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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4883630" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 136: August 1988part 3/5Sage advice is feeling particularly classy this month. Can barbarians build a stonghold (If they can afford it. It would be more thematically appropriate for them to take an existing one by slaughtering their inhabitants and then making a pile of their skulls though.)Can barbarians hire man-at-arms ( No. He couldn't possibly leave he-man. They're like, a canon pairing. )How do barbarians summon hordes (by going home and getting their family so drunk they agree to attack whoever it is. )  Can barbarians get their special AC bonus when wearing magic chainmail (no. You should be ashamed of yourself. All you need is a good sword and a loincloth to take on the world. Maybe some boots as well if you want to be a high class barbarian. Leaving out the loin cloth and becoming a three weapon fighter (take that, wussy rangers ) is possble but not recommended. ) How often can barbarians apply first aid (once per wound. Lets hope no-one starts doing the cutting themselves to allow more hit points to be restored trick. )What attacks do bards use (their fighter level. Yes, this does mean high level bards suck a bit at head-on combat. Suck it up. You've got plenty of other advantages. )How many bonus Hp do bards get for high con ( Skip is generous to the laydees. Skip is not like that rape illusion monster creator Jean Wells. Skip lets bards keep the exceptional ability score bonuses from their fighter levels. Oh yeaaaah. )What druidic powers do bards get. (All of them. Did I not say Skip is generous. If you want to make them really scary, that can include the heirophant powers as well. Being able to change previous rulings is a wonderful thing. Skip has the power, and he's not afraid to contradict people with it. )Can a thief become a thief-acrobat before becoming a bard (No. Skip has already given you great benificence. Now you must feel the hard end of skip's stick. Yeah baby. ) Do cavaliers go berserk in combat (no, that's berserkers. And no, you can't dual-class cavalier/berserker. That's a dishonorable style, (yes, sir Turquine did it. but that's another game, in another universe ) and you'll lose your cavalierhood if you try. ) What die do Cavaliers and paladins get for HD (10 sided. They might be cooler than fighters, but they aren't tougher as well. ) Are cavaliers immune to dragon fear (yes, for all the good it'll do them. Foil-wrapped yummies, hee.) What are the effects of percentage scores of abilities other than strength (None. They're just to slow you down from getting 19. Oh, and cavaliers can't increase their int or wis, contrary to what you seem to think. )Can paladins drink alcohol. (Depends on their order. Probably, unless they actually do something immoral while drunk. You do not get to claim diminished responsibility when you chose to take the actions that got you into a mess. )Do paladins become fighters or cavaliers when they lose their paladinhood (Cavaliers. Further falling is certainly not impossible though. )Can paladins use cleric magic items (Nahh. You wouldn't let a nurse do doctor stuff, even if they have the same employer, and have been working there way longer. )What should a paladin do when he captures an evil creature. (Keep him, and housetrain him, and dress him up properly and put a bow in his hair and call him Gerald. ) Can paladins detect ordinary evil aligned humans (Yes. You still can't go around killing everyone who pings positive though. )Just how good is paladins protection from disease (strong enough to deal with anything a regular cure disease spell can handle. Lycanthropy, and some other magical diseases can indeed penetrate this. )Why don't clerics have any missile weapons (Hang on, are you seriously telling me you missed the bit about the slings? Archetypical biblical giant killing weapon, innit, slings. You must have been playin' like puddings to miss that. )Do neutral clerics turn or control undead (Pass. Your DM can decide that. )Can druids turn undead (no. They already have way more cool powers than clerics. )Can druids become giant or magical animals (Not until 3rd edition, dear. It's not as if the powers regular animals get aren't cool enough. ) The golem's craft: Our stalwart book reviewer steps out of his usual role to contribute this article on golem construction. This is rather more interesting than the other item creation piece, as it opens up options rather than constraining them, giving you several different ways of achieving the same ends. It's also interesting because it examines the fine details of the D&D rules, and picks them apart. Strangely, it seems that using manuals actually increases the time and cost needed to build a golem compared to doing it yourself. Similarly, Caryatid columns cost more than regular stone golems, but are considerably weaker. Those wacky ancients, eh, always shrouding their work with extraneous cosmetic gubbins. The overall format of this article is similar to the ecologies, with lots of IC references in the writing, followed by game mechanic footnotes. This all adds up to a pretty good article, that helps make building golems more accessable and internally coherent. If it had also provided some new ones to go with it it would have pushed from good to great, but oh well, it's still pretty usable.</blockquote>

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