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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6025429" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon Issue 294: April 2002</u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 3/10</p><p></p><p></p><p>Kev is not pulling his weight in zogonia. You need a strong stomach to be an adventurer. Dork tower makes player choice irrelevant. Seems a bit ironic for a muskrat to face a marmot. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Beings of power: Our first article in the theme is a bunch of leftovers from their latest book. Sigh. As Iuz, Pholtus, Rao and Tharizdun weren't in the corebook, but do play fairly substantial parts in Greyhawk's history, they decided not to include them in Deities and Demigods, and give them to the magazine's readers, who are probably more likely to be aware of D&D's wider history. And there'll certainly be plenty of people still annoyed at what happened in the Greyhawk wars who'd want to kick Iuz's ass in a fair fight. Which since he's only a rank 3 demigod, is within the bounds of possibility for a non-epic party if they can catch him without his entourage or take an army along to engage them in turn. The others, not so much, unless you can pull the kind of trick that makes CR irrelevant. So this feels like an attempt at a cross-promotional article that'll alienate as many as it sells, revealing just how horrendously unwieldy deity statblocks are in 3e, so they know what they're getting into before they spend the money. In that respect, you could call it a public service announcement. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /> At least that's better than a vague or misleading advert that'll only reveal the problems after you've paid the money. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Ramming speed: In a rather leftfield turn, we have an epic article that isn't part of either of their nominal themes this month. An 18 page treatise on vehicle building and combat in D&D? They ought to have put that at the front, not the cuttings from their latest book, and found a couple more articles to complement it. Marketing fail. </p><p></p><p>Even more interestingly, the rules here aren't the same as, and are quite a bit more involved than the vehicle combat rules that appear in d20 modern later this year. It covers sailing and flying, even underground diggers as well as land vehicles, and has a lot of examples, complete with construction details that show how much they cost to make and repair. (and you know that with the scrapes PC's get into, they're going to be spending a fair chunk in the chop shop if they want to keep their ride running, and even more if they want to customise it with the latest stat boosting accessories ) Which means this is the kind of article you can get quite a bit of use out of, especially if your players get into the optimisation game with their vehicles as much as their characters, and devote a load of time to making them as effective as possible with the money they have. Which makes it pretty appropriate for the 3e era really. It's always nice to see them go to the extra effort, especially it looks like they might not get the proper credit for it. </p><p></p><p></p><p>The windsinger: Following directly on from the last article is a ship based prestige class. The Windsinger is one of those highly specialised prestige classes that's pretty useful within their speciality, and a bit weak outside it. Weather manipulation is a pretty useful power, it has to be said. But considering by the early teens, wizards and druids can do all that, plus a ton of other stuff, this still isn't a particularly high tier prestige class. Still, it does get full BAB and an excellent skill selection on top of it's powers, so they aren't devoid of balancing factors, and make a decent nautical alternative to Rangers & Bards. And it does fit a common literary niche. So I'm not going to throw it overboard or make it walk the plank.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 6025429, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon Issue 294: April 2002[/U][/B] part 3/10 Kev is not pulling his weight in zogonia. You need a strong stomach to be an adventurer. Dork tower makes player choice irrelevant. Seems a bit ironic for a muskrat to face a marmot. Beings of power: Our first article in the theme is a bunch of leftovers from their latest book. Sigh. As Iuz, Pholtus, Rao and Tharizdun weren't in the corebook, but do play fairly substantial parts in Greyhawk's history, they decided not to include them in Deities and Demigods, and give them to the magazine's readers, who are probably more likely to be aware of D&D's wider history. And there'll certainly be plenty of people still annoyed at what happened in the Greyhawk wars who'd want to kick Iuz's ass in a fair fight. Which since he's only a rank 3 demigod, is within the bounds of possibility for a non-epic party if they can catch him without his entourage or take an army along to engage them in turn. The others, not so much, unless you can pull the kind of trick that makes CR irrelevant. So this feels like an attempt at a cross-promotional article that'll alienate as many as it sells, revealing just how horrendously unwieldy deity statblocks are in 3e, so they know what they're getting into before they spend the money. In that respect, you could call it a public service announcement. :p At least that's better than a vague or misleading advert that'll only reveal the problems after you've paid the money. Ramming speed: In a rather leftfield turn, we have an epic article that isn't part of either of their nominal themes this month. An 18 page treatise on vehicle building and combat in D&D? They ought to have put that at the front, not the cuttings from their latest book, and found a couple more articles to complement it. Marketing fail. Even more interestingly, the rules here aren't the same as, and are quite a bit more involved than the vehicle combat rules that appear in d20 modern later this year. It covers sailing and flying, even underground diggers as well as land vehicles, and has a lot of examples, complete with construction details that show how much they cost to make and repair. (and you know that with the scrapes PC's get into, they're going to be spending a fair chunk in the chop shop if they want to keep their ride running, and even more if they want to customise it with the latest stat boosting accessories ) Which means this is the kind of article you can get quite a bit of use out of, especially if your players get into the optimisation game with their vehicles as much as their characters, and devote a load of time to making them as effective as possible with the money they have. Which makes it pretty appropriate for the 3e era really. It's always nice to see them go to the extra effort, especially it looks like they might not get the proper credit for it. The windsinger: Following directly on from the last article is a ship based prestige class. The Windsinger is one of those highly specialised prestige classes that's pretty useful within their speciality, and a bit weak outside it. Weather manipulation is a pretty useful power, it has to be said. But considering by the early teens, wizards and druids can do all that, plus a ton of other stuff, this still isn't a particularly high tier prestige class. Still, it does get full BAB and an excellent skill selection on top of it's powers, so they aren't devoid of balancing factors, and make a decent nautical alternative to Rangers & Bards. And it does fit a common literary niche. So I'm not going to throw it overboard or make it walk the plank. [/QUOTE]
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