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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6228191" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 347: September 2006part 3/6Princes of elemental evil: The demonomicon has been bringing back plenty of old favourites, expanding upon them and upgrading them to fit with the new edition. Looks like they're spreading the love around a little more, with this piece on the big ugly elemental guys from the fiend folio. Let's see just how much character development they can manage to squeeze in between the big epic level statblocks this time, which is what'll keep the article useful for fans of any edition, not just 3e. Cryronax looks less yeti-like and more alien than his old illustration. He remains the odd one out among the archomentals, with the desire to upset the natural order and turn the paraplane of ice into a full one. In doing so, he meddles with forces beyond even his power level, and who knows what might happen. You may well have to be the heroes forced into an alliance with other odd monsters that foil him this time. Imix is still just a vaguely humanoid 18' tall firey pillar. He's the most impulsive of the archomentals, but he's hardly stupid, and you'll have trouble keeping up with him physically or mentally, or even surviving in his presence. He does have a fair few monsters under his command who can take the heat, including more than a few traitorous devils who find the plane of fire a good home from home. He just needs a little more organisation to pull off long-term schemes like them without getting distracted.Ogremoch has definitely had a lot more work done on him since 1e, looking almost handsome instead of just a blank-eyed blob. He's the highest CR of them, and has plenty of interesting history tied into the old Rod of 7 Parts adventure. Anyone who underestimates his intelligence or malevolence just because he sometimes moves slowly is likely to regret it. Remember he can travel through the ground, so unless you can fly, you never know if he might be spying. Olhydra is probably the closest of these to becoming an actual god, with a substantial cult of watery monsters. Unsurprisingly, this makes Imix very unhappy indeed, and they fight constantly to establish dominance. Since fire is vulnerable to water, it's obvious who would win in a direct confrontation. Which is why they put so much effort into the long-term schemes. Yan-C-Bin remains invisible to all but the strongest magics, so an illustration is kinda irrelevant. He might be flighty and have his head in the clouds (badum-tish) but he does have some degree of honour. The many flying demons that follow him won't share that of course, so don't think you can get leverage over him unless you also have power. While it does fall into elemental stereotypes quite a bit this article does serve to give these guys more personality and history, while remaining true to what we've already seen of them in other modules. Erik's encyclopedic knowledge of D&D lore continues to be put to good use in the magazine. And it also leaves stuff open for a future article. Who are the elemental princes of good, and will we get to see their stats and story? Better submit fast, and see if they can get that through before the edition change. Nodwick gets a half page strip in the middle again. This time, they try and teach him to fight. As if he wasn't doing enough of the work anyway. I think he should stick to henching. They'd probably have to up his rates if he learned how to fight.</blockquote>

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