Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 329: March 2005


part 3/7


W:fF is out this month. I remember when they were spoiling W:tA in here. Oh how things haven't changed. There's still never been a WoD article in this magazine. And there never will be, it seems.


Mesopotamian mythos: Curiously enough, the mesopotamian pantheon wasn't one of those given stats in any edition of Deities & Demigods/Legends and Lore, even though they made a fair number of appearances in the Planescape books. You have to go all the way back to Issue 16 to find a full feature on them, and that was pretty sketchy, trying to cram as many as possible into a couple of pages. Hopefully by putting 12 of them over 11 pages, we can get more depth than 26 over 2.

Adad is your basic aggressive and unpredictable weather god, subjecting you to storms or droughts at a whim, to keep people strong and on their toes. Like Thor, this makes him both popular with adventurers and fearfully propitiated by common folk. It takes an englishman to grumble about the weather, but not be scared of it.

Anu remains the sky god, the all-father, the guy who tries to keep both the fractious other gods and mortals in order. A thankless job, but one you get to do plenty of smiting in, since there's never a shortage of monsters and criminals in D&D.

Belet-ili is the earth mother, a classic dualism that seems to repeat itself over and over again in mythology. It takes two to tango, and it take a village to raise a child. As a priest, you've got to make sure you balance those aspects, and not let your current kids get in the way of making more

Ea is the god of the water, and also rules lawyers, as he was the one who inspired the creation of the Ark, letting people save themselves when the other gods technically weren't allowed too. Guess that trope is as old as the Code of Hammurabi then.

Enlil is the god of the wind and lower atmosphere, showing the mesopotamians had quite a finely tuned set of different deities for various celestial occurrences. He's another one who's all about the status quo, unlike the more flighty wind gods of other cultures. Still, if someone's flagrantly breaking the law, being able to call a tornado does make a big difference in getting them back in line.

Ereshkigal is of course the goddess of the underworld, which is always an unpopular but needed job, as you can't have ghosts and zombies wandering the earth whenever they feel like it. You might be able to rescue one or two people from her clutches, but it'll come at a cost and won't last forever, because death always comes back.

Ishtar is a lot less benevolent than her 2e interpretation, as they remind us that being obsessed with love often has nasty consequences. She might venture to the underworld to save you, but she'll also dump your ass and treat you like dirt when she gets bored. When your primary pleasure is in the chase, you're never going to be satisfied with what you've got for long.

Marduk is the guy who's job it is to actively kick the butt of chaos and evil in all it's forms, and is rather more down-to earth than the embodiments of natural forces. One for the paladins amongst us.

Nergal is one of the other well known names from this pantheon, as he's a pretty textbook example of a demon, engaging in cruelty and slaughter, sometimes as a punishment from the other gods, and sometimes just for the lulz, because life is harsh and unfair, so there. His priests can expect to be pretty unpopular if they make their job public knowledge, so they remain pretty secretive.

Ninurta is primarily the god of the plough, but all that hard physical labor and good food means he's pretty damn buff, so he has a secondary portfolio in athletics and can do some pretty impressive feats of heroism too. Marduk may volunteer for the big jobs, but it's important to have several backup heroes in case one is already on a quest.

Shamash is your basic lawful good sun god, shedding light on matters, and with a secondary portfolio of travel, given the way the sun traverses the sky every day. As with his dad the sky, you'll never lack problems to fix as a cleric of this guy.

Sin is the god of the moon, and a lot less naughty than his name would indicate in english. His job is to make sure the natural cycles of life continue as they should, which means he has quite a few druids amongst his followers. So this article does actually manage to introduce some material I haven't seen before, and make it look decently suited to D&D adventurers. That's pretty pleasing.


Warhammer gets it's new edition. This is nice. Still a gritty and grim as ever.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 329: March 2005


part 4/7


The petit tarrasque and other monsters: We finish off the themed section with a fun little system-light look at how many mythological monsters differ from their D&D incarnations. Many of these were originally singular creatures detailed in a specific source, and some were even more dangerous, particularly the basilisk, which is incredibly unfair in it's ability to take you down even if you do use tactics. They save a considerable amount of space by reusing the statistics of existing monsters with minor alterations, which lets them go into more historical detail. The whole thing is presented in the kind of lighthearted semi-IC writing style that has been conspicuously absent since 2001, which is very pleasing to see indeed. If Erik is already getting the chance to implement changes like that, then the magazine should become a lot less dry over the next year.


Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Hmm. Welcome to the start of another semi-regular series. As with ecologies, the various demon lords are an excellent ground for a little extra information on their nature, histories, powers, tactics, and relationships with others. This certainly has the potential to fill a few years with.

Kicking things off is the guy who might not rule the top layer outright, but certainly has more influence there than any other demon lord. Pazuzu, lord of the air. Soaring above the realms of the other princes, traveling to other planes to do a bit of tempting, he's one of the better adjusted and least bogged down in endless rivalries of the abyssal lords. This is an excellent example of the melding of fluff and crunch, as they detail powers, minions, personality traits, modus operandi, lair, and all sorts of other bits and pieces in a manner that makes them very easy to use. After all, when all it takes is saying his name three times, it's not hard at all to introduce him and his cultists into any game. And for those of you who have no objection to your games getting vile and dark, we have his Cultist prestige class, so now you too can soar the skies, and breathe swarms of locusts at your enemies. This is very definitely muahahaha! worthy material, that's useful against characters of all levels. Spanning a full 12 pages, this is indeed a rather good feature, going into the right amount of depth to make this useful reading, but not bloated. Very pleasing indeed. Lets hope subsequent entries keep up this strong standard.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 329: March 2005


part 5/7


The ecology of the kenku: Connecting to the last article, one of the other creatures that got fairly substantial changes in both the fluff and mechanics in the edition change. Kenku used to be mysterious hawk people who lived in the wilderness and stole and tricked people for some inscrutable reasons. Now they're slightly less mysterious flightless crow people who live in slums, are frequently ridden with disease, and trick and steal to survive. A definite step down in terms of glamour, but that's what you get for pissing off Pazuzu. Still, they retain their ability to cooperate well in the face of danger and pull off extra large heists. This ecology is slightly larger than their recent ones, but retains pretty much the same formula, refined slightly with a greater number of interesting sidebars and actual play ideas. Like the creature themselves, the writers are being eminently practical and listening to reader feedback. And these are still one of the best creatures for using cleverly, with their array of minor powers that can both deceive and be surprisingly effective. No great objections here.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: In theme here, with a bunch of real world mythical adaptions. One would think these would be well tapped by now, yet somehow they always seem to find a few new obscure ones. Maybe people are making them up and passing them off as ancient. Let's see which sources they favour this time.

Alatyr is a stone from Russian mythology. It gives waters near it healing powers. Since you need to bury it and dig it up again, it's probably better for a village than an adventuring party.

Canoloa's Harp can put people to sleep, which is not generally the sign of good music, but still gets it legendary status. Obviously from a time before every wizard learnt sleep as routine training.

Durandal is one we've seen many-a-time in the magazine, albeit mostly in the 80's. It kicks ass, makes you braver, and is near impossible to destroy. Another one who's legendary powers seem rather unimpressive compared to the quirky stuff good D&D items do.

The Fount of Acadne lets real things float, while fakes sink like a stone. Now that's more like it. A quirky power that's useful in everyday life and hasn't been seen here before. I approve.

Kongo is actually a trident from Japan. It may not look that impressive, but it boosts your wisdom and glows in the dark. Should help make you a better ruler.

The Shedshed is an egyptian battle standard that not only provides the usual morale boost, but also wraps you up and flies you away if you get taken down. Now that is pretty cool both conceptually and visually. I like the idea of giving my villain this.

The Teeth of the Sown Men are your basic argonauts dragon teeth jobbie. Seen them here before. Mind you, that was once again in the 80's, and the mechanics were surprisingly fiddly. This version seems much more user-friendly

The White Buffalo of Calf Pipe is another low-key sensible one. It's smoke makes everyone more reasonable, letting you pow wow happily with your enemies and come to an equitable solution. Looks like it's another mixed bag in this department, just as it usually is with the class acts.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Where's 5/7? It didn't show up yesterday, and still hasn't. A glitch in the automatic posting system?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 329: March 2005


part 6/7


A novel approach: Time for self-promotion in here again. It gets increasingly galling that they do that virtually half the time in this column. Eberron wants to get in on the lucrative novel business that the Realms and Krynn have enjoyed for decades and who can blame them. In the process they get to expand on the setting from a first person perspective, and showcase the things they think are important for adventurers there. These include ties to other people, which shows up everywhere, airships, which are slightly less common, and living spells rampaging across the landscape as a particularly unpredictable and arbitrary form of magical fallout, which is pretty original. Hopefully Matt Forbeck can put them together to make a story that couldn't be told anywhere else. At least the new crunch is fun. We can always do with more airships and weird ooze variants.


Sage advice: Are undead and constructs immune to flanking (no)

Can they be affected by flesh to stone (no)

Can they be affected by ability score penalties (yess, as long as they're not immune to it for other reasons. They're such a pain, collins collins)

Are golems immune to virtually all magic or not (Direct magic, yess. Indirect effects, no. You can sstill hurt them with nassty acid you've conjured, for example.)

Would stonebreaker acid hurt golems normally (yess. Stone golems would sssssizzzzzle away, preciouss)

What do constructs use for concentration checks (No modifier. )

Is there a save to resist energy drain from undead. (Usually, no. They're nassty. But not as nassty as older editions. Then it was nearly impossible to get your levels back. Poor Andy. Andy hatses losing levels, collins collins)

Does a sunblade destroy vampires (no)

How big is a liches phylactery (Tiny. Eassy for them to hide, yess)

Where does a destroyed lich reappear. (Ssomewhere nearby. )

What type of area does undead turning affect (60' burst.)

When a cleric has a temporary cha boost, does it affect their turning (Yess. Nasty scary clerics, collins collins. Makses for complicated bookkeeping as well. Andy hateses that. )

Can clerics turn undead while invisible (yes)

 

[(un)reason]

Where's 5/7? It didn't show up yesterday, and still hasn't. A glitch in the automatic posting system?

Very good question. Thankfully, we don't have editing time limits here, so I can go back and fix that.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 329: March 2005


part 7/7


Class acts: Barbarians get Support your local Barbarian. A good spellcaster companion to buff you and provide backup is just what the doctor ordered. Sorcerer is particularly thematic for this.

Bards get Using the Universal Language. Communicating intent by music alone might seem incredibly cheesy, but it can work. Here's some advice on determining the difficulties. How very amusing.

Clerics get Tokens of faith II. Obviously this one's hit a seam that they can mine until they run out of portfolios, as they have more coming. So here's 8 more symbols and the minor benefits they grant.

Druids get History of the Druids. More fluff we've seen done before, better, in more detail.

Fighters get The Knifer. In a head on battle, knife fighter is a suboptimal choice. But they are very versatile, can be justified as tools, and there are lots of places you can't take bigger weapons. A fighter who specializes in them can be just about competitive in both hand to hand and missile fighting, and great in a city campaign. (I recommend combining this with the thug variant from UA. ) And there are several prestige classes to make you even more effective. A timely reminder.

Monks get Principles of of the Monastic Code. Ahh, the joys of mystical mumbo jumbo that actually works. Makes all that meditation and celibacy worth it. Not like in the real world, where virtue has to be its own reward. :sigh:

Paladins get Daydream Believers. Gnome paladin is another odd choice that can still work. Here's some advice as to the outlook of a "typical" gnome paladin. Riding a dire badger and with a ready quip as he smites evil, these guys definitely don't fall into the lawful dick category.

It's rangers turn to get half a dozen flaws. They do seem to be following quite definite formulas for these. What will they do when they've all had a turn at each one?

Rogues get The story so far. 4 more backgrounds, each with it's own minor benefit. You know the formula for this one by now as well.

Sorcerers get the multiclass advice this month. A couple of levels in paladin works rather well. Fighter, monk and rogue can provide nice boosts to your survivability with a dip as well. Not too much though, as with any primary caster.

Wizards get Swarm Familiar. What an evil idea. Instead of one pet, you can have a whole bunch of them. Fly, my prettys! Ahahahahaha! I very much like this idea.


Nodwick steals from Homer's script. Dork tower debunks some myths of their own. Zogonia fails their interaction with NPC rolls again.


Yea, verily 'twas a pleasing issue to mine eyes. The columns departed replaced with articles of greater flavour, and the return to long-abandoned topics made for most pleasant reading. Alas, next month is once again the month of tomfoolery, and I fear young master Mona may not have had time to prepare a full issue of japes and pranks with which to lighten our spirits. Shall we proceed, my history-delving compatriots?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 330: April 2005


part 1/7


78(108) pages. What time is it? Half past insanity? That means it's Flayer time again! Everyone break out the spinal fluid, and tip a toast to the monster with the most. And the artist too, who obviously paid a lot more attention to the actual description in the books than Rebecca Guay did last time. Let's see if they can similarly balance setting faithfulness and a sense of fun inside.


Scan Quality: Excellent, unindexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


From the Editor: Safe to say that Erik has agonised over what to do this month ever since he got the job. And thankfully, it looks like he'll be trying more than his recent predecessors to amuse, even if he hasn't had time to source a whole joke section. Now he just has to hope complaints from the readers or his superiors don't result in it getting scrapped next year. Will they be able to go to town next year, or will it be back to the serious ? How much is it up to the readers, and how much is it up to the company? Well, at least I've got a fair amount of hope for this issue now anyway.


Scale Mail: Our first letter is one of general praise, but the things that really stand out are the return of Bazaar of the Bizarre, and a request for more big features like the giant maps. People want to feel challenged at least a bit by the things they get, otherwise they aren't really learning anything new.

Another request they seem quite likely to grant is a Class Act on swapping out mounts for other tricks for Paladins. Like Wizard's familiars, there's a lot of people who don't want to bother with a squishy and sometimes irritating animal companion.

Some schools frown on gaming. Others encourage it, especially if the teachers are also gamers. It's nice to see the good guys (and girls too, in this case) getting into positions of power.

Also very nice to see is the fact that their Campaign Classics issue did so well in sales, and got so many positive letters that they're making it a yearly thing each January, along with the april, june and october regulars. At least, as long as Paizo has it, as this cool idea does not survive the transition to electronic issues, for reasons only known to WotC upper management.

Somewhat more negative are two letters criticising them for putting articles in the previews that don't actually show up. For all their lead-up times, things can still go wrong at the last minute. The world will never be perfect, no matter how organised you are.

And finally, we have an amusing request for a Sage Advice compendium. It would certainly sell, but the question is how the hell you would organise something like that. It's a sufficiently large logistical challenge that they don't feel up to it at the moment. Wimps.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 330: April 2005


part 2/7


First watch: Another return to a fairly popular series from last edition, only more general, and less detailed. Lords of madness does Aberrations, with a particular focus on the ever popular Aboleths, Beholders and Illithids. As usual these days, we also get prestige classes that make you extra good at killing them. And Races of Eberron continues the splatbooking, giving new crunch for shifters, warforged, and all the rest. Since this isn't rehash, I hope there'll be a decent amount of setting expansion.

There's also D&D for dummies. Hoo boy. Not published by WotC, but written by the big writers for the game. Designed to get on bookshelves that the regular books don't, and hopefully lure in some new, or more likely old lapsed players. Interesting business.

Another very cool D20 supplement this month. Hamunuptra. A big boxed set full of egyptian coolness. That's a nice turnup for the books. If only we had more of these. Still, it makes the ones we do get even more special. To think that in the 90's I used to take them for granted.

Two more bits of aid in your visual representation. Another set of wire radius plotters, to help you with your blasty spells and breath weapons. And if you want something a little more solid, there's Worldworks Games' Chunky Dungeons. We've got plenty of tiles, now you can go 3D for extra visual flair. They do seem rather fond of encouraging you to use these. I suppose it helps keep the support industries in business.

Our mini this month ties in with last month's product. Iron Kingdoms is another gameline spinning off in all directions, including this, putting their own spin on classic fantasy tropes and blending them with steampunk. Well, something similar worked pretty well for shadowrun, so why not.

The boardgame they've chosen to promote is Arkham Horror. Cthulhu seems to be pretty popular with the current developers, so that's hardly surprising. Can you save the day like the guy who escaped from Innsmouth, or will your sanity be destroyed and the world doomed.

Steve Jackson games continues it's conversion from a gaming company, to a more general geeky one, with Munchkin getting supplements and t-shirts. I believe this is another instance where I shrug.

And finally, along with the usual cross promotion for their other magazines, they include two competitions here as well. Another thing from a few months ago recurrs, as they give us a chance to win a Genki Gang hat. And Origins has a prestige class competition. I'm sure you have a few of those in your notepads anyway, why not try your luck with them for free stuff. Watch out for the copyright terms.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 330: April 2005


part 3/7


Enter the far Realm: Bruce Cordell has already given us one classic epic article that has the potential to really change the course of your game, in issue 258's attack of the machines. Now he repeats the trick with a 17 page spectacular on the Far Realm, the non-euclidean universe outside the commonly traveled planar cosmology where pretty much everything is alive. Since this is a Lovecraftian realm which is inherently bad for the sanity of normal creatures exposed to it, visiting and coming back unchanged is as tricky as the most hostile elemental planes, and you really don't want it to leak back into the prime material plane. Like that, there's plenty of material for both people who want to combat the threat to the status quo, and those who align themselves with it for the cool powers that are to be had. Unlike the Sheens, however, the creatures from the far realm are presented as pretty unambiguously bad, which means this isn't quite as flexible as his previous offering. However, the new spells, monsters and magical items are better designed to offer a set of challenges suitable for adventurers of every level, while the Sheens stuff was mid-scooped and needed patching the next year to fully support a full campaign. Still, despite the tradeoff of less originality/more polish, it's a very cool article indeed, and one that again offers the potential of many expansions in the future. Let's hope they can make them good too, and not dilute the theme or grind it into the ground with repetitiveness.


The Umbragen: Since Eberron tries to fit in everything that's in D&D, there was no way they could leave out the Drow. However, that just gives Keith Baker all the more incentive to recontextualise them, make sure they're different from their Realms and Greyhawk relatives in interesting ways. They're nomadic hunters rather than having huge underground cities, which means they might be more individually dangerous, but lack the high-end infrastructure and luxury a place like Menzoberranzan provides. They also favor nonstandard classes, with Warlock and Soulknife being their most common PC classes, which makes them quite distinctive to fight. And like Eberron's new races, they get a nice big chunk of racial feats that allow you to customise them in thematic ways, making them even more connected to shadow and darkness than regular drow. While it does feel like they're including stuff from other supplements to encourage Gotta Collect 'Em All!, this is a case where it feels natural rather than shoehorned in, as they're only picking a few appropriate things. Once again, the care used in designing the world and integrating it with the system is paying off for them.


Fiction: Coming home by Matt Forbeck. Their new Eberron novels get a double whammy of promotion, following on from last month, with a little story using the same characters and set immediately before them. It's not particularly substantial as a story in itself, being about half character banter, and half action scene, charting the course of a single encounter as our heroes try to clear out an area of Living Fireballs. But it does serve to establish their personalities pretty decently, and hint at what might be coming in the future for them. I think that once again, their desire for self-promotion is coming ahead of their desire to tell stories that are really good in and of themselves, which is disappointing. The magazine may be improving again in some ways, but this department is still a pale shadow of what it used to be.