Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 320: June 2004


part 8/8


Dungeoncraft: While Johnn and Mike's advice is both interesting and different, Monte has another reset to the most basic of characterisation advice. Give your NPC's easily distinguishable physical and personality traits, and act them out, so the PC's can identify them easily if they show up more than once. I think that's one that we can pretty much recite by rote, and there's no particularly different spin to liven things up here. Zzzzzz.


Sage advice has to squeeze itself into all manner of oddly shaped pages this month. This means Skip will get through fewer questions than usual. Skip hopes this isn't going to lead to hard times. No matter. The Eternal Sage will get through this by whatever means needed, just as Skip did with the dark times under Lorraine.

How often can a monk attack using flurry of blows with a weapon. (If it's a special monk weapon, the normal amount. If it's any other weapon, you can't use it at all.)

What do you mean there's no such thing as of hand blows for unarmed monks (Exactly that. You can use whatever flavour descriptions you like, attacking with hands, feet, head, knees, elbows, even crotch, and you'll still do the same amount of damage. This is why they're forced to be celibate. Don't worry laydees. Skip won't hurt you unless you want Skip too. )

Can you use a mirror to see round a corner and cast spells (Another recycled question? Skip isn't even going to dignify this one with an insult to your intelligence.)

What AC should someone with +3 bracers of armor and +3 leather armor be. (14, unless someone uses incorporeal attacks, in which case it's 13. Just skip the armour. It'll feel much nicer.)

Will reach let you make an AoO against opponents using spring attack (not for their movement. If they get sloppy and act like a doof inside your threat range, you're free to skewer them.)

If your mount tramples someone and doesn't have hooves, can it use another attack (Whatever it has for feet, dude. Claws will help quite a bit.)

Can you wear more than 2 rings if you have more than 2 limbs. (No. The energy chakras have been biped standardized as part of the 3rd edition conventions, along with summoning cascades and all those other broken tricks from previous editions. This is what happens when humans and their gods rule the universe. If you want to escape that, you're free to go to the far realm and spend your time drinking the drool of a 100 eyed monstrosity and making magic necklaces to put on it's eyestalks in return. )

What are the rules for mounted charges (same as normal. Size is not relevant to acceleration, in another humancentric convention completely ignoring real world physics.)

When you do a mounted charge, do you have to stop when you hit the enemy (Unless you have ride-by attack, yes. Otherwise, you may fall off your mount if you try it. Remember kids, wear a safety belt, whatever vehicle or animal you're riding.)


Nodwick looks over how things have changed in 30 years. The basics are still all there.


The themed section is pretty good this year, and the fact that they're planning some changes piques my interest, but there is still some seriously formulaic and basic stuff that I wish I could just skip. As usual, I have to resign myself to the fact that they do need to repeat themselves for their not so regular readers, and wonder what theme next month will bring. Another planar one? Well, those are usually good, because the theme is too broad for rehash even if they've done the topic multiple times. I think I can muster the energy to go on for a while longer.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 321: July 2004


part 1/8


87(108) pages. When you are fighting, both combatants should not be turned to face the camera. Once again, the degree of stylisation and zooming in is to the detriment of both realism and making out what's supposed to be going on. Ironic, when the planes are supposed to be about infinite expanses that you can explore for lifetimes and only scratch the surface. Let's see if they'll take us to new weird and wonderful places, or the same old devils and angels will be getting all the publicity inside as well.


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


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: In hindsight we've found out that the D&D developers were already thinking about 4e as soon as 3.5 was released, maybe even sooner. This editorial is a good example of that, as Matthew Sernett turns out to be on the side that's unhappy with the planes as they are, and thinks they need to be torn down for something designed for the convenience of adventurers, rather than with huge areas of stuff that's incomprehensible or unsurvivable without magic. While I can accept that there is room for improvement there, replacing a highly idiosyncratic cosmology of 30-odd planes for a far more generic one comprised of only half a dozen seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and is one of my biggest peeves with 4e. This leaves me with a good deal of trepidation for the rest of this issue. Are they already going to be adding stuff that's inconsistent or revisionist to the game? I seriously hope not.


Scale Mail: Our first letter is an extremely long one that reminds us just how good a place the military can be for roleplayers. There's a lot of dead time when you're posted to inhospitable locations around the world, and roleplaying is a good way to fill that and develop camaraderie within a unit. In a regular job, you might only get to play once a week. There, they got to play nearly every day, and had large groups with irregular player lineups like the ones Gary used to run. It helped keep them sane through the violence. Definitely evidence that as a social pastime RPG's are far better for you as a hobby than many other things, and also that the culture we live in has a real effect on our opportunities.

Second, we have an amusing bit of sycophancy towards our current editor. He's way better than the last three! Ah, the joys of seeing newcomers who are way more enthusiastic than I could manage. How long will that innocence last?

The Dark Sun issue gets 5 letters published, running the gamut of opinions from gushing to grumpy. Apparently people were considerably more vicious about it on the internet, and the writer responding to this personally did not help quell the flamewars. Definitely a case where it's very hard indeed to please everyone, especially when you only have limited space to do it in. They shouldn't let that stop them though, and I hope they'll do more controversial topics in the future.

And finally, we have a request for an ecology on Succubi. Such a no-brainer you're surprised someone hasn't done it before. Can they get it past the censors without making it boring though?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 321: July 2004


part 2/8


Zogonia really need to hire a PR person and agent. Adventuring alone really really isn't cutting the mustard.


The infused: First up, we have a sequel to a previous article, which doesn't get my hopes up. While being fused with demons who provide power at the price of constant temptation is a cool idea, the similar synthesis with angelic creatures who's power is dependent on behaving yourself doesn't hold quite the same dramatic tension. (unless you're playing an evil or neutral character trying to get maximum profit for themselves while sticking to the letter of the rules) So here's another long prestige class with sample ability sets for most of the devas, archons, guardianals and eladrin. It's very much a perfect demonstration of the idea of diminishing returns. And we don't even get to find out what a relationship with Modrons or Slaadi would do to you either. If you're going to do a follow-up, it has to be bigger and better to get the same amount of praise, which I really can't give this time.


Woo. The worlds largest dungeon. Kill your characters with endless darkmantles in region A, and then beat the players with the enormous book if they dare complain. Now that's proper adventuring in the old skool spirit.


Under command: This month's minis article is a brisk little piece converting a whole load of common magical items to the game. This obviously allows you a whole load of extra options to advance and customise your character. Interestingly, the point costs of some items scales with your characters, representing that many items are force multipliers rather than adders, and having interesting implications for characters in a game where you can take enemies stuff after killing them. That really does show them thinking carefully about game balance, which is important in a wargame where you have to build armies on equal amounts of points, and something point-buy systems like GURPS might benefit from incorporating. (although it would make the mathematical aspect of character building even more of a pain in the ass) Perfect balance may be impossible, but we can still get much closer to it if we try, and it is good to see them still trying.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 321: July 2004


part 3/8


The way of the guns: One of our most frequent topics ever pops up again. Issues 28, 57, 60, 70, 124, 176, 199, 232 and the 2001 Annual not enough for you? (plus who knows how many of the Polyhedron minigames these past couple of years) Better get ready to duck, because Iiiiiiiit's firearms time again! Where the last one had lots of interesting setting material, this is on the dry historical side, providing stats for lots of different gun variants, along with a bit of information on where they come from, and of course how much they'll cost you in D&D land. The fact that they're all exotic weapons means characters who just come across them won't be able to make best use of them, which is a pretty obvious balancing factor. So this is another case where the mechanics are probably improved from previous editions, but the flavour is rather lacking, so you'll have to plunder the archives or inject it yourself. They may have more setting stuff this year than last, but there's still too much stuff that's been made consciously generic to the point of boredom.


Our second themed article is another sequel. Planar Dragons get a second article, also focussing on the neutral and upper planes. It's nice to see them filling in symmetries, but it does not fill me with confidence as to the quality of their ideas at the moment. I guess it's more stuff that's useful but not thrilling then. I wish they'd do more epic articles and get these ideas out of their system in one go.

Adamantine Dragons are the one preexisting type here, and anyone sufficiently geeky will already know they're from Bytopia, and that last edition there were only a flat 2 of them, one for each layer. So much for that, as they're given standard age categories and family setups here. Their adamantine natural weaponry makes them particularly good at penetrating DR, grappling, and sundering the weapons of others, so despite their scary appearance, they can actually go for the nonlethal option to end a fight quite easily. Which makes complete sense given their role. Gnomes can rest safely in their beds knowing these guys are nearby.

Arboreal Dragons take their cues from fey, which also makes perfect sense. They breathe thorns, and are also rather good at polymorphing. You can expect to see a good few half-dragons based on them pop up in the future then.

Axial Dragons are from Mechanus, and are all perfectly symmetrical, polished and exactingly focussed on whatever their goals are. Their magical abilities aren't particularly impressive, but the ones they have are pretty tightly applied, and if anyone can navigate the bureaucracy of Nirvana to get assistance in their schemes, it'll be them.

Beast Dragons are pretty much the opposite, covered in spikes and horns and lethal hunters who won't necessarily spare you just because you happen to be good as well. The circle of life has plenty of leeway in maintaining the balance, especially on the plane where nature is at it's strongest.

Concordant Dragons are also Rilmani, and like all Rilmani, they're based on a particular type of metal (which does kinda conflict with the general D&D tendency of metallic dragons to be good. ) Still, uranium is such nasty stuff that I suppose you can forgive that. Their breath weapon has no effect on true neutral characters, while being devastating to the extreme alignments, and their magical skillset is focussed on divination and antiscrewage. If the aurumachs need to bring out the big guns to protect the universe, who better to call?

In addition, they have a template for Archdragons, who devote themselves purely to a single alignment, and get quite a few extra magical tricks as a result. Once again, the stat changes follow logically on from the remit, which leaves me with little to complain about, but little to thrill to either. Now, will they fill in the other third or so outer planes sometime in the future?

 

[LordVyreth]

Dragon Issue 321: July 2004The way of the guns: One of our most frequent topics ever pops up again. Issues 28, 57, 60, 70, 124, 176, 199, 232 and the 2001 Annual not enough for you? (plus who knows how many of the Polyhedron minigames these past couple of years) Better get ready to duck, because Iiiiiiiit's firearms time again! Where the last one had lots of interesting setting material, this is on the dry historical side, providing stats for lots of different gun variants, along with a bit of information on where they come from, and of course how much they'll cost you in D&D land. The fact that they're all exotic weapons means characters who just come across them won't be able to make best use of them, which is a pretty obvious balancing factor.

Which is kind of weird, when you think about it. Wasn't the original point of guns largely about their ease of use?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 321: July 2004


part 4/8


Silicon sorcery: As usual when they have a new D&D computer game out, they have a larger than usual article in here to promote it. This time, it's a tactics focussed conversion of the Temple of Elemental Evil. While there aren't many new monsters, there's a fair few old ones that haven't been converted to 3.5 yet in here. These include giant crayfish, giant gar and giant ticks, three mundane creatures souped up to make a good fight for adventurers. I do wonder why they haven't converted them before when they use up so little space in a monster manual compared to complicated magical creatures. Somewhat more interesting are the NPC's you can hire. Some of them are loyal, while others are treacherous, and it's up to you to figure out which is worth spending money on. Between those, this game and article definitely seems aimed at those who want a truly old school dungeoncrawling experience, full of sprawling labyrinths with monsters and traps round every corner. If you don't mind the bugs, (which of course they don't mention here) it seems like a pretty interesting ride. The long history of D&D computer game continues to take it in different directions.


The limitless light: After a first half packed to the brim with sequels, rehashes and updates, we finally have something that shows a bit of invention, even if the name is rehashed. In 2e, the quasielemental plane of radiance was one of the most hostile places in the generally vicious inner planes. If the solar level heat didn't fry you, the light would still blind you before you could properly appreciate it, leaving it's spectacular colours the last thing you'd ever see. For 3.5, they're completely reimagining it, creating a kinder, gentler, more accessible plane of radiance which has a decent amount of variance for you to explore and adventure in. You can get into it without spells if you can find the end of a rainbow, which feels appropriately mythic, and once there you can follow the rainbow bridge, explore one of the many little floating islands, or step off and fly through the infinite shifting lights and weird weather. There's still the danger of becoming hypnotised by the beauty of the place and just staring into space until you starve, but the DC is low enough that in a party, one person'll probably be able to save the others and get things back on track. I'm not generally a fan of revisionism, but this is a big enough improvement in terms of actual usability and flavour that it gets my vote. Not that there shouldn't be plenty of places in the planes that you need to be epic level to visit and come back from, but the awesome eternal holiday locations are what'll tempt people out of their own little towns in the first place. Both ought to have their place in the D&D cosmology.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 321: July 2004


part 5/8


Nodwick's party are certainly getting the hang of this extraplanar thing. They must be pretty high level by now.


Creatures of brilliance: Our new/revamped rainbow universe gets filled out with some new monsters to keep adventuring there interesting, plus the obligatory template that you can apply to mundane creatures to make them glowy and equipped with appropriately scaling magical abilities. In that way, 3e is a lot more convenient than 2e. Now, if only they'd added a big list of appropriate existing monsters like the plane of shadow one did. Then it'd be even easier to build adventures and random encounters here.

Glimmerfolk are the LA+0 humanoid natives of the plane most likely to become PC's. They're pretty, come in many colours, and have glowing balls of light surrounding them that they can burn to produce spell-like abilities. This also means they have a unique penalty to stealth rolls that reduces as they use up daily resources, which creates a very interesting tactical dynamic. Like Warforged, that's cool and different, and allows their powers to be slightly more powerful than most +0 races because they also have a weakness. I approve very strongly of this.

Prismfly Swarms use their pretty lights to entrance and confuse you, and then strip the flesh from your bones with their acidic mandibles. The circle of life continues whatever universe you're in, and they use whatever tools are at their disposal to survive and propagate themselves.

Rainbow Dwellers occupy about the same niche as invisible stalkers, humanoids comprised entirely out of rainbow light that probably mean trouble, but it's not a sure bet, and they're alien enough that you can't be sure what'll work. Which is just as it should be, and makes these two articles very much a beacon of light in a sea of boredom.


Faiths of faerun: A double bill of prestige classes here this time, both intended for worshippers of Arvoreen. Wait a minute, he's a generic halfling deity, not a realms one. I presume this state of affairs is because everyone but the lead deity of each race got cut out of the core 3e products, so it was up to the realms setting-builders to stick them back in. But anyway, like Monte's Nightsong duo, this pair seem designed specifically to complement each other, which is quite neat. Arvoreen's keepers are cleric/rogue hybrids that take a decent amount of multiclassing to get into, but pay for that quite well, with full spellcasting progression, decent skills, and a moderate number of special abilities on top of that. They certainly seem like the dipping will pay for itself at higher level. Arvoreen's Warders don't get the spellcasting, but they do get full BAB, all the special abilities of the Warder, plus two free weapon focuses and specialisations on top of that, making them a good ranger/rogue hybrid. This means they synergize well, especially since an explicit part of their abilities is encouraging them too be a team player, but should be different enough that both can play a valuable role in the same team. If you're playing a halfling heavy party, see if you can tempt them.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 321: July 2004


part 6/8


Elminster's guide to the realms: The Realms has already had not one, but two specials on magical masks (issues 117 and 281. ) I guess with a god named that, they just can't get away from the idea, because here's another one. Only this time, Ed's concentrating on a person who MAKES masks (and worships the god behind them) rather than the masks themselves. This means we get another helping of character study, worldbuilding details, adventure hooks, and interesting illustrations that are open-ended enough for you to use in all sorts of ways in your own campaign. Waterdeep is a busy place, and as soon as you foil one villain, you can find the threads to half a dozen more. (who may now be profiting due to the reduced competition.) This is another article I could definitely see myself finding a use for.


Champions of fate: Al-Qadim is the setting that gets another follow-up this issue, showing how much good stuff they got when they simply asked for it. While Sha'irs are a sufficiently dramatic change from regular spellcasters they need their own core class, a lot of the other kits are better suited to prestige classes, especially as you can replicate them simply with the right skill and feat choices under the more customisable 3e rules. This is certainly the case of the ones updated here.

Barbers are only a 5 level class, and you can get into them pretty low level as a rogue, which fits their everyday nature. They lack sneak attack, but with their boosted social and alchemical skills, they can become very influential indeed, and probably pull off an assassination themselves as well if needs be. The best way to win a fight is to never let them suspect you're an enemy in the first place.

Corsairs are fighter/rogue hybrids, completely unsurprisingly. They're slightly better overall than splitting your levels between the two classes, although they don't get sneak attack, instead concentrating on the acrobatic and mobility stuff. They're a good one to choose if you want a fighty character who also has a significant amount of noncombat tricks.

Holy Slayers are quite a bit more permissive in the types of characters they let in, with even paladins being able to find some common ground in their unwavering faith. Not that it's the most optimal path for them, as multiple effects granting immunity to fear are kinda redundant, but it's nice to see religious fanaticism being treated more open-handedly than the subtle contempt it got in the original books. They're still pretty sneaky though, even if they are slightly more martial than regular rogues.

Mamluks concentrate on endurance and teamwork, which fits their characterisation, and will come in handy for the bureaucracy parts of their job as well as the fighting. I think these are another pretty good set of conversions then, as they keep the greater emphasis on skills and noncombat tricks the old al-qadim kits did in their updating.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 321: July 2004


part 7/8


Dungeoncraft: Monte is still talking about characterisation, but this time he's a little more specific, with advice aimed at making characters distinct when you only have a few important features for each one and have to get them across within a minute or two. It's a little more interesting than last time, but still feels very much like stuff we've heard before, and oddly enough, the formatting feels more like Johnn's work than Monte's usual. I'm not sure what to make of that. Cribbing off each other's notes? Well, I can't say I'm too surprised, even if I am a little disappointed.


DM's toolbox: Oddly enough, while Monte is busy being boring, Johnn is in a more playful mood than usual, talking about creating ironic situations to amuse yourself and your players. This means there is a fairly substantial amount of sadism and metagame thinking here, as players can collude in this, having their characters do things that they know would bad for them, but entertaining for the game. But there's also cases where the DM can laugh at the players, setting up a situation that has a simple solution if done right, but can go oh so very wrong if it isn't. There's also the ironies that arise entirely unintentionally, simply from characters being themselves, or the rules encouraging things that simply wouldn't happen in a pure narrative. After a whole load of sensible advice, encouraging us to loosen up and embrace the ridiculous parts of what we do comes as very welcome, and will make the dramatic parts seem all the more so by contrast, doncha think?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 321: July 2004


part 8/8


Sage advice is cut down to 1+1/2 pages this month. Skip will definitely be complaining to the editors again. He's been putting the pages in their mages for years, so they'd damn well better put the pages back in his.

It costs more to make a cold iron longsword if you enchant it in multiple stages! Correct. You mess up, you don't make as much profit. Sucks to be you. )

Can you make slashing attacks with a rapier at a penalty (Have you seen a rapier in real life. They're pathetic bendy things with no edge at all. They really aren't designed to seriously hurt people, just look cool. You can do it, but with a -4 penalty to hit and damage. )

How does stoneskin work (You're right, your friend is wrong. It's been nerfed like hell but it's still pretty strong. It won't save you for long, and a strong fighter will have no trouble kicking your ass.)

Do synergy bonuses stack (They have no type, so yes they do)

Does the extra cost for special ammunition apply per shot or per batch (per shot. It's ridiculously pricey)

Do they still break when you shoot them (yes. See the previous question for skip's comments on this method's inefficiency. This is why you use melee weapons to deal with demons. Getting the right guns is just too expensive.)

How do you convert DR from 3.0 to 3.5 (Download the free update booklet :teeth ting: Gotta suck up to the WotC people.)

Can wizards cast spells straight from their spellbook (Recycled question. The answer is still no.)

How many times can you charge in combat (As often as you have room. This will result in you moving around the battlefield a lot. Better have stuff to stop AoO's)


Dork tower simply can't cope with the real world. This is probably why they roleplay.


The plane of radiance stuff is pretty damn cool, but other than that, this issue is once again filled with formulaic filler, rehash and sequels, leaving it my least favourite of the planar themed issues so far overall. It's definitely disappointing when you consider the number of existing planes (particularly the inner ones) that still don't have more than a few pages on them, and would really benefit from a magazine special to expand and possibly redefine them. Let's hope they make room for them before they decide to switch cosmologies altogether in a few years time.