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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5437200" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 219: July 1995part 5/8Forum: Heather Darling brings back the sexism issue. Not only do far too many men look down on female players, when it becomes apparent they do actually know the rules and what they're doing, they get scared. They obviously can't be very secure in their abilities. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> I know groups of girls giggling does seem to set off an instinctive masculine paranoia, but that's one of those things you have to try and rise above. We are not slaves to our instincts. Denyse J. Zane is finding other women are half the problem in the battle for equality, particularly when you're trying to DM. It's the old bitch/pushover problem female bosses have to struggle with in the workplace as well. You've got to find the right combination of firm and fair, and stick to it, they'll soon get used to it. Leyshon Campbell points out just how bad for your health repeated use of Haste is. It really ought to be a bigger deal in terms of use. Plus if you're going to get into realistic logical consequences, there's all kinds of tricks you can pull. Yeah, that's a fun one. It is one of those spells that unbalances a game if not counterbalanced, like stoneskin. Daniel Arenson thinks Rangers are underpowered for their XP costs. Oh come on. Yeah, they're not as powerful as wizards at higher level, but you know what spellcasters are like. They're still miles more rounded characters than fighters. Christopher David defends cyberpunk's search and retrieve missions. It's quite different from rescuing a princess, I assure you. I guess it really depends how you play the adventures. All in the details. Greg Detwiler contributes for a second month in a row, adding a bit more to the Paths of Power system. He really seems to be quite taken with it. That's a pretty good recommendation to me, given how frequent a contributor he is in his own right. The wizards three: Elminster, Mordenkainen and Dalamar once again make the time is their busy schedules to meet up at Ed's place. In sharp contrast to the last one, where things were pretty staid, and our friendly neigbourhood archmages got down to productive horsetrading fairly quickly, this has quite dramatic fiction, and fewer spells covered. Elminster actually gets challenged, although the danger never seems that serious. We get to see a decent example of the multilayered contingencies and counterspells paranoid archmages equip themselves with. Ed is actually an active player in the narrative for a change. (and gets a rather more comfortable hiding place for a change. ) But Dalamar still winds up being the primary butt of the humour, of which there is plenty. And of course, the family friendly policy forces him to fade out on the romantic aspects of their evening. It does once again make for rather fun reading. And the fact that the new spells are shown in action rather than just talked about really does elevate their coolness and integration. The Floating Helm of Tharados is the latest in magical imprisonment technology. Arepurposed giant's helm, it's now Elminster's latest contraption for putting enemies out of action for a while without killing them. Being trapped in a 5x5x5 space for years, unable to even stretch out properly, would not be good for the health or sanity. Man, it's hard to fight evil archmages and win without making hard moral choices. Handfangs is one of those spells that's pretty self explanatory. Shake with an enemy at talks and then nuke them while they're incapacitated from the poison. Farscry is another effect actually used in the narrative. An upgraded clairvoyance and audience, it's mechanical quirks are crucial to the plot, and show Ed knows exactly what he wants to do when he puts them in. Once again, we see why wizards who get into the custom spell business will be way more effective than conservatives, even if the individual spells are weaker in some ways. Dauntra's Cloak protects you from poison. Not quite as good as clerical healing, it's still another rather useful little buff spell for the paranoid. Translocation Shift is the kind of spell most archmages would pay handsomely to acquire. Relocating incoming teleports is a crucial warding when you have extraplanar enemies who use their powers intelligently. How could you sleep without it? Temporal Freedom is another counterspell that can seem near essential once you get to the stage where 9th level spells show up routinely. Plus, easy immortality with no apparent drawbacks save regular maintenance. No wonder Elminster guards THIS one extra carefully. Brainblaze is one of those odd 9th level spells that like Tempestcone, gives you epic powers and resistances, but with substantial issues and risks. Becoming a bodiless pillar of raw energy forever has some fairly substantial problems to it. Ahh, the fun of experimental high magic. This collection definitely feels like it's come from a wide range of sources, of varying competence. And introducing some of the spells will definitely be appreciated by your players as long as they can get their hands on them. After all, applying these countering strategies will definitely increase your lifespan at high level. So it's another instalment that's both entertaining and instructive here, probably the best yet overall.</blockquote>

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