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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6116689" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 314: December 2003part 4/9Guardians of the deepest seas: Unsurprisingly, the water based organisation has a pretty heavy emphasis on spellcasting in their prestige class too. Because when you have magic for letting you breathe underwater and ignore pressure differentials, who needs technological research? In this case, it's the need to buy up your Survival and Swimming skills that keeps this from being a no-brainer for a wizard or sorcerer, since it comes with full spellcasting, 3/4 BAB, and a bonus feat every 5 levels plus all the other handy underwater adaptability it adds on. But it still looks like a pretty good deal for a cleric or bard as well, (druid shapeshifting still pwns you, on the other hand) so it's worth going for even if you suspect the game might not be underwater focussed after all. Also unsurprisingly, many of the spells are updates of familiar ideas we saw in the bumper water spell lists of issues 220 + 235. From basic tricks like holding your breath for longer to 9th level spectaculars like raising sunken ships and smashing areas up with tsunamis, the utility ones are completely familiar. Slightly more surprising are the killing spells that remove the water in your body, or cause it to vibrate in cripplingly unpleasant fashion, but I suppose they have precedents in the Tome of Magic and Complete Necromancers handbook. And James Jacobs can't seem to resist slipping weird and gruesome bits into articles even when they aren't needed. I suppose tentacles keep the boredom at bay, be they suckered, barbed, or comprised of your own mutated bodily fluids. The ecology of the salamander: Fittingly for our elemental theme, we have a monster that lurks in firey places. Salamanders get a decidedly interesting ecology, with their reproductive cycle and caste distinctions being very different from humans. Being able to absorb your energy directly from the heat of fire has quite substantial benefits. Our new crunch, on the other hand is stats for their larvae, and a trio of feats that enhance their innate abilities. Of course, there's also the usual advice on fighting as them, fighting against them, and using them as PC's. So it's their usual policy of trying to please everyone. Still, a fairly decent ecology, full of usable stuff. They may not be as entertaining as they used to be, but they are more consistently useful.</blockquote>

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