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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6177610" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 333: July 2005part 3/7Noble born: Keith Baker gives us a non-Eberron article for a change, just to prove he can. In literature, many heroes are nobility, even if they aren't aware of their lineage at the start of the story, or have lost their title, and have to fight to regain it as a large part of the plot. The main issue with this in D&D is of course balancing it with the other characters. Starting off with substantially greater wealth and social connections without any corresponding drawbacks and getting to hog the limelight plotwise is the kind of thing which may piss off other players. And taking the Aristocrat NPC class at 1st level to represent this goes a little too far the other way, leaving you slightly underpowered. Representing it by a feat instead, or using the slightly more powerful Noble class from the Dragonlance book seems to do the job. Still, the mechanical aspect of this is pretty understated compared to the discussion of plot options, so this is suitable for any system, fantastical or grounded in realism. Will your noble blood drive you to protect the land, or send you off on mad quests to change the world. Do you have older or younger siblings, and have to worry about all the inheritance backstabbing that comes with that? Do you have any cool heirlooms that you'll hopefully pass down to your own family? A pretty pertinent set of questions, and surprisingly enough, not rehashed either, which is especially odd since you'd think Birthright would go into detail about the plot hooks inherent in being of noble blood. Goes to show what they can miss out even after covering this ground a few times in the past. The relics of faerun: So here's the first new Realms article in a while. Not too surprisingly, it's a tie-in with their latest book, and uses the same system, forcing you to devote yourself to an appropriate deity and sacrifice a feat or spell slot to gain access to an item's powers. As a balancing mechanism, it can wind up making having these items irrelevant to your overall power level, which I'm rather iffy about. Let's see how imaginative these are, and if they keep up with the realms' long-standing tradition of items with quirky powers. The Rod of Clenched Fists is made by followers of Bane, and lets you control minds and drain life force. As a god of tyranny, you need to be able to keep yourself on top. Curiously, they can still make them even while he's dead. Given what an ass Cyric is, keeping a little hope that your original god will return somehow seems entirely reasonable. The Pouch of Black Essence gives Gond worshippers a steady supply of explosive material for their guns and cannons. Prosaic, but handy when you're far from home and the shops don't sell any of that unfamiliar techie stuff. Ribbons of the Twice-Martyred bring you back to life once if you die in the course of heroism. Once you've got the benefit, pass it on to someone equally deserving, and hope you have a priest to do a conventional raising next time. The Ashen Staff of Inevitability reminds people that to not worship gods in the Realms results in an afterlife of agony and boredom inside the wall of the faithless, so you'd better pick an allegiance and get praying before it's too late. Repent, Repent! Anything you do is a sin to some god! Legendmaker gains plusses that scale with the user's level, and also talks. A LOT. Well, it certainly makes sure that the deeds of it's past users are remembered, even if they eventually met untimely ends. Why shouldn't the group's exposition guy be a sentient sword? The Amulet of Perfect Night lets you create darkness, see through it, and blind people on top of that. Multilayered vision obstruction just to make absolutely certain you have the tactical advantage. Makes sense to me. Rings of Firehair give you a pretty basic charisma & reaction roll bonus. Meh. The War Widow lets you resist disease, poison and traps as long as you fight regularly, thus making it more likely your death will be in battle rather than via the messy logistical problems of war. You win worshippers by selling them on the glamorous bits of your portfolio, and playing down the day-to-day challenges that come with them. Trueword Bucklers are made from pieces of his (exceedingly tough) skin, and allow users to detect lies. Somewhat grody, but I guess god callus is less unhygienic than human callus. And I must indeed conclude that constantly having balancing costs has resulted in this collection being less inventive than Ed's old efforts.</blockquote>

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