Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 319: May 2004


part 3/8


Tempered by a burning world: The equipment, at least, remains much the same as in 2e. Gold and silver will go 100 times as far as in most settings, if you can find somewhere with enough decent stuff to pay for it in the first place. The weapons and armor suuuuck, which compensates for the higher starting level and ability scores. You can pretty much throw out the idea of recommended treasure per level. On the other hand, there are plenty of giant insects that you can use to make chitin armor or shields. (if you can kill them without ruining their shells) Things are generally too tough for civil liberties to gain much traction. (but if you can survive going off into the desert, who's going to chase you? ) So this is somewhere in the middle of the other two articles in quality, simply translating the setting straight, doing what's needed to update it to the new rules. I don't think it gives quite enough info to play it if you don't have the old books, and it doesn't add to the setting, unlike the better articles from 315, so I can't give this themed section hugely high marks. As is the case far too often these days, this is serviceable rather than thrilling.


The erudite: (as played by Samuel L Jackson) Now here's an interesting little bit of design experimentation. 3e psions had a lot in common with Sorcerers in that they have a more limited selection of powers than wizards, but can use them more frequently and repeatedly. What would happen if we reverse engineered that process, and created a psionic class that has a greater total selection of powers, and the ability to add more mid-level by training with or scanning the minds of other characters? How would we keep this from being completely overpowered and dominating the game in the same way well-prepared wizards can do? The whole point of psionic characters is their self-contained nature, so they can't have an expensive and losable spellbook as a balancing factor. The answer they chose was twofold. An XP cost for learning each power above the standard ones gained per level. And only being able to manifest a limited selection of the powers you know per day. As is often the case when an idea appears in the magazine and is then put in a book a few years later, there's a whole bunch of subtle mechanical differences. The big one is that they can manifest a number of powers of each level per day exactly equal to a wizard here, rather than the flat 1 +1/2 per level in Complete Psionic. This means they're more powerful here, but also require much more bookkeeping. The xp is also a flat cost here, instead of scaling with level like it does in CP. So this version is a comfortable tier 1 class, only slightly below wizards due to the XP cost becoming negligible at higher level, while the CP version is about balanced with Psions and Sorcerers, with it's initial flexibility at the start of the day nicely counterbalanced with the hard choices you'll have to make in an extended dungeon crawl. Another case where it's very nice to see their design process working.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 319: May 2004


part 4/8


Countdown to Eberron: With the Dark Sun stuff out the way, it's time to get back to teasing the new arrival. While magic there is distrusted and driven underground, with good reason, here it's fairly common and well integrated into society. This despite the fact that they've had their own magical apocalypse recently, rendering a whole country into a wasteland full of weird . I suppose it fits the nuclear power metaphor. The benefits still outweigh the risks for normal people. A lot of the day-to-day spellcasting is handled by a new NPC class, the Magewright, which seems to mostly replace the Adept, with a limited selection of practical spells that they don't need a spellbook for. (which means killing them and taking their stuff isn't as challenging or appealing) More interesting for PC's is the fact that the gods are more detached from the setting than most D&D ones, which means Clerics don't have to worry about losing their powers for misbehaving. This makes things far more morally ambiguous, and opens things up for conflict within a single religion that you couldn't do in the Realms or Greyhawk. This would prove popular enough that they would try to spread it everywhere else in 4e, which …… yeah, too much change for too many people. So I guess this showcases both the cool aspects of making your setting different, and the dangers of trying to export those ideas everywhere, just because they work in one place. Trying to make everything core has both it's ups and downs.


Greyhawk feats: On we trot with another setting specific article that follows up on the ones in issue 315. Here's another 22 feats from Erik Mona to help Greyhawk characters feel more attached to their homeland. These ones tend to have a more supernatural slant than the previous ones, instead of just granting slightly better bonuses to mundane abilities than a regular skill focus would. The more powerful ones in particular are restricted to being taken at 1st level, which results in the usual hard character-building choices. Some also have penalties to go along with the benefits, such as the troll-blooded one that gives you regeneration, but causes you to suffer while in sunlight. They're definitely more interesting than the previous set, and also show that they weren't just divided up by cutting alphabetically after submission, which is good of the editors. Together, they let Oerth pretty much equal the Realms in this department. Definitely hoping they keep up stuff like this this year.

 

[Erik Mona]

My memory tells me that the inclusion of paladins in Dark Sun--pretty hugely controversial at the time--was mandated by D&D management, who wanted to make sure that the whole world of D&D rules options were open in every campaign setting. As Dave Noonan was working at WotC at the time and we were off at Paizo, my guess is that most of those discussions happened over there. In any event, it was presented to us as something that needed to be included for "brand" reasons.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 319: May 2004


part 5/8


I Scry: We've had a couple of articles recently on the ramifications of scrying magic in your game. If used regularly and intelligently, it rapidly turns into an arms race that leaves less intelligent and magically capable creatures in the dust, and those that can keep up perpetually paranoid. Course, money can substitute for magical skill to an extent, especially in 3e, where you can hire wizards to make you items that shield you from screwage. So it's not surprising that we'd see an article on this topic. Give some of these out as treasure, and your players may not be as immediately ecstatic as a new blasty wand, but they will thank you later, when the evil diviner doesn't immediately know all the buttons to push to make them inadvertently advance his plans.

Amulets of Deception make you look like someone else in scrying visions, while not affecting your appearance in person. This may actually be more handy than just plain nondetection, as a smart diviner may well be able to figure out by inferrance when there's a person who's interacting with others in the scene but invisible to them, but not a more subtle alteration like this.

Circlets of Convocation let you teleport straight to someone who's scrying on you, giving them a nasty shock indeed. Course, they don't give you a way to get back, survive in hostile environments, or bring anyone else along, so this still might not turn out great for you. Hope your dungeoncrawling skills are up to scratch, because you'll probably be right in the middle of their defences.

Deathglance Lockets are slightly safer, merely inflicting large quantities of damage on peeping toms and breaking their contact. One or two shocks like that'll make them far more cautious in the future.

Golden Beholders are a decidedly inventive item that let you detach the small eyestalks and place them wherever, and then use the central body to see through any of those 10 locations at will. So they're good both as a security camera system in your lair, and to a lesser extent spying. Beware of wizards giving gifts, for they may be traceable.

Black and White Elipsoid Ioun Stones give you yer basic invisibility to scrying. As that's only step 2 in any arms race, it's not hugely impressive.

Mirrors of Captured Images let you do magical stakeouts without being glued to the crystal ball all day, recording up to 24 hours of remote images for you to play back at your leisure. Careful you don't record over the really important bits, as that storage time'll get filled up faster than you think.

Rings of Scrying Detection are another basic one that just do what they do reliably. don't get too clever and forget your basic info gathering enhancers.

Rings of the Evil Eye, on the other hand, have a superficial benefit that hides the fact that they leave you completely open to being spied upon anytime, anywhere. Still, unlike most cursed items, you just can take it off after discovering the catch. Better hope one of your companions covers your vulnerability.

Scout Goggles are another one that lets you see through the eyes of other ones in the set. Since they're obvious and this can be done reciprocally, they're better suited to party scouts than spies, hence the name.

Scryskulls bring this to a close with another very cool looking idea, a helm that lets you animate, and perceive the world through a floating skull. A good one for if you want to convince people you're a demilich, or just give quests from a safe distance in a suitably dramatic fashion, as people tend to be suspicious of skulls, which makes them not great for straight spying.

 

[(un)reason]

My memory tells me that the inclusion of paladins in Dark Sun--pretty hugely controversial at the time--was mandated by D&D management, who wanted to make sure that the whole world of D&D rules options were open in every campaign setting. As Dave Noonan was working at WotC at the time and we were off at Paizo, my guess is that most of those discussions happened over there. In any event, it was presented to us as something that needed to be included for "brand" reasons.

Executive meddling to make sure everything core goes in even if it doesn't fit? Colour me completely unsurprised.

 

[Shingen]

My memory tells me that the inclusion of paladins in Dark Sun--pretty hugely controversial at the time--was mandated by D&D management, who wanted to make sure that the whole world of D&D rules options were open in every campaign setting. As Dave Noonan was working at WotC at the time and we were off at Paizo, my guess is that most of those discussions happened over there. In any event, it was presented to us as something that needed to be included for "brand" reasons.

That is a terrible reason to shoehorn things. And a shame.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 319: May 2004


part 6/8


Warriors of the animal fist: A little while ago, we had a themed monk set based around the 4 winds. One that's based around emulating animals isn't a stretch at all, as there are plenty of real world martial arts that do exactly that. So here's another set of prestige classes that have a lot in common in design and requirements, and only subtle differences in what powers they get. In fact, this compression of info allows them to fit 7 styles into as many pages. Crane, Dragon, Mantis, Monkey, Panther, Snake and Tiger. They all advance their unarmed strike and get ghost touch, uncanny dodge and evasion, and the ability to assume a hybrid form for when gets real and it's time to administer a blatant beatdown. And they're probably more rewarding to learn than the same animal styles as feat chains too. Seems to do the job.


Class acts: Monte returns to this column for the first time in ages to give us the Aerial Avenger. A flying warrior type, you could theoretically take this by becoming a spellcaster with flying spells, but it would not be a very optimal path. Still, given how scary flying attackers can be, they can be very dangerous against less mobile foes. And since they have plenty of skill points, including the stealth ones, they make a perfect scout type as well. Just don't try and take on the enemy all by yourself. You know by now that annoys you if you die, and your companions if you win and hog all the glory.


Salammbo: Silicon Sorcery forgets it's header this month, but the format remains much the same. An RPG conversion of a computer game. (based on a public domain novel, weirdly) Exploring the joys of having leprosy in 3rd century BC Carthage. Heavy, maaaaan, heavy. Only the computer game introduces contagious flesh-eating zombies. Very contagious indeed, as the new rules make the disease slow, really hard to get rid of, and allow you to remain mostly functional despite the constant ravenous hunger until you finally lose your mind for good. All the better to spread it far and wide, my dear. Certainly seems like a situation with plenty of potential for pathos, as adventurers try not to become the things they hunted, or cause more havoc by spreading it everywhere they go while searching for a cure. Another one that's good because it steps outside the paradigm of "fair" challenges that their native articles stick too. In a plot driven video game, the rules on what is a fair option are very different to an RPG.

 

[Mark Hope]

I remember Dave Noonan coming onto the WotC Dark Sun boards to chat with us all about the articles. He said that certain additional content (like paladins) weren't in his original writeup, but were added at the insistence of higher-ups. I sort of remember that he said "editors", but I can't find the post and I'm not sure about that memory. He seemed pretty frustrated - which is understandable, as the guy was clearly a big DS fan who really knew his stuff.

I liked the Paizo take on the setting, personally. Dave's article on Defilers from a few months earlier was a great piece of innovation, and the full setting conversion was crammed with great ideas (despite its flaws). The take on the elan was inspirational, blood obsidian was supercool, and the stuff about Andropinis returning from the Black was really cleverly done. The art was kick-ass (even though Hamanu underwent some radical reinvention, heh heh) and the monsters in Dungeon magazine were really neat, with some added critters that fleshed out niches in the world. For the omnivorous DS fan, it was more meat to gorge on

 

[(un)reason]

I remember Dave Noonan coming onto the WotC Dark Sun boards to chat with us all about the articles. He said that certain additional content (like paladins) weren't in his original writeup, but were added at the insistence of higher-ups. I sort of remember that he said "editors", but I can't find the post and I'm not sure about that memory. He seemed pretty frustrated - which is understandable, as the guy was clearly a big DS fan who really knew his stuff.

I liked the Paizo take on the setting, personally. Dave's article on Defilers from a few months earlier was a great piece of innovation, and the full setting conversion was crammed with great ideas (despite its flaws). The take on the elan was inspirational, blood obsidian was supercool, and the stuff about Andropinis returning from the Black was really cleverly done. The art was kick-ass (even though Hamanu underwent some radical reinvention, heh heh) and the monsters in Dungeon magazine were really neat, with some added critters that fleshed out niches in the world. For the omnivorous DS fan, it was more meat to gorge on

In light of that, I suppose i should be thankful that he managed to keep gnomes extinct. And that makes me wonder quite a bit about the priorities of the WotC developers with regards to classes and races. Which is considered most important in terms of development time and attention?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 319: May 2004


part 7/8


Fiction: The altar of Duzares by Thomas Harlan. And so we come to the end of the last bit of serialised fiction in Dragon. Where the previous instalments were heavily urban, emphasising the melting pot (and powder keg) nature of the big middle eastern cities, this takes them out into the desert where all that investigation and politicing is irrelevant, and it'll all come down to their physical and magical skill to stop the assassins. This follows the pretty standard climax format of the heroes getting knocked out or captured, the big evil ritual succeeding, and then the heroes pull back from the brink and use all their resources to take out the big bads. It also takes the time to reveal the big secrets of the characters, particularly the stalwart knight who turns out to have a darker past than the others expect. As the final instalment, it's more serious than the previous ones, but there are a few action movie-esque one liners slipped in there. And like an action movie, it ends as soon as the big bad is defeated, not tying up any other loose threads or showing how they got back afterwards. It's definitely not as final or satisfying an end as Fool Wolf got, but it's not bad either. Shorter series with more regular characters mean you don't get the chance to get as attached to any one of them.


Nodwick's party takes a decanter of endless water to Athas. Hilarity ensues. Dork tower get bored and decamp, and wonder how long it'll take for the GM to notice.


DM's toolbox: Johnn's column is smaller and faster paced than usual, which fits the theme of making sure things don't stall. This is less about the social aspects of keeping the game moving, as they've covered before, and more about writing your setting and adventures in such a way that one awkward decision from the players doesn't completely throw you off. Know your players, know your setting, know your NPC's, and then you won't need a strict script to stick too. Don't make challenges that only have one solution, and especially not ones that are completely dependent on a particular member of the party's powers. Essentially this seems to be another reminder to play it as a roleplaying game, in which the NPC's have independent existences and free will, and aren't simply there to deliver lines and fights to the players, because if you try and play it like a book or TV show, you will likely be surprised by what happens. Embrace the surprises, and let the story be whatever happens, rather than the other way around. I think we've heard most of this before.