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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6034850" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 296: June 2002part 3/10Epic level countdown: Here we have one of the definite headaches of the epic level handbooks. Monsters that have ridiculously high stats in everything, even those that aren't related to their area of expertise. As PC's have to specialise if they want to stay CR competitive, and will generally only have one or two obscenely high stats, this results in a situation where monsters don't have any significant weaknesses to capitalise on, so the only way you can beat them is through ridiculous amounts of brute force, rather than clever tricks that make for good stories. Particularly egregious are the examples which have superhuman mental stats, but still just act as basic predators, attacking with their natural weapons with no forward planning, contingencies, tools, social manipulation, or anything else that justifies those high numbers. It really does bug me tremendously how dumb that is. The stats and the description need to sync up, and this is important both at low and high levels. Frustrating Frustrating Frustrating. :grrr: Robin's laws of good game mastering. Well, he's certainly proved himself repeatedly in the magazine. And it's certainly got plenty of good reviews. But would it exist if it weren't for the pun he could make on his own name? Dork tower does sarcasm brilliantly. Oh yeah, that's gotta bite. Quite possibly the best punchline in the entire run.Dragon hunters: Well, this isn't surprising at all. A collection of prestige classes devoted to dealing with dragons? I knew something like this'd turn up sooner or later. Let's see how it compares with it's 2e counterpart from issue 230, and if they're one-trick ponies who's powers'll be useless when facing other monster types. Dragonscribes are pretty much the same idea as the Dragon Lords from issue 230. They get bonuses at understanding, communicating, and commanding dragons, and full spell progression on top, making them pretty decent. Unfortunately, they do have one of those awkward bits where they have skill requirements and bonuses for a skill they don't actually get in class, so you won't be able to just full wizard or sorcerer your way in and get a perfect build unless you find a feat that lets you take diplomacy as a class skill regardless. Do you know which supplement to mine for that little trick? Knights of the Scale are your basic mounted frontal fighting badass, resistant to breath weapons and inflicting extra damage vs dragons. Only in a clever twist, they get the ability to summon a flying mount at higher levels so a smart dragon can't just waltz away from an encounter it doesn't feel like. Definitely a case where the 3e version plays it smarter than the 2e one. Heartseekers obviously fill exactly the same niche as the Black Arrows from the 2e Kit collection. They too get a method of dealing with flying creatures, grounding them if they hit them with their magical arrows, before finishing them off for good. Their powers are fairly dragon specific, but with decent saves and half spell progression, they'll probably be better in a general fight than arcane archers at least. Vengeance Sworn are the only one that doesn't have an obvious 2e analog to compare too. They require Rage and divine spellcasting to get into, so you'll have to multiclass barbarian and something else, probably ranger or druid so you can keep those wilderness skills maxed out. They do get minor spellcasting progression, but it won't be a big loss if you go Ranger to keep that full BAB with no dips. They get an interesting combo of offensive and resistance boosts, that once again target dragon's actual common powers and negate them. I think I can pretty firmly say that these guys have a better chance of successfully kicking dragon ass and chewing bubblegum than their 2e counterparts. It's good to have more writers with actual tactical acumen around.</blockquote>

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