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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6236211" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 350: December 2006part 4/6Planetouched of Faerun: Virtually everyone knows that the forgotten realms pretty much is generic D&D, and has been for most of their lives. So branding an article like this a FR one means little, it just lets them give specific examples of how these new creatures can fit into an existing setting. And since we're dealing with new Planetouched here, it's particularly easy to get them into whatever world you want, even if they're not native to it. The important question is: would you want too? Azerblood mix dwarves with azer, which is fairly obvious combination. Adding fire resistance and the ability to zap foes with heat metal let you be extra effective both in the forge and on the battlefield, making it easy for other dwarves to look up to them. I'm sure they'll have no problems getting hot in the bedroom either. Celadrin are crossbreeds of Elves and Eladrin, which is such a no-brainer combo as to be amusing, especially knowing what they'll do to eladrin in 4e. They trade wizard for bard as a favored class, and get appropriate bonusses on their social skills. If all else fails, they can burn you with their eyes once a day. Also seems fairly typical for a Planetouched's power level. D'hin are a mixture of Djinni and halflings (and god is that a terrible pun name) Their halfling skill with stealth and ranged weapons combines pretty well with the low level wind control powers from their magical side, so this makes more thematic sense than first impressions show. Shame they don't get a boost to their move speed so they can do a little better at hit and run. Worghest are what happens when Barghest breed with regular goblins during their prime material jaunts. As LA+2 natural shapeshifters, they have some quite handy tricks that make them handy for a party, from both their goblin and barghest sides. Just preventing enemies from being resurrected alone is worth the price of admission at low levels. These four can definitely have a place in my game. The ecology of the clockwork horror: You are imperfect. You will be assimilated. Well, your metal would be anyway. These are the ultimate army, who's sole purpose is killing everyone and taking their stuff to make more of them, so they can kill and take more stuff faster. Now that's automation. Guess even adventurers can lose their jobs through mass production doing them better. Can you be the John Henry who fights the tide, and proves that the personal touch is to be preferred by monsters, when it becomes time for them to lose their life and property? I think I like my version better than the one in here, which tries to play the unstoppable force trope straight, and doesn't really manage to build the needed atmospherics. It also makes the newly introduced variant integral to their society and more common than the existing types put together, which seems a bit of a bait and switch. So it's another solidly written ecology, but one that makes some stylistic choices I disapprove of. I can live with that. Savage tidings: The action moves up a notch as our heroes set sail for the isle of dread. With a name like that, you know there's going to be trouble. If you have any grounding in D&D history, you also know there's going to be some serious nostalgia triggered. Originally appearing in the expert D&D set, the isle of dread was the grain of sand that the entirety of Mystara grew up around. Somehow, it has now transplanted itself to Oerth. Well, I guess they already have Blackmoor in their common history. It's not too surprising that other bits of geography are also duplicated. This'll both grab people's attentions, and up their standards for the handling of this adventure. Once again we get a whole grab bag of stuff. Histories, advice on incorporating new characters (admittedly tricky in this section since you're mostly trapped onboard a ship. ) some sample cohorts, 4 new regional feats, a new affiliation, and a bit of errata. A bit random out of context, I can certainly see how this stuff would be useful. But now my appetite is whetted, and I really want to keep moving and see how they handle the isle of dread. In it's original form, it was one of those 32 page modules that somehow contained enough cool bits and pieces to allow for months of adventuring, with loads of choice in how you tackled it. How will that translate to the 3.5 style? Hopefully all will be revealed next month.</blockquote>

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