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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6172837" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 331: May 2005part 4/7Bedrolls, bottles and bells: Mike Mearls gives us another reminder of basic stuff that was in nearly every adventurer's backpack back in the day, and still appears on the PHB's equipment lists. Most people will immediately figure out the utility value of food,10 foot poles and flaming oil. Things like bells, chalk, mirrors, rope, pulleys and whistles are slightly less obvious, but actually make a huge difference when dealing with environmental challenges in the dungeon or wilderness. It would be a shame to have to abandon a promising lead because you reach a cliff you can't climb or run out of light too soon. And the trick of using differently pitched whistles so everyone can keep track of each other in a fog and do coded communication while still leaving the enemy somewhat confused is genuinely cool and new to me. So this is a case where including lots of tricks means they have some overlap with previous times they tried this, but it's not complete, so each article still retains value in itself. That's acceptable to me. The plunderers handbook: We finish off the themed section with another collection of advice that is mostly familiar to me, but has a few new tricks as well. How do you get treasure out of the dungeon and make maximum profit from it? If you have unlimited time or carrying capacity, you just throw everything not nailed down in your bag of holding, including the dead bodies of your enemies, (which can be very valuable indeed, and also makes sure any survivors don't raise them) and offload it at the nearest MagicMart™ for half it's store price when you have the chance. if you're playing a grittier game, you'd better get the mules and hirelings out to strip the place and start working on your tax-avoiding tricks. Somewhere in the middle, you'll need to memorise your unseen servant and tenser's floating disc spells to lighten the load a little, and raise your fallen foes as zombies to help carry their stuff around. Basically, this is another reminder that the adventure doesn't have to end when the enemy is defeated, and the process of getting home and selling stuff can be full of interesting challenges as well. And that once you've accumulated enough stuff, you become targets for the next generation of adventurers, as you have to build castles or dungeons to hold your treasure and set up guards and traps to protect them. It's the adventurer's circle of life. Let's hope a full themed issue on name level shenanigans is in the pipeline at some point. The ecology of the greenhag: Hmm. The third recycled monster, and it's the second time someone's decided to redo a Nigel Findley one. (issue 125) He must be spinning in his grave. And while the writer tries gamely with his florid prose, he's not even slightly as successful at evoking genuine horror. Unlike the will-o-wisp one, which did at least offer a different distinctive perspective, this has no great insights or fresh spins on the creature covered. We've seen this all before in fairy tales. Hell, it doesn't even have the race spanning cross-breed cycles that interconnected the various hag sub races in the previous one. About the only thing it does better is the combat advice and the illustrations. Fail.</blockquote>

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