Dragon Magazine Annual Cover and TOC

[Shroomy]

I seriously wonder how many fall into both categories.

I suppose there's a few. Maybe those without a high speed connection due to where they live or something.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Well, I consider myself a 4E supporter, do not do DDI, but the main reason I am not getting this book is that I never use Dragon stuff in my games.

Yes, fluff can be fun to read, and much of it rally is. Good writers there. But ever since 2E, I have had serious doubts about the balance of Dragon crunch. Some of it adds to the game, but a lot of it is very questionable, or downright problematic. From what I have seen and heard of 4E Dragon, that has not changed, so it is easier for me to leave the whole thing out of my games, rather than buy it, try to use it, and get headaches that way.

And before people say that the main books have balance issues, yes I know that they do. It is just a lot easier to ignore optional stuff, like Dragon.

 

[Klaus]

Well, I consider myself a 4E supporter, do not do DDI, but the main reason I am not getting this book is that I never use Dragon stuff in my games.

Yes, fluff can be fun to read, and much of it rally is. Good writers there. But ever since 2E, I have had serious doubts about the balance of Dragon crunch. Some of it adds to the game, but a lot of it is very questionable, or downright problematic. From what I have seen and heard of 4E Dragon, that has not changed, so it is easier for me to leave the whole thing out of my games, rather than buy it, try to use it, and get headaches that way.

And before people say that the main books have balance issues, yes I know that they do. It is just a lot easier to ignore optional stuff, like Dragon.

But nowadays there's no separation between Dragon and the rest of D&D. Most of the authors in those articles are authors of the core books, and all of the crunch in there has been added to the D&D Compendium.

I find the articles a little random, actually. And it's funny that the cover art is the Barbarian Preview one, when there's no Barbarian in the book...

 

[Jhaelen]

Not being a DDI subscriber I've really been looking forward to this one. But count me among those disappointed about half of the book containing free articles.

Additionally, I've been quite busy accessing the unchained DDI compendium over the GenCon weekend, so I'm no longer sure this is really worth it. I was mostly interested in the new race writeups (minotaurs, shadar-kai).

 

[MrMyth]

But ever since 2E, I have had serious doubts about the balance of Dragon crunch. Some of it adds to the game, but a lot of it is very questionable, or downright problematic. From what I have seen and heard of 4E Dragon, that has not changed, so it is easier for me to leave the whole thing out of my games, rather than buy it, try to use it, and get headaches that way.

Well, as someone who actually subscribes, I'd disagree entirely about the balance issue. The current content is absolutely more usable and balanced with the content in the books than it was in past editions. It isn't perfect, sure - but it is no more flawed than the books themselves. Which is to say, there is the occasional overpowered element, but it tends to be the exception rather than the rule.

Now, you are still free to not bother with it - but I think you are definitely operating from the perspective of what the magazines used to be, rather than what they currently are.

 

[Shroomy]

Well, as someone who actually subscribes, I'd disagree entirely about the balance issue. The current content is absolutely more usable and balanced with the content in the books than it was in past editions. It isn't perfect, sure - but it is no more flawed than the books themselves. Which is to say, there is the occasional overpowered element, but it tends to be the exception rather than the rule.

Now, you are still free to not bother with it - but I think you are definitely operating from the perspective of what the magazines used to be, rather than what they currently are.

I actually find that most unbalanced rules elements tend to be underpowered, and in any case, its usually fixed by the time the CB/Compendium are updated.

 

[Mistwell]

Ah, here is the thread.

Hmm. Doesn't sound like a lot of high praise here. Half of the content was from free articles anyway? A lot of key articles left out?

I hope the do better for the next issue.

 

[yesnomu]

That Star Pact article had some awesome fluff, and a ton of crunch. What it didn't have was awesome crunch; there was a lot of poorly thought-out stuff in there. Any word on whether or not some of this stuff has been reassessed, balance-wise?

EDIT: Punisher of the Gods is also in this book. If anything needs to be fixed, this needs to come first.

No clue on the star pact stuff, but the Punisher's Immortal Curse was limited to granting one action point per encounter, I believe.

 

[MrMyth]

Ah, here is the thread.

Hmm. Doesn't sound like a lot of high praise here. Half of the content was from free articles anyway? A lot of key articles left out?

I hope the do better for the next issue.

Keep in mind that it was the 2008 annual, and the online magazine only had issues for about half of 2008, and about half of that were the free issues. So I'm expecting that the 2009 one will have a lot more to choose from.

I think they hit all the key categories they needed to, and while I may have chosen some different articles, I think it was a fair representation of the content overall, and did present some of their best work.

 

[Mistwell]

Keep in mind that it was the 2008 annual, and the online magazine only had issues for about half of 2008, and about half of that were the free issues. So I'm expecting that the 2009 one will have a lot more to choose from.

I think they hit all the key categories they needed to, and while I may have chosen some different articles, I think it was a fair representation of the content overall, and did present some of their best work.

Well, that's good to hear at least.