Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 309: July 2003


part 6/9


Unleash arcane armageddon: After seeing quite a few spells nerfed in scope and duration in this edition change, it's quite pleasing that they immediately bring back mass combat magic a la Birthright. War Spells are only slightly higher level than their normal equivalent, but they have substantially higher costs and casting times, and in return have their scope multiplied by a good few orders of magnitude. That means you won't be able to cast them in the middle of a round-by-round combat without guards, but you might well be able to use one to short-circuit an entire encounter if you get the drop on an enemy. We get 21 examples, most of them based upon a specific spell. Unsurprisingly, the direct damage dealing ones are the least impressive, being a mere doubling of effect radius, while the tactical buffs like mass magical weapons or blur are considerably more magnified in their impact. And even mass undead animation can't compete with the hordes you could raise in previous editions. Which means this is still written with an eye for game balance, and making sure the spellcasters are boosts to armies, not complete replacements. You won't be rivalling what 2e spellcasters with the Tome of Magic could do any time soon. That means that while this is a good article on it's own merits, it still makes me a little sad for the magic of old, and feel that something has been lost since then. I guess it fits with many actual settings where elder wizards had lost spells that you can't match now. Oh well, that's the price you pay for a little more game balance.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 309: July 2003


part 7/9


The Ecology of the Hobgoblin: Funnily enough, the timeline picks up pace at the point, taking us from 400BC to 1,200AD. It still skips centuries at a time, showing that the modern acceleration of technological advancement has yet to arrive. I wonder how far they'll take it. The ecology also takes things further than usual, with a 9 page article including plenty of elements that'll be used in other supplements this edition. They already differentiated hobgoblins from orcs not just with an extra hit point, but also a far greater degree of military organisation. Now they expand on the psychology behind that expansionist territoriality, and how it leads to them being the lynchpin of goblinoid hordes, even though bugbears and ogres are bigger and stronger. This also means that the creature combos are particularly good this instalment. If they were a little better at the social thing, and weren't forced to stay moving due to their carnivorous tastes, they could have a much better civilisation than they do. Hell, they did pull it off for a while in Eberron. Basically, they get a lot more respect in 3.5, and here's where it starts. It's good to have enemies you respect, even if I still can't really say I'm afraid of them.


New martial arts styles: Our timeline reaches 1,500 before giving up, as renaissance technology moves away from what most people consider D&D. People put guns in, but it never really seems to catch on. On the other hand, martial arts stays resolutely in despite a small vocal minority trying to keep things eurocentric, and mastering them taking more effort than most prestige classes with fewer effects on your character. As with the changes to skills in 3.5, they've improved on this here, but by a pretty minuscule amount, giving the styles multiple tiers of mastery that mean you get a new benefit every 4-5 feats rather than just right at the end. So this is not only interesting as another load of new crunch, but also in their attempts to make overall design more balanced. And of course the bits where they power up the warriors are more welcome than the nerfs to spellcasters. If only they'd brought back things like gaining armies and castles as default, warriors wouldn't fall so far behind at higher level. And then this war special would feel even more … martial.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 309: July 2003


part 8/9


Campaign components: In any normal issue, the themed section would have run out by now, and they'd be filling up the rest with generic material that could go anywhere, and is probably stored up well in advance in a slush pile. This time, however, is very different. All this talk of war in general has been leading up to a 32 page epic on what might happen if the githyanki tried to take over a planet. Since they're relatively unified for an evil race, and can travel the planes with ease, this seems quite achievable. They more than have the numbers, and there's no cosmic rules keeping them at bay like with fiends. Only the fact that it's a big multiverse out there keeps the odds of it happening to you low. Be afraid.

While they have abandoned genericness at this point, they're still putting a lot of effort into making this modular, with advice for using it in both active campaigns. Unsurprisingly, the first thing the lich-queen will do if invading the forgotten realms is kill or magically imprison Elminster, the Simbul, etc etc, giving PC's a genuine chance to become the big damn heroes. Similarly, in Greyhawk, Iuz'll be first target of a clever scheme to shatter his power base, as she wants to conquer good and evil alike. In your campaign, who knows. In any case, it also underscores that they're using the lessons from the earlier articles. It's not some ravening horde pouring through an extraplanar gate, killing and looting everything in it's path. It's a planned assault with scouts sent beforehand to get information on the lay of the land, recruit the local red dragons into service and use their intimate knowledge of the world's history, and even when it is time for the big showy displays of power, they're in exactly the right places and times to cause maximum devastation, and force the countries to move their troops in ways that leave them vulnerable for the next move. In short, they're playing like highly intelligent and magically capable creatures who's primary powers are mobility ones, and are led by an immortal epic level spellcaster who has planned quite a few steps ahead before starting this.

After setting up the premise, and the ways you can tweak it, the rest of this article is broken up into plot ideas for low, mid, and high level characters, ensuring that this really can become a full campaign spanning 20+ levels, or start out as something else before morphing into extraplanar invasion sometime in the middle. Each tier has plenty of statblocks for example enemy groups, including the full mix of githyanki knights, warlocks, gish and special forces. Ultimately, it ends with the premise that they figure out how to take the fight to the enemy, and kill the lich-queen, which breaks their spirit and ends the ability to gate en masse everywhere. (ahh, the perils of never letting your underlings get anywhere near you in level) However, that isn't detailed here, but in a tie-in with Dungeon. (which I note is having it's 100th issue this month, and is celebrating with a 180 page monstrosity that tops even Dragon Issue 200) And since when I check there's a 44 page adventure, and 35 page player's guide to Githyanki in there, I'm left feeling that this feature, as cool and spectacular as it is, is really primarily theirs, and Dragon is the secondary partner in this epic co-ordinated tie-in. That takes my overall opinion of this from stunning to absolutely gobsmacking. One of the largest features ever that isn't spread across multiple issues, and it's still the SMALLER part of the special? Wow. This might top even the 9 hells stuff. What I've seen so far definitely gets a 10/10 for both effort and execution. I really really wish I was reviewing the other half, and this increases my desire to hunt down the remaining issues of Polyhedron, and do a second pass through the other D&D periodicals when I finish Dragon. This definitely cements that Dungeon is now an equal partner rather than just a little brother to them, and I hope I will be able to report just as positively on the other 2/3rds of this epic adventure sometime in the distant future.

 

[Jhaelen]

All this talk of war in general has been leading up to a 32 page epic on what might happen if the githyanki tried to take over a planet. Since they're relatively unified for an evil race, and can travel the planes with ease, this seems quite achievable. They more than have the numbers, and there's no cosmic rules keeping them at bay like with fiends. Only the fact that it's a big multiverse out there keeps the odds of it happening to you low. Be afraid.

This sounds very cool and makes me wonder if the 4e Scales of War campaign was partly inspired by this material.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 309: July 2003


part 9/9


Fighting the githyanki: We finish this issue off with a fairly standard, if also slightly extended Vs article, looking at githyanki tactics, and how players should deal with them. They may be smart, mobile, and magically capable, but they aren't without weaknesses. They have a lot of enemies, presuming you want to work with githzerai or mind flayers. They don't tend to fight in co-ordinated units in battle, they have a distinct lack of divine healing, and if you have the magic to lock them down so they can't teleport or planeshift away they'll lose their big edge and may panic. They can be beaten, but if you don't have a decent number of spellcasters or psionicists on your side, it'll be a lot harder. Still, if you take the specialist feats here, you might have a chance. One that gives you a +4 bonus to AC if they use power attack or makes it way easier to disarm dual-wielders? That is interesting, and shows once again that they're thinking about the actual tactics things use instead of just creating feats that give bonuses against types of creatures, which I find a very positive step. This doesn't have the wow factor of the previous material, but it serves as a pretty decent comedown to what has been a very special issue indeed. After something this big, you need that cooldown to make sure you won't be feeling strained later.


What's New is an issue late with the dragon magic thing. Kinda missing the new part then, aren't we.


Even more than the 3.0 changeover, this issue really goes to town on the special features, taking a theme and running with it throughout the entire issue, before culminating in an epic crossover that exceeds anything I've seen from them before. While sometimes I've been annoyed with them in the past for trying too hard to get us to buy everything via tie-ins, this definitely justifies it, with a scenario that's epic, well thought out, well written, and well supported. If this is what Paizo can pull off when it puts it's mind to it, I'm not surprised they wind up surpassing the in-house WotC people when it comes to settings and adventures. Now I just wish they weren't so formulaic in the regular issues. Let's see how quickly they slip back into the same old routine after this, and how soon the next big event or shakeup comes along.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 310: August 2003


part 1/9


83 pages: (108) Special update series, 1 of 3? Barbarians · Fighters · Monks · Paladins · Rangers · Rogues? So basically they're hypercompressing the class specials and getting them out of the way right at the start of this edition? That is a positive development, presuming it's because they have lots of ideas and want to skip the rehash and get to the new stuff. On the other hand, it may well mean the next three issues are annoyingly shallow, not covering any one class in enough detail to satisfy. Guess I'll have to see which way my ambivalence swings by the end of the articles.


Scan Quality: Indexed, ad-free scan, some misaligned pages.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: This editorial isn't connected with the current theme, but instead revisits the idea of changing the rules to better reflect the setting. If you follow the D&D RAW literally, you end up with something that looks nothing like the medieval fantasy it's based upon, and there's so many interacting elements it's near impossible to use them all. This is why you don't put everything in the kitchen sink at once. Stuff gets broken. Better to select a smaller number of elements, and then you can keep track of how they combine, and tweak each of them to get the results you really want. In a way, it's an argument against endless supplement bloat, and it's certainly one for picking the themes of your game before you start. Once again, it seems they're recommending that you do things in your campaign they're not allowed too, because they have to pump out a certain amount of material every month and make sure it's generic enough to have wide appeal. Funny how that's working out.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 310: August 2003


part 2/9


Scale Mail: We start off with a couple more letters about dice superstitions. Yawn. Just because everyone has their quirks, doesn't mean you have to broadcast them to the world.

Also unfortunately familiar is someone who's parents chucked out their dice and character sheets. Sad to see that still happens in the new millennium.

Two people praise the westeros special. They don't plan to follow that up, but they will continue to do themed issues on other books when they get the chance. Keep sending that material in, you never know what series might hit critical mass next.

And finally we have a clever suggestion of representing battles too large scale for minis with graph paper and coloured pins. Neat, even if you will use up materials faster than with regular minis and props. But then, they're cheaper too, so it'll work out fine unless you're doing tons of mass battles, at which point you might as well invest in a dedicated games room with an extra large table anyway.


Zogonia deals with conflicted sexuality. Oh, the angst. Nowick deals with the absence of monsters. Oh, the humanity!


The roles of rage: Back to basic multiclassing advice, are we? I thought we'd got past that a year or so ago. The changes to Barbarians haven't really been that great, apart from reducing the front-loading, so you have more incentive to stick with them. So once again it's time for 8 different basic class combos to be examined with their pros and cons over sticking with the single class for 20 levels. (apart from literacy, obviously) I'm not impressed. It looks like my worst fears about a theme spread this thinly might well be realised for this issue.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 310: August 2003


part 3/9


Specialist fighters: Our fighter article does exactly what it says on the tin. 11 fighter specialist options in a similar vein to wizard ones. Bodyguard, Commander, Corsair, Exoticist, Fencer, Horseman, Kensai, Knight, Pugilist, Shield Bearer and Targetteer. Each of them has a different skill and bonus feat list, plus a few special abilities exclusive to them that they can get where they would normally get a fighter bonus feat. This makes them a step up from regular fighters, but not as big a step as specialist wizards are compared to generalists. Which means they're still pretty much on the bottom of the totem pole as PC classes go, but at least they're a bit more flexible, especially if you want a party full of martial classes, and you might be able to get to a prestige class you want without sacrificing BAB. Really, as with regular fighters, that's probably the best use for them.


Variant fist: Monks have more class features to exchange, so they have an easier time with variants. We already saw the option of selecting different fighting styles and getting a different set of bonus feats and skill boost as a result, and here's 9 more examples of that. In addition, they get a whole bunch of options like switching out class features for Rage, damage reduction, undead turning, etc etc. Many of these options would later appear in Unearthed Arcana and various splatbooks, showing that this one is fairly successful, and once again, you can really use this kind of customising to twink out your character and get into prestige classes with a minimum of multiclassing. But some of these options are so much better than the others that I'm surprised they don't spot them right away, and didn't fix them when they republished them. Andy Collins seriously needs to work on his balance eyeballing skills. Having put quite a bit of effort towards increasing balance in the revision, they're immediately messing it up again. It's really not good enough.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 310: August 2003


part 4/9


Champions of the divine: While the other classes just offer new subclasses and variant abilities, Paladins get a full set of new classes for each alignment, as in issue 106. Curiously, not one of them shares the same name as in the old ones, although they do bring back companion set style Avengers as the chaotic good option. Given that, it's also not surprising that they don't share abilities with them either, and are far more standardised than the old set, all having the same key ability scores, and gaining the same number of powers and spells, full BAB, armor and weapon access, and a single good save. (plus divine grace boosting them all) So while the changes are slightly more drastic than fighters or monks, they're all very recognisably paladins, making this pretty dull when compared with the old collection, but a good deal more balanced and playable. I find it strange that they missed this opportunity to throw a nostalgia bomb at us. Still, at least this gives us other options than losing your powers entirely when you change alignment. At least, if they add retraining. I wonder if that'll be tested out in the magazine before appearing in Unearthed Arcana.


Roles of the wild: After three slightly more adventurous articles, we return to multiclassing advice for Rangers. Curiously, we only get 5 options, presented in more detail than the barbarian ones. Their biggest difference now is an extra couple of skill points per level, and not having to spend one on animal empathy, making them the best fighty class for getting into prestige classes without BAB-sacrificing multiclassing. Greater choice of combat styles helps with that too. And then of course there's urban rangers, which remain pretty popular despite their role being filled almost as well by rogues. This isn't hugely insightful either, as these even splits aren't the best way to optimise your character full stop. In a whistle-stop tour of the classes like this, there really really shouldn't be this much filler. Don't make me wish I'd snoozed through three issues in a row.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 310: August 2003


part 5/9


Stealth and dagger: The rogue article also has a bit of multiclassing advice, but it's done more succinctly, and then they move onto a whole bunch of 5 level prestige classes. It also remembers to think about how race interacts with class, which was oddly lacking in the barbarian and ranger articles. The prestige classes are pretty decent too, so I think I'll examine those individually.

Branch Dancers are about the obvious wuxia stuff, but also get the ability to speak with trees, and use them as improvised weapons. They're really easy to get into as well, with it being an option from 2nd level if you've got the skills. Easy come, easy go, I suppose.

Moles aren't spies, but ranger/rogues who literally specialise in digging. Not that you can't use that for getting places stealthily and then striking lethally, and they get full sneak attack progression, so combined with assassin tactically you could break the 10d6 limit and build an extra special reputation for yourself.

Jobbers are for those who want to actually nick stuff with their roguish skills and fence them on the black market. So they're good at spotting marks, getting them to trust you, fading into the background, and making sure Mr Johnson doesn't screw them over at the end of the deal. I can definitely see that being valuable for a party who's sick of the DM's and wants to hit back.

Magic Filchers are like a trial run for Spellthieves. The theme probably works better in a 5 level format too, where you can also be genuinely skilled at other things while also nicking the magical stuff of others.

Stonefaces are for if you want to specialise in being a really really good poker player. Total emotional control, and eventually the ability to resist magical divinations of all kinds. In a D&D world, you really need that. In fact, since all of these prestige classes gain explicitly supernatural abilities, it seems they think that's the way to keep them competitive in this environment. Iiiiinteresting.