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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5405977" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 215: March 1995part 3/8Donning a new Masque: Masque of the Red Death has proved to be one of their more popular supplements in recent months. And while it may take nearly a year to produce a follow-up book, the magazine has a rather quicker response time. So here's four more kits, all tradesman ones, to encourage you to play the mundane, well integrated into society roles a bit more. Not something that grabs me hugely at the moment, but I can certainly see it's uses. Scientists are a blatant geeky stereotype, stuck in the lab all the time. Since most PC's will be forced to do experiments on the fly in decidedly uncontrolled situations, this one seems like more of a liability than a benefit on a mechanical level. Athletes are a high strung lot, prone to niggling long-term injuries in a manner most aren't under D&D mechanics. But when they're on form, they're one of the closer things to an asskicker you're likely to encounter. Can the players swallow their pride and invite a jock onto the team? Thespians are one of those roles that seem likely to irritate other players if played badly. They're obviously good at a whole bunch of social skills, but too busy being flamboyant and telegraphed to be great in combat. Can't see them being popular with munchkins, but then the whole of Masque is pretty much powergamer repellent. Lawyers are of course pontificating twats. But at least they're trained pontificating twats, able to twist words around with great proficiency. You may not like them, but chances are they'll be able to talk you out of more problems than they'll get you into. I'm still rather dubious about whether I'd use them personally though. The deities of africa: Another bit of african priestly lore from Michael John Wybo. Issues 191 & 209 covered pretty much the same ground, but it is a big continent, so he can completely avoid repeating himself no trouble. This just means that longterm readers get the reward of lots of choices, which I approve of. Like the many prehistoric eras, I'm sure they could manage a few more of these. Ananse is a complicated god, and they choose to represent him in a benevolent light here. You're still allowed to use poison, and the alignment restrictions are light enough that you can play a trickster without too many worries. It may not please the paladins, but the rest of the party'll be happy to have a cleric like this along. Asse Ya is the goddess of the earth, in typical loving gaia fashion. This means that they get a lot in common with druids, only a wider sphere list and less powers and alignment restrictions. Nyame is the god of the sun and moon, and appears as a three faced beholder. As with most beholder variants, they're not as scary as the regular bog standard version, but don't get complacent. Since this squeezes in a new monster along with the avatar and priest stats, I quite approve. Good use of space and plot points. Cagn is an obnoxious mantis who commands insects and birds. Since part of his job is promoting plagues and insect infestations, he may technically be neutral, but he's certainly closer to evil than good. As a cleric, you'll have a lot of leeway in who you harm or save. Gauna is the lord of African vampires, who like beholders, are a little different, but still pretty scary, and capable of spawn cascading with truly alarming speed. His priests get rogue abilities and automatically become undead upon death, making them versatile and persistent as big bads. Don't be too surprised if they turn your whole village into vampires as revenge. Bumba is the god of law, the celestial order, and also the african giver of fire. This interesting portfolio combo means you're quite entitled to burn anyone who breaks the rules at the stake, and the priests can cast wizardly fire spells and ignore burning attacks themselves. One I can see myself enjoying playing. Khonvum is the great hunter, and also appears to be quite the hero when it comes to slaying tribe threatening monsters too. His clerics are very rangery, and can speak too and order animals around. Well, would you mess with the guy who's job it is to kill and eat you? So is a god of thunder and lightning, and one of those humourless vindictive sorts who give paladins a bad name. Still, if you've got undead plaguing the place, who ya gonna call? And his servants do have some quite neat quirks. Leza is the humorously deaf god of the sky, with a tendency to misinterpret prayers. This means any religious ceremonies to him are VERY LOUD! His clerics get wizard air spells, and at name level, grow wings. Whether said wings are beautiful or not is uncertain. It's just a ridiculous amount of fuel for the parodically minded DM. And indeed, this whole article shows just how little clerics have to resemble the preachy christian stereotype. They tend to be rather powerful magically, but have far more restricted armor and weapons, as has become standard for the african priest & wizard kits. Plenty of options good for both PC's and antagonists here.</blockquote>

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