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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6033857" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 295: May 2002part 8/10Monstrous denizens of oerth: Cataboligne Demons are one of those oddities you find in a few parts of the Abyss, where for whatever reason the Tanar'ri aren't the dominant flavor of atrocity. The reason they're not more dominant isn't due to less raw power, as they're quite decent at both combat and magical trickery. But they lack the ubiquitous teleporting and telepathy that means the Tanar'ri can go anywhere and adapt to new surroundings at a whim, so they're never going to have the same kind of ubiquity. Still, they're another decent option for summoners to call up and enslave, and much less likely to bother you again once being banished. Gingwatzim are another ancient monster from a module (C4) that have been mostly forgotten since then. But if there's one thing the Greyhawk guys like doing, it's reclaiming those weird old generic setting monsters, and giving them a home on Oerth. And these have some very odd elements indeed. They're air elementals, but are actually native to the Ethereal plane. They're often summoned and bound into inanimate objects or humanoid forms, which seems a rather roundabout way of getting decent servants, to be honest. They reproduce by splitting into multiple smaller ones, except for a few which grow to huge sizes and gain extra magical powers. Even the updating can't eliminate the oddness of the little details, which I suppose is a good thing. They really ought to get a good ecology of to expand upon their lifecycle when not summoned. Campaign news: This follows on directly from the last issue, detailing encounters up to level 10 for their Origins qualifier. As each is an ECL+2 encounter, they should be challenging, but not lethal. Interestingly, each is completely different from the previous ones, rather than just being an upgraded version with similar but more powerful monsters. I guess that makes it more likely that your stories will also be quite different, thus keeping the adjudicators interested, and able to easily tell what level your group is. I guess that all makes sense from their point of view. Now all that remains is the results. Who will come out best from this? Chainmail: Magical stones that change the rules of engagement in their vicinity? Muahaha. Just when you thought you were getting the hang of all the tactical permutations, they add some new ones. Since they affect both sides equally, but don't cover the whole battlefield, making them advantageous to your side will require decent control over your movement. Use missile weapons near the Stone of Vengance, and don't let the enemy close. Hem them in near the stone of sorrow or mercy and take them down. And steer clear of the stone of hatred, because it looks like a pain in the butt to to unable to stop attacking for both sides. Once again, they're adding new game options, and not forgetting about the setting info that ties them together, or making this useful to D&D players as well as wargamers. I'm once again pretty pleased with how well they're handling this line.</blockquote>

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