(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 280: February 2001
part 3/7
Your sorcerous life: The speed and enthusiasm with which sorcerers were accepted has a good deal to do with the fact that there was a literary niche just waiting to be filled there. They've only been around a few months, but they already have a clear idea of how to make a compelling character that's different from a wizard. And if you don't, here's Robin Laws to spell it out in a clear step by step fashion with random tables. It obviously skews heavily towards them being angsty outcasts, who can't trust anyone, especially not other sorcerers. As such, it's good for people who haven't played one before, playing in standard fantasy campaign, but will rapidly lose utility the further you go from that assumption. Still, as I've said before, everyone is starting 3e on an equal footing, so this is cool for now. But 12 years in the future, it may seem a touch dated. Once you've done the obvious stereotype, you'll probably want to try something different for subsequent characters, and skip the adolescent angst.
Polymorphology: Ah yes, shapechanging. If any power gets a rough ride over the revisions of 3.5 and 4e, it's this one. First they tried nickling and diming it's versatility away and presenting lots of more limited options, before realising that wasn't going to work, and just rewrote the whole magic system without all the versatile world affecting powers. Very much a case where they were put in a no win situation though, with one contingent constantly bitching about them being overpowered, while another wouldn't want to play in a game where you can't do such a basic and common literary concept as flexible shapeshifter. I'm very interested in seeing what 5e will do to bridge this particular rift in the D&D landscape. But anyway, this is one of Johnathan M Richards more playful articles. Because who would know more about the tricks you can pull by shapechanging into various creatures than the ecologist? Even mundane ones have some fairly decent tricks for you to take advantage of and surprise your DM with. And once you get to Polymorph any object and Shapechange, the world can literally be your oyster. In addition to the copious amounts of advice on how to exploit the existing spells to your advantage, there's also a new one called Swarm Form which lets you pull some tricks regular shapeshifting can't because you're limited to being a single creature, and also errata for polymorph other, which means they now keep their mind and skills when they didn't in previous editions. It's a good example of how at this point they're encouraging people to explore the system and find exploits for their characters. After all, there is a lot of fun to be had in simply exploring all the options, especially in a system as expansive as the d20 one.
Magic in the blood: Our second sorcerer specific article covers similar ground to Robin Laws' one, but skips the random bits, and sticks to advice. Where do your sorcerers get their power from? The answer will have a fair amount of influence on how you play your character, and possibly how you build them as well. This has sample spell, skill and feat selections for 5 of the most obvious ones. This illustrates that before 3.5 introduced the Warlock, the Sorcerer has to cover a wider spectrum of power sources, including pacts with supernatural forces as well as ancestry. In fact, that's an interesting matter in general. The introduction of more classes can retrospectively force previous ones into a narrower focus. This has definitely been the case with Fighters as well, who have seen themselves squeezed from covering any primary weapon user to heavy armor melee combatants with few powers for lighter weapons or ranged combat. I think this once again illustrates one of the big differences in design philosophy between 3.0 and 3.5, along with the Class Combo articles.
Better living through alchemy: Alchemy isn't specific to wizards and sorcerers, but it's certainly more common among those classes than others. So including an article on it in this issue makes sense. And for a low-mid level wizard who doesn't have that many spells to spare, having a few alchemical concoctions on hand will increase their versatility a fair chunk. This is an extension of the same kind of thinking that results in adventurers carrying 10 foot poles and vials of oil and messing up the DM's carefully laid plans by making clever use of seemingly minor items. And since it features 19 new low key but generally useful items, along with costs and alchemy DCs for making them yourself, it's one that has quite a bit of utility. If you have a few spare GP, drop them on some of these and you won't regret it. You might well get more bang for your buck than spending the same amount of money on potions and scrolls.
part 3/7
Your sorcerous life: The speed and enthusiasm with which sorcerers were accepted has a good deal to do with the fact that there was a literary niche just waiting to be filled there. They've only been around a few months, but they already have a clear idea of how to make a compelling character that's different from a wizard. And if you don't, here's Robin Laws to spell it out in a clear step by step fashion with random tables. It obviously skews heavily towards them being angsty outcasts, who can't trust anyone, especially not other sorcerers. As such, it's good for people who haven't played one before, playing in standard fantasy campaign, but will rapidly lose utility the further you go from that assumption. Still, as I've said before, everyone is starting 3e on an equal footing, so this is cool for now. But 12 years in the future, it may seem a touch dated. Once you've done the obvious stereotype, you'll probably want to try something different for subsequent characters, and skip the adolescent angst.
Polymorphology: Ah yes, shapechanging. If any power gets a rough ride over the revisions of 3.5 and 4e, it's this one. First they tried nickling and diming it's versatility away and presenting lots of more limited options, before realising that wasn't going to work, and just rewrote the whole magic system without all the versatile world affecting powers. Very much a case where they were put in a no win situation though, with one contingent constantly bitching about them being overpowered, while another wouldn't want to play in a game where you can't do such a basic and common literary concept as flexible shapeshifter. I'm very interested in seeing what 5e will do to bridge this particular rift in the D&D landscape. But anyway, this is one of Johnathan M Richards more playful articles. Because who would know more about the tricks you can pull by shapechanging into various creatures than the ecologist? Even mundane ones have some fairly decent tricks for you to take advantage of and surprise your DM with. And once you get to Polymorph any object and Shapechange, the world can literally be your oyster. In addition to the copious amounts of advice on how to exploit the existing spells to your advantage, there's also a new one called Swarm Form which lets you pull some tricks regular shapeshifting can't because you're limited to being a single creature, and also errata for polymorph other, which means they now keep their mind and skills when they didn't in previous editions. It's a good example of how at this point they're encouraging people to explore the system and find exploits for their characters. After all, there is a lot of fun to be had in simply exploring all the options, especially in a system as expansive as the d20 one.
Magic in the blood: Our second sorcerer specific article covers similar ground to Robin Laws' one, but skips the random bits, and sticks to advice. Where do your sorcerers get their power from? The answer will have a fair amount of influence on how you play your character, and possibly how you build them as well. This has sample spell, skill and feat selections for 5 of the most obvious ones. This illustrates that before 3.5 introduced the Warlock, the Sorcerer has to cover a wider spectrum of power sources, including pacts with supernatural forces as well as ancestry. In fact, that's an interesting matter in general. The introduction of more classes can retrospectively force previous ones into a narrower focus. This has definitely been the case with Fighters as well, who have seen themselves squeezed from covering any primary weapon user to heavy armor melee combatants with few powers for lighter weapons or ranged combat. I think this once again illustrates one of the big differences in design philosophy between 3.0 and 3.5, along with the Class Combo articles.
Better living through alchemy: Alchemy isn't specific to wizards and sorcerers, but it's certainly more common among those classes than others. So including an article on it in this issue makes sense. And for a low-mid level wizard who doesn't have that many spells to spare, having a few alchemical concoctions on hand will increase their versatility a fair chunk. This is an extension of the same kind of thinking that results in adventurers carrying 10 foot poles and vials of oil and messing up the DM's carefully laid plans by making clever use of seemingly minor items. And since it features 19 new low key but generally useful items, along with costs and alchemy DCs for making them yourself, it's one that has quite a bit of utility. If you have a few spare GP, drop them on some of these and you won't regret it. You might well get more bang for your buck than spending the same amount of money on potions and scrolls.