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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6107229" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 312: October 2003part 5/9Faiths of Faerun returns after more than a year off, with a complete change of focus. Well, I suppose the first one never really took off in the first place. Instead, it becomes a divine focussed Arcane lore, providing a whole bunch of new spells aimed at priests of Auril, but of course adaptable to any god who's portfolio includes freezing people's nuts off. And indeed, they do make an effort to ensure it's genericness, unlike the earlier articles. Which is probably a positive step overall. We've seen more than a few complaints about overly specific stuff making large chunks of the magazine unusable in the letters pages. Auril's Flowers educates us on one of the many eskimo words for snow, with a fairly distinctive weather effect. You really don't want to be standing around when this signature move sprouts from the ground. Cold Fire makes mundane fire burn cold. Perfect for casting on your bonfire on a sweltering summer night, ironically. Remember, contrast is good. Turning things to the x-treme just becomes noise after a while. Cold Snap is a moderately nasty weather manipulation spell. It'll take a lot more practice before you can coat an entire country in eternal winter, but at least it's a start. Corona of Cold both protects you from heat attacks and hurts anyone near you. Any wizard with half a brain'll step back and attack with a different energy type. Warriors may not have that luxury. It's good to have secondary options, even if you are a specialist. Freeze combines damage and paralysis in a way that should be fairly nasty if you have buds to put them in an even more disadvantageous position once they break out. Freezing can get pretty cartoonish, but it still hurts in D&D.  Frost Breath is your basic AoE cone zappy spell. Niche protection is maintained, it isn't nearly as dangerous as similar wizard spells of the same level like fireball. Padding, really. Frostbite is your basic single person zappy spell, notable mainly because it inflicts a mixture of regular and nonlethal damage due to it's numbing effects. So as long as there's somewhere to warm up after the battle, it'll wind up less serious than it seems. Heat Leech isn't too deadly in terms of damage inflicted, but not only heals the caster, but keeps any excess as temporary hit points. Cast in the middle of your foes, this'll really turn the tide of battle in quite scary fashion. Ice Axe reminds us that clerics are no longer generally restricted to bludgeoning stuff. It's a reasonable conjured weapon, nothing special, should work well for slaughtering yugoloths though. And if you haven't got a magic weapon yet, this kind of thing in your arsenal is a lifesaver. Ice Gauntlet doesn't add too much to your damage, but should last a whole combat, even at low levels. It may result in a disadvantage if in slippery terrain and climbing, but them's the choices you make. Can't expect a 1st level spell to do everything.  Snowshoes is one of the few that actually makes things easier for players in cold climates. It even comes in a mass variant, allowing your cleric to assist their whole party like a good support character once they get a few levels under their belt. Seems a wise utility choice if you're expecting this kind of trouble.</blockquote>

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