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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8080326" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 30: May/Jun 1986part 2/5In Defense of the Lowly Fighter: Looks like all the articles on keeping fighters interesting by roleplaying have been in vain, especially since Unearthed Arcana gave us a couple of new fighty classes that do have other interesting abilities on top. This article complains that no-one wants to play fighters in his game, and they're increasingly light on humans in general too. The supposed balancing factor of lower level limits is hardly ever an issue in actual play, and higher hit points and strength pales against actually having a decent selection of powers to choose from, many of which bypass combat entirely if used cleverly. What are we to do about that? You can take the 3e route, and try to give everyone more cool options, or you can take the 4e route, and reduce all the classes down to a tightly proscribed set of powers that are described entirely in terms of their combat effect. What definitely will not work longterm is petty nerfs without changing the overall structure of the game, as people will keep on coming up with new spells, classes and races and fighters will once again wind up looking boring by comparison. I guess it is always easier to identify a problem than come up with a solution. Not very impressed with this article. Ravager part 1: Another tournament adventure gets spread to the wider public now it's no longer a secret. Jeff Grubb gives us a tale of a man who's made himself immortal and unkillable by hiding his life essence away. (An idea he'd reuse and finally make available to PC's many years later in the Al-Qadim setting books.) Obviously, the PC's have to figure out how he did it, hunt down the thing making him invulnerable, and destroy it before finally taking the archvillain on directly. A pretty cool plot, that in practice turns into another small, mostly linear site based dungeon, because those 4 hour tournament slots just don't have the room (and D&D lacks the rules) for lengthy social intrigues and researching. The pregen characters once again have terrible puns for names and relationships with one-another that seem designed to encourage IC bickering. The actual adventure has some quite interesting encounters, and while it does have some bits that reward cleverness and negotiation, it isn't a pixelbitcher like the Tomb of Horrors or Needle that'll kill you without a save if you make a single wrong decision. It's an entertaining enough way to fill a session, but I can't escape the feeling it would be a much more epic plot if the players could get involved at an earlier stage and discover the threat organically, then have to figure out the solution themselves instead of just reading the exposition and being dumped at the dungeon. An updated and expanded version would be very welcome. The Treasure Chest: Another reminder of their exclusive modules. Nothing new to see here.</blockquote>

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