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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5909414" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 277: November 2000 part 5/7Class acts: The rage mage. :giggles: Legendary. Now there's a good example of a prestige class made to make a suboptimal character build more viable. As with the undead hunter, this works best if your original class is a fighty one, particularly a barbarian, as it has it's own spell list rather than adding to your existing class. This is also a good example of how certain prestige classes can become massively more twinked when playing well selected unorthodox races, as they can bypass the usual dipping needed to meet all the criteria for the class. Also notable is that it has a skill list of 4, which can be a definite problem. I guess they don't expect a rage mage to be smart as well. Still, it's an interesting idea, and a reasonable implementation. If you're playing for flavour rather than optimisation, this could be a pretty fun one to try. Rogues Gallery is still heavily forgotten realms focussed, despite the edition change. The character illustrations go back to being in black and white, and now we have the full rules out, the statblocks are larger than in issue 273, fully detailing all their skills, feats and spells. As with last time though, they're giving lots of attention to Sembia, showing that their light touch policy with this nation is well and truly ended. So it's time for them to face world-threatening troubles and play host to heroes that foil them in the novels. Jak Fleet is a halfling rogue/cleric harper. He started off more roguish, but has gradually acquired responsibility as he levelled up. He still sometimes bucks the rules, as a charming rogue should, and gets in trouble with his superiors, but they've forgiven him so far. Very Captain Kirk, really. Drasek Riven is a hard man who's had a hard life. Born into slavery, he was left for dead, lost an eye, rescued by a slaver, and eventually found a place in the Zhentarim. He's a nasty piece of work who goes out of his way to look for a fight, and has rather a deficiency of subtlety. I can't really pity him that much, given the number of abused orphans that do grow up to be heroes. He'd probably have been just as nasty a a spoiled noble child. The Righteous Man is the lead cleric of Mask in the area. He hates the Zhentarim, and is trying to take them down, in a typical case of evil being it's own worst enemy. He's a big fan of using summoned monsters to do his bidding, and has suffered quite a bit of premature ageing as a result of this. Whether he can avoid dying and make the leap into the real big leagues of villainy will have to be seen, but I somehow doubt it.Yrsillar is a mid-upper level demon of a new race called greater dreads (they were obviously running short on imagination in the name department. ) He's perpetually hungry, eats souls, can unleash blasts of negative energy, and rules over a blasted wasteland in The Abyss. Cliche city, in other words. The only interesting touch is that if you kill him quick, all the wounds he inflicted on you heal up, which I'm sure will be a plot point in the book. Kinda the opposite of a loadbearing boss. Seems like the kind of reward you get in a video game, especially if you have yet to face the real final boss after you beat them. Nodwick goes mac. Very cool of him. Forum: Daniel Gosz reminds us that all the old books are still here, and you can still play 1e or 2e if you like. As ever, the canon police are purely a joke, and will not break down your door and confiscate your books now a new edition is out. And let's face it, it's a lot easier to convert 2e stuff to 3e, with it's greater flexibility, than the other way round. Lance R. Goetz is annoyed that PC's aren't given any advice on how to use, or not use poison. It's like they want to whitewash it out. He's also bemused that paladins are a full class, while blackguards are a prestige class. The new edition is supposed to be more consistent. What gives? Bryan Penney isn't pleased that the new clerics get such a wide range of spells, although domains are pretty cool. No pleasing some people. Nicholas Gregorio rubbishes the idea that the ancients were inherently more awesome or honourable than us. Look what we can do, and look what they did. Look at the modern treaties between governments and codes of war. (Ok, so we honour them in the breach as much as ancient knights did their codes. ) Why do people romanticise the past? Philip Mitchell prefers playing evil characters, and wants some modules catering to people who do. Sorry, we're still a family friendly company. David Jenkins tells the complainers that if they think they're so great, why aren't they working for the company? Thee could be millions of reasons for that. It does not mean they're not talented people. John Cunningham is pleased that the new edition has really brought back the sense of wonder it used to have. It's like a whole new world. How long before the shine starts wearing off though? You know people can get used to anything. Bryan Cooper praises prestige classes and their creator Monte. They look like a great way to liven up a party, especially if not everyone has one. Let the games begin!</blockquote>

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