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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6035487" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 296: June 2002part 4/10Wing, fang and spell: Course, having powered up dragon hunters, they now have to give a grab bag of stuff to Dragons to keep this little arms race even. And this article is very much a grab bag, seemingly composed of all the various little ideas knocking around the office that wouldn't make up a full article individually. First up is some clarification on Dragon senses, as it's the kind of thing Skip has obviously got repeated questions on over the years. Next, we have 3 new feats which allow them to do new things with their natural weapons, as if they didn't have enough tricks already. Then we have two sample dragons with personalities, combat tactics, and handy magical equipment detailed, so you have more examples of concrete clever tactics they might try with their arrays of abilities. And finally, we get a prestige class specifically for dragons who want to boost their natural spellcasting abilities (although it'd also be pretty decent for half-dragon PC's as well. ) So none of these really merit a full article in themselves, and the whole thing is useful, but rather scattershot. Not really sure what to make of this, as it's a bit of a throwback as articles go, not having the polish of most of their modern stuff. I wonder if any of it will go in future books, as can happen when the staff give us rough ideas to give feedback on. Worshippers of the forbidden: Oooh, transformative prestige classes. That's one thing that'll definitely become more common as the edition goes on. The first wave of them were all skillsets/specialist organisations, but the idea of your character gradually physically becoming something different and powerful was an alluring one that got plenty of traction and several full d20 books dedicated to it. One of the most obvious theme, of course is becoming more like a particular type of monster. You can get nearly as many prestige classes out of that as you have types of monster. But these are all based on the big iconic options. After all, when you're one of the first, you don't have to worry about diminishing returns yet. But you might have to worry about them being mechanically unpolished and wonky, superceded by later versions. Well, enough waffling, let's take a look. Sphere Minions are beholder fanboys. Their prestige class runs into the problem that beholders are massively powerful, with 11 attacks per round, several of them instakills, while these have to be balanced with other PC options. So they basically get 1 eye power per 2 levels usable 1/day, each with 1 use/day added to existing ones each time they gain a new one. Even so, they can get access to flesh to stone and disintegrate a level before wizards could, so they might be tempting to some twinks. Illithidkin definitely wind up being superceded by the 3.5 heritage feats and 10 level prestige class. Telepathy and minor advancement in your psionic abilities really isn't worth the hassle you'll get socially everywhere else. Very much a trap for dumb minions who'll never get respect, just the chance to be the last one eaten. Snake Servants are devoted to Medusae, not yuan-ti as I first assumed. They gain complete immunity to petrification, and minor resistance to poison, allowing them to safely serve them while not getting particularly impressive powers outside of that. Another one only really good for NPC's. Wakers of the Beast are tarrasque cultists, and actually do have some rather cool bits in their design which makes them suitable for a long-term plot. Full BAB, permanent strength boosts on top of that, and natural armor, plus a strong incentive to form substantial sized cults mean they make great villains and aren't completely out of the question as PC's. After all, you never know when waking the tarrasque might wind up being the lesser of two evils, as so many Godzilla movies have shown. So this isn't as good overall as the dragon hunter collection, and the prestige classes are a bit weak and wonky in general but isn't completely useless either. You do want adversaries to be beatable, after all.</blockquote>

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