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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5214730" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 187: November 1992part 3/6Arcane Lore: Not enough spells for elementalists? Someone hasn't got the Al Qadim stuff yet. Add that to the tome of magic and Dark Sun books and they're exceedingly well catered for. We've already fixed low level necromancers here. I think abjuration and divination are the schools that could most use a little sprucing up now. But anyway, here's a selection of new elemental spells, many of which have offensive uses. No matter what element you picked, (except heart) you're not going to suck at fighting, that's for sure.Wings doesn't quite justify being more than twice Fly's level, but gives it a shot, with an array of minor tricks based on exactly what kind of wings you pick. Still, compared to the powerful shapeshifting spells you'll get at the next few levels, it seems somewhat puny. Airball lets you unleash an outward hurricane somewhere in your vicinity, keep a load of spare air around for emergencies, or possibly set as a trap for the foolish adventurer. There's a lot you can do with compressed air. Windwar is your basic 9th level mini apocalypse, whipping everything into the air wizard of oz style and doing considerable amounts of damage to everything in miles. One that fully justifies it's high level. Stone Sleep lets you soothe golems and mud men with a tuning fork. Since they're immune to standard mind<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />ing, this is one of those boutique spells that'll come in handy occasionally, like invisibility to undead or animals. Nonelementalists probably won't bother. Stone Drill is your basic tunnelmaker. Slightly different from Dig, it's the same level, and both still have their benefits and optimal uses. Battlefield control, particularly when prepared before the battle, remains a very smart thing to do. Searing Serpent is a ranged whip attack for when fireball wouldn't be wise. It can still wind up setting your stuff alight, so mind you don't burn down the room by mistake. Flame Chase is another distinctively shaped bit of firey destruction. Slow enough to terrify rather than just bringing the pain right away, it's another one that's probably not the most optimal spell for it's level, but is good for the sadism. You don't become a fire elementalist without at least a moderate love for new forms of burning and blowing stuff up. Liquid Orb is another spell which creates raw material, which it is then up to you to apply creatively. Since it can create liquids other than water, your imagination can get quite creative. But of course, it's always good against fire things. Shark Bolt creates a whole load of mini energy sharks to nom the enemy. Now that's a nice visual. Even more nice is the fact that you can sorta parry them, Steam Blast is a new 3rd level spell that actually rivals fireball and lightning bolt. Add this one and you'll have a cone shaped AoE spell to go with your ball and line ones, and brutalise the enemy with great efficiency. I strongly approve. Deep Delve gives you a semi-permeable bathysphere so you can take the whole group miles underwater and still interact fairly freely with the locals. Pretty impressive really, and a nice one to open up new adventures. After all, there's some pretty weird <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> down there. Who knows what the Aboleths and Morkoths are cooking up. Power Word, Liquefy is a slightly weaker, but more gruesome variant on power word kill. And let's face it, it will make bringing the killed back to life a lot harder. So it's probably one you use to scare the locals rather than for fighting equals. Pretty typical of this collection, which is a fun read, but tends to err on the side of underpoweredness. Guess the game isn't going to be broken by incorporating this lot. The voyage of the princess ark: Bruce takes a break for a third time. The progress of this series really has slowed to a crawl this year. At least we're getting filler material in the form of more letters and answers, rather than nothing at all. What have people got to say for themselves this month? Where are the stats for normal demihumans. (Right there in the book. Normal demihumans are 1st level. Yes, that means every single NPC elf knows basic magic, and they're all half-decent fighters. Humans have to really work at it to surpass them. )Is the create food table wrong (yes. So much for your army logistics) What's the base damage for striking (none. When you do fistfights, you don't want to kill people)All the optional rules in the sourcebooks are making D&D too complicated (Only if you apply all of them at once. And since they're meant to apply only to their respective regions, you shouldn't be doing that.) Who are the guys on p148 of the cyclopedia (Good question) Will you do maps for the new areas covered in the ark's travels. ( I hope so. It'll be tricky to squeeze everything in though. )The amount of text in recent supplements is decreasing! Also, why are modules so much more expensive than Dragon magazine when they have way smaller page counts ( We pay freelancers by the word. So when Lorraine ( :Organ music, roll of thunder: ) said we had to cut costs, we decided to pass the shafting on to them. As for modules, it's an economy of scale thing. We have guaranteed sales and distribution for the magazine. We do not for modules. ) Where do Mystics fit in. (Like AD&D monks, not everywhere. If you really want to play them, there are enough places they could feasibly be natives of. ) Where are all the gnomes (Good question. Maybe they're all living underground right next door. ) Can Shadow elf shamen wear armor ( Maybe. As long as they also wear their robes. ) What happens if you cast continual light on a beholders eyes. (Depends which eyes. You can't cast it on all of them. ) What happens when an invisible creature eats (the food disappears. To do otherwise would be grooooss) How the hell do dominion holders stay out of debt. There's never enough money to go around. (Welcome to the wonderful world of geopolitics. You're absolutely right. You've either got to keep adventuring to get more treasure, sell some valuable resource to other countries, or make huge compromises in terms of budget allocations. If you don't, the banks will be happy to lend you money at substantial interest, making things even worse in the long run. Hey, maybe this economic system isn't so unrealistic after all. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )</blockquote>

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