Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 352: February 2007


part 5/6


The ecology of the Yrthak: A fairly obscure monster here. One of the new edition's creations, they're a creature I've never actually seen used. But they are fairly interesting creatures, so bringing new light to them is just what the magazine should be doing. They do a cutaway diagram to show how this odd looking creatures' sensory organs work, which is something we saw in the very first ecology, but surprisingly few after that, and go into plenty of detail about their physiology in the text as well. So while not quite as old skool as last month's ecology, this is another quirky and intriguing one full of potential plot hooks and bits to exploit. The new statblock applies the kaiju template to the creature, which I find amusingly appropriate. A well above average entry in the series.


Savage tidings: Having made our way to the isle of dread, it looks like they're opening up the sandbox again, giving you another chance to wander around, see the sights, make friends and enemies, and amass those all-important XP. We get plenty more info on the various Olman tribes, including roleplaying advice, martial arts, weapons, tribal traits, and affiliations. Very definite temptations for you to generate new characters while here, even if you didn't lose any in the last adventure's trials. Much of this stuff is system free, and can be back-converted into the original adventure, giving it greater depth as well. They really are organising this very well, keeping it accessible as the adventure develops, giving you plenty of choices of how to accomplish your big objective, and making full use of the various cool mechanical bits introduced in recent 3.5 supplements. They have learned from their previous efforts, and are taking care to hit buttons that please all of their intended demographics. This really is going very well. Lets hope they have the rest of the adventure planned out in advance properly to keep this momentum going.


Volo's guide: Last month they effectively gave us a Bazaar of the Bizarre entry. This time, its a FR specific bestiary that they cram in this column. What's the bet a few new spells are just around the corner. The Realms already has enough undead variants to fill an entire monstrous compendium on it's own, but new ones keep showing up. Often as not, they're just variants on an already busy niche. It's enough to keep a necrologist running all round the world trying to keep up.

Charnel Custodians are another angry guardian. Forming a body out of grave-earth and bones, they can suck you under, and reform if you destroy their body. Fortunately, like most undead, they're homebodies, so steer clear of their haunt and you don't have to worry. The fluff is pretty meh, but they do have quite interesting combat abilities.

Inquisitors are torturers in the pinhead mould. Mutilated beyond human endurance,
they relish inflicting the same kind of pain on others, be it to get information out of you, turn you into some other form of necrosurgical abomination, or just for the fun of it. Losing in a fight to them is very much a fate worse than death.

Skuz are another undead variant formed by dying horribly. In this case, it's from being sucked into a swamp and slowly drowned. Their abilities should come as no surprise. Another one that tries to suck you under and turn you into one of them, thus creating the potential for exponential population expansions. Again, a fun fight, but not too surprising conceptually.


Dragonmarks: Warforged. One of Eberron's more distinctive features, as they have some very concrete features and are strongly tied into the setting. And of course, the more something differs from reality, the more they need to define it to make it accessible. So a little more roleplaying and mechanical advice rarely goes amiss. This month, they go about it in curiously old skool style, providing us with a series of random tables for generating a random warforged's appearance. Golems can have a lot of variation in shape and adornments, and this ought to help you break writers block. I'm vaguely surprised and approve. We also have some more modern crunch, in two new components and an affiliation. Pacifist robots? Next thing you know your knife'll ask if it can be a vegetarian, and only be used to cut plants and inorganic stuff. Yeah, looks like both ends of this article have managed to please me. Pretty strong showing. What will they tackle next? Shifters? The railroad tracks? Something that doesn't get talked about in the forums? Lets hope I can still be surprised after all this time.

 

[Hussar]

Anapholi saw lots of love in my Savage tide game.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 352: February 2007


part 6/6


Sage advice: Andy iss giving geraldine a bath. Mussnt't be stinky around books. Gloop, gloop. Micess are funny in the water.

Do monster special abilities increase as they advance in HD (Only if the desscription says they do. Sssome Ssscale better than otherss)

When you advance a spellcasting creature, what happens to its spells (ssame ass any other featuress. Ssometimes, if they take the right class level, it sstacks with their innate powerss)

How much XP and wealth should a 4th level succubus wizard have (ssame ass any 16th level character. )

Can an animal increase it's int as it advances. Does this change it's type to magical beast (Andy ssays no. We don't want pessky animalss getting above their sstation)

Are warhorses trained in armour (Makes ssense.)

Do all tieflings, aasimars and genasai automatically have martial weapon proficiency (Yess. Makes getting into ssome prestige classes much eassier, collins collins. We hatses when they become abjurant champions without multiclassing, collins collins)

Do lawful good solars gain the lawful subtype as well(no)

Can celestial and fiendish animals speak (A bit, yess. Enough to beg for mercy, yess precious.)

How long does a beheaded troll live (It regrowss it's head, sso the point iss moot)
Can a troll reattach it's head (Not without a little hellp)

If you kill a troll with fire but there are still intact parts of it's body, do they regenerate (no. Funny metaphysicsss sstrike again)

Can a vampire create vampire animals (Not norrmaly. Don't tell Sstrahd, though.)

How do you work out EL in a group of mixed CR creatures. (Lotss of adding. Itss besst to fudge)

How should you judge EL when playing with a group bigger or smaller than standard (Be careful. Itss all too eassy to kill them, particularly in a ssmall group, where they're missing a role)

Do your HP remain unaltered when wildshaped, regardless of what effects you have on you (no)


Class acts: Adventurers get Criminal Specialists. This works similarly to speciality wizards. You focus in a bunch of skills appropriate to one larcenous role, are forbidden 2 others, and gain an additional benefit as a result. Very cool little bit of extrapolation here. Now, will they do similar variants for all the other classes too, and drive the idea into the ground?

Arcane gets sorcerers guide, this months helping of collated and rehashed filler. I shall pay no more attention to this.

Divine gets Aztec Mythos I. What, they haven't put these guys in 3rd ed already, when they were one of the pantheons detailed in the OD&D and 1st ed AD&D books? Shocking. This month, we get writeups for the big two, Quetzacoatl and Tezcatlipoca. It seems pretty likely more are coming shortly.

Warriors get the Burning Gauntlet Sisterhood. An exclusive guild of women warriors dedicated to eradicating slavery? Go go cliche city. Still it gives them the chance to use the affiliation rules here for the first time. That's worthy of some credit.


Nodwick is spoiled for adventure hooks. Dork tower invokes the Lake Geneva conventions to protect their PC's. Zogonia accidentally invokes a demon. What are the odds of that. Order of the stick are skewered by their own metagame.


Once again, this issue is pretty sweet, boosting my hopes that the magazine will go out on a high, with plenty of references to things that happened all along their timeline. It's nice to see them not only aware of their past again, but actively seeking opportunities to reference it. At this point it'll never all tie together into one big picture, but by building on existing things, they can do stuff that they couldn't with disconnected articles of pure mechanics. Lucky 7 and counting? On we go then.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 353: March 2007


part 1/6


77 (100) pages. WTF head-neck disconnect?! Am I going to have to do this every single time Wayne Reynolds gets on the cover? Still baffled by his continuing employment. Plus I know Succubi like it rough, but that tail and those talons would put a serious crimp in lots of human sexual positions. Oh well, I suppose that's what shapeshifting is for. Anyway, time for another relatively quick return to a theme, this time the Planes. (last done in issue 321, less than 3 years ago.) Since they also repeated the elemental theme in really short order just a few months ago, I'm pleased they're getting lots of submissions on the topic, but irritated they can't divide them up into more specialised themes that'd let them do greater depth without repeating themselves. Let's see what weird other worlds we're venturing too this time around.


Scan Quality: Poor, indexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


Editorial: Erik doesn't talk about the issue's contents here, instead going into detail on just how much playing D&D has varied from group to group. Which I suppose is a somewhat related topic, as it shows just how much diversity there is within our own world, and just how much the same things can be perceived differently by different people. You don't need to venture to different universes to have mind-blowing revelations or meet people with bizarre and alien worldviews. Hell, one person can act in quite different ways depending on the social environment and who they're talking too. One person's mortal enemy is another one's loving father. Well worth taking into account, next time you think you have to turn things up to 11 to alleviate boredom, check to see if a smaller shift will be just as effective, and leave you with more room to maneuver later. Then you can spend more time and energy on other things.


Scale Mail seems to be getting shorter and shorter. Is it going to go the same way as the forums. Since it didn't survive the transition to the electronic magazine, I'm guessing the number of physical letters they get is pretty tiny these days. All four of them are praise for issue 351, showing once again that the audience really do appreciate the campaign classics issues even more than the april ones. I am once again baffled why WotC scrapped them. The only real niggle is the lack of scales on the maps. They would make them more usable, it has to be said. Apart from the Kender one, which you really don't want to use anyway, but will have to if you want to get out of groundhog day.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 353: March 2007


part 2/6


First watch: Another sign of an edition filling up is the Magic item Compendium. Like the spell one, this collects tons of stuff from books all over the range, but is still only one book compared to the 4 of last edition. Still, they've put more effort into categorizing them according to power and use than last time. Hopefully that'll let you incorporate weird bits and pieces without it becoming unbalancing.

Meanwhile, the Realms hint at the big setting changes that'll get us from this edition to the next around here. Cormyr: The tearing of the Weave. It's been a while since we had big metaplot modules like this. Prepare to lose your entire damn magic system, bitches. Good luck figuring out the new one. If you need some help, talk to the Krynn guys. They had to put up with this crap a decade ago, they should still know the methodology.

Speaking of Dragonlance, they're still getting more graphic novels of the original series. Soon, this will draw to a close, and they'll have to move on to the second trilogy, or find yet another format to redo things in. What ones haven't they done yet?

Also on the comic front is another pretty prestigious property. The Dark Tower gets adapted, revealing new details of Roland's young life in the process. We already know the ending to this, but the fun is in the journey, so why not make it a bit richer. Zogonia gets a compilation, which isn't surprising given how long it's been going. Rich Burlew lends his support to Erfworld. Will it become as long-running and popular as his own works? And we see a reprint of Mike Mignola's old Lankhmar comics. Now that is interesting to note.

D20 support sees one straight product, and one amusingly skewed one. Privateer Press release the Monsternomicon II. More creatures presented with a little more world connection than generic ones, and an IC narrator. And Xcrawl: Dungeonbattle Brooklyn. D&D dungeoncrawl as reality show. Awesome idea. I'd quite like to play in a game like that.

Our new D&D minis set arrives, so they promote it again. I think I'll skip this one. Somewhat more interesting is that Toy Design Studios are doing something similar to Wolfgang Baur, constructing figures, and allowing people to vote at various stages of the design process. I wonder who else is doing cool projects like this.

Our boardgame this month is a reprint of Talisman. I remember when we saw the original release of this advertised in the magazine. Once again, nice to see them keeping track of history and making callbacks.

Looks like we're starting another extended piece of promotion as well, for the next D&D computer game. D&D tactics for the PSP. Even portable systems are capable of some pretty decent stuff by now. And the networking abilities are pretty good. Put your team together, and get delving.

And finally, there's Robin Law's 40 years of Gen Con, which sounds pretty self explanatory. It's older than the hobby, and may outlast it as well. Lots of stuff has happened here, and they want your photos, particularly of the old years. What crazy stories will people contribute?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 353: March 2007


part 3/6


Demonomicon of Iggwilv: From an ancient demon lord with lots of mythical antecedents, to a brand new one, both in and out of the game. Malcanthet is the queen of Succubi, a far less alien evil than any of the preceding creatures. Course, that seductiveness has only aided her rapid rise to power, and she is quite capable of holding her own in one-on-one combat with most of the other abyssal lords. And when it comes to getting cults, thralls, and all that jazz, she has a huge advantage. Among the usual bits and pieces, we get some more little references that make it very clear just how much research they've done into D&D's history, a new, quite different form of incubi focussed upon rape, (shock, horror! mature themes! ) magic items, and an abyssal layer packed full of many quite different specific locations. The prospect of injecting a little sex into people's games seems to have boosted the writer's enthusiasm, because this is another one that has a strong sense of fun to it. The abyss is a big, complicated place, and deception and seduction definitely has a place there. Another entry I very much approve of.


Multiple Dementia: The big inner and outer planes may have remained fairly fixed since the 1e DMG, but there's always room for more demiplanes and ways to get around. So it's time for another article that collects and expands on some of the most obscure hints in previous books. Even I didn't know about all of these before! Good to see they still have the power to surprise me after all these years.

The Black Abyss (not to be confused with the infinite plane of chaos and evil) is a slowly disintegrating abandoned demiplane of caves surrounding a massive storm which none who enter return from. It's actually surprisingly peaceful in the outer reaches, and you could probably make it home for a few millennia yet before it disintegrates entirely. Plus there's plenty of hints about who used to live there. If you're an enterprising wizard who doesn't quite have the power to create your own demiplane yet, studying this place would help you learn a lot and hopefully avoid making the same mistakes in the long-term.

The demiplane of Imprisonment (not to be confused with Ravenloft, which is also a demiplane that imprisons nasty things with great efficiency) is an enormous crystal floating through the ethereal plane that contains some kind of terrifying unkillable monstrosity. Even trapped, it's dreams suck people in and drive them insane, and you may lose an entire party if they don't have any mental shielding while investigating. Not a good way to go.

Moil, The City that Waits is a relatively new addition to D&D's cosmology, mainly referenced in some necromancy related magics from Complete Arcane. Ripped from it's original world, and it's inhabitants placed into eternal slumber, it's a collection of interconnected towers who's bases simply disappear into rolling mist. Parts of it have been gutted by Acerack, and filled with deathtraps, while others still have their original inhabitants or other mysterious horrors lurking within. At 3 miles across, it's probably just about small enough for a group of epic level adventurers to clear out, especially if they have enough plane-shifting magic to jaunt in and out to heal (for being filled with negative energy impedes resting up inside a fair amount) between excursions. So this makes three cool locations adventurable, and sets a challenge to people to do the same for a bunch more. If the magazine had lasted longer, it's quite possible we would have seen them too. that's one set of sequels they could have kept interesting for a while, like the demonomicons and ecologies.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 353: March 2007


part 4/6


Princes of elemental good: Well, looks like they're filling up this symmetry at last. 6 months after updating the princes of elemental evil to 3e, they're giving us stats for their long-hinted good counterparts. Well, it's not a perfect symmetry, as there's only the 4 of them. They didn't have to be for the same one, but maybe at least one para or quasielemental extra would be nice. Oh well. Let's see how these compare statistically, and what personality quirks they have.

Ben-Hadar looks like a handsome humanoid male made of water with lobster claws, which means he probably has to deal with disturbing yet comedic advances from Blibdoolpoolp viewing him as the ideal mate. Oddly enough, he does get on with Rennbuu, the slaad lord of colours from issue 221, since he can create all sorts of prismatic prettiness. So this instantly shows that they've seriously done their research, if they're drawing on characters that obscure and thinking about their relationships to one-another. This looks like it might actually be more interesting than just a symmetry filler.

Chan, like Yan-C-Bin, is naturally invisible, as is her home, built out of purest crystal. This naturally pushes people towards meditative thought and careful examination of their environment. She's the only one who's higher CR than her evil counterpart, and has far more allies than enemies, which means she might be able to win with some heroes to make a decisive move. Well, the plane of air always was the most liveable for people, even if you have to become skilled at controlled falling. Let's make this a better universe for you and me.

Sunnis is the most powerful of them, making both the earth archomentals the bosses if they were ever to come to a full-scale straightforward battle royale. She lives in a gigantic endlessly pouring hourglass, and apparently used that time/sleep association to make the tarrasque sleep more than 90% of the time and not devastate the world. (and you don't want to find out what kind of prince is needed to kiss it to break this curse. ) That definitely adds to D&D's mythology, and her long list of allies and enemies gives you plenty of excuses to use her in your games.

Zaaman Rul is the weakest of these at only CR 20. Given the number of evil creatures in the plane of fire, he's pretty beleaguered in trying to promote nondestructive government there. Well, at least melting the weapons of anyone who attacks you is a good start in promoting pacifism. For all that fire may not be inherently evil, it still has the biggest alignment skew in it's inhabitants. This will definitely take more work for the PC's to figure out. Well, it's good to have a range of challenges to give the PC's requiring different skills. So this article not only gives you some more good creatures to balance you the monsters, but actually gives you plenty to do with them, which is sometimes a problem with say, celestials and the upper planes. That's handy even if you aren't a D&D lore obsessive like the writers.


The ecology of the keeper: Yay! It's the creepy guys who originated in Planescape, and seem even more appropriate now, post Men in Black and The Matrix. Gotta love that iconic trenchcoats and shades imagery. (Also gotta love the goggles doing nothing, nach) They appear, they ferret out secrets, and kill you for knowing too much. But what's the secret behind them? Where do they come from, what are they, and why do they do what they do? The answer given here isn't too unexpected. A wizard did it, and then they got out of hand and killed him because he was dumb enough to order them to eliminate everyone who knew the secret of their creation. Where have we seen that before? Another fairly standard ecology, although it has to stretch a bit to allow hive mind creatures enough individuality to advance in class levels separately. A bit of a wasted opportunity really, when you consider the cool things that could have been done with them. Ho hum.

 

[Shemeska]

The demiplane of Imprisonment (not to be confused with Ravenloft, which is also a demiplane that imprisons nasty things with great efficiency) is an enormous crystal floating through the ethereal plane that contains some kind of terrifying unkillable monstrosity.

Specifically Tharizdun.

Moil, The City that Waits is a relatively new addition to D&D's cosmology, mainly referenced in some necromancy related magics from Complete Arcane.

Moil actually dates back to 2e, where it appears in various levels of detail in 'Guide to the Ethereal', 'Dead Gods', and 'Return to the Tomb of Horrors'.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 353: March 2007


part 5/6


Savage tidings: Another change of pace here. Having done quite a bit of exploring, and probably gained quite a few levels, your characters are a good deal more badass than when they set out. However, there is an important bit of your equipment that is if anything, in worse shape than when you started. Your ship. Unless you scale it to match the players and the new challenges they're going to face, it's going to become increasingly vulnerable to being smashed up every time you have an oceanic encounter. So here's a chance to spend that money, use those craft skills and item creation feats, and turn your ship into an adamantine plated fireball firing jet powered boat with a forcefield. Man, the isle of dread sure has a lot of skilled crafts people and ex-pats for a little place in the middle of nowhere. More like Casablanca than an unexplored wilderness. You definitely wouldn't have seen stuff like this in the original module (although it'd fit right in in early 90's, skyship riding, high magic mystara.) This does stretch my suspension of belief a bit, as it is putting 3rd ed progression conventions above coherent economic setup. And I get the impression that as the central plateau is probably their next destination, upgrading the ship might be a waste of money. Still, it is full of more ideas (and pricing rules) that I can steal for my own games, so it's not a loss by any stretch of the imagination. Just the usual problems that come from trying to please multiple masters, and having to compromise to do so. Guess I'll have to see what the second half of this adventure path has to offer, and if it'll bog down just as the game does at high levels.


Volo's guide: Our planar theme continues here, with another bestiary focussed around the Realms new planar structure. Sure, you can still use most of the old monsters with the new cosmology, but then you might as well not have changed anything. (which would make crossovers easier, admittedly) Will Ed's disciples manage to match him in giving these a neat flavour?

Harmonious Choirs of the Worlds are made up of the Words of Creation. Y'know, they've got a lot more common and easier to use than they were in Orcus's day of godslaying. They're insubstantial, but love to talk. Their description is pretty wordy too, with lots of powers that require detailed explanations. Ahh, the joys of recursive emulation.

Silver Celestials are a pretty mid-level promoter of good. Closely associated with Selune, they're independent and have short tempers, quite possibly running on a monthly cycle With reasonable spellcasting capabilities, they seem like a good one to summon if you need a bit of celestial aid.

Death Devils serve Jerul, and have vulture heads, 4 arms, a scythe, and a whip. All familiar demonic elements, given a good REMIX! :turntable scratching: Yawn.

Umbral Glooms are indistinct tentacular monstrosities that like in the plane of shadow. Another uninspired bit of filler it seems. Next!


Dragonmarks: Eberron's planes may be less accessible than those connecting to many worlds, but that doesn't mean they don't play an important part in the setting. If you can't go to the planes, the planes will come to you, courtesy of manifest zones. So here's three more of these interesting little locations to insert into your campaign. Fantaran hot springs. Ivory mountain. The ruins of Pelmarine. They do have specific positions on the map, but you could probably transplant them elsewhere without too much trouble, or nick the mechanical changes for other purposes. Very much of a muchness with their current development policy and writing formula. Meh.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 353: March 2007


part 6/6


Sage advice: Look out, Geraldine! That bookss about to fall on you. Poor preciousss. Nassty heavy booksess. Andy hatses them, collins collins.)

If your astral form enters the prime material, does it make a new body as normal (yess)

Can you choose the location you plane shift too (Vaguely. Lotss of walking at the other end, though.)

Does invisibility purge reveal ethereal creatures (yess)

Can an incorporeal creature enter planes unconnected to the ethereal (yess)

Is movement on the ethereal plane reduced (Dependss what power you're using, yess?)

Does blind-fight help while you're ethereal (A little bit)

Is negative energy inherently evil (no. Itss how you usse it, yess.)

Does exalted turning work on domain granted extra turning effects (no)

What counts as a demon (Mosst creatures native to the abysssss, yess. Nassty nassty place.)

How often can a planeshifter swap planar areas (As often as they like, yess.)

Can a spirit shaman chastise himself if he's the right type. (Yess. )

Can astral constructs attack incorporeal creatures (no)

Can Nightmares communicate. (Yess, but they can't speak. )

Can a half fiend become a lich (No. There are type compatibility conflictsess)

Does a dwarf still get attack bonuses against a half-celestial giant (No, ass they've changed their type, yess)

Do celestial vermin get extra skill points (Yess. Andy thinkss sso)

Do outsiders age (Not ussually. Native outssiders and half-breedss, on the other hand, do. )


Class acts: Spellthieves get this month's adventurer focus, with 5 new substitute levels. There are all sorts of ways they can mess around with the magic of others, and here's a few more. In addition they can choose to considerably increase or decrease their own spell casting power in return for other changes. This definitely widens their range quite a lot. A much needed boost for one of the weaker classes.

Arcane gets Spells without SR. A guide to taking out golems, rakshasas, and other irritants that are immune to most things. Basically another tiresome list that reminds us that the new Orb spells are incredibly annoying.

Divine gets No turning. A whole bunch of alternate class features for those who feel smiting undead isn't appropriate to them or their god. Most of them are probably reductions in power, overall, but it's the thought that counts. Like the druid shapeshifting substitutes, any excuse to surreptitiously nerf CoDzilla, I suppose.

Warriors get this months rehash guide, focussed on Fighters. As ever, yawn.


Nodwick falls victim to the best adventurer scam evar. Dork tower spells out the lake geneva conventions for us. Zogonia face a not very glamorous monster. Order of the stick get the wrong monsters. Not that they're very different from the right ones.


There's some formulaic stuff and sequels here, but it's still a substantial improvement on the last planar themed issue, and manages to cover areas they've barely even hinted at before while connecting them up nicely to the existing ones. By doing so, they remind us that the planes are infinite, so there's always something new to explore, which you definitely couldn't say about last time. Once again, I hope they can keep this performance up for the rest of the year.