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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4633777" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 85: May 1984part 1/3100 pages Looks like it's another cleric special. I guess the whole merry-go round of class and race specials will start up again in the following months. They can't leave a topic like that as a one-off. Speaking of one-offs, once again we run into the nothing new in the world problem. They publish reviews of things billed as unique, and next thing you know, other people write-in to say they've been doing that for years. Suitably chastened, they say they won't do that again. Meanwhile, Ken Rolston and Katherine Kerr get jobs as contributing editors. Once again, the quality and quantity of their top writer's outputs have been recognized and rewarded. Which means we get to see even more of them. Hopefully there'll still be room for untried freelancers to get a foot in the door. After all, they've got a big magazine to fill every month. So lets get going. Even with Ken around, the magazine won't review itself. In this issue:Out on a limb: A letter asking about copyright, and what exactly they can do with the material in Dragon. They are in magnanimous mood today and reply that as long as you don't sell it, they don't have a problem. Two letters about the new unarmed combat rules and monks. Again, duly answered.A question about pineal glands, and their use as spell components. Some questions about baba yaga's hut. A letter pointing out that one of the pregen characters in the twofold talisman is illegal. Honestly. Ordinary players get this right more often than RPG writers. It's quite shocking. Two letters on the familiars article last month. My, their response time is pretty prompt these days. I remember when it took 3 months to start getting any feedback on an article. A question on how international peeps are supposed to provide a usable SASE, when their stamps aren't legal tender in america. They reply that you need an international reply coupon, whatever the hell that is. Ahh, the arcane details of international commerce. The forum: Jon Paulson complains at Ken Rolston for putting spoilers in his CoC review. Now he can't run it for his players. Ken apologizes and says he'll try and tread the line better next time. Yet another case of nothing new in the world. Katherine Kerr rebutts Nikki Purdues statement that life for serfs didn't suck. While adventurers are off slaying dragons, they have to grub in the dirt on the edge of starvation. Woe! Woe! Give generously to the people still starving in africa today. Let them know it's christmas time. Oh wait. A bit early for that, isn't it. Jeffrey Carey makes contributions to the playability of the elemental planes, pointing out that the genie races live there, so there must be parts which have coherent spacial structures and little bits of other elements. Someone with the right magical tricks really ought to be able to survive and get around there, and there can be all kinds of weird variations on a theme in an infinite universe. Finally, Flex Williams points out how some nasty things, like nitric acid, can cause huge amounts of damage on contact and not be noticed immediately. Fantasy contact poisons could do even more unpleasant stuff without it hurting verisimilitude. Here's to your health: Ahh, healbotting. One of the primary uses of clerics. If you don't have one, you had to spend weeks or months recuperating at higher levels back then. Which is a lot more realistic than 3rd or 4th edition, weirdly enough. I have to say that I never approached it like that back then. Partially it was that you didn't get spells until second level anyway, and we never memorized more than one copy of the same spell for reasons of versatility. So while we'd generally have a spell ready for when someone was about to die, that was the cue to get into defensive formation, and we certainly didn't expect to face each battle at full strength. But enough about my experiences. They're at the centre of the D&D experience. Of course they're going to have been hothoused into the mechanically optimal path more than the rest of us.In this article, Kim tackles the nature of healing magic, how it works, what it's limitations are, and yes indeed, the question of if clerics should double dip on healing spells and focus on healbotting at the expense of all the other cool tricks they can pull. Should you reveal exactly how much damage is healed by each spell, and allow for metagaming. Should the deity served dictate or influence their clerics spell selection. Would any player be prepared to pay the extortionate prices that NPC clerics charge for healing. Like his examination of psionics, this is a fairly dull article that doesn't have that much that is useful in actual play either. But he's the chief editor, so it gets to be in pole position anyway. Mehness. Special skills, special thrills: Our other editor makes the second contribution. Talk about keeping it in-house. Anyway, Roger gives us a rather more useful piece of work, talking about making clerics of different deities different. He refers back to the greyhawk god articles in issues 67-71, and then expands upon and rebalances them, so they don't just get special powers for nothing, and some gods end up way better choices than others. This is a very useful article indeed, and an obvious precursor to the sphere systems of subsequent editions. It should provide more than enough examples to allow you to do the same for your own gods, and if used, allows clerics a lot more customisability. An all cleric party would still probably be a bit of a stretch, but less so than keeping an all fighter team interesting and effective. Plus you get plenty of amusing role-playing opportunities. I very much approve Clerics must be deity-bound: Talking of roleplaying clerics of different gods appropriately. Here's a load of advice on just that. They are predictable. Thankfully this is a quick one that doesn't outstay it's welcome, and has plenty of important points. Gods of the same alignments can have very different portfolios, and gods with similar portfolios can be bitter rivals and enemies. Clerics can have various degrees of devotion to their gods ideals, ranging from fanatical devotion, to propitiation out of fear or self interest. Deity drama is another one of those bits of worldbuilding that's often left out, but adds quite a bit to your game if you include it. After all, legends like that can be turned into instant plot hooks. A nice way to finish of the themed section.Figure feature is only a single page long this time. This month, we get the elfquest characters made into mini's, plus some various lizardy monsters and weird things. Rather a filler article really. A new edition of starfire? Interesting. That's been one of their regular games to review. I wonder what they'll think about it this time. Problems by mail: Scammers, flakes, neurotics, asshat twink players, rapid and expensive edition changes. Just a few of the ways that your PbM experience can be ruined, and you can wind up wasting substantial sums of money. Not that it's easy on the other end either. Processing all the info from hundreds of letters takes quite a bit of work. But that does not excuse unprofessionalism. You ought to do the research and get the resources before you get in the kitchen. So Rick Loomis is setting up an organization that will examine PBM companies, and make sure they're up to scratch in terms of professionalism. If you're scammed, complain to them, and they'll make sure word gets around. That way, the good can flourish, the bad can perish, and capitalism can continue on it's merry way. Hooray! Well, that's good to know, anyway. Hard to argue with the idea, although I know that the implementation of these things can become unpleasantly bureaucratic. Another interesting footnote in the history of gaming as a whole that I wonder if we'll hear any more about.</blockquote>

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