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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4956705" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 148: August 1989part 3/5Good does not mean boring: Ahh, the old paladin problem. Just what is proper behaviour for someone who has to be a fairly unswerving exemplar of law and good. Like far too many moral dilemmas, it can only be truly solved by ignoring it, as 4e demonstrates. Fortunately, Scott Bennie does not fall into the one size fits all camp, nor does he forget that they're holy warriors, and killing evil things is an objectively good act in D&D (at least, as long as it isn't done in an evil manner) Similarly, there's nothing wrong with wanting to be the best you can be, and recognized for that fact. It's when the publicity seeking becomes more important to you than the actual heroic deeds, you put others down instead of improving yourself to keep your place, or you get into ends justify the means crap that you're headed for a fall. A pretty decent set of guidelines. This also fixes another problem, that of the retroactive making all paladins also cavaliers, separating them out again, so you can have cavaliers, paladins, and cavalier-paladins running around in the same campaign. It could probably have done more to make paladins that aren't so bound up in western medieval cultural mores, but it's a quite decent article for it's size. Looks like they're really trying to get 1st ed sorted out before they say goodbye to it. Space 1889 tells us what supplements they have coming up. Sweet. The corrected Cavalier: Once again it looks like they're trying to fix the classes that didn't make the cut for the new edition. David Howery is rather more brutal in his cuts here than he was with the barbarian, getting rid of both powers and restrictions aplenty. Hmm. While once again, I quite approve of his objectives, he might be going a bit too far this time. Wouldn't want them to wind up underpowered, would we. This is the kind of thing that would definitely require playtesting to see for sure. And whether it's a mechanical improvement or not, all these articles in quick succession feels like a conscious rejection of Gary's old work and design style, and an attempt to homogenize everything. These three articles are definite fuel for the edition wars, and it'll be interesting to see what responses they get. Your opinions and actual play experiences would be especially welcome in this matter. Arcane Lore: Healing is just about the only thing clerics can do, that wizards can't. There are a few spells that break that rule, but they're pretty high level, and do so indirectly. (Ed Greenwood, and his sneaky synostodweomer aside) But even if they can't break the laws of magic, wizards will always be pushing at their limits, and that's what this is about. First, there's an examination of D&D physics, looking at the spells that do offer some limited restorative properties, and trying to figure out the rules and limitations of wizardly magic from those, so as to not produce results that break the current niche protection. I note we're still missing vampiric touch, which would be a staple spell for many magic users in later editions. Secondly, we have 7 new spells which work from these principles. Quite interesting ones, too. Arnvid's unseen limb gives you an invisible, selectively insubstantial limb to do stuff with. This is incredibly handy even if you aren't actually missing any limbs, and even more so if you are. Oh, the tricks you could pull with something like this. :rubs hands together: I may have to read up on Larry Niven's Gil Hamilton books. Empath lets you transfer damage to yourself. Since it has a long casting time, and at the same level, clerics'll be curing serious wounds left, right and centre, It's rather a last resort spell. Life force transfer also lets you transfer damage. Slightly less, but a lot faster, so it's useful in a combat situation. Given how weedy magic-users are, this seems rather risky, unless they value your life above their own. Don't want to lose your secondary medic as well. Dispel exhaustion is just the illusionist spell at a level higher, to reflect that wizards aren't as good at that deception stuff. Meh. Another bit of niche protection is nibbled at, but since illusionists are being merged, it doesn't matter any longer. Accelerated metabolism lets you heal at the rate of a day's rest per turn. Awesome. Course, like haste, this plays hell with your lifespan, and you have to spend the whole time eating and sleeping to keep your body functional, so it won't be kind to your provisions either. (and lets not think about the toilet arrangements) Could probably be twisted to other inventive uses on unwilling creatures. It also has an amusingly appropriate material component. Burning the candle at both ends indeed. Vampire dagger is like vampiric touch, only it spreads it's draining over multiple hits, and lasts quite a while. This'll definitely extend your wizard's close combat time  by quite a bit. (if you can hit) If you have the stuff, (which will cost a lot) combine with Tenser's transformation for great brutality. Exchange lets you transfer HP from one character to another. This can be done unwillingly, but the amount is still fairly small, and since this is an 8th level spell with a slow casting, it's not going to be killing any equivalent level challenges or saving your friends asses mid battle. Overall, it's a fairly well balanced set. Even a wizard in their teens will be hard pressed to match a low level cleric in terms of recovery power. As it feels like the kind of research wizards would logically do in game when confronted with their limitations, and most of them are not even as good at healing as common wizard spells of the next edition, I'm inclined to be generous with this one. You can come in if you like.</blockquote>

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