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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9418543" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon/Polyhedron Issue 100/159: July 2003part 2/10Agents and Allies: An adventure can not run on enemies alone. To complement their critical threats, they’re now accepting submissions of less hostile NPC’s. (although still having some moral ambiguity makes them more useful) The first one is a perfect example of that. Derthan Kaderas is a dwarf with some spontaneous sorcerous talent. Although any race can become any class now, most dwarves still stick to stereotypes, so his odd powers left him ostracised as a kid and growing up with a bad mix of superiority and inferiority complex. This eventually culminated in him killing another dwarf in anger and becoming an exile. Moving to more cosmopolitan places where people are less likely to pick on him has gradually made him a nicer person, but he still carries the emotional scars from years of having to live off his wits, often on the wrong end of the law (and an extensive rap sheet) so he’s still pretty easy to make an enemy out of. His tactics make good use of both his fighting & spellcasting skills and he’ll often pretend to be just one or the other before using the hidden ones to good effect. He’s definitely both usable and very relatable, making this a strong start to the series. Now we just have to see if it catches on at all. Critical Threats: Adding a new thing doesn’t mean they’re going to be neglecting this column though. Say hello to Master Thest. Initially he just looks like another rich obnoxious merchant who’ll charge whatever the market will bear for his goods and use the profits to wallow in the pleasures of the flesh. Unfortunately, he’s actually a weretoad and one of his biggest delights is getting people alone and then swallowing them whole. So this is basically a riff on the same concept as Mystaran Devil Swine, an urbane beast of massive appetites who has some superficial charm, but get in their way and you’ll soon find they aren’t bound by the rules of civil society at all. You might be able to expose him and get the force of law on your side, but it’ll take concrete evidence, which is tricky when there’s no video cameras and the way he kills leaves no incriminating remains, and trying to secretly blackmail him with the threat of exposure will probably just result in you becoming the next meal unless you’re pretty combat capable. He definitely falls into the irredeemably loathsome class of villain players will love to hate if they have to interact with him more than once. All in all another pretty usable entry for a wide variety of campaigns, including the Hijinx ones from last issue.</blockquote>

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