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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6128257" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 317: March 2004part 4/8Body of knowledge: When you're trying to get exotic, transformative prestige classes are an obvious path to take. Separate yourself from humanity, (or dwarfity, or whatever) and overcome your biological limitations, and then you're much freer to become deeply deeply weird. The previous articles haven't set the bar that high. Can this clear it?Osteomancers gain all sorts of gruesome tricks with their own skeletons, plus the ability to paralyze and possess others by manipulating theirs. If you're a Tzimisce fan and want to bring a bit of that to your D&D experience, this is about as close as you're gonna get. Flux Adepts are also on the gross side, gaining conscious control of their blood and glands to pull tricks like feigning death, acid blood, pheromone boosted persuasiveness and eventually full-on regeneration. They definitely feel like a good solo class, as they get stuff useful for spellcasters, fighty sorts, and social characters. The question is if they'll remain competitive in a group environment with their split focus. Cerebrex fill out the symmetry by focussing on the brain and nervous system. They get tons of skill points, which is unusual for a spellcasting class, and get tricks like perfect memory, immunity to mindreading, and Scent & Rage too, oddly enough. Once again, these fall into the category of prestige classes that look nice, but are almost definitely weaker than the 8th and 9th level spells you're missing out on by sacrificing 5 spellcaster levels. Still, at least they can't be taken away by destroying your spellbook, which is always a fear for wizards. Will you sacrifice flexibility for baked in, undisruptable power? Magic's high notes: New magical musical instruments, aimed primarily at Bards? That's definitely not an exotic idea. Course, some of the individual instruments might be, depending on how far they're roaming culturally. Any untapped ideas here then? Autonomous Harps animate and both attack and keep playing on their own,  making them essentially like an animal companion that adds an extra flanker and the aid another bonus to your perform checks simultaneously. As long as the enemies don't decide it's the main threat and smash it up it should be pretty handy in combat. Shells of Amplification are basically a modern microphone and amp all in one, although they don't have the power to project to a full stadium. Not sure how you can attach one to a stand though, so you'll have to keep hold of it and work that crowd. Drums of the march let everyone who hears it substitute the perform check for their con rolls. This ensures that the weak links don't fall behind, and should let an army go for a good few days longer than usual before they absolutely have to rest. Simple and strategically handy, this is why even fantasy armies keep marching bands around. Ventriloquists mouthpieces let you cast your voice at will, completely unimaginatively. As with the last one, it's basic function following form material. Chromatic Flutes produce lightshows to accompany your playing. If you're good, you can generate illusions with them, although the music might be a giveaway that not everything is on the level. I suppose there are quite a few items that summon monsters. They won't know it's a bluff the first time. Flutes of Shrieking force you to play discordantly until you die from exhaustion or starvation. Unlike say, a ring of weakness, if you don't have someone on hand with the power to break the curse, you'll have to get out the dungeon and move fast, as you'll get the unwelcome attention of everything along the way.  Snake Charmers are another old one that simply never got put in the new books, for whatever reason. Too many exotic monsters these days for snakes to seem scary enough to specialise in. The Horn of the Planes is one of those amusing devices that has a pretty good chance of sending you to the wrong plane if you don't do the research and play the tune just right. Good to see those haven't been chucked out with the edition changes yet. The Organ of Souls is another gothic cliche, calling to people across the miles, and slowly drawing them to the villain's lair, where their souls will be sucked out and imprisoned forever, or at least until released, maddened, to possess bodies and wreak havoc. It really could do with a bit more versatility in what you can use trapped souls for, otherwise what incentive do you have to use it, but pure cackling villainy? Definitely a whole load of wasted potential here.</blockquote>

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