Dragon 331 has arrived

[Morrow]

What sort of stuff would you rather be seeing?

--Erik

I was a big fan of those Campaign Components articles (I think I have the name right). I really liked Knights, and the Swashbuckling one inspired a campaign. I didn't think the one about spies was quite as inspiring, but the idea was sound.

Morrow

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

BTW, is bec-de-corbin pronouced the way it looks? I'd hate to create a cool character only to embarrass myself by mispronoucing her weapon of choice.

Keep in mind that I'm not a native French speaker, so they should feel free to correct me, but the way I pronounce it is:

BECK - deh - cahre-bohn (the last word sounding much like the element carbon)

The final n may be more or less pronounced than I'm making it here (ranging from "bonne" to "boh").

EDIT:

Anyone else notice how hard it is to phonetically spell the French "r" in English?

 

[diaglo]

Keep in mind that I'm not a native French speaker, so they should feel free to correct me, but the way I pronounce it is:

BECK - deh - cahre-bohn (the last word sounding much like the element carbon)

The final n may be more or less pronounced than I'm making it here (ranging from "bonne" to "boh").

EDIT:

Anyone else notice how hard it is to phonetically spell the French "r" in English?

the french in or im make a weird sound.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I was a big fan of those Campaign Components articles (I think I have the name right). I really liked Knights, and the Swashbuckling one inspired a campaign. I didn't think the one about spies was quite as inspiring, but the idea was sound.

Morrow

A Campaign Component that let you add psionics to various other types of campaigns might be an interesting bit. Perhaps alternative psionic power list for various types of campaigns? For example, the Drenayi don't have a lot of fireball style powers but still had numerous other abilities.

More gods of the mind would be interesting too. Zudoken or whatever monk-psionicist thing is interesting, but I'm sure there's room for more like a mental energy deity, a deity of combat through strength of will and weapons (as opposed to the monk style), deity of certain psionic branches, etc...

 

[Mouseferatu]

Keep in mind that I'm not a native French speaker, so they should feel free to correct me, but the way I pronounce it is:

BECK - deh - cahre-bohn (the last word sounding much like the element carbon)

The final n may be more or less pronounced than I'm making it here (ranging from "bonne" to "boh").

That's probably about right. I know that we tend to pronounce the last syllable exactly as written--"KOR-bin," rhymes with door or roar and sin or grin--but then again, most of us have been saying it since before we knew the first thing about French, or the origin of words in general. So I don't pretend that the way I'm comfortable pronouncing it is necessarily right.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I really see your point. While reading the article, it occurred to me that I can't remember the last time someone in my group played a character with a polearm of any kind. That really got the wheels in my head turning and with the new feats, it just seemed like a really great idea for a character concept (or for one of my nasties in my new campaign ). That's what I buy Dragon for.

Same here. The last pole-arm wielder I've seen in D&D was a character I put together for a campaign that never got off the ground. We only played one game, and even in that one game, I could tell I was less effective than the other fighter, based primarily on my choice of spear. It was, in fact, partly that experience that led to this article. Before that, I'm not entirely sure I've ever seen a pole arm wielded by someone who wasn't restricted to Simple Weapons, and even then I've seen only a few.

Incidentally, I think one of the most amusing things about the whole subject is the fact that if you step into the Wayback Machine and take a look at the original (pre-Elmore) cover of the Moldvay red boxed set, you see a fighter and a sorcererss battling a green dragon. The fighter is wielding a spear one-handed, and carrying a shield--something that you simply couldn't do in any subsequent edition of the game. (And before anyone asks, yet, it's too long to be dubbed a shortspear, though it certainly isn't a longspear either.)

 

[Felon]

What sort of stuff would you rather be seeing?

This issue was perfect. Mearls' article on uses for mundane items drew me in, and he article on pole arms made the sale. And the ecology of the hag has me committed to looking at future issues for that same kind of goodness.