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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5847899" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 268: February 2000part 5/7Dragon's bestiary: Oooh. New PC races! Shiny! This column's never done that before. The writer asks why they don't have variants on lizard men based on various lizard species. Um, they did. Mystara, remember? Shazaks, Gurrash and cay-men? Made PCable in the princess ark series? Some people, no sense of history at all. I dunno. Oh well. These don't seem too bad, even if their ability modifiers are rather more extreme than most of the humanoids made PCable previously. They should make decent counterparts to the many cat and dog variants from issues 237 & 247. Agrutha are bigger tougher lizard men, the ogres of the reptilian world, with decidedly limited intellects and class choices. Still, they're still smart enough for basic tactics. And remember, your mobility is limited in the marsh. Their's isn't.Crcodilians, like regular lizard men, are divided into neutral grunts and highly evil boss guys. The big difference is that the boss guys are smaller than the regular ones here. They do learn spells though, which explains why the regular crocodilians don't eat them with their substantial natural weaponry. Varanids are based on Komodo Dragons. They're fast and tricksy, ascetic and amoral. You really don't want them as enemies, because a village isn't going to have much luck against them. Geckonids have pretty obvious ancestry. This makes them very good at climbing, and they can see through invisibility without even trying. They have kenderesque humorous tendencies, which is a bit worrying. Just the thing to annoy players. Iguanids are the all-rounders of the lizard people, with the widest range of classes open, skill at climbing and swimming, natural weapons and magic resistance. One would make a pretty interesting addition to an adventuring party. Looks like they're still providing useful stuff for the old edition even as the changeover draws nigh. The new adventures of Volo: A little playful legendry from Volo this month. Ancient magitech empires, being what they were, frequently looked for ways to make the effects of spells applicable to larger groups. Teleportation gates are a good example of something that has huge logistical benefits and are relatively easy to control, as long as you have sufficient guards or a magical warding system set up around them. No surprise then, that there's more than a few of these hidden in ruins, just waiting for people who know the passwords to use. Volo has figured out some of their OS, but not nearly all, and following his advice may get you in trouble. Elminster knows a little more of course, and has no hesitation in being smug about this. These can serve as both adventures in themselves, and avenues to further adventures, which means that once mostly solved, players may well visit them repeatedly. I'm going to have to give him another A grade, aren't I, because this all seems like great storybuilding material. Giants in the earth: Ed takes over this column as well. He's apparently decided to go the route of Margaret & Tracey and try writing in a new, non-gaming connected world. Although googling shows that it was pretty generic fantasy fare anyway, just not tied into the bloated continuity of the Realms, and got mixed reviews for being mostly high action fighty stuff with not much plot. So let's see what he has to offer in terms of characters. Craer Delnbone is very much the swashbuckling roguish sort, slim, good-looking, and wielding light weapons with style. Dunno why he doesn't have the actual kit, since he's more than qualified ability-wise, and they've included them in these sorts of write-ups before. Hawkril Anharu is the intentionally contrasting big stoic fighty guy, heavily armed and armored. Isn't that one of the most obvious pairings in tropesville? I hope they have a bit of nuance to transcend the cliches in the actual books. Lady Embra Silvertree continues Ed's habit of making the wizards way more powerful than anyone else in the party, even beyond the imbalance AD&D rules naturally cause anyway. Come on, it's a new world, couldn't you try to play against type? I guess audience expectations remain the same. Still, she does have some interesting limitations, and plenty of cool backstory stuff to round her out.Sarasper Codelmer is the cleric, although he consciously rebels against being used as a healbot, not wanting to deplete his own lifeforce prematurely. Combined with his quirky shapeshifting, and he's easily the least stereotypical of the characters here. Still, I don't think it's going to be enough to stop people from thinking of the Realms instantly when they think of Ed, just as people don't think of Mythus or Cyborg Commando when they think of Gary.</blockquote>

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