News Archive #12 July 2000 News from July 2000: July 28, 2000 Char Gen Patch Details: Scott Mathews of Fluid Entertainment posted some info on the soon-to-be-released patch for the D&D Character Generator over on my message board. For a free demo, this is starting to look like a very solid program! After rattling off a list of bug fixes, Scott listed some of the enhancements provided in the patch. Features Added: Leveling up Hitting the “level up” button from the pop up dialog returns you to the class screen. You can now add a level or class, or classes to your character, and change your name and alignment. You cannot level down. Magic Items Magic items and their DMG prices were added to the purchase screen. All magic items that derive from a table in the DMG were added. All scrolls and wands from the random tables were added in addition. Many of the special powers for weapons and armor (like a thundering, vorpal dart), were also added. Alas, you cannot equip any magic item. We decided not to spend the additional time, (which was substantial), to allow for this. “Scooping” the DMG in this way was also frowned upon. It’d be better of course if you could equip the magic, but wait for Master Tools (or “WFMT,” which I will now put into use often). ;) Char Gen in a window As a TOTALLY UNSUPPORTED feature, you can run the Character Generator in a window. ‘Totally unsupported’ means, “Hey! We can get it to work here on our cool development machines, but your mileage may vary. Don’t bug us if it does.” You may experience minor graphic or sound bugs, but feel free to use it at your own risk. Your desktop must be in 16-bit mode and running at least 800x600 resolution, although 1024x768 or higher is recommended for best use. To run in a window, use the included batch file named “CharGenWin.bat” or run the executable with a command line parameter of “-win.” Tutorial Voice A Tutorial Voice was added. Basically it’s about 15 lines of VO to help the computer illiterate user. I KNOW none of you reading this are in that demographic, but many people are. Even some old-school paper gamers are still not with us. :) Don’t worry, you can turn the voice off from the pop up dialog. Deficit spending From the purchase layer, you can now adjust the GP your character owns. You can type the value into the box if you desire by first clicking on that field. From the equipment layer, you can also buy equipment for free. Just click on the box there and items that you drag over to the left will not reduce your cash. This was added so that players can add equipment and magic to their character that they found while adventuring. Baseline reporting According to table 2-24 in the DMG, (yes we have a beta copy, and no it won’t be available on e-bay), characters have a baseline value for equipment owned at each level. This is now reported on the purchase layer. Total gold plus total purchased (or “total assets”) is also reported, so the user can compare one value to the other (“Am I in the middle of a Monty Haul campaign? Good heavens!”) Menu button The orange gem at the bottom center of the screen now says “menu” to draw more attention to it being a button. Alternate rolling methods The Roll pop up dialog was completely redesigned. It now supports Standard 4D6, Default Array and the Point-Buy method. We added a reset button and a ‘total’ points report box, for you RPGAers. HP adjust You can adjust your HP from the main layer now. DM stats The character sheet now prints the following “DM only” stats: Total rolls + ability adjust - ability adjust HP adjust Point value Roll Method Total Assets Baseline Age Adjust You can adjust your age within the starting age ranges provided on table 6-4 of the PH (Jim, you win again). Hourglass cursor The cursor now displays the standard hourglass during exceptionally long print jobs. The time for the print job was also significantly optimized. Todd Lockwood portraits The character portraits were replaced with drawings by Todd Lockwood that were taken from the Player's Handbook. They aren’t based on class anymore, they are based on race and gender. The three-letter class designation is printed just below the portrait. You can get the Character Generator on CD with Dragon #274 or the Player's Handbook, and you will be able to download the patch at the Master Tools web site. Where's Eric (the Sequel)? Again, I'll be away from the computer for a few days. Be good while I'm gone! How Big is Big? Remember the chart with the AC and attack modifiers by size? Anonymous provides the numbers that help determine how big or how small the size categories actually are: Combat Modifiers by Size Size Example Modifier Dimension* Weight** Colossal (Great Red Wyrm) -8 50´+ 150,000 lbs. Gargantuan (Storm giant) -4 24´+ to 50´ 25,000 lbs. to 150,000 lbs. Huge (Hill Giant) -2 12´+ to 24´ 3,000 lbs. + to 25,000 lbs. Large (Ogre) -1 7´+ to 12´ 400 lbs. + to 3,000 lbs. Medium (Human) 0 4´+ to 7´ 50 lbs. to 400 lbs. Small (Gnome) +1 2´+ to 4´ 7 lbs. to 50 lbs. Tiny (Cat) +2 1´+ to 2´ 1 lb.+ to 7 lbs. Diminutive (Toad) +4 1"+ to 1´ 1/8 lb.+ to 1 lb. Fine (Fly) +8 1" or less 1/8 lb. or less The modifier applies to the creature's AC and attack rolls. For instance, a gnome has a +1 to hit and a +1 to AC, while a storm giant has a -4 to hit and a -4 AC. Notice that when two creatures of the same size fight each other, the modifiers cancel out (+4 to hit vs. +4 to AC results in a net modifier of +0). * Biped's height, quadruped's body length (nose to base of tail). ** Assuming that the creature is roughly as dense as a regular animal. A creature made of solid stone will weigh considerably more. A gaseous creature will weigh much less. Official Updates: A whole slew of new stuff to satisfy your 3E craving over at the official D&D site (thanks to Robert Ljung and 2Tall, the first of about two dozen scoopers): D&D Fast Play: You can download a 1mb PDF fast play 3E game called "Caves of Shadow." It includes pregenerated characters, a keyed map, and uses mechanics similar to the d20 System except it uses six-sided dice. Character Closeup: we meet Biran Dragonscourge, a sorcerer/ranger. Of course, it wouldn't be a Character Closeup without some errors (he has exactly the same skills at 5th and at 7th levels, and shouldn't he have two feats at first level?), but it's interesting to see a fighter-type with an 8 STR. 2nd Edition Preview: Taking a tip from Squirrel Nutkin, WotC has posted a PDF of the 1989 preview of 2E D&D. You can download it here. PHB Promo Movie: You can download an animated promo for the 3E PHB in two formats -- a 2.2mb Quicktime or a 180k Real Video. It's not much to write home about, but hey, you're desperate, right? July 27, 2000 Chat with Fiend: Kyle Charron extends an invitation to chat with him about Fiend Games, a d20 System publisher. The chat will take place on Sunday, July 30th, at 9 pm EST, and you can find more information about accessing the chat room right here. New 3E Psionics News Site: Are you a mind-bender, mind-walker, or wild talent? Or just curious about news and rumors about the forthcoming psionics rules for 3E? Then you'll want to check out Psi3E. D&D Adventure Game Review: RPG.net has posted a review of the D&D Adventure Game, the boxed set due in August which is aimed at those who have had no exposure to role-playing or D&D. The review is decidedly negative, as you can tell from this snippet (thanks to Roy Martin for the scoop): As far as content goes 'sparse' certainly accurately describes this set. The dumbed down rules are expected -it's an introductory product- but I think the decision to exclude character generation, however simplified, was a big mistake. I guess money isn't worth as much and more, but even at ten bucks (that's about 15 canuck bucks for any of you who care) this thing is a total rip off. In fact, the only reason I didn't rate this product 'i wasted my money' was because I didn't have to pay for it. July 26, 2000 Community News: Stop by the MEDFARO web site for house rules, a character sheet, and a home-brewed campaign world. And you'll definitely want to drop by Hecubus' D&D Official and House Rules page -- Hecubus has done a whole bunch of info-mining with the Character Generator and has mega-lists of feats, skills, classes, weapons, armor, and on and on. Plus he's put together a character sheet and some house rules as well. Minor Adjustments to Combat Examples: New combat information has come to light (see this thread on the message board for more details; if you get an error message try back in a few minutes -- the message board goes down every now and then), and with this new info I have gone through and (again) adjusted the Combat Examples. Not too many details needed to be changed as we have had a pretty good idea of what the combat round would be like for some time, but we now have a better feel for what actions are "partial actions" and which actions draw attacks of opportunity. One Million Hits! I didn't think it was possible, but the seven of you who visit my site have dropped by often enough to rack up 1,000,000 hits since opening day on August 9, 1999! It has been a wonderful year -- not only keeping up with and sharing the news, but getting to hear from hundreds of D&D fans. Thanks for making me a "millionaire" -- and, yes, that's my final answer! :) Message Board Bits: Quotes from WotC's Sean Reynolds: Attacks of Opportunity: An AOO is something extra and for free that you can do if it comes up (like a saving throw, or make a Spot check). Taking the Full Attack action doesn't prevent you from making a save vs a fireball later that round, or making a Spot check to notice the assassin creeping up on you, or from taking an AOO when you get the chance. Attacking is active, but an AOO is REactive. However, an AOO does not allow you all of the options that a normal combat round does, so you only get _one_ attack. (scooper: James Hoover) "Double Damage" (i.e. do you double everything?): Yes - it's like combining (X) number of attacks into one attack, where (X) is the critical multiplier for the weapon. (Scooper: Gerard) July 25, 2000 Char Gen Patch Delayed Until Next Week: WotC's Jim Bishop posted the following on my message board (thanks to Darrin "Going for his 2nd scoop" Lyon): Bad news guys--we're looking at another delay for the patch. Our new target date is Monday the 31st. It's funny really: we spend a lot of time listening to you guys, who represent the expert user population and are very software-savvy. And our fixes up to now have addressed your concerns to the exclusion of the beginning user. But less-experienced users were confused by elements of the interface, so we're going into sound studio for a few days to add some voice-over. We want to help users identify the drag-and-drop mechanic, the Menu gem, and to help navigate through the Roll pop-up. We've also had a lot of trouble with magic items, and they could benefit both from more coding time and more QA. The good news for you guys is that this will give us time for formal testing as well. Meaning that the many feature additions will be cleaner and (hopefully) bug-free. I know this is terrible news, and I apologize for the delay. All I can say is that it's worth the wait, it's worth the wait . . . Drizzt Do'Urden and Linsha Majere, 3E Style: WotC has updated its Forgotten Realms site with 3E stats for the dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden, and its Dragonlance page with the 3E stats for Linsha Majere, granddaughter of Caramon and Tika of the Dragonlance saga. (thanks to Dweomer, Lorthanoth, Joel F., James Hoover, Robert Blezard, and Dark Blackshield for the scoop) Drizzt's stats are a little bit of a surprise, as he's presented as a 16th-level ranger, not a multiclassed fighter/ranger as one might expect given his martial upbringing and the fact that his ranger experiences came relatively late in his life. My best guess is that these stats are not "final" -- when the 3E Forgotten Realms book comes out I would guess we'll see some special "Realms twist" to Drizzt's stats (maybe some drow or Underdark "regional feats," for instance). Update: WotC's Sean Reynolds: "Note that this is a direct conversion of his Heroes' Lorebook stats, where he is a Ranger16. When I write him up for the FR book, I'll be sure to minmax him as much as possible, just as I would any other character. ;)" I don't know much about Linsha as a character, but her write-up indicates that she's a Knight of the Rose (a paladin) who is posing as a rogue. She has used her skill points to acquire some decidedly unpaladinlike skills such as Bluff, Hide, and Move Silently. Makes for a great illustration that your class doesn't necessarily pin you down to one cliche. July 24, 2000 Community News: Jason Klank of Mystical Alchemy Gameworks informs me that his site at http://www.d20games.com has been remodeled, and he's also posted the chat log from the recent Ian Malcomson chat held at his site. And a new D&D fan site has opened -- Cyberzombie's D&D Page. It has interesting rules for a variant "Armor & Evasion" system for D&D, among other things. Holy Badger! WotC's Sean Reynolds discusses a low-level summoning spell (on the 3E Message Boards): Summon Monster I can summon things such as a celestial badger. They've got +5/+5/+0 attacks for 1d2 each, AC 15, a holy smite against evil once per day, energy resistance, and darkvision.... Sure, at 1st level it's only around for one round, but that goes up each level. 3E Translations: WotC's Sean Reynolds (on the 3E Message Board, thanks to James Hoover for the scoop): The current plan is to have the 3 core books translated into the following languages: French, Hungarian, German, Italian, and Spanish. That's all the info I have. Complete Book of Necromancers: If you've been searching high and low for a copy of the Complete Book of Necromancers for 2nd Edition AD&D, you're in luck -- if you have the Core Rules 2.0 with Expansion. WotC has posted a free download that allows you to integrate both Windows Help and HTML file format copies of the CBoN into the existing online books that come with the CR2 Expansion. Check out this page for details. (thanks to Martin Brabander for the scoop) Turning Area of Effect: WotC's Sean Reynolds explains the area of effect for the Turn Undead special ability (on the 3E Message Board, thanks to Daniel the Neon Knight, Gerard and James Hoover for the scoop): Turning is a 360-degree burst effect and even affects ones that you can't see (you're channeling positive energy, which isn't sight-based). You can do it in the dark, it affects things behind you, and so on. Official Updates: The WotC D&D site has been updated: Skip Williams Interview: The Sage talks about the 3E Sorcerer class in this brief interview. 3E Demo Tour and New Art: You can read about 3E demos that swept the nation last month right here. Included is a slide show of new 3E concept art and final art -- including monsters such as illithid, bulette, manticore, destrachan, and chuul. DMG Preview: Just as we've had an exerpt from the forthcoming Player's Handbook (due August 10th), we now have a sneak peek at the Dungeon Master's Guide (due in September). Not only do we get to see the final cut of the 3E Experience Point system, we get to read about how it evolved as well. The system involves a chart comparing the average level of the PCs involved in an encounter vs. the Challenge Rating of each monster involved; the resulting number is then split among the party members. Here's a snippet of the chart provided as well as the bare-bones instructions for its use (thanks to Lorthanoth, first of many scoopers): Table 7–1: Experience Point Awards (Single Monster) -- Partial Table Only Party Level Challenge Rating CR 1 CR 2 CR 3 CR 4 CR 5 CR 6 1st–3rd 300 600 900 1,350 1,800 2,700 4th 300 600 800 1,200 1,600 2,400 5th 300 500 750 1,000 1,500 2,250 6th 300 450 600 900 1,200 1,800 7th 263 394 525 700 1,050 1,400 8th 200 300 450 600 800 1,200 9th * 225 338 506 675 900 10th * * 250 375 563 750 To determine the XP award for an encounter, follow these steps: 1. Determine the party level (average level of the party members). 2. For each monster defeated, determine that single monster’s Challenge Rating. 3. Use Table 7–1: Experience Point Awards (Single Monster) to cross-reference the party level with the Challenge Rating to find the XP award. 4. Add up the XP award for each monster defeated to find the party’s award. 5. Divide the total XP among all the characters who started the encounter. (Even if they are knocked unconscious, everyone who took part in an encounter gains experience for that encounter.) Example: A party of five 4th-level PCs defeats two ogres. An ogre is Challenge Rating 2, so the party earns 600 XP per monster, for a total of 1,200 XP. There are five characters in the party, so they each get 240 XP (1,200/5 = 240). The exerpt also includes suggestions for dealing with monsters (such as zombies) that are less than CR 1, awarding XP for overcoming traps, encounters that might be harder or easier than normal due to unusual circumstances, and suggestions for variant XP systems that allow for story awards, roleplaying awards, and modifying the rate of advancement to suit individual campaigns. July 21, 2000 Size Matters: The size modifiers to AC and attack rolls speculated by Heretic Apostate a few weeks ago on the official 3E Message Board has been confirmed on my message board: Combat Modifiers by Size Size Example Modifier Colossal (great red wyrm) -8 Gargantuan (Storm giant) -4 Huge (Hill Giant) -2 Large (Ogre) -1 Medium (Human) 0 Small (Gnome) +1 Tiny (Cat) +2 Diminutive (Toad) +4 Fine (fly) +8 The modifier applies to the creature's AC and attack rolls. For instance, a gnome has a +1 to hit and a +1 to AC, while a storm giant has a -4 to hit and a -4 AC. Notice that when two creatures of the same size fight each other, the modifiers cancel out (+4 to hit vs. +4 to AC results in a net modifier of +0). Eric's GenCon Plans: I've had a bunch of people express an interest in having a chance to say 'hey' to me at Gen Con. The good news is that I'll be there on Thursday (August 10) and Friday (August 11), and that I've been invited by WotC to participate in some official manner (mainly sitting in on 3E demo games). The bad news is that I don't yet have a solid schedule for exactly when or where I'll be doing this. As the date draws closer, hopefully my schedule will firm up and I can let you know exactly where I'll be and when. Of course not only will I be participating in games and seminars, I will be providing at least minimal Gen Con coverage for the website -- notes from the seminars I attend, pictures of the happenings, that sort of thing. I've been told I'll have some computer access right at the Con so I may be able to update live. Otherwise you may have to wait until after I'm back to hear the gory details. :) Playtest Group: July's Playtest Group has returned to the WotC site (again). They comment about Forgotten Realms regional feats, drow as a PC race, expansions to paladin and monk multiclassing, magic and monsters in the Realms. (thanks to Psionicist, Rick Smith, Joe Bosnak, belgarath97, and Russell Kolinchak for the scoop) July 20, 2000 Char Gen Credits Movie Image: The Character Generator program has a movie listing the credits for the program and for D&D in general, with dark text over different pieces of 3E art kind of washed out to make a background. Right at the end is an illustration of the 3E PC races lined up, giving us a good impression of relative size. Looks to me like we have Human, Halfling, Gnome, Half-Orc, Dwarf, Half-Elf and Elf. (thanks to Allister Huggins for the idea) Char Gen Patch Pushed Back: WotC's Jim Bishop indicates that the patch for the Character Generator program is not quite ready to go (on Mastertools-L): Talking with the guys at Fluid this morning, it looks like we have to push the patch back to early next week. We've added in a tremendous amount of stuff: leveling up, new ability generation screen, fixed purchase and equip layers, new graphics and character portraits, a slew of minor fixes, and we're adding magic items right now. But we don't feel we've had enough time to adequately test all the new features, so we're taking (yet another) weekend to work on it. I apologize for disappointing you guys, but trust me when I say the wait is going to be worth it. When the patch is ready, you'll be able to find it over on the MasterTools website. Noah and Squirrel: I think I've met the competition. Take a look at Squirrel Nutkin's D&D site. It has everything you could possibly want, including rodents. Cook on Prestige Classes: DMG author Monte Cook provided scooper Lance R. Goetz with some info on prestige classes: Why are prestige classes only developed up to 10th level? They have 10 levels to stress that they are not full classes. The knowledge that you can gain from them is finite. Conceivably, you could have a prestige class with more or even less than 10 levels, but 10 is standard. You can still multiclass or take levels of your original class, just like any multiclass, so you're not cheated out of any levels. Will the high-level book address prestige classes? Absolutely. Will prestige classes be addressed in other products? The idea all along has been that we would provide more prestige classes to help define and develop important roles (like a quick, unarmored, swashbuckling fighter) or specific groups (like the Red Wizards of Thay in the Forgotten Realms). Expect to see more. Magic Item Tidbits: WotC's Sean Reynolds indicates that you can create magic items that have metamagic effects built into them (to maximize, extend or heighten a spell effect, for instance), and that cantrips are treated as level 0.5 when calculating the cost of creating a magic item that uses a cantrip as its magical effect. (on the 3E Message Board, thanks to Heretic Apostate, John Coccaro, Torfinn Brokke, and, oh, let's say PA and/or Gerard since I think one of them sent one of these scoops earlier and I accidentally trashed it :) Chat Reminder: You can chat with Ian Malcomson tonight at 9pm EST over at the Mystical Alchemy Gameworks chatroom. Link via web is http://d20games.dhs.org:8000 and via irc client d20games.dhs.org, port 7000. Ian is the author of the Robin Hood articles in Dragon #274 and will be creating a d20 campaign setting for MAG. Dragon Preview at WotC: Want to take a sneak peek at Dragon #274? You can do so over at the the official Dragon Magazine site. (thanks to OdGregg and Shane Mclean for the scoop) July 19, 2000 GenCon 3E Launch: WotC has posted information on 3E-related seminars, games and other events that will be taking place at GenCon. Whether you're headed there and want to see what's in store, or just want to see what you'll be missing, you can check it out right here. There's also a handy-dandy schedule of 3E events and a list of special guests you might want to peruse. Rules Supplements and More: What rules supplements and other products are in store for D&D? WotC's Dale Donovan (on the 3E Message Board): We do plan to publish rules supplements with new options for various classes (plus the "Hero Builder's Guidebook" which comes out later this year and deals with character backgrounds). The first book in this short series of rules supplements, already mentioned in the first issue of "Games Unplugged" Magazine, is a book on Fighters & Monks with new feats, prestige classes, equipment, and so on for those two classes. We've been calling it the "Butt-Kickers' Handbook" around the office but that's not the real title. Expect it in the first part of 2001. Are we planning to do a Fighter book, a Ranger book, a Paladin book, a Sorcerer book, a Monk book, a Bard book, etc., etc., again? No. As noted above by the example of the Fighter/Monk book, each will have a theme. Please note that WotC is a publishing company; if we don't put out more products, then we make no money. Please understand this is an industry. Do you need these supplements to play and enjoy the game? Of course not, but a lot of people will want them, so we're going to do them. Now, have we learned the lessons of 2nd Ed. AD&D and the escalation problems that ensued from some of the Complete Handbooks? Oh yes. We're keeping a sharp eye out to not let that happen again. Please let us know how we do. Of course, we're going to be doing more than just rules books. We have a bunch of adventures (not a linked series, plot-wise) that will take PCs from 1st- up to 20th-level. Other than that, short adventures are the mostly purview of DUNGEON Adventures now and RPG R&D staff members have already begun contributing to the mag. Big adventures, [along the lines of] Night Below, Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, and Return to the Tomb of Horrors will also appear. Game expansions, such as the much-discussed Psionics book, will also happen. We think we're doing a better job of having a balanced schedule of D&D products that appeal to both DMs and players than ever before. As more of these products roll out (and we can all discuss them as they do), we're all happy to have constructive conversations about how we're handling things. Number the Spells: Is 3E skimping on the spells? WotC's Sean Reynolds helps us compare the editions of D&D (on the 3E Message Board): 1E spell chapter: pg 43-100, or about 57 pages. 348 spells. 2E (revised) spell chapter: 170-299, or about 129 pages. 488 spells. 3rd edition D&D spell chapter: 172-274, or about 102 pages. 548 spells. Racial Size and Age: Tenzhi has extracted height and weight tables from the D&D Character Generator, and has provided a sample age the program assigns from a range of ages for starting characters. Race Gender Min Hgt Max Hgt Min Wgt Max Wgt Sample Age Dwarf M 3'11" 4'5" 134 lbs. 226 lbs. 66 Dwarf F 3'9" 4'3" 104 lbs. 196 lbs. 66 H-Orc M 5' 6'6" 134 lbs. 290 lbs. 19 H-Orc F 4'6" 6' 94 lbs. 250 lbs. 19 Human M 5' 6'6" 124 lbs. 280 lbs. 16 Human F 4'7" 6'1" 89 lbs. 245 lbs. 16 H-Elf M 4'9" 5'11" 104 lbs. 228 lbs. 25 H-Elf F 4'7" 5'9" 84 lbs. 208 lbs. 25 Elf M 4'7" 5'5" 87 lbs. 157 lbs. 129 Elf F 4'7" 5'5" 82 lbs. 152 lbs. 129 Gnome M 3'2" 3'8" 42 lbs. 48 lbs. 53 Gnome F 3' 3'6" 37 lbs. 43 lbs. 53 H-ling M 2'10" 3'4" 32 lbs. 38 lbs. 24 H-ling F 2'8" 3'2" 27 lbs. 33 lbs. 24 Dead Dragon Available: The Ed Greenwood & Troy Denning Forgotten Realms novel Death of the Dragon was spotted today in a bookstore. This hardcover novel will surely mark a significant point in Realms history. (Thanks to Thom Davis for the scoop) July 18, 2000 FR NPCs: Will the famous characters of the Forgotten Realms (Elminster, Drizzt, etc.) follow the Third Edition rules when their stats are converted for the 3E FR book? WotC's Sean Reynolds (on the 3E Message Board, thanks to James Hoover for the scoop): Since I'm the one converting the characters over for the core book, the answer is that all characters in the book will be D&D-legit, and their levels will be handled with the conversion book's rules (what we're doing about 20+ characters, I won't comment on at this time because it depends upon the eventual HLC [High-Level Campaign] book). I am one super rules geek, and I always hated stuff that broke our own published rules. Have no fear. Win Icewind Dale: RPG Planet is running a contest, and the prize is a signed copy of the AD&D CRPG Icewind Dale and a bunch of other stuff. Here's where you sign your life away. (Thanks to Silverdawn for the scoop) July 17, 2000 New Rules in Dragon: WotC's Ryan Dancey discusses the role of Dragon Magazine in expanding the Third Edition rules (on the 3E Message Board): We want Dragon to be a place where new ideas are presented to the public. When something is "Officially a part of Dungeons & Dragons" it will be identified as such. Dragon is your best source for this kind of material. However, much of what will be presented is not to be taken as canon - the material is not all reviewed by the 3e core design team and it may or may not be balanced. From time to time, you may see some things that first appeared in Dragon appear in a product, with or without changes. If you like or don't like something you see in Dragon, we're really interested in hearing your feedback - you may affect the design process in a positive way. Clearly, there are going to be more Feats and skills added to the game as time progresses. Certainly, you may feel that you'd have liked to have known about those feats and skills at 1st level - but the primary objective of such additions will be to expand characters beyond the basic archetypes; so even if you took such a feat later in the characters' life, you still wouldn't feel cheated. Multiclass XP Penalty: The experience point penalty that multiclass characters suffer when their classes are too far apart in level is a little tricky to figure out. When does it kick in? How far apart is too far apart? How big can the penalties get? Anonymous explains: Depending on the character's class levels and race, he or she might or might not suffer an XP penalty. Even Levels: If your multiclass character's classes are nearly the same level (all withing one level of each other), then he or she can balance the needs of his or her classes and suffers no penalty. Uneven levels: If any two of your multiclass character's classes are two or more levels apart, the strain of developing and maintain different skills at different levels takes its toll. Your multiclass character suffers a -20% XP penalty for each class that is not within one level of his most experienced class. For instance, a 4th-level wizard/3rd-level rogue gets no penalty, but if that character raises his wizard level to 5th, then he would receive the -20% penalty from that point on until his levels were nearly even again. Races and Multiclass XP: A racially favored class does not count against the character for purposes of the -20% XP penalty. In such cases, calculate the XP penalty as if the character did not have that class. A human's or half-elf's highest-level class is always considered his or her favored class. Example: Begwin is an 11th-level gnome character (a 9th-level rogue/2nd-level illusionist). He suffers no XP penalty because he has only one nonfavored class. (Illusionist is favored for gnomes.) Suppose he then achieves 12th-level and adds 1st-level fighter to his classes, becoming a 9th-level rogue/2nd-level illusionist/1st-level fighter. He suffers a -20% XP penalty on future XP he earns because his fighter level is so much lower than his rogue level. Were he awarded 1,200 XP for an adventure, he would receive 80% of that amount, or 960 XP. If he rose to 13th level and picked up 1st-level as cleric, he would suffer a -40% XP penalty from then on. FR Fiction Chronology: Are you thinking about reading some Forgotten Realms fiction but don't know where to start? Are you curious about exactly when a certain novel took place in the Realms? WotC has posted a list of Realms fiction (including short stories and comics) arranged chronologically and also by series (including start and end date of the work within the Realms timeline if known). Looking at this enormous list, I don't feel quite so bad for not being able to keep up with the events of the realms! (thanks to RPCore for the scoop) Dragon #274 Has Arrived! I've written up a report on this milestone issue of Dragon Magazine, the first all-3E issue. Step right this way! Greyhawk Poster Maps: WotC's Sean Reynolds talks about the maps that will come with two forthcoming 3E Greyhawk products (on Greyhawk-L, thanks to Buzzregog for the scoop): The D&D Gazeteer has a small GH map in it (about 11x17) and the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer has a standard poster-map sized map, and it's sweet. DiTerlizzi in 3E: Apparently artist Tony DiTerlizzi's work will appear in the 3E Monster Manual, according to WotC's "Virtual Origins" site. He is well known as a prolific illustrator for the Planescape product line for AD&D. (thanks to DMCoik for the scoop) ...you'll see Tony's illustrations of aasimars, tieflings, and other creatures for the new edition of the Monster Manual (coming in October). July 16, 2000 D&D Humor: You can download a hilarious video clip about fantasy roleplaying over at the IGN PS2 website. I guarantee you'll find parts of it eerily familiar. (Thanks to Jonathan Petersen for the scoop) You can find an .mp3 of the dialog from this video here. This file is a much smaller download (around 3 MB). (Thanks to Piratecat for the scoop) Magical Collaboration: WotC's Sean Reynolds indicates that there are rules that cover multiple characters collaborating on creating a single magical item. (on the 3E Message Board) Combat and Movement: WotC's Sean Reynolds on movement in combat (on the 3E Message Board): With a Full Attack action*, you take your attacks in numerical order (highest incremental to lowest incremental) on any targets you can reach. You can take a single 5-foot step before, in between, or after your attacks. You don't need to decide which attack is going against who until it's time to use that attack (so you don't waste attacks on opponents you killed with an earlier blow). This becomes handy. If you're surrounded by medium-power opponents, and one square back are a couple that havebeen wounded near death, you can use your big attack on an unhurt guy near you, then take a 5-foot step to use a weaker incremental attack on one of the wounded guys, killing him. If you have Cleave, that also means you could Cleave to the other weak guy next to him, possibly killing him, too. *Note that to get your incremental attacks, you have to use the Full Attack action, which means the only move you can make that round is a 5-foot step. Upcoming Chats: Add these chats to your calendar: Living Greyhawk Pre-launch Introduction, John Richardson and David Tip Vaught, RPGA Tonight -Tues. 7/18/00 6-7 pm (PDT): At Gen Con, RPGA launches its boldest Living campaign ever, Living Greyhawk. This campaign lets you play in a nation of Greyhawk assigned to where you live, capturing the local feeling of a home campaign. Since the whole world of Greyhawk is being played somewhere, the campaign is taking place around the world. Members of the Circle of Six, the campaign's guiding council, will tell you about the launch activities at Gen Con and how to get involved where you live. 3rd Edition D&D Sorcerers, Skip Williams, Fri. 7/21/00 6-7 pm (PDT): 3rd Edition D&D brings a wholly new class to the table-sorcerers. A totally different type of spellcaster from priests and wizards, sorcerers have distinct advantages for those of us short on memory but long on charm . . . Skip Williams teases us one last time in chat before D-Day, or rather, D&D-Day. Wyatt's Update: WotC's James Wyatt has updated his personal D&D Third Edition page with annecdotes about recent adventures. Here's a quote to whet your appetite (thanks to Shane Mclean for the scoop): We made 6th-level characters, which I enjoyed. I considered being a multiclass necromancer/cleric or even cleric/monk, but decided I really wanted all 6 levels of cleric. That's the key thing about multiclassing in the new rules -- you can get some cool stuff by taking some levels in other classes, but the price you pay is always the levels in your other class, and the benefits that come with those levels. July 15, 2000 PHB at Origins Photos: WotC has posted a series of photos spoofing the enormous secrecy and security around the Player's Handbook at the Origins game convention. (thanks to Danny Nolan for the scoop) PHB at Origins Report: Scooper "Squirrel Nutkin" has had the rare privelege of handling the Player's Handbook at the Origins game convention. Here's the report: I spent well over ten minutes with the 3E Player's Handbook at Origins today! The PH was under bulletproof glass, but there were no gloves. Just two big holes you could stick your hands through. There weren't any guards either. The box just had an occasional WotC employee standing close by, such as Mr. Tweet. He seemed very proud of his handiwork! I also hate to say this, but there was no crowd around the PH at all. I saw three or four people around the box at a time, tops. Most of the time people sort of wandered over and glanced at it before heading back to the CCG tables. "More time for me," that's what I said! First of all, if it hasn't been emphasized enough, this book is beautiful inside and out. Lots of color pictures, and many helpful diagrams. If it wasn't already obvious from the Conversion Manual and the Neverwinter Nights site, the art no longer looks like snapshots from an SCA meeting -- everything is very fantastic and otherworldly. The paladin's illustration alone ought to shake players out of the "paladin = knight in shining armor" stereotype. The races? Well, I was reading about the gnomes specifically since there's been such an interest in how they turned out in 3E, but then Dave Arneson walked up and my little heart went pitter-pat and I forgot to finish reading the entry after he left. I do remember the entry touching on them being crafty little inventors and such, but they aren't tinkers in the DL sense of the word, so don't get a bee in your bonnet over the thought of them being "minoi" 'cause they're not. In fact, unless the German beer washed my memories away, I don't recall seeing any mention of sub-races among the ones in the PH. An elf is just "an elf", a dwarf is just "a dwarf", etc. If they specified what kind of elf, dwarf, and such that you're playing, I missed it. Overall, I think some of the best things about the racial entries was the "line-up" picture which took me back to my 1E PH days (you know the illustration) and the addition of a few more categories under each race. There's an example of what a male or female of each race might be named, and then a few ideas as to why your particular demi-human might be an adventurer. For new players, that's a very nice touch. Players will also dig the photocopyable character sheet. Like GURPS, the opening pages show a character sheet with all sorts of indexed pages. You know, an arrow pointing at saving throws that says "for this part of your character, turn to this page," etc. Sometimes I look at my old orange 1E sheets and remember how intimidating those were for new players, so that's a good thing to include. The sheet itself is very nice, very 'clean.' I'll be interested to see just how the sheets that will be sold seperately will improve on that. Let's hope it's not just the name of the classes on the right-hand margin again (remember that, you old-timers?). The classes? Hmm. I think we've just about cracked this nut ourselves; I didn't see anything surprising there. I mean, really guys, what's left that we don't know? Now, the list of Greyhawk gods under the cleric's entry was good -- it reminded me of the little one-line entries in the very back of Deities and Demigods. Just enough information to get your cleric up and running, presuming the DM is "defaulting" to GH. Speaking of divine things, you can't really appreciate having all of the spells listed alphabetically until you've flipped through them. They're not seperated by level, class, nuthin'. They go straight from A to Z, so if you know the name of the spell you're after, there you go. It was so convenient that I find myself wondering why it took this long for someone to list them that way. The descriptions are crystal clear, too. Again, I also saw plenty of diagrams which take me back to my days as a WFB player. These don't leave any room for argument as far as how the spells work. Every DM who sees this will want to grab an empty jug and start up a hoedown. Well, at least the ones here in WV will. The DMs will also like the monster line-up that shows the size ranges. I keep thinking I saw something like this once in an OD&D manual, and it's very handy. Since this was a first printing of the PH (naturally), it included all of those pages in the very back to tide over neighborhood DMs until the next two books ship. It's very sparse stuff, which does remind me of the old blue Basic D&D book. There's just enough information in there to help you get by, but it's clear enough that you'll not scratch your little head too badly. I'd keep a close eye on any players who constantly thumb to the back of their PH's while you're running a game, however. No Revived Settings on 2001 Schedule: WotC's Jim Butler indicates that their current product schedule does not include the revival of any of the discontinued campaign worlds such as Dark Sun or Planescape (on DND-L). We don't have any plans to revive any of the old campaign worlds. I've made comments on the various groups that Dark Sun would be the best candidate to revive of the old settings, but we don't have anything on the schedule right now. ...I suspect Dark Sun will have another campaign setting released under Third Edition rules at some point in the future. Again, nothing is on the 2001 schedule, though. German PHB: I'm told (by kind scooper Mark Oliva) that WotC's German distributor, Amigo Spiele, will release the three basic German language D&D 3e books in October. For more information, see Amigo's German language website. July 14, 2000 WotC Vanishing Act Explained: If you were here early in the day you read about the July Playtest Group of the Month report at the WotC D&D site. Shortly after that had been posted it was removed. WotC's Sean Reynolds explains (on the 3E Message Board, thanks to PA for the scoop): Let's just say that there was something in their comments that we weren't ready to clear for public viewing just yet. It has to do with material currently under playtest, and we didn't want people getting the wrong idea. New 3E Concept Art: Right on schedule, the Neverwinter Nights site has posted new D&D concept art. (thanks to Hand of Evil for the scoop) New Adventures Page: I've added a page that summarizes what is known about forthcoming D&D adventure products, including the core D&D adventures, the first of the Forgotten Realms adventures, and the future of Dungeon Adventures magazine. The 3E Adventures page is right here, and the permanent link is in the "Products" section at the top of this page. French Third Edition Schedule: If you have been waiting for official information regarding the French-language version of D&D Third Edition, you should read WotC's D&D French Edition page. It has the product schedule for these translated products. The French version of the Player's Handbook, for instance, will be available in November 2000. Magic Item Creation: Some leakage on the topic of creating magic items here. You know, of course, that to make magic items you need the appropriate magic item creation feat, and you know, of course, that creating items costs time, money and experience points. Anonymous tosses out some rules and some examples for us to ponder: XP cost to create an item is ~1/25 the actual cost. Time to create a Magic Item is 1 Day per 1000 gp of actual cost. Selling cost is 2x the actual cost. For items that give 1/day effects: Actual cost is 500gp per spell level. Multiple spell abilities are additive. Examples: Necklace of Prayer Beads with 1 bead of Bless is 500gp, 2 beads of Bless is 1000gp, 1 bead of Cure Serious Wounds is 2000 gp, etc. For items that give permanent spell or ability effects: Actual cost is 1000gp per spell level Examples: A Vest of Bull's Strength allowing +2 is 2000gp. A Vest of Cat's Grace allowing +2 is 2000gp. For items with more than one permanent spell of ability effects: Actual cost is 1000gp per spell level multiplied by the number of permanent effects. Actual cost is 500gp per +1 times the number of pluses for magic weapons or armor Simple weapons and shields have a cost multiple of 1. Exotic weapons, martial weapons and light armor have a cost multiple of 2. Keen weapons, Intelligent weapons, and medium armor have a cost multiple of 3. Heavy armor has a cost multiple of 4. Spells which effect ability scores always have lowest effect. Examples: A Vest of Bull's Strength allowing +4 is 8000gp (2000 + 2000) x 2 A Vest of Bull's Strength and Cat's Grace allowing +2/+2 is 8000gp A magic dagger: +1 is 500 x 1 = 500gp +2 is 500 + 500 x 2 = 2000gp +3 is 500 + 500 + 500 x 3 =4500gp +4 is 500 + 500 + 500 + 500 x 4 = 8000gp D20 Publisher News: A couple of announcements of interest: Aldor Chat on Mystical Alchemy: From Jason Klank: On Thursday, July 20th, at 9PM ET, Ian Malcomson, creator of the fantasy World of Aldor, will be holding a live chat! Come by if you have questions about Aldor, wish to talk about world creation, upcoming products, etc. You can reach our chat server via 2 ways: With your web browser: You must have Java/JavaScript turned on, and then connect to http://d20games.dhs.org:8000 - enter in a nickname you wish to use (instead of the default Guest) and click on Sign-On. With your IRC Client: Connect to server d20games.dhs.org on port 7000. Join #Lobby and you're set! OtherWorld Creations: From Hyrum Savage: Over at OtherWorld Creations we've hired a new writer, Chrisopher Miller, the former Sci-Fi/Fantasy Editor for Books.com. We've also put up some new images done by our artist, Derek Stevens. Official Updates: WotC's official D&D page has been updated with July's Spellbook entry. (Thanks to Gerard, Erifnogard, Karn Fogtoriaz, Shanto the Sharper, LightPhoenix, Zarathustra, and Aran, the first of many scoopers) New Spell: The spell on display is Blink, an old standard with a new twist. Instead of teleporting you randomly around the area, "you 'blink' back and forth between the Material and the Ethereal planes. You look as though you’re winking in and out of reality very quickly and at random." This allows the recipient to avoid blows and some damage from area-affecting spells. Also included is a detailed description of what an ethereal being is allowed to do. July 13, 2000 Heighten Spell: You may know that the metamagic feat Heighten Spell allows you to cast a spell as if it were a higher level by giving up a higher level slot. But why would you do it, and what are the limitations? WotC's Sean Reynolds explains (thanks to Gerard for the scoop): The Heighten Spell feat basically increases the DC [of the spell] and allows you to bypass level-dependant barriers such as minor globe of invulnerability. It doesn't affect damage caps. Wyatt's Update: WotC's James Wyatt has updated his personal 3E page. Not much in the way of a long essay or anything, but he's added character sheets for three new characters. (thanks to Neil Ikerd for the scoop) PHB Review: Another pre-release PHB review has popped up on the web. The review is generally favorable. (spotted by tsadkiel) New 3E Druid Site: If you like 3rd Edition Druids (and who doesn't?), you may want to stop by Leenar the Green's Druid page. You can find some spell lists and new spell ideas. D&D Class Summaries: A fellow by the name of "Hecubus" has used the Character Generator to compile summaries of all of the D&D classes. This chart has replaced my old Class Abilities chart, and you can find it in the same place over on my Characters page. An extra-special thanks to Hecubus for taking on this enormous task! He asks that if you have questions or comments about the chart, that you write him directly at hecubus@ptialaska.net. July 12, 2000 Ye Gods: The PHB will have sample gods drawn from the Greyhawk pantheon. What does a "deity stat block" look like? Anonymous to the rescue (Pelor symbol comes from Realm of the Purple Sage): Deity: Pelor, God of the Sun Alignment: Neutral Good Domains: Good, Healing, Strength, Sun Typical Worshippers: Rangers, Bards Pelor (pay-lore), god of the sun, is neutral good. His title is the Shining One. Pelor is the creator of many good things, a supporter of those in need, and an adversary of all that is evil. He is the most commonly worshipped deity among ordinary humans, and his priests are well received wherever they go. Rangers and bards are found among his worshipers. The domains he is associated with are Good, Healing, Strength, and Sun. The mace is his favored weapon. Prestige Classes: WotC's Sean Reynolds indicates that a character who has adopted a prestige class can still opt to advance his other classes if desired. He also says that characters can belong to more than one prestige class if desired. (on the 3E Message Board, thanks to James Hoover and Torfinn Brokke for the scoop) Cover Story: WotC has posted a very interesting look at the design history and construction (yes, as in wood, metal, etc.) of the models used for making the covers of the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual. It's a very interesting read, and it starts right here. (thanks to Henry "C'mon August!"® Link for the scoop) 2nd Edition Preview: Yes, you read that correctly. "Squirrel Nutkin" [I fall over laughing every time I read that name -- E.N.] has posted scans from a 32 page booklet that appeared in Dragon Magazine #142 (February 1989) to promote the new 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game. If you're into D&D history, this thing's a hoot. Each page is a rather large JPG. The fun starts here. Thanks, Squirrel! July 11, 2000 Minis: You can find info on the 3E miniatures line here, and read about the Diablo II miniatures here. (thanks to Mordent and Richard Smith for the scoop) Icewind Dale Contest: Wanna win some Icewind Dale stuff? Details below: RPGArchive is giving away Icewind Dale promo packs. The promo packs includes a blister of Icewind Dale collectable cards, an Icewind Dale mouse pad, and a Black Isle T-Shirt. Two promo packs will be awarded to the two best Icewind dale related adventures. I'm looking for scenarios using the setting, the characters, or plot lines from the CRPG. See A Journey Through The Planes for an example, but it doesn't have to be that long! chris davis chris@rpgarchive.com Innuendo, Know What I Mean? Nudge, Nudge: Anonymous dropped by with the first complete description of a 3E skill we've seen. Innuendo, a class skill for Rogues, is the 3E equivalent of 2nd Edition's Thieves' Cant, a secret code that thieves use to communicate private ideas out in public. Not only is the skill itself of interest, but this gives us a good idea of how the skill descriptions in general will be laid out and what information they will contain: Innuendo (Wis; Trained Only) You know how to give and understand secret messages while appearing to be speaking about other things. Two rogues, for example, might seem to be talking about bakery goods when they're really planning how to break into the evil wizard's laboratory. Check: You can get a message across to another character with the Innuendo skill. The DC for a basic message is 10. The DC is 15 or 20 for complex messages, especially those that rely on getting across new information. Also, the character can try to discern the hidden message in a conversation between two other characters who are using this skill. The DC is the skill check of the character using Innuendo, and for each piece of information that the eavesdropper is missing, that character suffers a -2 penalty on the check. For rexample, if a character evesdrops on people planning to assassinate a visiting diplomat, the evesdropper suffers a -2 penalty if he doesn't know about the diplomat. Whether trying to send or intercept a message, a failure by 5 or more points means that some false information has been implied or inferred. The DM makes your Innuendo check secretly so that you don't necessarily know whether you were successful. Retry: Generally, retries are allowed when trying to send a message, but not when receiving or intercepting one. Each retry caries the chance of miscommunication. Special: If you have 5 or more ranks in Bluff, you get a +2 synergy bonus on your check to transmit (but not to receive) a message. If you have 5 or more ranks in Sense Motive, you get a +2 synergy bonus on your check to receive or intercept (but not transmit) a message. July 10, 2000 Racial Details: Anonymous has used the Character Generator program to finish off the racial information over on the Characters Page. Sleeping in Armor: The old trick of sleeping in your plate mail to be ready for a midnight attack is no longer quite so attractive, according to Anonymous: If you sleep in a suit of armor with an armor check penalty of -5 or worse (see table below), you are automatically fatigued the next day. You suffer a -2 penalty on Strength and Dexterity, and you can't charge or run. According to the Armor Table, this would apply to armors such as Chain Mail, Splint Mail, Banded Mail, Half Plate and Full Plate. Anonymous also adds that the Max Dex Bonus on the Armor table only applies to calculating a character's AC. It doesn't, as has long been speculated, apply to Dexterity-related skill checks. See the Armor Table for more information. DragonCon Tidbits: Scooper "Meander" attended DragonCon recently and dropped off some interesting info: A cleric can switch out one of his orisions for healing [presumably the 0-level spell cure minor wounds]. If you do this you only heal 1 hit point of damage. This is useful not only as minor healing, but to stabilize someone who is 'bleeding' at negative hit points. Seen at a distributors booth: The full Third Edition Players Handbook. It looks wonderful. The illustrations are exquisite and the spell section has illustrations that actualy show the spells well. Along with a few diagrams of areas of effect and such. Specific tidbits from the Handbook: A) When someone attempts to bring you back from the dead, your 'soul' knows the name, alignment, and deity worshiped of the priest bringing you back. This way you can decide whether or not you wish to be brought back. B) The ninth level priest spell True Resurrection, in addition to not causing a level loss, does not requre any remains to raise someone. From the mouth of Jim Butler (at a party): The Tarrasque, that monster for uber-power-gamers, has been beefed up for 3E. While the August edition of Dungeon Magazine will be chock full of adventures only for low level adventurers, in the following months it will revert back to its standard format of adventures ranging across all levels. One Month and Counting! It's July 10th -- that means only one month to go before the official release date for the PHB. Get out your advent calendars! Miscellanea: Teeny tiny tidbits of 3E goodness from around the globe: Sean Reynolds on the PHB cover: FYI, the cover art is a photograph of an actual 3D wood, metal, and leather cover made by an artist just for our book. It's not simulated (unless you mean that the actual printed book doesn't really have metal and leather on it). (scooper: PA) Sean Reynolds on the Rapid Shot feat: It's like Two-Handed Fighting for ranged weapons ... you get an extra attack in addition to your normal attacks granted by your base attack. (scooper: PA) Keith Strohm on Retailer Minimum Orders: After spending part of the morning speaking with the sales team, I can confirm that Wizards of the Coast is not requiring minimum orders for the PH from any of its business partners. Although distributors themselves are free to place these minimums (as far as I know), they are not coming from Wizards. Nor are we threatening folks by saying we'll hold orders for other products or make it more difficult to obtain these products from distributors. The rumor is false. (scooper: JTWombat) Jim Butler says More OOP Stuff on the Way: We have plans to release all of the older material from all of the other campaign worlds at some point in the future. I don't have an ETA for you yet, though... (scooper: AZRogue) July 8, 2000 That Second 'D': Okay, so the game is called Dungeons & DRAGONS, right? Given how tough dragons will be in 3E, will characters stand a chance to defeat these formidable foes? Sean Reynolds gives us some numbers to play with (on the 3E Message Board, thanks to PA for the scoop): A red great wyrm has AC 41. It's also a CR 25 creature (meaning it's a reasonable opponent for a group of 4 25th level characters) (and a typical Ftr20 is going to be about +33 on his primary attack from various sources). By comparison, a young adult red dragon is CR 12, and has AC 26. Your average 12th level fighter is going to have at least a 16 Str and probably a +2 weapon, for a total of +17, so he's going to hit about 50% of the time with his primary attack. Don't use Bahamut [AC 54] and Tiamat [AC 50] to estimate the power level of "normal" dragons, because they're above and beyond "normal" dragons by a not-insignificant factor. Four 3E Titles in Amazon Top 25: Amazon.com's Not-Yet-Published Bestsellers list is currently populated by four D&D Third Edition titles: the Player's Handbook (#4), Dungeon Master's Guide (#7), Monster Manual (#8), and the Dungeon Master's Screen (#20). This list is updated very frequently and may not be the same as reported by the time you look at it, but this seems to bode very well for Third Edition. 3E Final Exam: Back in March, I posted a Mid-Term Exam, a kind of D&D 3E knowledge test. Well, with the release of the PHB just around the corner, I felt it was high time you took the Final Exam -- a dozen rules and trivia questions for your reading pleasure. I think you'll find you know more about 3E than you thought! Turning Undead Update: Anonymous stopped by to correct a couple of points about the cleric ability to turn undead. He indicates that in a mixed group of undead, the closest (not the weakest) are affected first, and points out that turned undead don't just avoid the cleric -- they actively flee the area if possible. All the details are outlined here. July 7, 2000 Butler on the Realms: Jim Butler discusses the audience and future of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting (on REALMS-L, thanks to James Hoover for the scoop): Keeping new customers: Our plans for the current and newly acquired audience are to give them the very best roleplaying games, novels, computer games, and other products that have ever been produced. We plan to produce Forgotten Realms game products that are jam-packed full of useful game materials, have great art, written by the very best designers in the industry, and crafted to make every DM's and player's experience with the Realms as fulfilling as ever. We plan to build the Realms community through the website, organized events like the RPGA's Living City, web events, conventions, and other activities that bring the community together. And you can apply everything I said above to the regular D&D audience as well. We're not planning a strategy around "veteran gamer products" for the Realms and "beginning gamer product" for the Realms. Instead, we'll create the very best products we can written for an adult audience. While we realize that many players come into the Realms (and D&D) during their college years, it just doesn't make any sense to try and write for a "college person." Ultimately, it's the reading level and such that we're targeting with the written word, and there's not an appreciable difference between college writing level and 55-year-old writing level. Why no hype for FR 3E? When the launch of 3rd Edition D&D is concluded, all anyone will be talking about is the new Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Until that time, though, we have to give D&D it's time in the sun. Soon, all eyes will be focused on Toril, and we'll be able to start teasing you with what we have planned in the future. Combat Reflexes: WotC's Sean Reynolds clarifies that you never get more than one attack of opportunity per round against a given opponent, even if you have the Combat Reflexes feat (which gives you the chance for multiple attacks of opportunity per round -- but against multiple opponents). (thanks to PA for the scoop) Even if for some reason a guy could run past you six times in a round, you could only take a free whack at him once. Otherwise it gets really weird (you could attack him with something that provokes an AOO, and he might retaliate with another action that provokes an AOO, and suddenly you have 10 or more attacks going off on each side between two people in a single round). Send PA some Love: Super extra-thanks to PA for making an extra-spiffy banner ad for my site. This banner will enter the Gamespy "ad rotation system" and will appear on other sites, leading people here. Send PA some e-mail and tell him how wonderful he is. New Concept Art: Right on schedule, the Neverwinter Nights site has posted more D&D concept art. (thanks to James Hoover for the scoop) ABCs of D20: The d20 article that appeared in the Seattle P-I recently has surfaced over at ABCNews.com. It's the same article, but at the bottom is an added blurb about the debt computer gaming and the Internet in general owes to Dungeons & Dragons. And lordy, lordy, one link in their "Web Links" sidebar links to the Ryan Dancey d20 interview here on my site! Peter Jennings, if you're reading, thank you! ;) (thanks to OmegaOdd for the scoop) Official Updates: The official D&D site has received several new 3E-related updates. Let's take a look, shall we? (thanks to Charwoman Gene and Chris Nightwing, the first of about two dozen scoopers) Double Sword: The Weapons Rack has been updated with the stats for a Darth Maul-ish weapon called a Two-Bladed Sword. I've added the stats to the Weapons Chart. Sorcerer Art: Concept portraits of sorcerers have been posted in the Art Gallery. Delver: A new monster has been posted in Monster Mayhem -- a rock-tunnelling monstrosity known as a Delver: Delver Huge Aberration Hit Dice: 15d8+75 (142 hp) Initiative: +5 (+1 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative) Speed: 30 ft., burrow 10 ft. AC: 14 (–2 size, +1 Dex, +5 natural) Attacks: 2 slams +17 melee Damage: Slam 1d6+8 and 2d6 acid Face/Reach: 10 ft. by 20 ft./10 ft. Special Attacks: Acid Special Qualities: Acid immunity, corrosive slime, tremorsense, stone shape Saves: Fort +10, Ref +6, Will +11 Abilities: Str 27, Dex 13, Con 21, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12 Skills: Intuit Direction +9, Knowledge (geology) +9, Listen +13, Move Silently +19, Spot +13 Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fight, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Sunder Climate/Terrain: Any underground Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 9 Treasure: None Alignment: Usually neutral Advancement: 16-30 HD (Huge); 31-45 HD (Gargantuan) These bizarre creatures live in the depths of the earth, burrowing through solid stone with a corrosive slime they secrete from their skins. (There's more -- go read it.) July 6, 2000 Product Covers: WotC has replaced the old placeholders with nice clean scans of the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide covers. Better still, the cover for the Character Sheets booklet has been revealed! Cleric Spell Swapping (Again): Okay, so WotC's Sean Reyolds tells us there's absolutely no penalty for swapping a prepared cleric spell for a healing spell. Well, what about time? Does swapping a spell take more time than casting a healing spell that's been prepared ahead of time? Sean says, Nope, converting it takes no time, and casting the now-a-cure-spell takes 1 action (just like a prepared cure). If you _metamagic_ the converted spell (say, if you wanted to Maximize it so it cures the max amount), then _that_ makes the casting time a full-round action. Defense in Combat: WotC's Sean Reynolds mentions ways to give yourself added protection in combat (on the 3E Message Board, thanks to PA for the scoop): There is a "fighting defensively" combat option that gives you an AC bonus in exchange for a penalty on your attacks (as well as a "total defense" option that gives you a better bonus without letting you attack). Certain feats improve this option. FR The North Available for Download: WotC has posted an 18 MB PDF file of the out-of-print The North boxed set. It includes three booklets (The Wilderness, Cities and Civilization, and Daggerford) as well as poster maps. You'll find information on regions such as Icewind Dale and the High Forest, and cities such as Neverwinter, Luskan, and Silverymoon. (thanks to Wayne Jordan, AZRogue, and Carlos Portillo for the scoop) July 5, 2000 PHB Review: RPG.net has posted a review of the D&D Player's Handbook. The reveiwer, however, does not have the actual final PHB in hand ("my copy is a quick-bind print job without color," he notes). Still, this may be as close as we get to a PHB review before the real deal hits the shelves. Here's an exerpt (thanks to apexcaliber for the scoop): The art ... is fabulous ... and relevant. Pictures of the different categories of creature size next to each other, illustrations of what cover looks like, and overhead diagrams of spell's areas of effect. Finally. Those alone are going to solve many, many arguments. DM Screen: Curious about what will be on the Dungeon Master's Screen? Here's WotC's Dale Donovan with the lowdown (on the 3E Message Board): The D&D game's DM Screen ships in September, the same month as the DMG. It's a 4-panel screen, with gorgeous Jeff Easley art on the players' side. The DM's side has combat modifiers and actions, skill DC tables, object hardness and hp charts, a list of skills that can be used untrained, and more. Also included is an 8-page booklet with town-generation charts from the DMG, spell-effect diagrams, equipment, poison, and disease lists, and a "combat planner" page to help DMs run combats more easily. Our idea for most of this booklet was to provide more "panels" of information so that folks could remove/copy pages and paperclip them to the screen itself when needed. The price is $9.95US. Der Update: Playtester Der Verdammte, after a long absence, has updated his 3E website with new questions and answers for 3E-hungry fans. (thanks to Claus Olesen for the scoop) Fluid Website Up: Fluid Entertainment, the company responsible for the D&D Character Generator and the forthcoming Master Tools programs, has replaced its old placeholder with a functional web site. (thanks to Thallone for the scoop) d20 in the News: Articles about RPGs in the mainstream media are rather rare. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a brief article summarizing the open gaming movement and its relationship to D&D 3rd Edition -- it quotes Ryan Dancey and Gary Gygax as well as representatives from White Wolf Publishing and Steve Jackson Games. Here's the link. Initiative and the "Ready" Action: When I posed the question, "Can an attack Readied this round be carried over to the next round when the triggering event takes place?" here's what WotC's Sean Reynolds had to say (on the 3E Message Board): Yes. You continue to Ready until your next turn, at which point you can ready again. The difference between lowest number in initiative and the highest is the same as the difference between 10 and 9. Being "high" in the initiative only is relevant in the first round (because of flat-footedness or being able to kill your opponent before they get to counterattack). Clerical Spell Swapping: WotC's Sean Reynolds on the topic of trading prepared spells for healing spells (on the 3E Message Board): Converting a spell acts just like casting the cure spell of that level. There is absolutely no drawback to converting a spell compared to using a prepared cure spell (except that you won't be able to use the original spell being converted, of course). The Frequently Asked Question: I've never set up a FAQ page for this site because I get so many different questions that none of them could be called "frequently asked." Well ... except for one: What happens to this site after August 10th? Here's what I wrote as a response recently to this question: That's a common question and my answer changes from day to day. :) At the moment I plan on continuing the site, though I realize once the PHB is out the hype kind of goes away. Still, at least for me, there will be numerous mysteries to uncover about the DMG, MM, the 3E Forgotten Realms book, the Psionics book and the Manual of the Planes. However, my ulterior motive has always been establishing a reputation so I could then set up and maintain a library of 2E conversion documents. See my "Conversions" page for more info. July 4, 2000 Necromancer Games Art: The Necromancer Games website is sporting sample art from two forthcoming d20 System products. (thanks to Clark Peterson for the scoop) Feat Prerequisites Diagram: "Mauric Rynnar" has whipped up a diagram showing the feats in relationship to other feats in terms of prerequisites. Take a look here. Druid Weapon Restrictions: WotC's Jim Bishop quotes the PHB on the subject of druid weapons (on my message boards, thanks to PA for alerting me): Druids are proficient with the following weapons: club, dagger, dart, longspear, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, shortspear, and sling. Their spiritual oaths prohibit them from using weapons other than these. They are proficient with light and medium armors but are prohibited from wearing metal armor. They are skilled with shields but must use only wooden ones. A druid who wears prohibited armor or wields a prohibited weapon is unable to use any of her magical powers while doing so, and for 24 hours thereafter. Sorcerers in the Pool: You can, if you'd like, follow this link over to the official D&D site, where Pool of Radiance II: Ruins of Myth Drannor producer Jonathan Kromrey talks about 3E sorcerers. (thanks to Orion Cooper for the scoop) July 3, 2000 DMG and MM Covers: Until now, all we've seen of the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual covers have been prototypes. The August issue of PC Gamer magazine has an advertisement that shows the real deal. Click the links below to view the images. Thanks to Zaphod for the scans! Dungeon Master's Guide cover Monster Manual cover Community News: A couple of new 3E fan websites for you to check out, as well as a revision to one: Unified Universe: dedicated to creating a "perfect game system" using the D20 System under the Open Gaming License. Nightwing's Lair: a UK D&D site. Bryan's 3rd Edition Info: Bryan created one of the first speculative 3E character sheets, and now he's revised it to more closely match output seen from the Character Generator. Monk Unarmed Damage: Scooper "Charwoman Gene" has used the Character Generator to uncover the damage done by unarmed monks as the progress in level. Monk Unarmed Damage Monk Level Monk Size Medium Small 1 1d6 1d4 2 1d6 1d4 3 1d6 1d4 4 1d8 1d6 5 1d8 1d6 6 1d8 1d6 7 1d8 1d6 8 1d10 1d8 9 1d10 1d8 10 1d10 1d8 11 1d10 1d8 12 1d12 1d10 13 1d12 1d10 14 1d12 1d10 15 1d12 1d10 16 1d20 2d6 17 1d20 2d6 18 1d20 2d6 19 1d20 2d6 20 1d20 2d6 July 2, 2000 Sorcerers on Deck at Official 3E Site: As pointed out by several scoopers, WotC has posted July's "blurb of the month" for 3E. In this, the final month before the game is released, WotC is highlighting the Sorcerer. No new information yet, but stay tuned. (thanks to T.S., first of several scoopers) Monk Abilites: Scooper "Hecubus" has used the Character Generator to come up with the list of Monk class abilities gained at each level from 1 through 20. It's at the bottom of the revised Class Abilities List. Dungeons & Dragons, D&D 3E and AD&D are all property of Wizards of the Coast.