Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 277: November 2000


part 7/7


Silicon sorcery: Warlords: Battlecry is this month's game, finally getting us away from the D&D conversions. In it, they tackle the amusing topic of using livestock as siege weapons. A manky sheep corpse can do wonders to reduce an enemy's health and morale. A bag full of dire rats is even worse. Stats for using these in game are very welcome indeed. In addition, they introduce the idea of turning what would be a save or die effect into a progressive degeneration requiring multiple saves long before it would appear in 4e. That's very fascinating indeed to see. Guess you can level a few accusations of ZOMG they're turning it into a video game and not have it be completely inacurate after all. So this is one of those articles that's brief, but does have some very good ideas indeed in it, which might even be influential as well. Funny how those can slip through when you're not expecting them.


Dungeoncraft: More interesting secrets from Ray this month, with an emphasis on bigger, campaign shaking ones. From gods seriously considering scrapping the world and starting again, to a secret dream world that provides an alternate, but interlinked campaign, which will have interesting ramifications along the line, this is all about the big picture, and ideas that'll suborn the campaign to a single epic story for a substantial period of time. If that's the kind of game you want, just one or two of them will keep your campaign buzzing for quite a while. If you don't want that kind of playstyle, you'll want to skip this. So as usual, he's running this very much from 2e assumptions about story and worldbuilding, including big metaplot events that reshape the world every now and then. Let's hope he isn't too quick to jump on the next bandwagon to come along.


What's new features more outfit and hairstyle changes for evil dixie. It's progress of a sort.


The themed section is disappointing this issue, with one hit and two misses, but the regular columns are mostly pretty good. They're rapidly building up a new load of crunchy bits and pieces to insert into your campaign in a modular fashion, and these are rather more interesting on average than the often rehashed columns of the last few years. It does mean the magazine is quite handy, because there aren't enough supplements for things to become obscure yet. Give it a year or two. Anyway, let's see what we're getting for christmas this time.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 278: December 2000


part 1/7


116 pages. Dwarves get their first themed issue this edition. And they're already doing something they wouldn't have last time. A topless Dwarf on the cover! I'm betting he has more than a few levels of barbarian. And I'm also hoping that they'll continue their current attempts to show how you can break out of the old stereotypes with the new, more permissive ruleset. Plus they got there's before elves did, so until that happens, we can say they're better covered in this edition. That's a fairly decent present in itself.


Scan Quality: Good, unindexed, Some page edge curvature visible.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: As I expected, the editorial this month is once again about either going against cliche, or adding additional layers to your character's personality that are orthogonal to their racial tendencies. Does your dwarf have a few ranks in Perform (ballet dancing) from their childhood? Maybe your halfling overcompensates for their size by collecting siege weapons. Or do all your gnomes have lisps, like one of the staff campaigns. The things that make both characters and worlds unique are the finer details. Painting in broad strokes all the time will leave your creations unfinished looking. No disagreement there, and the specific details they give are quite amusing. Good to see they're still having fun playing the game as well as writing it. We didn't see enough of that in the 2e days.


Sacrifice takes out 6 bloody pages of advertising again. Truly excessive. Do they really think they'll get returns on that expenditure?


Scale Mail: Surprisingly, the issue our first letter praises is issue 273. It kinda got lost in the changeover kerfuffle, but it too deserves it's due.

Secondly, we have someone who's not happy about the increased level of gore in the new issues. They give a flippant response to this that makes me unsure if they're going to take it on board. It would be a shame to go back to censoring everything so soon.

On the positive side again, we have someone who's taken eagerly to the idea of power plays, and sends in a whole bunch of them. The charop boards are limbering up, and soon the game will be put through it's paces far more rigorously than the playtesters ever managed.

We then see Robin Laws generating controversy, as one person finds his ideas full of insight, while another thinks they're useless, and should be cut entirely. Isn't that just a convenient microcosm of a decade of flamewars.

A more involved suggestion follows, that their heraldry article would be better served by putting it on a CD, and allowing you to custom build your own coats of arms quickly by selecting colours, divisions and creatures. There's a niche in the market there that could well be filled by a proper computer programming company.

Even more extreme, we have someone who thinks they should do far more, much smaller articles, with a greater emphasis on reader submitted material. You know, even in the strategic review days they broke up the tiny pieces with multi-page ones. On the other hand, they could do with tighter, more concise editing these days. Some ideas need elaboration, but others really don't, and they could be doing more to work out which is which.

And finally, we have more musical suggestions, thus putting the lie to the previous letter's statement that a smaller article would have been just as good in this case. An article on music could have been a lot bigger and more comprehensive with some more research.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 278: December 2000


part 2/7


PROfILES: Julia Martin is another of the editors for the new edition, coming in to replace Kim when he was promoted to managing. She was an integral part of making the new edition a munchkin's paradise, full of tightly interlocking rules, keywords, synergies and similar kewlness. Consistency, good organization, economical use of space, all the corebooks would be rather less so without her contributions. She's happy to give out tips on how to twink your own character, and hopes that she can integrate the new rules well with the forgotten realms setting, which she's currently working on. Another profile that was fun to read, but is probably a bit too keen on promoting the new edition for it's own good.


Nodwick gets in trouble on his own steam this time.


Previews: Not a very busy month this time. The Hero Builder's Guide is probably the biggest one. More stuff to help you build characters who are both solid mechanically (or at least, as close as possible given their lack of skill at optimization at this point. ) and in terms of background. They also continue their close association with Diablo. Diablerie converts things to 3rd edition, while once again stealing V:tM buzzwords. How's that going to work out for them?

In the novels, we have a FR one and a Dragonlance one, as seems standard. The City of Ravens Bluff finally gets to have novels set in it, as it's freed up from constant RPGA metaplotting. Jack Ravenwild has amusing adventures to tell, with Rich Baker the humble scribe transcribing them. Dragonlance is also in a city based roguish mood. The Thieves Guild by Jeff Crook is set in Palanthas, and shows their attempts to reestablish larceny around these parts, which isn't easy with both the good and dark knights working together. How's a working man supposed to get ahead in a mad situation like that?


This year's statement of ownership shows that the magazine has finally got it's groove back with the public. With an average of 58k and a last month run of 63, they've been gaining readers at over a thousand a month. All those teasers for the new edition have got people exited about the magazine and D&D in general. They're still probably sending out too many free copies, but that's forgivable as long as things are going well. Gotta get the reviews in other magazines for more publicity.


Countdown to the forgotten realms: 6 months to go. This is once again about selling the Realms corebook to non fans. In addition to the realms specific crunch, this is where you're going to get your first info about characters above 20th level. Plus the new items, monsters, spells, etc are eminently purloinable. Of course, for all they say that the new stuff will be balanced with core material, I'm pretty sure it wasn't, with the more restricted availability of certain feats an excuse to make them more powerful. And the rules for high level characters will differ quite a bit from their final incarnations. They might pretend they have a master plan, but really, they're still making a lot of it up as they go along. Don't forget the playtesters just because the corebooks are out.


Dork tower misses the point so badly it's painful. I LOLed.


PC Portraits: We had a set of dwarf portraits fairly recently, in issue 261, and this is one column that's pretty edition neutral, so I'm not that enthusiastic about this. Comparing the two, the new one is noticeably more simplistic looking, with broader, more exaggerated features. It's another good example of how they're stepping away from naturalism in their artwork for a bolder and more stylised look. I wonder how much of that is the magazine's own initiative, and how much comes from the rest of the company, as they try to establish an overall look and feel for 3e to set it apart from what came before. In any case, it's very worthy of noting, as a point where I can compare like for like precisely.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 278: December 2000


part 3/7


A short history of dwarves: Well, that's a pretty predictable pun. And it looks like we're still in changeover territory in some respects, with a whole ton of short, system free articles coming up that were probably submitted a while ago. Our first one examines the literary origins of dwarves over the centuries, giving us a good bibliography for us to do further research on our own. As such, it's not particularly noteworthy on it's own merits, being basically a warmup article of the same sort as the last issue's leading article. I'm sorry, I definitely prefer it when they start with a big spectacular rather than trying to explain to stuff to us like we know nothing. We haven't forgotten everything just because it's a fresh start.


A dwarven lexicon: We continue with a primer in the dwarven language. It doesn't have enough K's, guttural sounds and weird dots and dashes above the vowels to make it look appropriately foreign and metal for my tastes. Dwarvish is supposed to be tricky to learn and pronounce, and this doesn't look too hard at all. Plus it's way too short to get up a decent sized lexicon, which is always a problem with magazine articles. Once again I'm not sure their letter writers have the right idea, and by trying to please the loudest complainers, they may cause other problems along the line.


Cry Havoc: A random dwarven battle cry generator? Looks like it's another goofy idea, that allows you to resolve a problem swiftly if you're devoid of inspiration. They haven't done this before, they're unlikely to do so again, and you're unlikely to repeat results with this number of options. Plus the illustration's gurning is rather amusing in itself. Death or Glory indeed. Omnomnomnom. I still love that kind of silliness.


Forge & Hammer: Our longest article this month is an 8 page general setting one by Wolf Baur, on the lifecycle of the average dwarf. Birth, education, coming of age, marriage customs, jobs, the way they relate to religion, laws, all leading up to a final piece on funereal practices. They might be a serious, practical lot most of the time, but they sure know how to have a good booze-up, and can form some pretty elaborate social rules over the centuries that may get in the way of actually accomplishing stuff. This invokes conflicting feelings in me. Once again, it's not bad, but it certainly doesn't break new ground the way Roger Moore's articles did way back in 1982. That managed to add new details that were taken up and ran with by other writers, while this just kinda slots in and tells us what we expect to hear about dwarves. Crunch-wise, the most significant thing I can find is the table that tells how much a dwarf can expect to earn in a particular profession. (generally a lot more than in a human community, given how much gold they have access too.) Somehow it just doesn't have the same impact as learning about Moradin, Berronar and the rest of them.


Lights, Camera, Dragons!: The guy who played the dwarf in the D&D movie gets interviewed this month, which I suppose is also vaguely in theme. And no surprise that makeup was a fairly substantial hassle, especially the bit where they died his eyebrows orange. They mostly used trick photography to make him look shorter than the other characters, which is one of the few things this shares with the LotR movies. This is their longest bit of promotion, coinciding with the release date, and includes a synopsis of the plot, and little profiles of all the main characters, and talk about how this both uses D&D ideas, and differs from ordinary campaigns. (a fat old elf, the distinct lack of clerics, beholders are utterly incompetent. ) They're still hoping it'll be a success, with people signed on for 2 sequels if it's profitable, but I think they're starting to realise it might not be deserved, now they've actually seen it. Just because quite a few of the people involved are actually gamers doesn't mean the resulting product will be good or faithful. Still, I suppose it's better for the brand that they promote it, compared to the treatment they gave the D&D cartoon back in the 80's.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 278: December 2000


part 4/7


The old words are the best words: Robin Laws joins in on the theme this month, with some very specific character building advice. Can you judge a culture by it's proverbs? Hell yeah. They not only show you what a people considers valuable and commonsensical, but have hidden meanings that serve as lessons, and help the old pass on their values to the young. Since dwarves live a long time and tend to be quite culturally conservative, it makes perfect sense they'd have a whole boatload of sayings for common situations. And he does go to quite a bit of length to establish the depth behind these sayings, highlighting the various aspects of the dwarven personality in a show, not tell manner. I think that once again he's going to steal the show here, because this is not only cool, but suitable for any game or media where dwarves resemble their stereotypes at all.


Class combos: Now, I knew that technically the annuals came in between the november and december issues, but this is the first time there's been real consequences for doing them slightly out of order. Apparently that's where they started doing this series on making the most of your multiclass options, providing full 20 level progressions with skill and feat suggestions. As Dwarves have fighter as their favoured class, three of the four options presented here are fighter hybrids, with the final one a cleric/rogue one focussed on mobility underground and harnessing the power of the earth. I can see the use of this, especially if you're generating lots of NPC's, but don't find it very interesting, and can understand why later writers skewed back towards providing lots of new classes to fill different intermediate niches. You can only do so much with multiclassing, especially with XP penalties enforced.


Fiction: Keoland blues by Paul Kidd. The Justicar is back, and he's picked up a whole adventuring party of comedic oddballs to be the straight man too. What a life to live. Unlike the last one which had some social message mixed in with it's humour, this is pure dugeoncrawling goofiness, where they stumble into trouble, fight and puzzle their way out of it, and end up no better off than when they started, due to loadbearing boss keeping them from grabbing most of the treasure. Dont'cha just hate it when that happens. So it's entertaining in a fluffy way, but doesn't develop their characters at all, which means you can skip it without affecting what happens in the actual books at all.


Tools of the Deep: As we saw last issue, dwarves are one of the races likely to profit if technology advances. So a collection of new nonmagical, but technically sophisticated equipment is right up their alley. Torches attached to helmets and climbing aids are of tremendous benefit to a miner. And adapting the bellows used in forges to launch projectile weapons at high speed is a fairly logical bit of steampunk technology. So this is quite neat, and would have been just as suitable for the previous issue as well. Reminding the readers that not all their cool stuff has to be magical, and resourcefulness is as important as the resources you have is still an important lesson in these days of expected wealth per level, if not more so, because when you have a fixed allotment, using it efficiently becomes ever more important if you want to win against your peers.


Nodwick's team meets their monstrous doubles, and go on a big crossover adventure. Much profit is had.


The adventures of Volo: A tale of treachery and greed this month, as Ed spins another system free ancient legend about a family, and the magical items passed down amongst them. We saw at the end of last year what happens to people who betray the country of Cormyr too seriously, and it looks like there's plenty of other jackasses who ruin it's good name. Even the relatively pacified england analogue has more than it's fair share of interesting history. Ed seems to be growing tired of maintaining the dramatic conventions though, with not a single snarky comment by Elminster. He might have no shortage of unused ideas, but how many more of them will be able to be squeezed into this format?


VS Duergar: Now this is more like it. With a fairly unique set of powers and resistances, Duergar require quite specific tactics if you don't want your ass kicked in the twisting tunnels of the underdark. Basically, the really important thing is to be able to counter their invisibility, and have some bright lights to make them suffer and turn the tables. General dispelling, anti-poison effects, and movement enhancers will also come in handy. You can have the same basic stats, and have the encounter go very differently depending on the environment, and if you have the right equipment and spells prepared. They do actually have some stuff I hadn't thought of this time around. Let's hope they can get progressively more oddball in their choice of monsters.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 278: December 2000


part 5/7


Class acts: A fairly stereotyped entry this time, with the stonelord, or Hyperdwarves! Another one where you have to either dip into a suboptimal class to qualify, or suck up those cross-class skills. Still, they have full BAB progression, plus a whole bunch of thematic magical skills. Although it's not mentioned, the elemental theme seems appropriate not only for dwarves, but for druids as well. Lower the BAB to 3/4, add a partial spell progression and early wildshaping into an elemental, and they'd be a great idea for druids who want to focus on the earth theme. Which is pretty neat.


Rogues Gallery: Looks like it's Raven's Bluff's turn to get a novel. They're already filled in more than any other city in the Realms, thanks to years of RPGA adventures and Polyhedron articles. And apparently the novel pays close attention to established continuity, using the same named locations and supporting characters. I'm sure someone'll be able to find something to complain about.

Jack Ravenwild sees another strong contender for most cliched badass protagonist name introduced to us. He's a charming sorcerer/rogue who much prefers tricking enemies to fighting them head-on, is impulsive, reckless, and loyal to his friends. A completely typical adventurer then. In Raven's Bluff, I'm sure there are hundreds like him (if lower level, since 3e hasn't been out long enough for them to level up in the living city campaign. ) I guess they're going for the everyman thing.

Anders Aricssen is Jack's sidekick, a barbarian with enough common sense to point out his stupider plans and pull him out of the fire. As with many sidekicks, he seems a more interesting character, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's more of a PoV character. But he's still eager to adventure, and not too good at planning himself, so I guess the two need each other. I suspect snarky IC banter will be involved though.

Zandria is a red wizard who's a little less unpleasant than most of them, but she's still a ruthless, short-tempered, arrogant pain in the ass. She just treats her friends better. Which may let her level up in the outside world, but will be a real problem once she goes back home to try and rise in the hierarchy. Why bother being a good guy after all? They'll just betray you. Magically created slaves really are the way to go.

Tharzon is a dwarf fighter/rogue who uses his racial talents at mining as a way of breaking into people's houses and robbing them. Tut tut. Well, someone was going to do it sooner or later. Seems a very protagonisty thing to do. So I guess these four are going to bicker their way through some kind of adventure around the city. Will there be room for them not not hit other adventurers on the way?


The bad guys are definitely winning in this month's dragonmirth.


Forum: Adam C. Tucson is full of praise for the changes to 3e, especially the new class level and to hit system. His only little niggle is the chopping around of pronouns, witch is cool from an equality point of view, but confusing when it happens within a single example. Characters generally don't have sex changes mid-combat, you know.

Louis Pirozzi is the contrastic voice, saying most of the changes they've made suck. Poor poor halflings. Poor poor elemental mages. Oh don't you worry about them, elemental spellcasters'll be back in supplements before you can say shazam, and were never core anyway.

Casey DeWitt loves templates, but isn't too keen on Baatezu and Tanar'ri going back to being devils and demons. Those names just seem bland now. Hmm. Unpronouncable or bland. What a decision. I really can't come down on one side for this problem.

Rikard Fjellhaug praises D&D with all the zeal of a born again convert. Games Workshop have betrayed me, and this is awesome. I'm glad I gave it a try after many years of shunning AD&D.

Christian Walker is thoroughly amused at the idea of 20th level commoners. Still, it does give him a good guideline for giving XP for noncombat encounters. Negotiating a good deal with a 20th level expert can be even trickier than slaying a 20HD dragon. A bit of tweaking might be needed, but the basic theory is sound.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

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[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 278: December 2000


part 6/7


Role models: This column changes writers, and resets to step one yet again, with another bit of basic advice on how to paint miniatures. This is very tiresome indeed. With that comes another format change, back to photographs, and a noticeable reduction in text size, as they actually have a decent amount to say. The advice itself though is another basic list of the things you need, and the habits you should develop if you want to become a good painter. Once again I find myself somewhat irritated at the poor treatment this column is getting, being meddled with frequently and shunted around the magazine like they don't really know what to do with it. It does end on a positive note though, with a statement of what's coming up next month. Hopefully this guy'll stick around long enough to carry out his plans and get past the basics again.


Sage advice: How can clerics of Heroneous be lawful neutral when their god is lawful good (You misunderstand. When we say they can't be neutral unless their god is, we mean true neutral, not a hybrid. What a Doofus)

Surely clerics don't lose their armor and weapon proficiencies when they become ex-clerics (You are correct. )

Can true neutral clerics cast aligned spells (Yes. They can play all the sides against one-another for their own profit.)

Does extra turning also give extra rebukes (Oh yes)

Can monks make off-hand attacks (This rule is not applicable. Please reset the system and try again.)

Can monks deal subdual damage (yes, and at no penalty. Flexibility's a great thing. )

Do you still suffer AoO's if you grapple someone and have improved unarmed strike (Fraid so. It'll take another feat to do that as well)

Are monks immune to sneak attack (no)

You don't add monk's base attack to their unarmed attack, do you. (No. That would be so broken no other class could compete. )

What is monk's crit range and damage (20 x2, just like anything not specifically mentioned otherwise. The game is sooo prejudiced against nonhumanoids.)

How long does it take to use wholeness of body (Standard action)

Shocking grasp is better at hitting you if you're wearing metal armour (Feature, not bug. The designers knew what they were doing.)

Can you cast spells with somatic components if your hands are full (No. This limits the good gish builds a bit )

Can you raise a skill cross-class if you already have it as a class one (sure, if you want to be objectively sub-optimal)

We interrupt this transmission to bring you a particularly egregious powerplay, in which the deadliness of a buffed cleric is pointed out. Truly, CoDzilla is in the building. And now, back to you Skip.
Thank you, Sean. And now, the weather.

How are feats handled for multiclass characters. (Perfectly normally. We standardised this stuff so it would be easy for you. )

Can you fire two hand crossbows at once (sure)

Is true strike overpowered, virtually impossible to use, or both. Good question. Considering magic missile hits automatically at the same level, we don't think so.)

Does true strike's bonus apply to confirm crit threats (yes)

What attack bonus do you have with improved two weapon fighting (Plenty stupid question, yah. Skip answer question, you feel better. )

How many attacks do you get if you have whirlwind attack and improved two-weapon fighting ( Way too many. Way to bogart the fighting airtime dude. )

What are the rules for partial charges. (half the action, half the distance, half the cool factor. Poor zombies.)

Are bonus spells for high scores cumulative (no)

What's a double headed weapon, and why can't rangers fight two-weapon with it (Something that has nasty bits on both ends. Rangers don't get special powers with them because Drizzt never used them )

Does moving away and loading a crossbow provoke attacks of opportunity (yes)

Do off hand attacks lose all their strength bonus to hit or half (none, actually. Skip can see why you might think so though. Definitely a case where things aren't as standardized as they could be. We have good reason for that though.)

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Dragon Issue 278: December 2000
Does moving away and loading a crossbow provoke attacks of opportunity (yes)

A really, really stupid rule. How do they know you're going to reload until you start, at which time you've already moved beyond their ability to hit you? To quote Plan 9 From Outer Space: "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

 

[Hussar]

A really, really stupid rule. How do they know you're going to reload until you start, at which time you've already moved beyond their ability to hit you? To quote Plan 9 From Outer Space: "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

Well, actually, it would be the fact that you moved away that drew the AOO.

If you 5 foot stepped and then reloaded, then you would be fine. This is more a case of a poorly worded question than a bad ruling.