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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6129201" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 317: March 2004part 6/8Silicon sorcery: This column is in self-promotional mode again, as they do an extended article for D&D Heroes, their offering on the new XBox console. The designers couldn't resist creating new spells, magic items and monsters, and now it's backconversion time. As is often the case, it's a mixed bag. The new blasty spells are higher level, same damage and smaller AoE than the standard fireball and lightning bolt, making them not particularly optimal choices. On the other hand, we get an updated version of Sticks to Snakes with better scaling, which is cool. The new magical items are more interesting, with stuff that mimics the auto resurrect and return to base trick that you see in computer games, a really neat one-shot mass heal effect, and a collect the widgets system for upgrading your key magic items that lets them scale with you through the campaign. The new monsters are fairly neat looking visually, but nothing too unusual stat-wise. An undead elven archer that peppers you with arrows, including an extra nasty vampiric arrow that lets them gain the hp you lost from an attack. A golem made of ice that can disguise itself as just a lump of ice, and shoot shards of ice at creatures too quick to engage hand to hand. And a giant spider that can emit a cloud of poison gas to weaken it's foes. Good to see they have some tactical tricks instead of just running up to you and hacking 'til they drop. This stuff all seems very usable in-game. Faiths of Faerun has a double bill of articles this month. The first is a regular prestige class - The Battleguard of Tempus. They're another full BAB, half spellcasting progression one. Ironically, they get an extra domain they won't be able to master unless they only dip into this prestige class. (and I think mass healing and teleportation are more useful to an army than the ability to analyse magical weapons and armor) It does feel very much like just another day at the office. The second one does something different. Not a prestige class, and new spells aren't the primary focus. No, this time, it's a whole new god. Evidently the Red Knight didn't get converted to the 3e books, probably due to lack of space. So this means that the column is finally doing what I hoped it would in the first place, providing a decent amount of descriptive detail along with the new crunch. Not that it's lacking in that either, with new feats being their primary area of concentration, providing benefits for not only clerics, but the fighters serving under them too. And there are two new spells that are quite interesting too, particularly Knight's Move, which is amusingly metagame in the way it allows short-range teleportation, but only to positions that an actual Knight could move on a chessboard. You'll need to think carefully to make best tactical use out of that. This is quite a likeable little article, balancing the various bits and pieces in it nicely. Overall, it feels like a complete package. I approve.</blockquote>

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