Dragon Magazine Issue 233: September 1996


part 5/8


Bazaar of the Bizarre: More magical armour? Here we go again. I really think we need some form of more specialised categorisation here. As usual, let's hope the ideas are both cool conceptually and not mechanically broken.

Avian armor isn't that great at the actual armoring gig, and makes you look like Big Bird. But hey, shapeshifting! Actually, given that there are plenty of more powerful and less embarrassing items that let you change shape, I think I'll skip this one.

Armor of Faith only works for someone who is of a specific alignment, and who follows a specific deity. A perfect excuse to prevent you from using enemy gear, in other words. Not likely you'll get use out of this when it turns up randomly.

Armor of Grounding protects you from electrical attacks. That's it, sparky. Once again, good luck getting the right enemies.

Armor of Swimming doesn't impede you in the water at all. In fact, it lets you swim like a fish and breathe underwater. Perfect for a pirate. Watch out for the sahuguin while you're down there. They can still outswim you and pwn your ass.

Helms of Horror have evil glowing eyes and scare people you look at. You may get mistaken for an antipaladin, and killed horribly by the next bunch of adventurers if you can't walk the walk as well.

Helms of Thought Protection are another one that's very common in the literature, and I'm surprised hasn't been done before. Many are even comfortable to sleep in. It's all about the tinfoil layering, my dear.

Dweomerbane shields suck up any magic that passes by them and get ever more powerful as they do. This may not be a good thing if you have spellcasters on your own team, but will be devastating as a bad guy fighter's primary item.

Shields of Faith are another highly restricted item for the DM to annoy the players with. Really, this restriction could be plonked on any kind of magic item.

Shields of Missiles suck up magic missiles and spew them back at the enemy. Obviously not as obscene as the general dweomerbane ones, this could still be a lifesaver. And shaking wizard's faith in one of their most reliable spells doesn't hurt either.

Shields of Shattering, like swords of 9 lives draining, are incredibly brutal, but have decidedly limited lifespans. They'll break both the weapons and arms of anyone attacking you, and then break themselves when they run out of charges. Keep it for special occasions where you really don't want to play fair.


Forum is once again cut down to precisely the size they need to fit it around the adverts.

Roger Smith adds a third voice to those who want level limits and dual classing removed. There are many more silent out there that agree with them.

Steve Shawler starts his all new players off at 1st level, but makes sure they get adventures tailored to them. It seems to work.

Josh Heckman points out that demihuman level limits are a setting conceit as much as a balance one. Changing them will change how they are regarded in the campaign. Ah yes, the battle between thematicness and those desiring strict mechanical balance. One of the more interesting axes of gamer opinion, and one that's definitely swung as time went on.

Dragon Magazine Issue 233: September 1996


part 6/8


Game wizards: Skip Williams is once again promoting his big Rod of 7 Parts adventure. (and isn't that an invitation to make tons of dick jokes. Well, at least it's not an octodog) Still, this time it's stuff that definitely isn't in the book, but may well be helpful to you once you buy it. And it's more support of their official campaign worlds, albeit nowhere near all of them, as he shows you good places to put the various scenarios in the adventure. I guess Krynn has never been fond of adding random gods and artifacts, while Athas and Ravenloft are kinda closed off from the standard planar cosmology. This obviously isn't useful if you aren't interested in the first place, but it's not bad as a bit of promotion. Bonus features are always far more welcome than a straight advert.


Network News: Ahahaha! The epic editorial fail in issue 231 is corrected here, with the rest of the interview with Lou Prosperi. This is actually only half a page of writing, squeezed around an advert. Basically, it's just more reiteration of the fact that this is a hard job, but a fun one if you can get into it, and you have to be prepared to make your own breaks. Yeah, we know that. It's only getting harder, too. Still, if you don't play the game you've got no chance of winning. We can't give up hope, even if we make mistakes like this. Just try not to do it again.


Sage advice: Can an invoker really have 8 1st level spels under the new rules. (no. We did mess up. Skip gotta clean up agaiun.)

table 30 page 95 0,1 2 points table 30 up to 29 points infinal round against initiative huh? ( Youy forget modifiers. Many more points can be accumulated if you apply them, see. Pkus give more monety please. Skip, er deity like that.)

 Arrow of done duration special how long special? ( 1 day until fired, prepare in advance)

Can you stack heart of stone and trollish regheneration (no.)

How do mind fayers work in campaigns without psionics (juuuust dfine. Skips mind wor just fine. Magic if not psiobnics.)

How do you convert psionic powers to skills& owers (11-power score = MAC. Ok)

Can humaniods ability adjustments exceed ability score maxumums (no. Rules all backwards. Not like PHB. Skip Caaap mooooofooooo)

Can you stack MA specialization with Complete book of humanoids fighting styles. (:sips coffee: only close quarter fighting. Savage and finesse fighting styles do not mix well.)


KotDT tries to break it's players of the kill them and take their stuff habit, to no avail. Dragonmirth reminds us that to get to the top, you've got to be ready to cheat. Swordplay are not acknowledging encumbrance. Floyd continues to treat serious matters in a rather goofy fashion.

Dragon Magazine Issue 233: September 1996


part 7/8


Role-playing reviews: Immortal: the invisible war is pretty much the zenith of 90's storygaming pretentiousness, and all the more entertaining for it. Like Nephilim, you play a self-actualised spirit being, moving through multiple incarnations over centuries of existence. The specifics, particularly the mechanics, are quite different though. Colour based powers, reassignable attribute pools, and vast quantities of jargon. The system is simpler than it looks, but you'd better get used to decoding long words for ordinary ideas. And you'd better get used to some counterintuitive powers as well. Still, if you're in the right frame of mind, those'll just add to the fun.

The Pilot pack is one of those bundles of bits and pieces that seem to come out immediately after the corebook, now that they can't cram them in the boxed set. GM screen, character sheets and a short adventure. It's a pretty decent example of the form.

Lost trinity is a trio of rather good interlinked adventures that gets 6 pips. It has a CD as well, but don't let that put you off, the Characters are fun and it manages to avoid degenerating into a reskinned dungeon crawl with it's politics and plot twists. Considering White Wolf's adventures were never much cop, I'd call that worth noting.

The shapeshifters manual is the supplement Rick finds least interesting. It's just another load of new powers. As someone who's whipped up whole books worth of those, he can smell padding a mile off, and this book has it in spades. Do you really need this? Probably not.

Warlock of the stonecrowns shifts gears rapidly, as we go into another Birthright barrage. They're releasing stuff so fast even their own reviewers are working overtime to keep up. It's also a return to fairly normal dungeon-crawling adventures, aimed at novices. Why make it Birthright specific then?

Sword & Crown also adheres to the standard TSR model, although it's a little darker and more challenging. Looks like they're once again being left behind by other companies who walk the walk about making their settings and adventures different and distinct better. Perhaps using a few more freelancers instead of the same stable of writers would help a bit.

Cities of the Sun does a bit better, as TSR is concentrating on their settingbooks over their adventures these days. This is the one with all the naval combat stuff that they've also been promoting in the magazine. It gets a very short review though, not  giving me much to comment upon.

The Rjurik Highlands is also passed over with a fairly positive comment. Gimme something I can make a joke about. Please? Bah, If you can't be bothered to go into any detail, I can't either. You could have covered half the number of supplements in better detail if you'd wanted too. Unless this is another case of upper management leaning on people in counterproductive ways.

The book of magecraft get another 6 pip result, as Rick finds it's advice on realm magic both straightforward, fun and well tied into the setting. (unlike say, rolemaster's implementation of ley lines and tapping magical power from the land) This does genuinely push D&D's magic system in a new direction, and it's only a shame that so few wizards will get to try out effects of this magnitude. Of course, PC's should have no such restrictions, since they usually are the nobility here.

Dragon Magazine Issue 233: September 1996


part 8/8


TSR Previews: The Forgotten Realms ploughs ahead getting ever more overfilled. Volo gets in yet more trouble by publishing a guide to all things magical. Trade secrets man. Becoming a wizard is actually pretty easy in D&D, but if everyone realizes that, we're in deep shit. We'll end up like Halruaa, which is the subject of one of the novels. Murder in Halruaa by Richard S Meyers. Pretending to be a wizard? Not a good idea. Unless you're a bard, in which case you can be even better than actual wizards at being mysterious and impressive to common people. Oh well. Ed Greenwood is also busy writing his own novels. This time, he focuses on Storm Silverhand, and some of the things from her past.  

Dark sun gets into the perilous goodies business, with Psionic Artifacts of Athas. Be prepared when you handle these, because they'll touch your mind in return.

Planescape goes into more detail on the gods, in In Hallowed ground. Do you have what it takes to fight their proxies ..... or become one? Unlikely, given their current editorial policy.

Ravenloft takes the horror one step further. They've transmogrified you into a part animal in Markovia. They've utterly fucked your mind in Dominiani's asylum. Now you're transformed into an undead monstrosity, and have to try and defeat, or at least escape from Death himself. And this is one where canonically, you fail, and the land remains fucked in future supplements for years to come. Ouch. Truly metaplot taken to it's most horrifying extreme.

Dragonlance gets The Dragons by Doug Niles. New, far bigger, scarier dragons. The people of krynn can say oh shit, thankya no matter who wins their epic fight.

The generic stuff is no cakewalk either, with our second Beholder focussed module. Eye of doom reveals another plot. Well, with double charm rays, they can get control of lots of things should they be so inclined. Not all of them want to destroy everything.

And Spellfire gets another booster pack, focussed on things that lurk in the night. Well, it is october.


The current Clack: Allen has obviously been to Origins last month, because more than half this article is devoted to it. The history of the convention is first, including it's rocky recent past, and then he goes into the winners of this years Origins awards. TSR isn't doing too badly in the nominations, but White Wolf and WotC really stand out more. And Shadis takes best roleplaying magazine. Given that Dragon & Dungeon normally have a lockdown on that, that's particularly worrying for them.

Also interesting is some substantial Palladium drama. C J Carella has now struck out on his own, with Myrmidon Press. It seems like they were trying to maintain a relationship with Palladium, with talk of licensing out Rifts Manhunter, but that's gone south, and been cancelled. What happened this time? Has Kevin been making enemies and alienating people again. Still, we got Witchcraft out of the deal, so I'm certainly not complaining. The gaming world would be a duller place without them.


The articles are well above average quality this month, but the reviews are horrid, and the promotional ones are as annoying as ever. After having dropped minis and computer games last year, it now looks like the days of book and RPG reviews are numbered as well, with the size, rigor and objectivity making a real slide. So while their core competencies are better than they've been in a while, they are definitely getting more repetitive and self-centered. I suppose there are worse tradeoffs to make. But it does mean they'll run out of new things to say all the quicker if they don't revise their style regularly. So this leaves me with mixed feelings.

Dragon Magazine Issue 234: October 1996


part 1/8


124 pages. Ahh yes, welcome once again to halloween season. Which isn't obvious from the cover painting, but the various blurbs (which once again look like someone new to a computer has been set loose with a bunch of fonts and filters and then plonked stuff wherever on the cover) make this very clear. They've still got so many submissions that they could probably run multiple months of this, but instead, they'll hopefully have managed to compress the best ones into a single issue. I do generally enjoy this month more than average, let's see if that's the case this year.


In this issue:


The wyrm's turn: This month's editorial is another attempt at recapturing Roger's old magic at telling stories. And once again I am forced to say it doesn't quite work, partly due to the short wordcount, and partly due to a lack of focus, jumping from one related topic to another just as it's starting to get warmed up. Beyond the basic realities of sales at the times they were helming the magazine, it's becoming very obvious why Dave Gross isn't as well remembered as Kim or Roger. He's just not very interesting as a writer. Which is a pain, because he's not even interestingly bad enough to rant about. I'm going to have to put up with this column being boring for several years more, until someone else takes over, aren't I.


D-Mail: Some commentary on the whole alternate history thing in Harry Turtledove's books. The developments do need to produce interesting plots, otherwise you won't get a book. If that means they don't make complete sense, so be it.

A letter from someone disturbed how true KotDT is to their group. You might want to do something about that. I suppose that's why it's popular. We're certainly not all serious epic producers.

A letter from someone who wants to become a writer and is wondering what classes to take. Creative writing is better than journalism if you want to write for RPG's, even if neither are brilliantly focussed upon it. But really, the main thing you need is creativity. Everything else is just polishing.

A letter complimenting them on doing both an article on magical fortifications and battering rams. Synergy! Yes, it does make a lot of sense to cover opposing topics in adjacent issues, doesn't it.

A familiar name writes in. Joe G Kushner! I know I've seen him around quite a bit in the forums. He gives brief comments on nearly every article in issue 232. Nice to see you. How did it feel to be here?

Dragon Magazine Issue 234: October 1996


part 2/8


Nocturnal crusade: Time to start off with another batch of creepy magical items, it seems. Undead are pretty much contractually obliged to appear in every campaign world there's clerics, (yet more evidence of a godly conspiracy) so this stuff is applicable in any setting. Maybe they should make a setting without the standard monsters. Nahh. Wouldn't sell.

The Shroud of Sol's Embrace stores sunlight if left to bask in the day, so you can unleash it upon creatures of the darkness and fry their asses. It has some nice touches that make it more than just a deus ex machina, and force you to think carefully about when and where to use it. Fun.

Blood of the angered spirit detects undead and extraplanar thingies. It is rather a rigamarole to create though, and given these creatures aren't always very subtle in D&D land, it may well be more bother than it costs. Your call, I guess.

Bane of the Black Heart Javelins let you stake a vampire from a distance with ease, Buffy style. It does get consumed in the disintegration, so it's another one that'll need regular costly replacing if you're a full-time vampire hunter. Better charge the townsfolk for your heroism, so you can keep on doing it.

A Font of the Tortured Spirit (what, comic sans? ) lets you find out why a particular ghostie is hanging around being unsatisfied with the afterlife. Since people don't become ghosts if they die pleasantly, this may be a bit bad for the sanity. Another heavy price you have to pay to give the undead some peace.

Feast of Oblivion Philters lace your blood so any vampire who tries snacking off you is knocked out and at your mercy. The tables are very much turned, and you'd better have some restraints and sadistic ideas ready if you let them live.

Verses of Belneiranon cause any undead hearing them excruciating pain, but also take a toll on the user. Your standard weapons grade exorcism stuff then, as the possibility of you failing makes the fight more dramatic.

Chimes of Dark Need make vampires ravenously hungry to the point of stupidity. Unfortunately, they can also make living people exhibit cannibalistic tendencies as well. The monster hunters may become monsters themselves, which is always a nice irony. As with a regular chime of hunger, a good set of earplugs would be invaluable to a team planning on using this.

Reinhoff's Meerschaum protects you from undead as long as it's being smoked. This is awkward if you actually get into pitched combat, but should let you negotiate with a vampire without worrying about mindfucking. I'll bet Elminster has one amongst his capacious collection.

Chalk of Barriers is another fairly normal superstitious one. Draw the line, they can't cross it. Make sure you make it an all-rounder, otherwise the might be able to squeeze through, especially if they're incorporeal.

Urns of Bound Souls let you get all ghostbusters on any incorporeal creature. Unless you have something else to put it in afterwards, this is only a temporary solution, but hey, it may well last longer than a human lifespan. Not your problem when some idiot unleashes a pissed off ghost a few thousand years later, and it makes a great story.

Eyes of the Hunter's Wisdom give you cryptic clues about the enemies you're facing. Whether they're useful to you before it's too late is still up to you, but once again seems likely to make for an interesting story. They're definitely valuing drama over pure competence in this collection, which means undead hunter's lives won't go smooth.

Harbingers of Darkness enchants a group of birds to seek out undead and generally hang around being noisy. This will unsettle both people, and the more intelligent undead, so it's another damn cool idea that won't solve all your problems by itself, but certainly helps. The good in this collection well outweighs the bad, as it should for a first article.


The draconomicon: A whole article full of templates, allowing you to make draconic versions of every kind of undead? Dragon skeletons, Dragon zombies, Dragon Ghouls, Dragon Wights, Dragon Wraiths, Dragon Mummies, Dragon Spectres and Dragon Vampires. Certainly don't mind if I do. Seems like two great tastes that would taste great together, and on top of that, it's another thing that cements the place of Templates as a good idea, ready to be made commonplace in the next edition. That's something I approve of rather a lot. Of course, in some respects, these templates actually make the dragons worse, particularly in the area of breath weapons and energy draining, but since that's the thing most likely to kill a party instantly, I doubt too many people will complain about that. After all, people want to be challenged but win eventually, not be wiped out if they lose initiative on the first round, or crippled despite technically winning. So this is also another example of rules progression, showing how they're gradually becoming more lenient upon players. All in all, an exceedingly interesting article indeed.

Dragon Magazine Issue 234: October 1996


part 3/8


The book of souls: The Forgotten Realms has been detailing the spellbooks of it's wizards semi-regularly for ages, and Greyhawk has got in on the act a few times. Now it's Ravenloft's turn. Of course, this being Ravenloft, there's no free lunches. In fact, there's not even any new spells here, merely a rather extensive description of how owning this book will take you over and corrupt you, and how much of a nuisance it'll be to get rid of. You know, that's both stereotypical and not very tempting. You have to mix both good and bad aspects if you want people to not drop you first chance they get. I don't really feel this works for me. You aren't giving me a reason to care before you screw me over. So I shall shrug and ignore you. And the drama llama will have to go hungry.


Crypt rangers and defenders: A couple of undead focussed ranger kits continues the theme. Not the ones hinted at in the complete ranger's handbook though, as the writer disagrees with Rick's ideas of what rangers should be allowed to do. Interesting. Always amusing to see disagreements amongst writers for the magazine.

Crypt Rangers are one of those specialist hunter kits that get substantial concrete mechanical benefits, for no drawback other than spurious social hindrances and a woe is me, the challenges I have to face are so much harder than other adventurers sob story. Those are getting increasingly common in the magazine, and I'm really not convinced. We all have challenges, and at least you have good odds of being able to pick your fights and be well prepared against them. I'd say you're in a pretty good position really.

Crypt Defenders are rather less player-friendly, as they're one of those kits that are bound to protect a certain area, and all their benefits only apply in their home turf. They're still all mechanical benefits for purely roleplaying hinderances though, which you know I rather disapprove of. So this is a second failure of an article in quick succession.  


Undead again: Another chance for a tie-in article. Making undead playable has been proving rather profitable for White Wolf for several years now. Now TSR has finally played catch-up, albeit in a rather odd way, bundling the rules for undead PC's with some rather large and awkward metaplot events. And here's a few more undead types given PC writeups, somewhat more obscure than the ones in the main book. After all, D&D has produced a lot of weird varieties of undead over the years. Who's to say you shouldn't get to play them?

Boneless are one of the most disturbing and tragic undead types out there. It'd take a fairly open-minded person to accept that happening to your character. But hey, you get to ooze through letterboxes and grapple people like a snake. If you're going to be a monster, why not go the whole hog? And if you happen to meet your skeleton, which has also been reanimated into undead, you have the perfect setup for a really weird buddy/evil twin scenario. So many ways that could play out, many awkward or comical.

Crawling Claws as PC's? You can finally play Thing?! AWESOME!!!! Obviously they have pretty substantial limitations in what they can do, but still, this is definitely a squee moment for me, and quite possibly Ed Greenwood as well. Since they can climb well, move fast and fit in all sorts of places a normal character can't, they can definitely make a valuable and unique addition to a team. And when they can't, just pop them in your pocket, and they'll be no encumbrance at all.

Penanggalan got a whole article to themselves last year, so I'm not too surprised to see them turning up here. They're in a rather odd position, as they're basically normal during the day, and then off trying to satisfy their hungers in the nighttime. It's actually a pretty awkward lifestyle, and you really have to work to keep your problems a secret. Still, at least you have that option, unlike the other ones detailed here. All in all, this seems pretty damn cool. I definitely like this article, even if I'm not fond of the hassle it took to get here.

Dragon Magazine Issue 234: October 1996


part 4/8


Wyrms of the north: Ahh yes, a dracolich for halloween. How very appropriate of Ed. An exceedingly scary one that's modified itself further, so it has half a dozen breath weapons, magical abilities that match up to a decent archmage, and the usual array of minions and traps built up through several centuries of planning and paranoia. This really is not the kind of creature you want to mess with, for even nuke it from orbit may well miss the phylactery, and then you'll definitely be having nasty repercussions down the line. This is a particularly highly concentrated article, repurposing and modifying stuff left, right and centre, providing a decent amount of new stuff as well, and showing once again that no-one does high level challenges like Ed, particularly pre 3e where you don't have to worry about obvious EL mathematics. And the ability to melt someone's bones and turn them into a vaguely humanoid ooze is worth the price of admission alone. He's brought more than enough awesome here, including plenty of bits which could be plundered and used individually, to overcome my misgivings about the overall format of the series.


Network news: Another non-surprise, the RPGA column is devoted to what happened at Gen Con. As the busiest time of the year, that's when they really justify their existence. And good god were they busy this year. Over 900 tables over the course of the weekend, with more than 90 playing at once at the peak point?! That's pretty impressive. Once again, it seems that despite the troubles in the company as a whole, organised play is still thriving and even building new avenues for itself. And that means not only supporting the big events, but the smaller ones as well, for that's how you build up a playerbase, especially if you're doing the persistent world thing where people want to play frequently so they can competitively advance their characters. So this is another pretty positive column that may even get a few people to join in itself. That's definitely worth a page of the magazine a month to them.


Artifacts of athas: Time for another setting specific bazaar. Yet another example of how the player appetite for crunch is seemingly neverending, and they're working harder to satisfy it these days. Which given the drop in readership, may be working, but there you go. Giving people everything they want means they don't need you anymore. It's like seduction really. You always make sure you have something more to offer ...... maybe, if they're extra good; if you want them to keep coming back.

The Chatkcha of the Great One is a +5 vorpal weapon that lets you summon and command thri-kreen. Ironically, when it takes control of you, it makes you preach a message of peace and love. Well, peace needs to be enforced with a sharp blade, especially when you're proselytising to giant carnivorous insects.

The Crown of the Dwarven Kings is a second race focussed artifact, able to summon and command dwarves, but unable to harm them without being feebleminded. So you're pretty much obligated to be a decent king if you have this. Of course, you could always be political and give people you don't like the harder and more unpleasant jobs, as that's not against the rules. I mean, that's practically expected of a ruler.

The Dragonskin is an artifact that raises some very interesting questions, given how dragons are created on Athas, and how rare they are. It's not really powerful enough to justify the rigamarole of it's creation though, and leaves it's wearer completely vulnerable to psionics. On Athas, that's a pretty hefty hindrance. In fact, it's probably better for it's noncombat benefits than it's melee ones.

The Eye of Psurlon goes back to the race-focussed theme. It is pretty cool though. 80% discount on psionics and the ability to create a null magic zone a mile in diameter? That's some impressive scale discounts. You'll be able to punch well above your weight, and the curse is pretty easy to bypass. You could have a long and interesting career with this on if you don't get careless.

The Rvk'choel is a rather gross looking organic artifact from the blue age that protects you from other life-shaped stuff and gives you regeneration, but takes over your body while you're asleep. Better get into bondage then, like an infected werewolf, if you want to keep your friends alive. You know, it's hard to see a downside to that. Despite a tendency towards underpoweredness, this collection have in general been a pretty interesting read, with distinctive powers, not too onerous curses, and plenty of setting integration. You don't have to worry about ruining the whole game if you introduce one.

Dragon Magazine Issue 234: October 1996


part 5/8


Forum: Roni Saari has managed to run a magic poor AD&D game and still have fun. It was pretty dramatic actually, without magical healing, everyone was much more cautious. Guess it can work after all, even if the odds are against it.

Jochen M. Kaiser thinks that thieves shouldn't be trying to be straightforward combatants, but taking advantage of their stealth and backstabbing powers. That more than compensates for their relatively low THAC0 and armour abilities. Nice theory, anyway. You know how players hate it when one person hogs the limelight for a whole scene.

Lucas Ashlar Lee is another one of those people who supports magic being rare enough to feel magical. The Forgotten Realms just doesn't do it for him, with an archmage in every city.

Robert Armstrong gives his alternate rules for axe damage. Once again I say huh. Go go pedant lawyers. Hyper nerdy pedant lawyers.

Ian Bloomberg becomes our third Emailing contributor. Still not common, but gathering pace. He brings up the old canard about spellbooks being ridiculously thick and heavy for their page count. Yawn. Been through this before. Your topic is not keeping pace with it's delivery.

Martin Scutt agrees with a whole bunch of other forumites. He's eliminated level limits and dual-classing for some time and it hasn't caused any problems. He's also cut down on magical items quite a bit, and that has helped his campaign carry on in the long-term. Remember, you can go back without completely resetting everything.


The dragon's bestiary: We finished Tom Moldvay's examination of all the undead types last year. So it's back to upgrading basic skeletons and zombies, as he did back in 1988. Necrosurgery is a fun little business, and as any Tzimisce will tell you, the human form is a highly malleable. While your imagination might not actually be the limit, with patience and raw materials, you can do a hell of a lot. And won't your enemies be happy to know they're being killed by creatures you spent hours customising, rather than fresh from the grave mass raised zombies.

Spike skeletons are not only hedgehogised, but have two other tricks added on that'll really make you regret hitting them close up. As ever, cover and missile weapons really will help.

Acid Zombies are another one that's pretty self explanatory. Do not touch is once again the defining mantra. Still, at least you're unlikely to get diseased as well from this one.

Dust Skeletons go poof when you hit them, but this is still not a good idea, as said dust is poisonous. Get your cleric to use his sling to deal with this one.

Quick Zombies are also pretty obvious, moving at double human speed tirelessly. These should keep the enemy busy while the slower creations mentioned above have time to close. See the advantage of tactics. Several different creatures can triumph where hordes of one couldn't.

Absorbing Zombies deal with the spellcasters, absorbing their attacks and turning them back. The writer is really thinking about these guys as a team, not just as individual monsters. All I need to do is create said boss.

Defiling Skeletons are easily the scariest of these guys, with their lovely ability to rejuvenate via destruction of all the plant life around. They have a nicely flavourful weakness too. Even though it says they're dark sun only, I'd have no hesitation transplanting them elsewhere.


Tales of the fifth age: Firstborn by Dave Gross. Ah yes, this is where Dragonspawn start. As if Draconians weren't trouble enough. Now we have to deal with humans mutated into humanoid draconic hybrids as well. Which of course means the opportunity for AAAAAAAAAAAAAngst, as people become monsters, and have to deal with that fact. Not that Dragonlance has ever been short of angst. They were doing it before White Wolf was an inkdrop in the Wieck brother's pens. But this does feel like a conscious attempt to tap into the same vein of drama. An assassin gets transformed into a monster, and ironically winds up becoming a better person for it, or at least, turning his talents on those who truly deserve it instead of working for pay like before. We've seen that story before, and I don't doubt we'll see it again. And this makes them feel like they're now following trends instead of making them, as with many of the 5th age rules quirks. This certainly isn't terrible, but it doesn't stand out either. I am forced to say meh.

Dragon Magazine Issue 234: October 1996


part 6/8


The role of books is back. Or are the two different book columns competing? I guess I'll have to keep reading and see what happens. More drama, I guess. I suppose it keeps things interesting even if the individual reviews aren't.

A breach in the watershed by Douglas Niles is an attempt by our well-established TSR pulp guy to do his own world (published by another company.) This doesn't get a particularly positive review. The fantastical creatures are renamed, but not given anything to really distinguish them otherwise, and there's some awkward plot holes. I guess that's the trouble with his sources. They don't hold up to close examination, and if that's what you learn from.........

Palace by Katherine Kerr & Martin Kreighbaum removes the punk from cyber and adds a healthy dose of space opera instead. The two work together to build a complicated plot and setting that takes work to untangle, but is worth it if you do. There's always something about being able to bounce ideas off people that lets you build things up more quickly, as long as both sides are engaged and enjoying what they do.

Glenraven by Marion Zimmer Bradley & Holly Lisle is another collaboration that uses both writer's strengths to full advantage. Set in an imaginary country on the border between France and Italy, it takes it's protagonists out of the comfort zones, and in the process of dealing with supernatural stuff, they also manage to get over their romantic troubles. Who says fantasy doesn't appeal to women. No-one these days, that's for sure, with paranormal romance overtaking other fantasy no trouble.

Reign of shadows by Deborah Chester sees John primarily complaining about sequelitus in modern novel writing. They're so blatantly writing this as a doorstopper. Not that that is inherently bad, but when the book cuts of midway through the plot, without even a decent cliffhanger to get your appetite up, he gets tetchy. The way it splits up focus between the characters in different chapters also isn't great. If you'd split things apart, and given each perspective it's own book, each plot could have got farther and been resolved more satisfactorily. But no, gotta drip-feed the damn stuff until we decide it's not worth wasting our money on. Good thing he probably gets comp copies anyway.

Murder in Tarsis by John Maddox Roberts gets ripped apart for being completely inconsistent with Krynn's established setting, history and society. It's not terrible in it's own right, but it reads like the author was paying no attention to continuity, and just shoehorned in an already written story where it doesn't really fit and did a search and replace on the names. The TSR editors should never have let this one get published. Ouch and ouch again. See, this is why I prefer proper reviews, You get gems of vitriol like this to add variety to proceedings. Don't go away too soon.


Dragon Dice: After a brief break, it's time for the 5th new race to be introduced in a kicker pack. Swamp Stalkers! Combining the elements of water and death, they'll drag you to a watery grave and then mutate your body into another one of them. They're sold here as possibly the best all-round units yet, which is a bit worrying. Either they're introducing power creep, or they're lying and saying they are to get more sales. Either way, I don't particularly approve, despite the number of cool tricks they try to sell them to us with. Still, it does seem they're also paying attention to the setting behind the game. That's interesting and worthy of note. And it's not as if they're totally devoid of weak spots. Kill their leaders, they can't replace them nearly as easily as other sides. And they have to stay on the offensive, which means you may be able to bait them into a trap. Whether that balances them out though? Anyone want to share actual play experiences?

Dragon Magazine Issue 234: October 1996


part 7/8


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Horrifying magical items to fit the theme. Actually, we haven't had too many of those, as the writers generally prefer to concentrate on the monsters. And of course, since they may be icky or of dubious morality, you have another excuse to give the enemy cool stuff that the PC's can't profit from. Poor PC's just can't get a break these days.

Amulets of the undead let undead find other undead, like a necrotic dating service. This is of course useless to you, unless you become a lich or vampire.

Blackfire wands are so-so zappy things that channel negative energy. Still, at least they don't require regular recharging. Undead always forget that kind of thing, not needing regular food and sleep and all.

Bonebriar amulets let you grow spikes from your bones. This is of course generally lethal to living things, but makes a nice grappling buff for undead. Never trust the obvious treasure in an undead dungeon.

Brooches of turning resistance are pretty self-explanatory. What use is your holy symbol now, fool?

Gauntlets of aura suppression let liches grope you without paralyzing you. Course, unless they're using other shapeshifting as well, this will still be a shudder inducing experience.

Memory globes let you store memories you no longer want. Why you would want to do such a thing is up to you. Liches tend to use it to get rid of lingering shreds of humanity, which is rather silly really. Vampires struggle so hard to hold onto it and you throw it away. No appreciation of true value.

A Nightmare harness lets you summon said demonic horse to ride. This isn't undead specific, unlike most of the items here, but nonevil characters will still have a hard time controlling the blasted thing.

Potions of yellow mold distillate are genius and gross, a truly horrible way to die that also endangers everyone around the drinker. Poison seems thoroughly mundane by comparison. Muahahaha

A Staff of the Flesh lets you steal the flesh of others and use it to temporarily rejuvenate your withered form. Another gross way to die and effect that isn't very useful to living characters. My, this is an evil bit of writing.


Sage advice: What happens if bob Holds joe and sam puts a ring of free action on his hand ( Nthing, It's too ;ate. He's already spoken for. )

Does the hat of difference let you be a class nornally forbidden to your race (yes. This may still be a problem. )

How do you tell if a material component is used up (it is unless it specifically says it isn't. In soviet TSR, guilty until proven innocent. )

Please clarify the rules for scrying cheacks (add the odds from intelligence and level tohether, then you'll have a decent chance.)

Please explain players option unarmed combat again. (yay, Skip gets to eat up page count again. Skip gets paid by the word, so that's very important when they keep cutting skip's rates. Blah blah blah, lotsa tables, blah blah blah mastery, grand mastery, extra padding.)

Can you use a wish in an antimagic shell (no. If there's no magic there, then the most powerfullest spell in the game certainly isn't going to work)

You don't do your research properly. You give answers without consulting all the books. (The books are not official. Skip is! Skip gives the answers, not the complete book of supertwinked mary sues. I'ma cap yo ass. :pfft: Crap. Skip can't even afford new bullets anymore. Uhm. Retroactive april fool. :runs: )


No SASE ogre has been replaced by a no SASE dragon. How the hell are they affording that? I am very suspicious.

KotDT parodies real game designer conflicts. Swordplay reveals how dull it is siting in a 10x10 room waiting for adventurers. That pie has to last you an eternity. Dragonmirth goes back to the classic gags. Puns and movie references. What is sweeter in life? Floyd goes from crap to exceedingly powerful. But he doesn't know it yet. That's not a good idea.

Dragon Magazine Issue 234: October 1996


part 8/8


Role-playing reviews: The Night Below is of course TSR's latest epic adventure path, designed to take you all the way from levels 1-10 (which then puts you into a perfect position to face Dragon Mountain immediately afterwards ) It's a bit more linear than the average dungeon crawl, but then, that's what's happening in adventures these days, where plot is put above exploring locations. It is good at what it does though, and has given Rick hundreds of hours of actual play fun so far. If you don't have time to make your own campaign, this will go a long way.  

Undermountain, the lost level, on the other hand, just seems like a self-consciously old skool dungeon crawl, a bunch of amusing ways to die strung together without any particular plot or climax. If you've played the tomb of horrors several times and know how to get through it without dying, this might scratch your itch for a bit, but don't expect it to change the world.

Blades is an adventure anthology for Earthdawn. This gets 6 pips, managing to combine making the adventures self-contained, yet able to combine into a bigger whole. Both the writers and editors are on the ball here, which means they can mix up settings, and work a moral message in at the end without being heavy-handed. That seems worth praising.

Super tuesday is for Shadowrun, and sets things in the shadow of the presidential elections. Dunkelzahn for president! Yeah, this has lots of potential for satirical fun, and is filled with IC commentary on the process of the election. As a framing device for multiple adventures PC's can interfere in, you could do far worse.

Classic adventures volume three is a reprint of Star Wars' old scenarios. Okay, they're only what, 6-7 years old, but that still feels like a long time to Rick, and there has been an edition change in the meantime. And they are pretty fun, taking you from Tatooine to deep space. Strap on your lightsabers, and get ready to play.

The Kathol Rift contrasts dramatically with the lighthearted old stories with it's decidedly grimdark tone. Players will face substantial environmental hazards and struggle from one gritty challenge to the next, assuming they survive. And if they do, you can bet they won't be in the right mood to appreciate the prequel movies. Poor poor EU, subject to retcons at a moment's notice.


TSR Previews: Generic stuff is very much on top this month. The world builders guidebook and Wizards spell compendium are more useful tools to help speed your game along, and keep you from flipping through dozens of books to find the crunch and advice you need. Gates of Firestorm Peak is the first adventure to use the Players Option books. Now you can face enemies as tweaked and twinked as you are. For fairly high level players, obviously.

Dragonlance continues to be temporarily invigorated. Heroes of Steel is the first sourcebook for the 5th age game. Stuff for both DM and players, they obviously want to try hard to retain people beyond the corebook. Having got rid of the gods, they bring them back again pretty quickly, in Dragons of Summer flame. Takhisis is back, and as usual, she has evil plans. And they follow up on them straight away, in The Doom Brigade. Margaret Weis leaves her long term writing partner, and teams up with actual husband Don Perrin instead. The Chaos war continues to do a number on the setting you love.

The Realms sends you back in time to Netheril again, this time in game as well as fiction. See a time before the gods put the level 40 cap on humanity in the realms, and their other attempts to emulate the changes between 1st and 2nd ed. Netheril: Empire of Magic is the sourcebook, and Dangerous Games is part two of the novel trilogy. It's like Blackmoor all over again. It'll all end in tears and you know it.  

Planescape fills in the astral plane. Another case where we say about time. When are you going to get round to the ethereal and inner planes? The really alien and hostile universes are the most fun to read about.

And our evil overmistress :Wolves howl, thunder rumbles: makes yet another attempt to fill her personal coffers at the expense of the company. Buck Rogers: A life in the future by Martin Caldin. Another book, another continuity from the last two attempts. Let this one die just like the rest.


The current Clack: Last month was filled with info from Origins. Now this one is even more jam packed with Gen Con goodies. Celebrity guests! Big new releases timed to coincide with the fair! A monty python & the holy grail TCG!!?!! Oh man, that's brilliant. I hope it's as snarkily deconstructive of it's source material as the film was. Hogshead are rereleasing Warhammer FRPG and WotC are once again making waves in terms of products and convention space, at this point actually outdoing TSR in attendance. Ok, that's the biggest pointer yet that TSR aren't the healthy market leaders they used to be, even if they try and put a joking spin on it. We really can't be far away from the buyout if that's the case. Very very interesting.


Yup, as usual for october, this is a pretty good issue overall. There's lots of good, highly usable articles, and the bad ones are mostly flawed in interesting ways, keeping me from getting bored and making me want to read onwards. It does seem like the magazine is finally getting better again overall, partly because we are getting some very specific ideas, some of which disagree with other ones. So it seems I get to move on feeling quite cheerful for a change. Calm before the storm and all that.

Dragon Magazine Issue 235: November 1996


part 1/8


124 pages. Hmm. Another cover I wasn't too keen on at first. It looks like a highly zoomed in photograph of a mini. Actually looking at the description, it turns out to be their first all CGI model. Which would also explain why the resolution looks a bit weird and grainy, but there is a genuine sense of 3D. Computers still have quite a way to go before they can produce realistic looking images, but hey, we'll get to watch Reboot and Toy Story in the meantime. There doesn't seem to be a definite theme this month, but a good 3 of the articles are sea based, so we'll go with that. You know, you've advertised themed episodes before when you only had two articles on a topic. I suppose that was a different age. :|  


In this issue:


The wyrm's turn: Another editorial charting the rise of online gaming. We're now at the point where the average person has at least heard of the internet, even if they might not have signed up yet, and it's pretty easy to find people to play a game with online. Chatrooms can connect you with people around the world instantly, and many have virtual dice rollers that allow you to roll any amount of any-sided dice you desire. (Thanks, SeaCHAT!) In fact, not seeing the faces of the people you're playing with can actually help your imagination. It certainly makes it easier to play characters of the other gender convincingly. We're most of the way along that path of history now, but it's still nice to see it mentioned, as it gives me another chance to talk about things happening outside the roleplaying sphere. Not everyone may want to play online, but it does offer some definite advantages and disadvantages, and only a fool would ignore that option completely.


D-Mail: One of those letters that comments on nearly everything, and then asks if it's worth subscribing to the magazine. Um, you're getting more than 3 times the page count of those hardcover books you could get for the same price. Economywise, I think that's a pretty decent move.

A complaint that Bookwyrms doesn't have nearly the reviewing rigour of The Role of Books. Guilty as charged. We just want to do some pimping in the hopes of getting free stuff.

A complaint they don't do enough planescape stuff. The nature of the magazine means they can never do enough stuff on any particular campaign, (apart from the Realms, which is getting pretty saturated) and even if they wanted to, people aren't sending enough in for that anyway. You'll just have to live with it, and be thankful specific settings are getting any support at all, because there's a rather vocal minority which want everything generic, all the time.


Planar heroes: Kicking things off is a 16 page extravaganza of Skills and Powers material. Blergh. That's a lot of stuff I'm never going to touch, even if it is for a setting I love. While I'm sure there are people who really want S&P racial builds for tieflings, aasimar, bariaur, gith, rogue modrons et all, I'm not one of them. Some of the abilities they can buy are pretty damn twinked as well. Regeneration, immunity to level draining, plane shifting, wings, magic resistance, all that good stuff is available if you're a member of the right race for surprisingly reasonable costs. On top of that, there's a bunch of new class abilities and restrictions, many of them not even focussed upon the planes. So I'm decidedly ambivalent about this. On one hand, I can recognise that it is a rather large, impressive bit of writing. On the other, I can see the twinking potential from even a cursory examination, and it highlights the fact that any rules revision requires a ton of revisiting existing works to make them all compatible and updated. The overall effect is to remind me how bloated 2e has become, and how much 3e will also become in time. And massive rules splorps like this are the quickest way to make that happen. Not a good way to start things.

Dragon Magazine Issue 235: November 1996


part 2/8


Mage on deck!: Oh dear. Sea mages & magic again. Considering that was given a quite solid treatment in issue 220, hardly any time ago really, my rehash alarm is being sent into high alert. The result is a bit iffy, but is aware of the previous entry and tries to take a different approach. Where that made them into a specialist wizard type, this does them as a kit, which allows them to make their benefits and penalties a little more subtle and idiosyncratic. (and also make them more fragile, because they lose their extra powers if they ever settle down and become a landlubber. ) It does raise serious questions about concept implementation and niche protection, which again shows up the problem with AD&D's current ruleset, gradually accreting extra bits and pieces ad hoc from different writers. However despite the larger editorial issues the appearance of this article indicates, taken individually, it's actually a slight improvement on the previous one, with more amusing little flavour bits, and a much larger selection of new spells. So this is one case where they manage to justify the repeated topic, but doesn't leave me totally satisfied. Now let's look at the spells, see how many of them are variants of already existing ones and how they compare mechanically.

Absolute Location is a fairly basic homing pigeon thing. Seen that before.

Cast-iron Stomach lets you consume manky rations & weird foreign stuff without fear. I suspect we'll be seeing a lot of these basic practical spells over the course of this.

Cure Lumber is also self-explanatory. It may save time, but only once your wizard has a decent few levels up. Remember, rememorisation is a bitch, especially at the 1 spell a day level.

Depthsounder means you don't have to carefully measure out rope to see how many fathoms the sea bed is. It's duration is fairly short, so it may run out before you get through big reefs. Better get sailing then.

Detect Structural Flaw is another one that lets you condense hours of careful examination into 10 minutes chanting. Now you just have to schedule regular maintenance time to actually apply that knowledge. Don't get complacent.

Desalinate is for those who don't have the levels to make water from nothing. And since a ship's crew can get through a LOT of water, this'll help you stave off pissdrinking for quite a while longer, hopefully. Then you just have to deal with weeks of getting weaker & starving.

Predict Tide is only really useful if you've been knocked out & imprisoned for ages, or live on a world with multiple moons which make the tides more complicated. Otherwise, you really ought to be able to remember this stuff yourself.

Preserve keeps yer perishables intact for a year. Make sure you write down somewhere what's expiring when. Logistics is a crucial part of long journeys.

Protection from Rust is another one that's long term, but certainly not permanent. After all, the shipmages want to stay in regular employment, not get hired once during construction then ignored. Tactics as well as logistics, y'see.

Strip continues the basic function accelerators. This is going on for ages. Just how much more can we take? I suppose you'd need a specialist to get near to having all these spells memorised.

Vermin-ward lets you keep rats off the ship. But then how will the sailors know if it's sinking?! I suppose that's another reason to keep the wizard around.

Anchor starts us off on the 2nd level spells. Not only able to do it faster than a manual drop, but also able to halt enemy ships if you can get onboard. This one seems ideal for extending the range with spectral hand.

Collision Alarm is your basic awooga. It won't spot people swimming up to the boat though. Watch out for ninja pirates pulling their appearing tricks.

Diskboat is a hybrid between a rowboat and Tenser's floating disk. Interesting. I suppose there are some definite benefits to floating just above the surface of the water. Just don't expect to avoid seasickness.

Fog Light actually works better in mist or fog than in open air. Well, magic doesn't have to be logical. And that does have a definite use, so you could see why someone'd develop it.

Eagle Vision basically does what the old magical item does. Always amusing to see that kind of retro-fitting added onto the game.

Fisheye lets you see better underwater. Also fairly obvious.

Flamedouse lets you get rid of fire more cleanly. After all, this is one thing you really want to get done in an emergency. Don't be afraid to wake your wizard in the middle of the night.

Gripdeck keeps people from slipping off in stormy weather. Also a perfect counter for Grease, which has long needed a better opposite than dispel magic.

Helmsman creates an unseen servant with specialised knowledge to pilot your ship. This seems like the kind of thing you could create a whole bunch of variants for. Selective intelligence! It's so much less likely to turn on you and try to take over the world than full sentience.

Intruder Alert is another expanded version of an existing spell, upgrading Alarm to cover an entire ship. That'll show those ninjas.

Seal says we're never gonna survive, unless we go a little crazy. And indeed, the sheer length of this article is starting to wear upon me. Too much filler!

Stormsail is another bit of basic reinforcement so when the weather gets tough, the tough keep going. Turn an obstacle into an opportunity and get there ahead of time.

Swim also adds basic skills to the unskilled. Swim swim swim like a fishie. Don't go sleepin' with the fishes though, as that's just gross.

Turn increases the maneuverability of your vessel. You'd better learn learn learn, learn to react appropriately if you don't want to overshoot.

Crew of Phantoms finally gets us to 3rd level spells, and further expands on the unseen servant idea. It's a good thing the numbers decrease as you go up in levels, or this'd take up half the issue.

Doublespace lets you fit twice as much in the hold. Make damn sure you've removed the excess before it wears off, for trying to fit a quart into a pint pot is very messy indeed.

Fast Travel Doesn't work as well as Haste does on individuals. Maybe if it were a few levels higher.

Locate Person is one I'm sure I've seen before. Well, it's such an obvious variant on an existing spell that multiple people would develop it independently, wouldn't they.

Phantom Sail is another way of keeping on going even when things are a complete mess. Mind you, it has a duration of concentration, so you'd better have that anti-slippage spell already cast if you're in the middle of a storm.

Robust Construction is another example of impermanent protections that'll last quite a while, but keep the sailors coming back for more. Fantasy economics at it's finest.

Sail in Irons lets you stall an enemy ship. This seriously pisses off anyone on the locked ship, probably more than just grappling and robbing them. Really, it's just embarrassing, like a spell to make your trousers fall down. You know, they really ought to add that in one of their april issues.

Shield Vessel is yet anther large-scale variant of a lower level spell. Oh why couldn't stuff like that be a template. Then we wouldn't have to endure endless variants like this.

Hurricane Anchor will keep you safe from all but the strongest winds. Watch out for farmhouses from kansas though. If it's strong enough to pick one of those up, you're still screwed.

Smooth Sailing is pretty similar, only it keeps you moving as though the weather was mild and balmy. A better researcher could probably have condensed these into a single spell.

Wind of the Zephyrs lets a ship move faster in a more stable fashion than the lower level spell. It's reversible too, letting you slow down enemies and maybe even capsize them. It really ought to say how far you can target them at though.

Blinkship continues the larger scale spell adaptions with a particularly impressive trick. Even blink elephants'll look awkward next to this bit of teleporting confusion.

Wild Jibe sends a blast of wind to knock over an enemy ship. They really are obsessed with wind here. I would make a fart joke, but I'm feeling pretty deflated by now.

Dimensional Fog lets a nasty wizard pull the Ravenloft trick, sending you to another world via fogbank. This works on a ship or landbound group of people, so it's not just for sea mages. And that's the end of that article.

Dragon Magazine Issue 235: November 1996


part 3/8


The dragon's bestiary:  Another helping of aquatic monsters. As ever, they're hardly rare, but certainly not in proportion to their frequency in reality. As with the underdark stuff this year, we shall have to see if they avoid rehash the hard way.

Octo-jelly may sound comical, but they can certainly eat you up. Who'd want to hybridise octopi and jellyfish? Mad wizards once again proving their insanity, I guess.

Hide do exactly that, camouflaging themselves on the ocean floor and eating anything that comes on by. Seen that plenty of times on wildlife documentaries.

Gulpers, like snakes, make a living by swallowing creatures that it would seem rather improbable for them to do so. Make sure you have a dagger ready to cut yourself out.

Angler fish are another real life creature scaled up for fantasy purposes, but otherwise largely unchanged. Since we've seen a variant on this before in here, i yawn at this.

Viperfish are also converted pretty straight from reality. If one of these gets it's teeth into you, you're going to lose a big chunk of flesh, win or lose. Man, it's hard being an adventurer underwater.

Death minnows are easily both the funniest and scariest creature in this collection, with a cartoon-esque trick that'll disconcert your players. My sadism gland is already secreting away at this. A good end to a mostly mediocre collection.


Arcane Lore: Following on from the second take on sea magic, and more aquatic monsters, we have another set of nautical spells barely a year after the last one. This is not a very thrilling prospect to me, as you might expect. Once again they drive me away by repetition and lack of imagination.

Foul Rigging tangles all the enemies ropes, slowing them down for hours. That'll win you most races if you don't get caught out there. (I hate this job so much right now)

Land Call lets you know the direction to your destination. If you got blown off course, this is very helpful as usual. Mind there's nothing in the way.

Map is one that would be rather useful on land too. (if it worked) Just enchant it and it draws your travails for the next few days, no mess no fuss.

True Compass is a pretty direct bit of recycling from issue 220. Yawn.

Eagle eyes is also one I'm pretty sure I've seen variants on before here. No dice, dude.

Fantar's Shoal, on the other hand, is a new variant. It's essentially hold person on a ship scale. Temporary grounding with invisible planes of force is another mean trick for pirates to pull.

Flame Resistance is another one that's oh so very rehashed from last time.

Leomund's many life Preservers creates buoys for the crew. How very goofy. I wonder if Len would approve or not.

Morning Glory is an equipment only large scale burning hands. Careful who you spend time with in port sailors. Running away naked is rarely a fun experience.

Plug Leak provides short term relief so long term repairs can be implemented. Roll on higher levels so you can just summon a complete ship out of nothing.

Buoyancy allows you to save your stupid party fighter who insists on wearing plate armor on board and fighting the giant sea serpent in it. Rather a relief to have really, especially as it's rather open to creative applications. Watch those poor sahuguin try and escape now.

Fantar's Reef is a more vicious version of his previous spell, not only trapping a ship, but doing serious damage to it's underside.

Leomund's Lifeboat see's our tiny hutmaker's name aliterated in vain again. Well, I suppose he is from the Lendore Isles. He's got slightly more reason to research nautical lifesaver spells than Mordenkainen. Wizards and lusty wenches first!

Mentap's Mine makes you wonder why delayed blast fireball is 7th level. If it weren't for it's highly specific need to be attached to a ship, this would be almost as useful at half the level. Hmm. This is worth considering. Legacy issues can be a right pain.

Narcomb's Battened Hatches is another quick way of making sure sudden changes in situation don't ruin your ship. It is not idiot proof, however. Make sure you don't have a foolish and superstitious crew to mess things up.

Amgig's Rowers is one of those spells that will help you replace the human element. I'd prefer the undead touch, frankly. They last longer and can be used for other jobs as well.

Call Wind is another one that appeared in issue 220 as well, only this time it's lower level and a lot more convenient. Once again this writer is being quite generous with their spell's capabilities.

Ironside is your basic durability enhancer. No extra weight, no downsides apart from the duration. And a few more levels and you'll be able to fix that part. Y'know, we ought to have a special on magical ships at some point. The princess Ark shouldn't be alone in these pages.

Otiluke's Screen is a protective device, pretty similar to his sphere only larger and mobile when centered on a ship. It probably ought to be applicable to other vehicles too. Shields up, cap'n.

Repair Breech is a basic ship healing spell. If ironside's protection isn't enough, you use this next.

Spectral Navigator is essentially a shipbound version of Find the Path. It'll get you where you want to go safely, assuming you aren't hopelessly lost.

Raise Vessel brings a sunken ship to the surface. It won't fix the structural problems though, so you'd better get busy before it's duration runs out. More amusingly, it's reversible, which is a quick and brutal way to ruin your enemies day. So there is plenty of useful stuff here, as there's more actual spells than last time, and less ruminating on specialists. The two could well be combined to good effect.