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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5673490" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon Magazine Issue 245: March 1998</u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 3/8</p><p></p><p></p><p>Out of character: Peter puts his own unique spin on the idea of using music to enhance your roleplaying. Rather than just using it as a backdrop, he takes individual artists and adapts their songs and personalities to fit the bards in his campaign, giving them an instant hook for players to relate too, while reducing the work for the DM. That has the potential to get rather cheesy. But it also has possibilities for directing your career path, as if you choose an experienced artist with a hefty back catalogue, but your character starts out new, you can play out the process of them writing new songs as they advance their career. That isn't an idea I've encountered before. So it seems he still has plenty of ideas to contribute, freshen up our games. And they're easily adaptable to most systems as well. Once again he's being a hands-on positive force for them. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Heart of the forge: For a second month in a row, we have an epic feature from the staff with a ton of cool illustrations, including ones from Roger Raupp. Second only to mining, Dwarves specialise in smithing, as after all, they have to do something with all the stuff they dredge out of the ground, and make money so they don't have to resort to farming to eat. And even in a mostly medieval setting, this can involve some fairly sophisticated technology. Other races would be worried if they knew just how big and complicated dwarven forges are. But their prowess isn't purely technological. Smithing is a religious activity for them as much as it is a practical one, and this is given just as much attention, with 18 new spells and 5 new magical items. As one of those articles that gives us a whole ton of setting detail and crunch that is primarily useful in worldbuilding terms, rather than for adventurers, this seems to be aimed at the DM, but people with dwarf PC's can still get something from it, especially as the new spells do have ingenious uses in adventuring situations. This definitely manages to avoid rehash by focussing on an area and providing lots of extra detail, and it a suitable strong start to their theme. So as usual, I just have to hope they'll keep that momentum up this month. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Mindstalkers: It's not just gith who hate illithids. Dwarves might not have a personal animosity with them the way they do with goblinoids, but I'm sure they run across them in their delvings and are not fond of the arrogant mind<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />ing squidfaces at all. So a society of dwarves dedicated to hunting them down, and developing their own psionic capabilities to counter them is just the kind of practical solution they'd adopt. So here's a new kit, and a whole bunch of powers designed specifically to fight illithids. Many of these can be acquired through multiple methods, either as psionic powers, or nonweapon proficiencies. Of course, the expense of these (one of them costs 5 slots! ) means you're pretty unlikely to be able to buy them if not using S&P rules, plus the fact that they're illithid specific means you'll face the same kind of problems as the dragon-hunting kits we've seen before. You just have to focus your build so much that you're left weak against other monsters. So while this is pretty well written, it's the kind of stuff that you need to approach with caution, because if you buy a ton of expensive powers that you only get to use once or twice in a campaign, you'll feel more than a little gypped. It really makes me long for the introduction of Feats and the 3rd edition version of the illithid hunter, which was done better. (and should be, since they were by the same writer. ) They still have some serious lessons to learn about power budgeting and controlling the size of your characters niche so it's harder for people to make themselves hugely under or overpowered, or useless in far too many situations.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 5673490, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon Magazine Issue 245: March 1998[/U][/B] part 3/8 Out of character: Peter puts his own unique spin on the idea of using music to enhance your roleplaying. Rather than just using it as a backdrop, he takes individual artists and adapts their songs and personalities to fit the bards in his campaign, giving them an instant hook for players to relate too, while reducing the work for the DM. That has the potential to get rather cheesy. But it also has possibilities for directing your career path, as if you choose an experienced artist with a hefty back catalogue, but your character starts out new, you can play out the process of them writing new songs as they advance their career. That isn't an idea I've encountered before. So it seems he still has plenty of ideas to contribute, freshen up our games. And they're easily adaptable to most systems as well. Once again he's being a hands-on positive force for them. Heart of the forge: For a second month in a row, we have an epic feature from the staff with a ton of cool illustrations, including ones from Roger Raupp. Second only to mining, Dwarves specialise in smithing, as after all, they have to do something with all the stuff they dredge out of the ground, and make money so they don't have to resort to farming to eat. And even in a mostly medieval setting, this can involve some fairly sophisticated technology. Other races would be worried if they knew just how big and complicated dwarven forges are. But their prowess isn't purely technological. Smithing is a religious activity for them as much as it is a practical one, and this is given just as much attention, with 18 new spells and 5 new magical items. As one of those articles that gives us a whole ton of setting detail and crunch that is primarily useful in worldbuilding terms, rather than for adventurers, this seems to be aimed at the DM, but people with dwarf PC's can still get something from it, especially as the new spells do have ingenious uses in adventuring situations. This definitely manages to avoid rehash by focussing on an area and providing lots of extra detail, and it a suitable strong start to their theme. So as usual, I just have to hope they'll keep that momentum up this month. Mindstalkers: It's not just gith who hate illithids. Dwarves might not have a personal animosity with them the way they do with goblinoids, but I'm sure they run across them in their delvings and are not fond of the arrogant mind:):):):)ing squidfaces at all. So a society of dwarves dedicated to hunting them down, and developing their own psionic capabilities to counter them is just the kind of practical solution they'd adopt. So here's a new kit, and a whole bunch of powers designed specifically to fight illithids. Many of these can be acquired through multiple methods, either as psionic powers, or nonweapon proficiencies. Of course, the expense of these (one of them costs 5 slots! ) means you're pretty unlikely to be able to buy them if not using S&P rules, plus the fact that they're illithid specific means you'll face the same kind of problems as the dragon-hunting kits we've seen before. You just have to focus your build so much that you're left weak against other monsters. So while this is pretty well written, it's the kind of stuff that you need to approach with caution, because if you buy a ton of expensive powers that you only get to use once or twice in a campaign, you'll feel more than a little gypped. It really makes me long for the introduction of Feats and the 3rd edition version of the illithid hunter, which was done better. (and should be, since they were by the same writer. ) They still have some serious lessons to learn about power budgeting and controlling the size of your characters niche so it's harder for people to make themselves hugely under or overpowered, or useless in far too many situations. [/QUOTE]
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