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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5641904" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 242: December 1997part 4/8Mage Construction: And if a couple of articles ago we had one inspired by the letters page, here's one born from forum debates. Using magic in the process of building. Which is closely related, but not identical to the one on magical fortifications in issue 224. In both cases, there's a whole lot of ways that magic would logically change things, but in most fantasy worlds doesn't. As this is focussed on the business applications rather than the military ones, it's not quite as interesting or instantly applicable to people's campaigns. Really, it seems intended to sit in the background and lampshade the weird stuff that would turn up anyway. And I guess so when the players want to make their own dungeons, you have an excuse to bleed away their money through hired help when they can't do it themselves. As it's also shorter, yeah, I don't think this one is terrible, but it doesn't quite manage to justify itself. Another example of how they've become more comfortable with frequent rehash these days. Learn more about magic: Oh dear. time for another article that splits an existing skill into a whole bunch of more focussed ones, thus making it a hell of a lot harder to actually be a well rounded character. We don't have enough of them. <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" /> It does have to be said that's one benefit of the Skills & Powers system. It's already more skill friendly than the standard nonweapon proficiency system. And specialising in the theory of a particular school of magic does offer some distinctive benefits that are useful in general play. In the end, this is another of those articles that makes me long for the imminent arrival of 3rd edition, with skills and feats separated out and skill bloat kept mostly under control. Let's keep on moving, trying to keep a groove going. Jest the Wizards Three: A second instalment in relatively quick succession this year, it seems. Well, the last one was probably one of the many things delayed by the changeover. Still, it doesn't look like they're feeling the trauma. If anything, Dalamar's replacement has moved things even further towards light and fluffy territory. It's all childish hijinks mixed with a bit of innuendo and a surprising amount of food talk. It's actually rather irritating, as if he's getting less mature as the years go by. Let's hope the spells will make up for this drop in the fiction quality. Coinsharp lets you turn money into daggers and vice versa, and then drop the change at a moment of your choice. A perfect one for con men, assassins, and other roguish sorts. False Ioun Stone is pretty self explanatory. Just the thing to let a low level illusionist seem to be a lot more powerful than they are. Another quirky little flavour spell from the master of them. Hither lets you have an item leap into your hands with only a brief verbal component. Another one that sounds pretty useful and multipurpose, applicable whenever you're in a pinch.  Wizard gong is a cheeky variant on Alarm, with the extra benefit of being immune to standard detection. It does cost 1,000gp per use though, so it's not for everyday use. Echo lets you record and play back sounds. Amazingly, the recording can be done retroactively, which many musicians would kill for the capacity to imitate. Want. Fingerblade is yet another method of surreptitiously creating a decent weapon for your wizard. And seriously screwing over low level fighters. Muahahahaha.Nextremity lets you swap your limbs around. Another low key but awesomely versatile trick in an instalment full of them. Sortil's Aqueous Transfer lets you move liquids from one container to another with zero wastage. SPY is another little divination trick, albeit a slightly gross one. Not that great compared to Clairvoyance, really. Still, the fact that all of these are lower level spells, and most are quite useful means this is all the more usable by players. These ones won't break your game, but they will liven up your plots. I think that despite the cheese increase, this series is still proving it's worth.</blockquote>

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