[Dragon] The rest of #308's contents...

Aitch Eye

First Post
Here's a summary of that portion of the magazine that doesn't discuss the new barbarian, fighter, and ranger.


Dragon Magic, by Monte Cook. An OGC article working from a concept introduced in the Book of Eldritch Might III. Twenty spells geared towards use by dragons; in particular spells that affect their lairs, their physical features and their special abilities. The spells are "ever so slightly more powerful" than normal spells of the same level, but non-dragons must take the Dragon Magic feat to cast them.

Heavy Gear: Dragon Magic Items and Equipment, by Eric Cagle. An overview of dragon use of standard magic items, and nine new ones specifically for dragons, including armor created from the hide of other dragons. Also includes non-magical tail weapons (blade, hammer, pick) and rules for harnesses, howdahs, and saddles.

Dweomered Dragon Scales, by Christopher Campbell. Twenty-three magic items that incorporate scales from dragons: 5 items from the chromatic dragons, 5 from the metallic, 8 from those in Oriental Adventures, 5 from those in Monsters of Faerûn.

Demon Forests: The Ecology of the Ironmaw, by Skip Williams. General background information, statistics for a juvenile, and tactics for use by and against the Fiend Folio tree-creature.

Tactical Terrors: Killer Creature Combos, by Skip Williams. Three examples from each of five categories: rider and mount, immune to the other's energy attack, groups of weaker creatures with "heavy hitters", spellcasters and "toughs", stealthy creatures and obvious threats.

Armed to the Tentacle: The Illithid Arsenal, by Penny Williams. Five new magic items (one of which does in fact arm their tentacles), and three new types of symbiont (as described in the Fiend Folio, some of which is summarised in a sidebar): the carapace symbiont (six varieties of living, parasitic armor), the mnemonicus (allows host to regain spells and power points), and the wriggler.

Psychic Boxing: Psions of the Orient, by E. W. Morton. Six "paths of enlightenment" for psions, which function similarly to martial arts styles in Oriental Adventures. Six specialist psychic warrior martial arts styles. General notes and game rule information on how the psionic core classes fit in with OA.

Arcane Weather: Master the Power of Magical Storms, by Michael Mearls. A variety of naturally occurring and divinely sent weather that produces magical effects. Also includes the Aeromancer 5-level prestige class, three feats, and sidebars on predicting weather and the weather stat block.

Theodora's Ladder: A Story of Crusader Earth, by Thomas Harlan. Fiction set in 11th century Ephesus.


Up On A Soapbox "The Bored PC: Antics From The Early Days," by Rob Kuntz. Terry Kuntz's PC -- the Monk with No Name -- extorts money from another PC.

House Rules "Personable Dwarves: Variant Campaign Flavor," by Andy Collins. Replacing the penalty to Charisma with one to Dexterity.

3.5 Update "Revised Classes," by Ed Stark. The new barbarian, fighter, and ranger.

Silicon Sorcery "Morrowind Tribunal," by Clifford Horowitz. Two 10-level epic prestige classes based on the CRPG expansion: The Ordinator (aimed toward paladins and blackguards) and the Empowered (warriors who reject the worship of outsiders, and gain powers against them).

Dungeoncraft "Dungeon Adventures, Part 1: Defining the Purpose," by Monte Cook. The setting and plot reasons for the existence of a dungeon.

The Play's the Thing "How to Win DMs and Influence Players," by Penny Williams. Tips on playing and at-the-table people skills to help make games run smoothly.

Sage Advice by Skip Wiliams. "...combat and other related issues."


Pullout Insert "Dragon Tokens," illustrations by Todd Lockwood. Poster with tokens for each size and color of dragon from the Monster Manual (from which the illustrations are taken), a good dragon on one side of a token, an evil dragon on the other. 3.5 compliant (they're square).
 
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And then you forgot the Gem Dragons? :p

I'll propably see how it looks in a month or so. It looks quite interesting, as does most of the rest of the magazine.
 


Wow, it seems like the majority of the issue was written by Monte Cooke and Skip and Penny Williams. I'm glad to see they're all still active in Dragon despite no longer working for WotC.

Johnathan
 



Southern Oracle said:
Finally! I've been waiting over a year for that article to get published. :D

That was a good example of how to do an article like that, with a nice variety of flavorful items. I liked it.

Krug said:
What's slated for Dragon #309?

It's the first all 3.5 issue.

A History of War by Dean Poisso. "A look at the evolution of weapons and tactics with an eye toward the D&D rules, with plenty of ideas for your campaign or your character."

The Art of D&D by Dean Poisso. "If you would conquer, you must know your enemy better than he knows himself. Applying the principles of Sun Tzu's classic
The Art of War
to D&D combats."

Beasts of War by Andy Collins. "Living engines of destruction, these fearsome creatures work with armies, crushing those who oppose them."

War Spells by Sean Reynolds. "Devastating spells that can clear an entire battlefield, these spells of war were designed with large battles in mind."

Campaign Components: Incursion by James Wyatt. "Incursion brings the githyanki invasion. They've declared war on your game world and seek nothing less than total domination. Astral ships and red dragons cloud the sky to rain spells and fire upon the world while armies of githyaniki[sic...but I like it better] flood through magic gates killing every creature they encounter. Learn everything you need to know to run an interplanar invasion and put the fate of the world in your players' hands."

(This ties into Dungeon #100, which has a high level adventure against the Lich Queen in her city, and Polyhedron #159, which has a mini game called "Knights of the Lich Queen" where you "Assume the role of an evil githyanki invader" and invade the material world.)

The Ecology of the Hobgoblin

15 Ways to Speed Up Combat

A how to guide for creating martial arts styles.
 


Aitch Eye said:
Demon Forests: The Ecology of the Ironmaw, by Skip Williams. General background information, statistics for a juvenile, and tactics for use by and against the Fiend Folio tree-creature.

Say, what's the CR of that juvenile ironmaw.

(He asks, thinking of an upcoming adventure for which he needs a nasty tree critter with a CR a bit lower than the regular ironmaw's. :cool: )
 

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