizard, at least. Maybe an uncharacteristic ogre or troll wizard with that name would work.

 

[(un)reason]

Man, I don't care how many epic spells you have or how many drow you had to gut to get to the position, I'm never going to terrified of a wizard named GROMPH. Well, not a drow wizard, at least. Maybe an uncharacteristic ogre or troll wizard with that name would work.

it needs more apostrophes at the very least.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 302: December 2002


part 7/10


Fiction: The hostile dark by Robert E Vardeman. Our first bit of fiction in quite a while that isn't part of a series or set in a D&D campaign world. It's a bit of a throwback, as two rogues are sent on a mission by a mysterious wizard to the end of the earth, and definitely owes a lot to Lankhmar in particular in the interplay of the characters. They call the big city their home, but venture out of it regularly in search of adventure. They even lost their first loves in very similar fashion. And they wind up facing an interesting monster, winning by wits, coming back, and getting a reward that really isn't worth it, leaving them pretty much in the same position for the next adventure in the same way as them too. So yeah, this is derivative to the point that it could be Fafhrd & Mouser fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off for publication. If you're hungry that kind of S&S story, it'll satisfy your appetite for a bit, but it's not as good as the originals.


Campaign news: Yet more changes for the next year, as they try to juggle the conflicting mandates of making the rules fun, balanced, and simple enough to be easily followed. Most of these are to the magic item purchasing system, which they're making quite a bit more restrictive if you ain't got the feats to build your own. People were apparently twinking out quite egregiously, and that had to stop. Can't say I'm too surprised. Magic Marts get pretty frequent complaints on forums from people who don't want them in their game. Of course they'd cause problems when put into large scale organised play. Course, this will result in a lot of complaints, but that's just something they'll have to deal with. This is why starting restrictive and then gradually loosening up with more options is easier to implement than adding more restrictions onto a game once it's already going.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 302: December 2002


part 8/10


Masks of iron: Another organisation and associated prestige class here this month. Johydee is one of Oerth's more obscure gods, apart from one fairly famous artifact, she hasn't done much over the years. OR HAS SHE? Yup, these guys are another group of harper wannabees, secret do-gooders working behind various aliases and making the world a better place with trickery and careful information gathering. Perfect PC material, really. The prestige class is an all-rounder with a mix of roguish skills and clerical magic, going up to 5th level spells (with a fairly limited selection) at 10th level. Since they gain both magical and mundane information gathering and deception techniques, they should actually be pretty good at that, not foiled by the first high level diviner who takes an interest, and since they're pretty versatile, they seem a good choice for a solo adventure. Plus they make great mysterious mission giving mentors at lower level. I think they definitely have their uses. To make sure the truth gets out (without dying in the process), you have to know how the liars hide it.


Dungeoncraft: Monte gets into the swing of Encounter centric advice with some on the right way to run large combats. The important thing here is not to let things turn into a grind. Make sure you have the basic details down nice and tight, so you don't get bogged down by looking up rules, and then get a rollin. Don't sweat the small stuff, don't let anyone spend too much time obsessing over tactics, as after all, in a real pitched battle you don't get much time to think, and adrenalin does make people do silly things, and don't fudge rolls, because fights are more dramatic and tense when the players know they're both in real danger, and can win quickly if they pull off a clever masterstroke against the enemies. And when it becomes obvious who's winning, don't let it degenerate into a grind to the death, let people surrender, run away, or other such ideas that are more likely to result in interesting plots further along the line. Since Monte is one of those writers who still finds time to play regularly as well, I think we can be pretty sure that this approach works for him. Previous editions worked best with playing a little fast and loose with the rules because you'd find contradictory bits that locked up the game if you tried to apply everything literally, while 3e works better with a little looseness because otherwise it slows to a crawl at higher levels. Both are results you need to avoid if you want a long-running campaign. So we're starting to get some useful specific advice here, and a decent new perspective. Looks like there may be life in the old column yet.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 302: December 2002


part 9/10


The play's the thing is taken over by Mike Mearls, and does the usual thing after a changeover where they deliver some blates obv's bit o' info like it's the coolest new idea EVARS! This time it's our good old friends reskinning and tweaking the descriptions of spells, to keep players from becoming too jaded and taking them for granted. Seen that before with spells, seen that before with monsters, both done larger, more playfully, and with better artwork. While not a bad idea, this is definitely a case where since I'm a long-term reader, the article is simply redundant, because it doesn't bring anything new to the table, and by reminding me of past glories like issue 200's article on exactly the same topic, also shows how much more rigid they've become, with the ideas here hewing more closely to the RAW descriptions of the spells than the old ones. Wake me up when you've burnt through the basic stuff and have some more idiosyncratic advice to offer us like Robin sometimes did.


This years statement of ownership shows that they've leveled off after the sharp rise of the last couple of years, and may be starting to decline again. With an average of just below 73k and a last month just below 74, they've obviously been having some interesting month to month fluctuations we don't get to see. Will they stay steady for the next few years, or will the transfer to paizo hurt consumer confidence and result in another sudden drop? At least the number of freebies has been cut in half, anyway.


DM's toolbox: Johnn returns, with another piece on using prefab adventures in your game. Guess they're having another push on that idea in the hope it'll boost supplement sales. Still, the worst thing you can do is just start running them blind and hope it'll all work out as they go from one room to the next. Instead, you should at least read it through beforehand and figure out how to fit it into your campaign world, and doing stuff like adjusting the stats and printing out loose-leaf handouts for the players'll help even more. I think this falls into the category of completely common sense advice that everyone ought to know, but we all sometimes forget, (presuming you use modules in the first place) because life is busy, and sometimes you don't have time to properly prepare. Efficient and clean, but not particularly interesting yet again.


Nodwick discovers the first magic ever used. The conjurers guild are going to be smug about this for years.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 302: December 2002


part 10/10


Sage advice goes Epic. Does this mean it'll take ages? Certainly no shortage of problems to address with that book.

Do you improve your BAB or not after level 20 (Yes, but you don't get any more iterative attacks. )

Can you apply more than 20 points to power attack at epic levels (Yes. This can get pretty heavy.)

Does epic prowess increase your BAB. (No.)

Do epic weapon focus and specialization stack with the regular one (Yes)

Do epic save bonuses stack with regular ones (They're untyped, so yeah. )
If a bonus is untyped, does it have a type ( Divide by zero error. Please reboot skipbot 2000)

What bonuses do the great (ability) feats grant (They don't. They increase your actual rating. So confusing.)

Can a non epic character use epic skill effects (If they're munchikined enough to make the DC's. In many cases this isn't that hard. )

What's defensive roll (You have played a rogue, haven't you. )

Can you counter having your illusions detected by a DC 80 spot check (no. At this kind of level, lots of powers are useless against equal opponents )

Can epic level characters end up with different BAB's despite having the same classes and levels (Yes. Skill points too. Be a rogue first, then a ranger, then a spellcaster if you want to really make the most of your levels at epic superhigh. )

Do you get any benefits for increasing your spellcaster level above 20 (yes. Some classes get more benefit than others though.)

How do you choose feats for multiclass epic characters (MADly. )

How do you get 11+th level spells (Take improved spell capacity lots of times. It goes up and up and up.)

Do you need to be a divine spellcaster to cast epic healing spells (Skip's afraid so. At least, for the positive uses. You're free to screw things up. The gods won't get upset about that.)

What does a druid need to do to get epic spells (Same as anyone else. )

Can a bard with 9th level spells through improved spell capacity get epic spells (Yes. Even paladins and rangers can do this, if they're mad enough to burn 6 feats.)

Can you count your item bonuses to ability scores to get epic feats.(Yes, but if you lose the bonus, you lose access to the feat. Epic level characters without their loot can wind up unable to get any XP, because they can't fight things with CR's well below their level without losing. How humiliating.)

Can you use automatic quicken spell with other metamagic. (Not much. It's added after all the other calculations. )

What's the default area for epic spells ( There is none. It's all up to you. )
Isn't it too easy to make epic spells by adding tons of mitigating factors (Maybe. Worth considering. )

Can you make an epic spell as a trap (Probably. This can get pretty evil. )

Do epic psions get more PP's after 20th level or not (No. They're still way better than epic sorcerers though.)

Can you use spell stowaway with spell-like abilities (yes)

What happens if a demilich enters an antimagic field (Magic still doesn't work on them. Like Russian, two no's don't make a yes in D&D logic. )

What is greater than regular flying. ( Faster regular flying! What are you on?!)

What can an unseen servant do. (Anything it's smart and strong enough to do. Not very much, especially if you don't keep track of it and update it's orders. Remember the cautionary tale of mickey mouse. That should put a chill in any wizards apprentice round a blazing campfire. )


Another themed character sheet lurks near the back, while the dork tower crew prepare for Origins very early on the back page. They bumped What's new forward for this?


Well, it looks like this round of company shakeups is starting to settle down again, which hopefully means they can get back to producing work that's a little less derivative. Or maybe it means they'll be relying even more heavily on rehashed topics, it's still not entirely certain. Guess I'll just have to keep reading and see. Oh well. Less than 10 years to the present now. No matter how slowly I go, it can't take THAT long. Can it? …….

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 303: January 2003


part 1/9


88 pages (108) Well, as they've been hinting for a couple of issues,. it's gladiator time. And while they don't have a full backdrop for this one, it's not just one character and a load of tedious whitespace. You could almost call it …… romantic. The roar of the crowd, victory or death, glory and fortune. You can see why some people would choose that life over months of wilderness trekking to find an adventure. But can it make a whole campaign? I guess we'd better see what hidden depths lie beneath the arena, and if they can change the scenery quick enough for lots of different rounds in a day.


Scan Quality: Good, unindexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: The good thing about the gladiatorial format is that you don't need a fixed party to show up for each session, and can run short sessions consisting of just a single combat on a regular basis while maintaining some degree of continuity and internal consistency. So it's perfect for say, a lunchtime game in the WotC offices. Which is exactly how they gave the material here a good old playtesting. And even more than a regular 3e campaign, they delighted in generating really exotic characters, for the arena thrives on novelty. Since it's obvious they actually had fun in the making of the issue, and got some playtesting in as well, that makes me more optimistic about the contents. If they had fun playing it, instead of just shovelling stuff out to meet the monthly deadlines, chances are we can have fun with it too.

 

[Daztur]

As a kid I played in a campaign in which the PCs' were gladiator managers who trained animals, bet and cheated a lot, went on expeditions to capture critters (this was well before Pokemon dammit) and bring them back to the games as well as getting in arena fights. Was fun, would like to do something like that one of these days...