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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6093730" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 309: July 2003part 7/9The Ecology of the Hobgoblin: Funnily enough, the timeline picks up pace at the point, taking us from 400BC to 1,200AD. It still skips centuries at a time, showing that the modern acceleration of technological advancement has yet to arrive. I wonder how far they'll take it. The ecology also takes things further than usual, with a 9 page article including plenty of elements that'll be used in other supplements this edition. They already differentiated hobgoblins from orcs not just with an extra hit point, but also a far greater degree of military organisation. Now they expand on the psychology behind that expansionist territoriality, and how it leads to them being the lynchpin of goblinoid hordes, even though bugbears and ogres are bigger and stronger. This also means that the creature combos are particularly good this instalment. If they were a little better at the social thing, and weren't forced to stay moving due to their carnivorous tastes, they could have a much better civilisation than they do. Hell, they did pull it off for a while in Eberron. Basically, they get a lot more respect in 3.5, and here's where it starts. It's good to have enemies you respect, even if I still can't really say I'm afraid of them. New martial arts styles: Our timeline reaches 1,500 before giving up, as renaissance technology moves away from what most people consider D&D. People put guns in, but it never really seems to catch on. On the other hand, martial arts stays resolutely in despite a small vocal minority trying to keep things eurocentric, and mastering them taking more effort than most prestige classes with fewer effects on your character. As with the changes to skills in 3.5, they've improved on this here, but by a pretty minuscule amount, giving the styles multiple tiers of mastery that mean you get a new benefit every 4-5 feats rather than just right at the end. So this is not only interesting as another load of new crunch, but also in their attempts to make overall design more balanced. And of course the bits where they power up the warriors are more welcome than the nerfs to spellcasters. If only they'd brought back things like gaining armies and castles as default, warriors wouldn't fall so far behind at higher level. And then this war special would feel even more … martial.</blockquote>

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