Dragon #328 - February 2005

[Henry]

If you tone it down to one flaw/feat per PC, it shouldn't be too bad. At worst, a few rarefied PrC's would be available one level sooner, and that's all. I do feel uncomfortable with the notion of two flaws/feats, though.


On-topic: the Dwarves at War article sounds interesting. Any summary for what it's about?

The Beowulf article sounds interesting - Its title reminds me of an AD&D article years back, where they gave Beowulf different sets of D&D stats.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Things I didn't like...

Three or so pages of miniatures. Kill it! Kill this abomination that doesn't belong in Dragon!

Flaws... just don't like them.

Silicon Sorcery: Read too much as a review of "Man, this game is cool! Check out these magic weapons!" Very limited utility.

The different clerical PrCs for the demihumans were fair, and the tactics of war for the dwarves was a nice touch.

Some of the class acts articles were interesting reads.

 

[takasi]

What is the mini's article? I think miniatures belong in Dragon, but I'd rather see fewer articles that focus on specific miniatures. New campaign formats and scenarios are always good. My favorite is tiles and maps; that alone will prompt me to buy more than one copy.

 

[jodyjohnson]

Three or so pages of miniatures. Kill it! Kill this abomination that doesn't belong in Dragon!

I've been going through the 2 years of Dragon before 3.0 and after the #250 (the CD compendium) and noticed that almost every issue had an article on miniatures.

Before 3.0. (Although this was the around the 25th anniversary and the two mini lines TSR/Wizards had then)

Main differences:
1. They focused mostly on painting (not needed with the DDM line)
2. They focused on terrain (tiles or printed terrain is more common now)

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

On-topic: the Dwarves at War article sounds interesting. Any summary for what it's about?

The Beowulf article sounds interesting - Its title reminds me of an AD&D article years back, where they gave Beowulf different sets of D&D stats.

Beowulf is in next month's issue; I'm afraid only Erik Mona can tell you what it's about.

I'm post a blurb on the dwarves article when I get home (in about 10 minutes).

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

I'm post a blurb on the dwarves article when I get home (in about 10 minutes).

Argh! My computer at home has died. I'll try to fix it and/or replace it this weekend, but maybe someone else can give you a blurb before I get to it. I forgot to bring the magazine to work (which I probably should have--I have to stay late doing a software upgrade which includes a lot of dead time waiting for scripts to run). Sorry, Henry.

 

[Terath Ninir]

The Dragon magazine flaws are great! The more that are published, the better your chance at exploiting them! The Druid flaws are especially good for that. Cold blooded or Hot blooded; excelllent. Pure exploit there!

And there's one called "Nature Lover" or something like that. You have to make a DC 12 Will save to attack an animal, plant, or vermin. In exchange for a free feat? I am so there!

Flaw systems, no matter what the game system, are a gawdsend for us munchkins.

 

[IronWolf]

On-topic: the Dwarves at War article sounds interesting. Any summary for what it's about?

It was an okay article. Could have used a few more details in my opinion, a little more life to it. Covered basic tactics - fighting in small groups verus larger groups, attack the strongest or weakest foe first, amounts of ammunition used, pacing of battle etc.

 

[JustKim]

I got mine today and had a look at Bazaar of the Bizarre, in it is a magic item called thespian's mask which allows you to assume the look of a single, predetermined humanoid as though casting disguise self. Though nowhere near as effective as a hat of disguise, its cost is significantly more. That leads me to suspect none of the items are priced correctly, not that it really matters since a good number of the items in BoB articles are so expensive as to be the pride of a mid-high level character's arsenal. I have to wonder who's out there using all these 50-200K overly specialized items.

Class Acts was interesting for the first time I can remember, but largely because flaws were moved to their own article this time. Has this obscure optional system not received enough attention? Do we really need a feature every month for something only a small minority of D&D players use? The way it turns up month after month you'd think flaws were part of the core rules.

 

[Arkhandus]

Could someone perhaps let us know how good the dwarves at war, bard spells, saurian shifter, and class acts articles are in Dragon #328?

A bit more specifically I suppose: is the dwarves at war article mostly common-sense/duh! stuff that anyone who's played dwarves in 3.x would already know? Are the bard spells actually rather useful, and are there a lot of them or just a handful? What are the saurian shifters exactly (i.e. basic appearance and general traits), and are they just some stinkin' variant/whatever of the Eberron shifter race? Are the Class Acts in 328 actually helpful/useful for a change (particularly for bards, druids, monks, or sorcerers)?

Any answers would be much appreciated! {:^D I have to be frugal with my meager spending money nowadays, and won't bother picking up a magazine if it seems that half or more of the issue would be useless/unintriguing to me....