Dragon 353 came early!

[BOZ]

BOZ, the Ben-Hadar and Rennbuu bit was awesome. I dig the connection, but my mind is constantly tumbling to an image of chibi slaad lord and chibi archomental hugging under a rainbow that reads "Ben-Hadar and Rennbuu, best friends forever!"

eheheheheh... well, not exactly friends, best or otherwise, they just have... an understanding.

And the Charon reference is very nice, and again, very fitting for the beings involved in many ways, but you have to wonder how long the deal will last, or if the archomental is naive to the nature and reputation of the Marraenoloth Lord. Lots of potential there.

again, more of an understanding. i'm sure ben-hadar is keeping an eye on him just in case.

Big Ben's juggling alot of dangerous alliances.

absolutely! i don't have to tell you of course, but one thing we tried to do was make these guys a bit more fleshed out and explain the tendencies given to them before. like, why does ben-hadar not champion the cause of goodness and stick to his own people? well, now you know.

Speaking of strange bedfellows, did the link between Chan and Ehkahk survive editing?

In regards to Ehkakh providing intelligence on Zaaman Rul, then yes.

that was definitely an interesting one. Shade first suggested that to me before he realized that Ehkakh was evil. i had to think about that one and go, "wait a minute...", but then i figured let's go with that.

And I have to say, listing the relationships that the archomentals have to various other planar powers really made the article shine. Excellent work!

no problem! we did that with the first one, and since these guys had no recorded exploits unlike the evil archomentals (and we couldn't think of any to invent, heh), we decided to focus on their interactions.

 

[Ripzerai]

Shade first suggested that to me before he realized that Ehkakh was evil.

What makes you so sure Ehkahk is evil? His alignment was never mentioned in Planescape.

 

[BOZ]

perhaps not, but in the 1E MotP he (and Bwimb and Chlimbia) are mentioned as "princes of para-elemental evil". since that's never been refuted to the best of my knowledge, i assume it holds true.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I'll do the Modron thing, and then I'm off (the scans of the minis will be on Hordelings)

"After a lengthy isolation, the modrons march again! Venture to Reulus, the home city of these whimsical beings of perfect law, encounter the six most numerous types of modron, and explore the planes as a rogue modron PC."

"Query: Who is in the hizzy?"
"Declaration: MC^2 is in the hizzy. Elevate your fore-appendages and gesticulate with abandon!"

MC^2, rogue modron bard.

Modrons are so much more fun than bugs, I'm glad they are back.

 

[Razz]

I got mine in today! Yay!

Great stuff! Only problem is this: there's a mistake on the cover.

It states there'd be SIX new outsiders for the Forgotten Realms setting...however, there's only 4 presented in the magazine.

An oversight, obviously, but which end?

 

[JustKim]

The cover says 6, the article has 4, but the "other campaigns" blurb on page 66 mentions 5. The black beast of bedlam is missing.

Last month we were promised 6. I guess there was some gradual cutting going on.

 

[Particle_Man]

I am so glad Modrons are coming back. They are among the critters unique to D&D. And it is kinda fun to use spare dice as minuratures.

 

[Pants]

Great issue.

Demonomicon = awesome. Malcanthet is actually interesting!? Wow! Eva Widerman (sp?) does some great illustrations too!

Ecology = Great stuff. Makes me want to use Keepers more, which should be the point of an Ecology article. Only problem: the advanced Keeper is chock full of 3.0isms. DR 10/+1? A reference to teleport without error? Yech. Otherwise a small smudge on a normally boring section.

Demiplanes = Pretty cool, the Moil bit was the best.

Good Archomentals = Nice stuff. Cool to see how they connect with other planar powers.

Overall a very cool issue. I can't wait for next month's!

 

[Desdichado]

Demonomicon = awesome. Malcanthet is actually interesting!? Wow! Eva Widerman (sp?) does some great illustrations too!

Especially if you compare her lilitu to Baxa's in FC1. Why that guy still gets so much work from WotC is a mystery to me.

And just because it bears repeating: http://www.privateerpress.com/default.php?x=products/pip203

Dragon didn't give a date, but Privateer's website says May.

 

[James Jacobs]

Especially if you compare her lilitu to Baxa's in FC1. Why that guy still gets so much work from WotC is a mystery to me.

Ugh... don't get me started on that "Dr. Octopus Lilitu" from FC 1... being able to order a new lilitu picuture for this article was actually really rewarding, even if I did end up having to cut the radiant sister stat block to make room for all the other stuff...

Eva's one of my favorite artists, though. Hopefully those Dragon folk'll get her back to do the next Demonomicon!