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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5445541" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 220: August 1995part 5/8Arcane Lore: Another variant magic type? They are definitely experimenting more with the rules here these days, not just in the books. While not as ambitious as the Paths of Power stuff from issue 216, this is a lot easier to incorporate into a regular campaign, and less arcane in it's additional rules. Say hello to sea magic. Now, you might think that with two different types of water elementalists, this would be redundant, but as we've found over the years, you should never underestimate people's ability to think up interesting new variants. And the sea is more than just water. There's air, weather, and all the various practical bits and pieces you need to maintain a boat. Plus pirates, sea creatures, supplies, and all those things that a pure water specialist, or even an air/water hybrid wouldn't have any particular proficiency with. So these are the arcane and divine equivalents of the Mariner, exceedingly useful in an ocean environment, but with serious limitations on land. Very handy to have around as NPC's, but players should take them with caution. The DM may sink your battleship and send you to Athas. Still, even if you don't take the speciality, you can get some of the useful new spells here. There are quite a few of them for both clerics and wizards. Conjure Water Elemental is another boring symmetry filler. I find this very appropriate since we had the air one recently in issue 205. Elemental Control lets you nick someone else's summoned elemental. It's lower level than the regular spell too, so if you know you're up against a big bad who likes using stuff like this, it could strike at their weak spot and win the battle. Hold Wave is less fun than it sounds, becalming an area rather than freezing water in position. I wanted to make water sculptures. <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" />outs: Home Port lets you do the pigeon thing. It can last for months cast by a high level character, so one responsible cleric can make a huge difference to the prosperity of a port town. Shipshape and Bristol fashion. Come back with plenty of slaves, won't you. <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=":)" /> Protection from fire becomes applicable to inanimate objects. Now that's a useful bit of customisation. How often have you lost stuff to fire under the current item save rules? Sea Form lets you turn into a liquid ooze shape. This makes you hard to hurt and able to slip around, but slow, and naked when you reform. Useful for spying and escapes into the sea then, but not so much for getting into fights. Sea Mount is another basic summoning spell. It's only useful for transport, not combat though. And it may backfire if they break free. At this level, there are quicker and more reliable means of transportation. Speak with Sea Creatures demonstrates that specialising has it's downsides too. So much for being able to communicate with landdwelling animals. Oh well, more incentive to stick to what you know. Surf is a baby environmental havoc wreaker for mid-level clerics. Even mildly choppy waters can play havoc with shipping. And sometimes you've gotta use that kind of leverage if you want the community to listen. Peaceful protest works best when they know you can back your words up with actions. Swim lets people who can't swim do so. Another useful low level trick that you may find yourself memorising multiple times in your role as party utility belt. Being a cleric can be tedious sometimes. Compass is the wizardly navigational aid. Slightly less useful than the cleric one, Elemental Turning is a direct cleric spell conversion. Having a specialised niche lets you penetrate some of the normal Fireproof is pretty self explanatory. In this case Wizards have to take a different route for their magical protections. No saving yourself with this one. Ironwood is an idea we've seen before in the magazine. (Issue 142. ) It's less powerful than last time too. I know it's appropriate, but once again, I am bored. Protection from normal missiles also becomes applicable to inanimate objects. Hell, there's a lot of spells that you could profit from by applying that variant too, one  direction or the other. Maybe it should be a metamagic feat. Summon Wind will hopefully give you a trouble free journey right to your destination, controlling the weather for days or weeks. Given it's material components and other provisos, you'd better hope you get lucky on those rolls. Tsunami is another one repeated from issue 205. Course, 9th level wizard spells have a bit more leeway in their ability to devastate than 7th level cleric ones, so it's rather bigger and scarier this time. Waterspout is another devastation inflicter that won't be a huge amount of use on land. Like regular tornados, it's relatively contained, allowing you to devastate what you want and not everything around it. Wood Rot decays an enemy ship. A non sea mage could probably apply this to other structures too, but that's something they'll just have to live with. Have fun deciding if this one is worth it in your campaign or not. It's one I have no objection to incorporating, in any case.</blockquote>

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