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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6111503" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 313: November 2003 part 4/9Eye Wares: Now beholders aren't overexposed like all the other races being covered here. While they did get a fair amount of love in Spelljammer, that was one of the less popular settings, and even there they tended to use a lot of variants that are actually weaker than the regular eye tyrants. So an article that actually makes them even more scary is quite interesting to see. For all their powers, they do have a fair number of limitations. No hands, and any items designed for a humanoid body shape won't be much use. On the other hand (eye?) they have plenty of slots for unique eyeglasses that modify their ray abilities, and room for feats that push their limitations. And that's exactly what this provides. Boosts to their flying, feats to enhance or substitute their eye ray powers, one that lets them develop their eystalks so they can use them in a prehensile way, and a prestige class that lets them combine multiple rays into one more powerful one. If your players are high level to handle it, this'll let you challenge them in all sorts of interesting ways that'll keep them on their toes tactically. Whether they'll beat a dragon who's also using a load of the options from the magazine I'm not sure, but I suspect you can have a good deal of fun finding out. Born of death: We've already had two full articles on making undead into templates.  Now we have one on half-undead. (which are also templates) Yup, the 3e love of letting anything breed with anything else, even if it's anatomically impossible on multiple levels continues. Saying love can conquer even death isn't just a platitude in D&D land. It might still be gross and icky and give you cooties though. Really, this seems like an excuse to have some cool undead powers and a tragic backstory in a package that won't make your character unviable due to the LA adjustment. And what's so wrong about that? Fetch are the result of nocturnal visitations by a ghost, and with flight, telekinesis, and the ability to temporarily leave their body, are easily the most powerful of these. With both the con penalty and the +5 LA, they are indeed going to be pretty fragile and in need of being taken care of in combat though. Gheden are the product of melding mortal essence with zombies or skeletons. (ie, basic necrophilia if you don't want to beat around the bush. Actually, is hair going to fall off before they putrefy too much for you to …… no, that way lies madness. ) They're tough but dull-witted, and can sense mindless undead innately. If you want to raise a trusty thuggish lieutenant, this seems a marginally more reliable option than raising a half-orc. Ghuls are the offspring of pregnant women turned into ghouls. With a perpetual hunger for the flesh of sentient beings, they're going to be anti-heroes at best, or get a job as morticians. Kill them, take their stuff, and eat them. It's the most efficient way. Katane are also unable to resist their vampiric hungers for more than a few days. Since their bite does permanent con drain rather than just damage, this means they can't even feed a little, spread the love around, let people recover, and then come back again for another helping. I think that alone merits their la+4 modifier, and makes specialising in grappling and hit and run attacks a very good idea to wear out and kill otherwise unstoppable monsters. Deathtouched, like Planetouched, are the result of half-undead producing their own offspring, with a bit of death left, but diluted enough that the specific ancestry is hard to tell. Like all the other planetouched, they're LA+1, and have minor ability score bonuses, resist 5 to 2 energy types and a 1st level innate spell once per day. If you don't want to deal with mechanical hassles or unsavoury appetites, they're the way to go.</blockquote>

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