Dragon Magazine Issue 255: January 1999


part 2/8


Forum: Dennis R. Rose thinks wizards are weenies. It is to laugh. Course, they'll be even less so next edition. Be careful what you wish for.

Kev Smith wants monks back as a full class. If you do them right they can be properly balanced against everyone else and quite interesting. Hmm. You'll almost get your wish. Caveat emptor and all that.

Mark Burdett carries on the weapons debate. Heavy armour requires heavy weapons, and vice versa. It only went out of fashion because weapons became too good at penetrating. We've been through this many times before.

Steve Rees likes his unorthodox PC's. If 3rd ed made it easier to play nonstandard races, he wouldn't be at all unhappy. Yay for you.

Derek Groen wants the initiative and round system changed into a time taken for each action one, a la CRPG's. (and exalted 2nd ed) I think that may be another idea that's a bit too forward thinking for the designers.


Dungeoncraft: Well, here's our first new column of the year. Ray Winninger was brought on in the dying days of the review column, where he certainly didn't slow it's demise with his heavy rehashing of products already covered by previous reviewers. And this does indeed feel like a reset, not only to 1st level, but 0th, as his advice starts off being aimed at someone who hasn't even started roleplaying yet, and is feeling daunted by the idea. Well, AD&D is particularly daunting, it has to be said, with at least three books required, and thousands now available, someone just looking at it in a store just wouldn't have a clue what to do, and if they bought a random book on impulse because they liked the cover, they might well be baffled by the contents. Not that talk on where to find players, how to set up a group, and cost analysis of getting into gaming doesn't have a use. But it's not useful to me, except perhaps as a tracker of inflation. If this column continues a while it might become so later. But first it'll have to get through stuff that I've probably seen before repeatedly.


Sage advice: If you can breath underwater, can you cast spells underwater (Only if your form is suited to it. Don't even think of taking scrolls underwater, though. That would end very poorly)

What is a ghul lord's manipulation. (a special power that requires them to spend hit points. Figure out what spell they're simulating and go from there to determine the amount. They go boom if you encounter normal spells. Remember, not all magic counts as spells. )

If you use detect magic around a ghul lord, does that automatically mean you're caught in the explosion (thankfully not)

What's the point of crown of flame when most lower planar creatures are immune to fire. (It's divine damage skinned as magical fire. Sneaky. )

How do you use a protective circle (to help you summon demons. This may not be a good idea, remember)

If you cast a spell with a long duration and move, how do you determine the area affected. ( Depends if it's cast on an area or a person. If it's a buff, it moves with you. If not, it's generally fixed.)

Do you need to spend a slot to use a rod in combat (use staff, unless another would be more logical)

Can you make more than one called shot per round if you have the attacks (yes, but the penalties stack. )

Can you stack trick shots with called shots (bloody elves. no)

Can you incapacitate an enemies arm with a called shot (Only if you're using Skills & powers. Buy it now :teeth ting: :gargling sound: :spit: )

What are the stats of an elven bow (supertwinked. Just like everything else they make)

Can you two weapon attack with missiles (no)

How do you set an ambush. (Position yourself so the enemy can't see you, then jump out or shoot stuff at them. There's no magic trick to it.

And that's it for the month. Guess skip gets to clock of early this month. Wait, what's that you say, Mr Wizard from the coast? Skip's got to do Alternity questions too?Bloody 'ell; Well, only if Skip can have them in a snazzy blue font. Ok then, now we have an ...... understanding, let's bring them in.

How many skill points do you need to get cyberware ( 10. They're generally pretty user-friendly)

What happens if your gun has more actions than you do (you can't use them all. Better get a-trainin. She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes, and you'd better be prepared to shoot, because that train's bringin' lotsa trouble to stir up your peaceful little town. )

Do mindwalkers get psionics at a discount (no. We closed that loophole before you even thought of it.)

Do Thuldans really get attributes that obscene (no. You've completely misread it.)

Does a burst let you do more damage (No, it just increases the number of things you can hit. That's what spraying does. Psssshhhhhh Psssshhhhh. That and messing up the bathroom floor.)

Dragon Magazine Issue 255: January 1999


part 3/8


The new Illithid arsenal: The magazine continues to have a ...... special relationship with the monster it spawned way back in the very first issue. And they got a whole book fairly recently (although that was incompatible in some ways with the ideas from issue 150) What's a few more items. Well, what really makes a difference is how many of them individual bad guys in your campaign have. And how many issues they cause players who get a hold of them. After all, they are pretty weird and smart creatures. They certainly ought to be able to make things a real bother for the average PC to utilise.

Void Spheres let illithids banish things back to their home plane and summon cranium rats. Since their biggest enemies are extraplanar, this allows them to shortcircuit a gith hunting party. (after all, plane shift is not the most precise spall at getting you to a place in the regular 3 dimensions. ) Sometimes, the simple tricks are the best.

Tessadyle Robes are tenticular fungal robes that respond to you psychically, giving you several useful psychometabolism powers. Of course, nonpsychics need not apply, and illithids will be pissed if they catch you wearing it, plus they look gross. The issues may outweigh the benefits.

Circlets of Venilkesk let illithids psychically detect undead and protect them from level drain. They're as scared of the dead as anyone, and this at least helps them feel a little safer in the dark.  

Tendril rings of Illsensine teleport their wearer away automatically when their HP get low. After all, a race as smart as them would come up with contingency plans like this. Which just makes them a little harder to finish off for good. Muahahaha, etc.

Gauntlets of Tyla'zhus let them shoot laser beams from their hands and cause excruciating pain. They only have three fingers though, so unless you're playing a cartoon character, you may have problems after killing their owners.

Abductors let them do an x-files riff, and cast the illithids as the aliens inside the flying saucers, whipping things up for experimentation. Really, this shows that the writer has a sense of humour along with a twisted imagination. If you want to capture one of the players and make the others panic, this will help a lot.

Kezreth are giant preserved illithid heads, used as bizarre shock troops in mass battle. You can even pilot them by going in their mouth and up to where their brain used to be. Now why can't I be a necromancer driving a giant skull vehicle? I'm sure there's something out there, especially in Exalted.

Nyraala Golems are a particularly gross form of construct. Made from underdark fungus, and able to break themselves down into a moldy carpet or form a writhing tentacular mass, they're reasonably stealthy in an underdark environment, and capable of being given fairly complex programming. As usual, the flayers have the best plans, but may not have the resources to implement them often enough to win the war.

Tzakandi Ceremorphs are the result of fusing lizard men with illithid tadpoles. Instead of tentacles around their maw, they come out of the top of their heads. While smarter than regular lizard men, they're hardly geniuses, and so get used as enforcers and attack dogs by "proper" mind flayers. They seem happy enough with their fate.

Mozgriken Ceremorphs, on the other hand, are what happens when you implant Illithid tadpoles into gnomes. A fate worse than death for both parties, as the result is runty and doomed to eternal whipping boy status amongst flayerkin. Still, they are exceptionally good at stealth, so they have a reason to be kept alive. If their master has a sense of humour they may well call them Igor. This is a pretty fun collection. Just because they're tentacled monstrosities, doesn't mean they can't have a sense of humour.

Dragon Magazine Issue 255: January 1999


part 4/8


Psi Kits: Having given our big psionic monster a load of new stuff, now it's the players turn again. Now, we already got 13 psionic kits over the course of 1993 by various writers, so there's always the risk that they'll repeat the same ideas. But if not, that'll take our total up to 23, which is quite a substantial number for players to choose from, and certainly more than can fit in a single campaign. So let's see if this particular vein of stuff is tapped out already.

Charcoal burners are a much more specific example of psionicists hiding their powers from oppression than issue 200. They obviously get a bunch of extra fire manipulating skills to back up their cover identity, but will be kicked out of the organisation if they ever show their powers. I think this is an improvement on generic mountebanks.

Gatekeepers are all about watching and guarding over stuff. They get substantial benefits to aura sight so they can pick out troublemakers before they cause trouble, but their law enforcement training means they prefer to subdue rather than kill. In a dungeoncrawling campaign, that will probably turn out to be a net negative. But they would make good NPC's.

Janissary are your basic honorbound exotic psychic warrior sorts. They get an extra specialisation, at the cost of a few PSP's and powers, and a fairly strict behavioural code. Is this a fair trade? Depends on if you're the straight-up fighting sort. A +1 to hit and +2 to damage really adds up over the course of an adventuring career.

Militant Psionicists, like the previous kit and like their wizard counterparts, get slightly better combat capabilities at the cost of their psionic powers. But at 4 levels behind, a multi-class fighter-psionicist would be strictly better, while also having room to pick another kit, so I think I can safely say this is a suboptimal choice.

Mind Mages are yet another one that pretends to be another class to avoid oppression. As long as people believe they're casting spells, they get a +2 to all their power scores, so they have a pretty strong incentive to pick their powers and trappings carefully to keep up the facade. If they can, yeah, that's a pretty powerful benefit.

Mind Monks get minor clerical powers, at the cost of having all the behavioural restrictions of following that faith, plus another 3 hours of mandatory meditation tacked on. Not really appropriate if you worship a god of sex, drugs and flaunting your bling. But since psionicists have their own alignment restrictions, they're not likely to follow someone like that.

Paranaturalists are another familiar idea, the self-trained psionicist trying to understand their powers in a magic-heavy world. However, instead of being more self-reliant, they go the x-files route, investigating the world around them to find clues as to what they are. I think they two approaches and mechanical implementations have room to co-exist.

Pioneers get to develop brand new psionic powers every few levels on top of their regular ones, but suffer a -1 to all their power scores for their constant moving on to new things, rather than sticking with one idea. Like dilettante, their bag of tricks may well save the day, but they'll have trouble keeping up with a more focussed character.

Such as these ones. Specialist Psionicists are even more restricted than specialist wizards, only getting access to a single discipline, but getting huge boosts in all their powers as they progress. As with other specialists, this is only a drawback in a small team where you don't have another complementary member of the same class to fill the other niches, or they get taken out.

Voices are psychic ambassadors, using their telepathic skills to facilitate open and honest communication between important people of different nations. They have huge benefits using Mindlink, but of course may be sent on missions by their employer that don't suit the party. Course, you could go freelance, and negate that issue anyway. So it seems that the kits here that are most powerful, are the ones that emulate wizardy ideas, while the fighty ones end up underpowered. I think that's a pretty good indictment of the overall balance issues in the system at this point. But there's more than enough new ideas to make this worthwhile is a psionics heavy game.

Dragon Magazine Issue 255: January 1999


part 5/8


The shadow way: Psionics and Ninjas. Two great tastes that go great together. After all, when you want to be stealthy to a supernatural degree, you do not want verbal, somatic and material components giving you away. This is essentially an expansion for the Complete Ninja's handbook, which already showed you how to combine ninjas with all the core classes out there. As with those, you can go for one that's primarily a psionicist, but also gains modest thiefly abilities, or one that's primarily a ninja, but also gets pretty decent psionic powers. The power is in your mind! They're at about the same power level as the other options in that book, which means they are indeed a little on the cheesy side. An all ninja campaign looks increasingly viable. (not that it didn't work right from OA, given the range of classes they could combine with there. ) On top of that, we get 7 new psionic powers which they keep as proprietary secrets, and will probably kill to protect. And since they mostly enhance their combat abilities, this is not to be taken lightly. As with the old Genin, this feels like such an obvious one they had to include it at some point, and why not now. And it's pretty fun to read as well. Let the ninja triumph in every edition!


Candlekeep: Now this is how you do a promotional article. Candlekeep is apparently going to get a substantial part in Baldur's Gate, their upcoming FR computer game. So rather than just directly pimping out the game itself, they take screenshots from it, and use them to illustrate a whole bunch of setting material and adventure hooks that can be used for your tabletop game. It certainly doesn't hurt that they look pretty, and also provide solid layouts for your characters to explore. But the pretty visuals would mean little without the setting info, and there's also a ton of this, some of it taken from previous articles in the magazine and condensed down. It makes me quite positive about the game, as it's obvious they've read the books and tried to remain faithful to established Realmslore. And as one of their new high points in overall visual presentation, this really does feel like a greatest hits of an article, looking good, presenting a high density of information, and even managing a little fiction. Despite everything that's happened in it, the Realms still isn't played out, and this once again reignites my enthusiasm for the world. As long as they have Ed and a talented team like this building upon his ideas, and the timeline keeps advancing, there'll always be something new to do there. A+


Powers of the mind: Our Marvel Super Heroes article is in on the theme as well. After all, they have plenty of psychics there, some of which are also mutants and/or secret agents. It's mainly just a list of the common powers and issues that Marvel psychics have at their disposal to make an interesting story. This means it is more than a little predictable, and plays the tropes completely straight, not really adding to them. Which in turn means this article feels like filler material, and provokes a resounding meh in me. Been there, done that, constructed the imaginary t-shirt out of psychic energy.

Dragon Magazine Issue 255: January 1999


part 6/8


Fiction: Dark legacy by Mel Odom. Another bit of Forgotten Realms fiction from an official writer here. And here we see another obscure part of the setting get filled in, as they venture underwater to the cities of the merpeople. But they have exactly the same problems in having to balance politics, religion, and culture as anyone else, compounded by the number of different races there are in the Realms. And that means macguffin hunt adventures to solve problems, beating up people to get information along the way, and then having to deal with giant monsters along the way when they fail. Really, this feels very much like an actual adventure outline, only one where the PC's fail, and have to deal with it in the next adventure. Or maybe a prologue to the actual novel. Either way, it's a lot more D&D than most of their stories, but a bit awkward as an actual story, not feeling remotely resolved at the end. Overall, like the Dragonlance ones, it didn't really satisfy me.


PC Portraits is of course in on the issue's theme. This means a mind flayer and githzerai get in on the action. On top of that, there's an unusually large amount of tattoos and forehead adornments. Despite not needing material trappings to sustain their powers, psionicists have just the same needs as everyone else to belong to a social group and mark themselves as different and special. (which of course are inherently contradictory goals when taken to the extreme ) And permanent markings that they don't have to worry about losing seem to be the appropriate means of this (at least where psionics isn't illegal or otherwise suppressed. ) Course, future generations of psionicists will make their own fashion errors (crystal fetishism? What the hell's all that about? ) But that's a story for another time.


Rogues Gallery: The Forgotten Realms continues to have a lockdown on this column, with the characters from their new nautical trilogy getting their turn in the spotlight. This also means that the sahuguin get more spotlight time, continuing on from their recent book and series of adventures. Interesting. You certainly can't call them neglected anymore.

Pacys is an old, highly experienced bard who has made more than enough friends on his travels that he always has a place to stay and someone to buy him a drink in return for his stories. And he's still fit enough that he has a few more actual adventures left in him. Maybe he'll tell the story of this adventure after it's over.

Laaqueel is a classic example of an attractive woman who thinks she's ugly, Well, by Sahuguin standards, she is. Like many Malenti, she's all the more dedicated to the cause because she knows she'll never really be trusted. It's a hard life. Don't be dumb enough to try to take her away from it via love, because those retractable claws are not to be trifled with.

Jherek Wolf's-get is another of those naive book-smart idealists that a party needs for good drama. Whether he gets the stuffing knocked out of him over the course of the book, or remains just as annoying at the end as the beginning, we shall have to see. Either way, the cliches are in full force today.

Sabyna is a feisty young shipmage who's primary love is the sea, so no man really has much of a chance compared to that. Yeah, once again, it's a trip to trope city. This doesn't make me particularly keen to pick up the related book.

Dragon Magazine Issue 255: January 1999


part 7/8


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Ah yes, Athasian Life-shaping. Introduced relatively late in the world's lifecycle, it never really got the treatment it needed to become a viable source of PC power like magic and psionics. Which is a definite shame really. Still, here's some more of the strange things formed by that kind of experimentation. You can still enjoy the labours of others, even if your ability to replicate them is pretty limited.

Repellers are another way of driving off bugs. Do they have an infestation in the TSR offices? This power seems to be showing up a lot recently. Wishful thinking, eh.

Mak-ebanrath are the lifeshape equivaient of an antibiotic, seeking out and hunting down rogue creatures at minimal damage to the host. You'd better hope they don't go rogue in turn, as that would suck.

Vitality rays analyse your chemical makeup and provide you with a tailored antitoxin that may well save your life. Or not, if dealing with type E poison, but that's the danger when you're still hurt even if you save.

Purifier Sponges filter out all the crap in any water you find, an invaluable aid in athas. After all, having it there but undrinkable is the worst kind of taunting really.

Injectors are basically organic syringes. They can stick to your arms and either deliver useful healing stuff at your time of need, or hold poison as a concealed weapon. Things like this are only limited by the number of cool chemicals you have on hand to use.

Serpent Lashes are another one that wrap themselves around you and respond to your wishes. They're a good deal more effective than normal whips.

Pur-aish's are adorable soothing lizards that boost your ability to rest and concentrate. Course, like any drug, your body adapts, and before you know it, you need the stuff just to function normally. Kicking the habit isn't easy either. This causes social problems if they're allowed to become regular pets.

Swiftsteps are nasty looking grafts that allow you to haste yourself via adrenal boosts. This can be pretty wearing, but isn't ageing like the spell. Still, prolonged combat is probably not a good idea.

Dark Mothers are a cursed variant of a standard storage device. One to use only if players are already becoming familiar with this life-shaping stuff. Why does everything have to go wrong at some point?


Wyrms of the north: A fourth Forgotten Realms article this month? And it's not even a themed issue. Athas didn't get that many articles in a single issue even when it was the cover topic. But anyway, this month's dragon seems to be a bit of a depressive, responding to most enquiries with an Eyore-like pessimism and a request to be left alone. This hides the fact that he's actually very interested in keeping abreast of current events via scrying and hunting down books, and is quite nice if you don't try to take advantage of him. He is well known enough that a group of PC's on a knowledge-seeking mission might well hear about him from tavern rumours, which gives the DM an instant easy way to work him into an adventure. Anyone trying to screw him over will have to deal with his custom spell that makes gems explode, which should prove particularly frustrating to opportunistic thieves. He seems like another well-rounded character who isn't exactly invincible, but certainly shouldn't be messed with by unprepared players, and it would be more profitable if they talked to him rather than killing him anyway. As this series reaches it's end, Ed continues to find a balance between cool and cheese that'll hopefully satisfy most readers who haven't lost interest already.

Dragon Magazine Issue 255: January 1999


part 8/8


Starship perks and flaws: So the Ares section is back, after 13 years. Interesting. Of course, they're not covering any outside systems this time round, so it's pretty much a single article devoted to Alternity. This feels like the kind of branding done primarily to defend IP that has gone unused for ages before it lapses. The article itself, on the other hand, is another rather good one, that really shows off their recent improvement in visuals. 12 pages of new stuff for starships, including three sample ones, each of which gets a full page illustration, this is a bit padded out, but has both plenty of crunch for your game, and is tremendously pretty in presentation.   It really is a testament to their recent budget increases and improved mastery of layout software. (It's also a testament to what Alternity stole from GURPS, with the spaceships using a point-buy merit/flaw system, but that's neither here nor there. ) So this was good on both a skim through, and closer reading. They are doing well for themselves this issue.


Dragonmirth gives you some bad choices. The KotDT team don't manage to get out of the tavern. Maybe if they talked to the NPC's things would go differently.


TSR Previews: Regular D&D gets a new product for the first time in quite a few years. Wrath of the minotaur. A fast-play tutorial set like the one they featured in issue 251. Just the way to lure people in, they hope.

AD&D is also trying to be friendly to new players with The Shattered Circle. Another generic adventure for low level characters. Is there room for that in your game?

The Forgotten realms has 1 old, 2 new products. The Cleric Quintet gets reprinted. Even though he might not be Drizzt, Cadderly still has fairly solid name recognition.  Meanwhile, the Demihumans of the Realms get a splatbook, full of kits, culture and other stuff that draws the buyers in. And Mel Odom releases Rising Tide, the start of a series about troubles in the sea of fallen stars. Round and round we go.

Dragonlance is also recycling stuff due to popular demand. The soulforge gets reprinted, while The Silver Stair by Jean Rabe tells us more about the discovery of the new magic in the 5th age. No-one's sure what it's limits are, so of course, they don't trust it. Quite right too.

Alternity gets Starships. You want to customise your space travel capabilities, might be a good idea to buy it. Seems like a probable solid seller.


The statement of ownership is a month late. Still, it looks like things finally bottomed out, then started going up again, with average sales of 50,795, but last month ones of 63,406. What could have brought on this recent spike? Was it you? In any case, overall readership may be going up again, but subscriptions are way down from even last year. People may be buying out of curiosity, but they certainly don't trust the new owners yet.


Profiles drops the experimental gimmick and gets back to just giving us the straight dope. Mel Odom is one of our Forgotten Realms writers, having plenty of fun both writing there, and playing in games there, with the aid of his kids, of course. Course, it helps that he can pull big metaplot events and have them apply to everyone's games. Writing, playing, researching, kids. That seems to be about it in terms of significant things in his life. One of our less interesting profiles.


Well, this issue certainly had an excellent themed section, showing once again that 2e did psionics better than 1e. Also very notable is just how much the visuals have improved lately, with quite a few of the articles being genuinely pretty in a way that also enhances their usability. The new column is a little frustrating, but may grow into something useful, and the Realms is being oversaturated more than ever, but these are manageable problems. Overall, I'm feeling pretty positive about this issue. Let's hope next issue doesn't go back into the safe and boring zone.

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 1/8


124 pages. Ooh. 2^8 issues. If we were on an 8 bit system, things would start to overflow around this point. Good thing we're well into 32 bit days by now, and computers are getting cooler all the time. The people on the cover look pretty shifty, and it seems like they were planning on having a rogue-centric issue, but couldn't quite get the number of articles up. Maybe they got stolen. Still, we have more than enough issues covering rogues already. Let's hope they're going for quality rather than quantity again.


Scan Quality: Excellent, articles indexed.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: This is taken by Larry Smith the art Director, as he celebrates his 100th issue. Wait a minute, that means his first issue was the much reviled Buck Rogers special. What a way to be thrown into the deep end. Fairly revealing is that the behind the scenes of the magazine has changed as much over the years as the actual product. People came and went, and of course their technology and financial situations fluctuated dramatically over the years. It might have had it's boring moments, but overall, it's been a pretty wild ride. He's quite justified in looking back upon it with wonder. It also means he's the most senior member of staff here, looking at the credits on the side of the page. I hope he's getting suitably compensated. So this is quite interesting reading, and a reminder that the people working here are much more emotionally invested in what they do than the average day job. It might not pay the most, but they're lucky to be able to do it. Long may they avoid burnout.


D-Mail: We start off with a letter reminding us that imagination is more important than rules. Despite the fact that the magazine is gradually moving away from that position, they still agree with it in principle.

A letter that's very much in favor of their improved new formatting, and also coverage of other game systems. They'll stick with them for at least the rest of this year then.

A letter that wants more Dragonlance and Dark sun material, and less Forgotten Realms stuff. Balance please! If only balanced coverage paid the bills. No, people want the Realms, and lots of it, and that's what they get.

Another letter of straight praise. Not much you can say to that, so they take a tangent, and remind us that even in heavily themed issues, they'll try and have a few non-theme articles to keep the issue useful to everyone.

A letter praising all the contests they've been running. It's a great way to get more people involved. Maybe they'll even get some new regular writers from it.

Another long letter with photos from someone who's got a whole games room for their minis. Oh to have that degree of disposable income and free time. Fewer and fewer people have that in the current economic climate. Cue envy.

An article praising the callback to Star Frontiers, and hoping Alternity has learned from the mistakes they made in the past. Maybe, but that won't stop them from making all new ones. It's a big world, and things have changed quite a bit since the 80's.

And finally, a letter from someone wondering where the reviews have gone. They aren't entirely clear why they dropped them, but they aren't coming back for the foreseeable future. They wouldn't have become unpopular if they hadn't sucked in the months coming up to their cancellation. The editors might be able to control what kinds of articles they run, but they can't always know how good they're going to be, or how well a change of direction will be received.


Nodwick makes sure he gets what's coming to him.

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 2/8


Forum: Jason Sivyer thinks a 3rd ed is both inevitable and desirable. It gives them the chance to clean up stuff and incorporate the best bits into the core. Mind you, he thinks 3rd ed'll be a change on the same kind of magnitude of 1-2e. But then, I'm sure most people don't suspect just how big the alterations are going to be.

Matt Hinds tries to give some encouragement to the nervous novice DM. It's one of the most rewarding things you can do once you get the hang of it, and that's not as hard as it seems. Just remember, the only real rule is the golden rule. Everything else can be changed to make things work better.

Ian Mathers suggests something vaguely approximating the way sorcerers will turn out. As one of the more interesting and less obvious changes in the edition switch, this one'll need a little more working out.

Gary Sturgess points out how easy it is to achieve the same effect with multiple schools via different methods. Her also points out that maximum ages are not remotely a balancing factor between various races in most campaigns. So level limits are actually a bit pointless, because they aren't compensating for anything concrete. Another argument for eliminating them.

Joseph A. Hoffman doesn't want to see D&D dumbed down or made to easy just because some people are scared of a little regeneration or energy draining. Let the dice fall where they may! I think the consensus will drift away from you.


Dungeoncraft: The second column of this is vastly more useful to me than the first one, because it actually has some pertinent advice. It's not obvious stuff, either. While some of the Dungeon Mastery columns give advice that if implemented, would require shittons of bookkeeping, this actively punctures that idea, instead encouraging economy of creativity, and figuring out how to best utilise the time and energy you have. Well, spending all your time creating enormous worlds with tons of houserules is fun when you have that time, but when you're older and have a job and kids eating up most of your time, you have to learn a little more efficiency. It doesn't take that much reskinning to hide the sources of your ideas, and there is a lot of material already out there to draw upon. He also starts giving us a specific example, building up a world of his own, which he intends to continue in future columns. Yay, continuity! We could definitely do with more of that at the moment. So this becomes a good deal more promising, but has yet to follow through on that. Carry on then ......

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 3/8


Sage advice: You're wrong about holy words. They are so blocked by silence spells (No, only the deafening power. Everything else works just dandy. )

Can followers advance levels (If you take them on adventures, they earn half shares. Choose your adventures wisely, for you are name level, and they are not. Replacing them is inconvenient.)

What happens if you put moonweb on a creature (Remember, it reflects attacks both ways. Pacifism's a bitch. Your best option is to walk through your enemies ranks taunting them, and hope they don't catch on. )

How often can you cast teratism ( Once per use. Stacking is as ever awkward)

Can you cast teratism II on a creature if you've already cast teratism I (not to change the same thing. Shoulda thought of that first)

What limits does teratism have (what is this, teratism day? It was a year and a half ago, what's got into you? Just read the description)

Can you cast teratism on a person polymorphed into a duck (Can you use Mind on a vampire turned into a lawnchair? )

Can teratism be dispelled (Yes, thank god. Now let us speak no more of it.)

What are the drawbacks to Wildfire? (The same as the spell imitated. You can still use it to bypass material component costs, though)

How loosely can you define animal (Does it exist in real life? Then it's an animal. No more complicated rule to it.)

What happens if you cast wall of stone in a room full of clay golems (They'll break out eventually, and they'll be pissed. You know how unstable those things are. They're more temperamental than a goat given a nosebag full of chilli peppers. Dunno why priests bother making them. )  

Do mirror images fly with their creator (yes)

Can you use phantasmal force to make the illusion you're not there. (No. You are not the zombies.)

What AC does an illusory creature have (about the same as the real thing, maybe a bit worse. )

Does an illusion keep acting once you stop concentrating (only if it's high enough level)

How does fire shield interact with fire resistance (Skip's changed Skip's mind. Skip will let heat and cold resistance negate damage from fire shields. Be grateful for Skip's benevolence. )

What does blindness, deafness and invisibility do to your combat skills (you fail at reading the book. Please try again before you pester Skip with your petty prattling)

Are elves immune to slay living because they're immune to raise dead ( Ha ha ha. That's a good one. It's a long time since Skip heard that one. Skip wasn't even Sage last time someone tried to pull that stunt. The answer is still no. Skip feels no need to gainsay Jean this time.)

Can fighters use miscellaneous magical items (yes. Why would you try and lawyer out of something so useful. )

What, does skip still have to do Alternity questions? Skip refuses, unless skip can get a nice orange box to put them in. Do you hear me, Mr Wizard from the coast? Skip doesn't need you as much as you need Skip. Skip knows how this operation works, and you don't. Skip's the private sage who puts the pages in the mages and the broomstick between the witches legs. Capiche? Eeeexxellent. Bow chikka wow chikka wow. Skip likes the new bosses a lot more than Lorraine.

How the hell do you do all the things you need to fly a ship single-handedly. (autopilots help a lot)

Can you use vehicle operation to do repairs (no)

Does system operations have any benefits over vehicle operations when flying (It can do. Specialization has it's uses. )


Rogue heroes: Another 10 pages of Skills & Powers stuff for thieves and bards to buy. Well, I suppose even more than fighters, they need that flexibility to adapt their array of tricks for the campaign. The standard 8 just don't cut it in every culture and situation. Want to be able to catch missiles in your hands, resist poison, call in favors, see in the dark, detect lies, and more? Well, those are just some of your new options. Seems fairly appropriate, and of course, the way the S&P system works means you aren't getting something for nothing. I think time and repeated exposure has worn away my irritation at the S&P material. That and the other articles lately that throw into sharp relief the flaws in 2e. At least these are trying to address the problem directly, even if they create other problems in the process. Plus the improved formats once again make reading more pleasant. Overall, I'm neutral on this one, which is an improvement by comparison.

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 4/8


Hidden Agendas: Well, this month's Greyhawk article isn't doing something the Realms has already done more and better. Instead, it's doing something Planescape and Ravenloft have already done. Secret societies with concrete mechanical benefits and penalties. They aren't restricted to a single class like most kits, and can be stacked with them, possibly providing twinky synergies. Let's see how these compare to the Factions in their coolness.

The Society of the Serpent are your basic ancient lore hunting wizards society. This means they get excellent access to research materials, but have to share any discoveries they make with the rest of the society as well. The kind of thing that shows up in nearly every setting to some degree. Meh.

The Crescent League are rather more specific. They pretended to be a simple mercenary organisation, but were actually a secret front for the Scarlet Brotherhood. They got caught, and are now rather unpopular in most places. They are exceedingly good tacticians though, and can use weapons not normally allowed to their class. They're more likely to make good villains, really.

Fratern Milblinnis are the wizard eliminating equivalent of the Athar. They do their damndest to destroy all wizards and most magical items. This is it's own drawback in the long run, beyond making them very unpopular in your average D&D society. They do get a +2 on all saves vs magic, but really, that's not going to compensate for the awesome powers they're passing up, is it?

Telless ve Turu Decada are the obvious Harper analogue of Oerth, dedicated to fighting evil wherever it may rear it's ugly head. Again, the danger inherent in this is it's own drawback, given the number of powerful evil rulers openly operating round there.

The Azure Masks are another one that's all about gathering knowledge. They go about it in rather a different way though, pretending to be just traveling performers. They get to learn some proficiencies easier, but others are harder, and they have the usual thing where if they're caught and spill, they'll probably end up dead of mysterious causes. So I really don't see any of these breaking your game, unless PC's belong to multiple ones, and their secret agendas wind up tearing the group apart. But they're not wildly imaginative either.


The lost giants of Krynn: Dual stat 5th age articles strike again! You know, didn't we have a giant themed issue a couple of months ago? Maybe this was late, but they still liked it, and used it now. It can't be because they had too many non D&D articles in that issue already. Anyway, the name is pretty self explanatory, although as usual for these kind of articles, I doubt it'll be hard to transplant to another setting, as it's not hugely specific in flavor. Still, having SAGA stats for the monsters as well is nice, and the fact that they're crammed into little statblocks means there's more room for descriptive text in the same pagecount. There are flaws to the standard MM format, and efficiency of space is one of them.

Earth Giants are essentially Terry Pratchett trolls played straight, enormous creatures that appear to be part of the landscape when inactive, and spend centuries at a time asleep. They're surprisingly aware of everything going on around though, and make excellent sources of ancient lore. If you can rouse them in a time of crisis, I'll wager they could match Ents as a tideturner.

Cave Lords are enormous bloated goblins, dwarfing even Bugbears in mass. They have a taste for cannibalism, and avoid sunlight at all costs. They may get too fat to leave their home, but within it, they're surprisingly fast and not to be trifled with. Sounds reasonably mythic to me.

Desolation Giants are humans that have been turned into massive misshapen mutants by the power of the Desolation. This has twisted their mind as well, and now they're stereotypical chaotic evil sadists who are incapable of relating to others save via violence, trickery and betrayal, even when it might be more profitable to play it straight. Gotta love Krynns cheesy 80's cartoon morals. Put them out of your misery before they add to it if at all possible, and don't hang around anywhere that might do the same to you.

Half-Giants have a slightly easier time in Krynn than they do in Athas, but still face prejudice whichever side of their heritage they spend time with. They get reasonable capabilities as PC's, but are always going to be fighty sorts. Well, breeding with hill & stone giants is just about anatomically feasible, but having sex with a Storm Giant just isn't going to be pleasurable for either party. I suppose there's always a turkey baster if you're that desperate to have kids. All of these were fairly amusing and quite easy to write about. I think they can have my approval, even if half-giants are getting rather rehashed now. They definitely ought to have a place in the generic books, given how common they are.

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 5/8


Fiction: The span by Diane Duane. Youuuuuuu. :points: Actually, no, I'm thinking of someone else, as my look back over the archive shows she's responsible for some of the better regarded Star Trek books. It's other people who were responsible for the characterisation violating, idiot ball juggling abominations we saw slated several times in the book reviews column (RIP ) Instead we have a rather interesting bit of writing full of nuanced social interaction, and magic involving sex as an integral part of the plot line, with all the complications and worries arising from that you'd imagine. In short, this is one that'd never have been published a few years ago, with the TSR code of conduct in full force. There's a little bit of cosmological detail and magic as science stuff, but it takes a back seat to the human element here. So this once again shows the difference in quality between the mainstream writers who contribute and the staff guys doing Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance stuff. They could do with a little more cross-promotion if they want to grow their fanbase again.


Wyrms of the north: Ah yes, Mercury Dragons. The draconic equivalent of Kender. :spits: Whizzing around the place, dazzling people, and generally being good-naturedly mischievous. Here we combine that with a pulp daredevil flyer, the kind who crashes into a scene, makes a nuisance of himself, and then takes off again and leaves other people to deal with the consequences. He also has an awesome secret hideout filled with traps and monsters that'll be the envy of every evil wizard who tries to penetrate it. Plenty of detail is also gone into his treasure, but unusually for Ed, he doesn't have any unique spells. So like a lot of these dragons, he might serve as an ally or an enemy, depending how much tolerance the PC's have for whimsy and pranks. So this really reminds us that Ed is as cheesy as ever, and that's unlikely to end when this column does. If you want to adventure in the Realms, you're going to have to live with that, or spend a  lot of time cleaning out the goofier elements.


PC Portraits: This has some roguish characters. They seem to skew slightly younger-looking than the recent instalments of this series, but there's the usual wide range of races, sexes, and personality types. They might trick you, they might go unnoticed while stealing, or they might use force to get what they want. Probably the safest thing to do is to not trust anyone. But that in itself can condemn you to a lonely paranoid life. Oh, the dilemma. Best to at least try and make people think you trust them. It does help a little bit, given that most people do adhere at least a little to do as you would be done by.


Dragon's bestiary: Hmm. 4 issues ago, we got a collection of monsters based on the works of M R James. This time they're converting stuff from the computer game Heretic II. This is an interesting development. We saw plenty of characters converted in the old GitE articles, but monsters were less likely to be direct rips. I wonder if this trend will continue. In any case, it'll give us some interesting visuals, even if the monsters may occupy the same niche as existing D&D ones.

Plague sidhe are elves infected with a deadly and highly contagious disease that makes them attack all noninfected people in the vicinity. A great justification for enemies that attack on sight, and need to be taken out from a distance.  

Plague spreaders are the mid level bads behind the disease, ensuring it spreads with rather more intelligence and some neat technomagical devices. Take them out and things become more manageable, but you may have to be put down after fighting them. It does add rather a tragic edge to proceedings. Looks like like many books, they're going for accurate conversions rather than fair, which I generally approve of.

Parthoris Gorgons are adorable little dinosaur like creatures that'll leap at you and get blown away. Watch out for back attacks, because that'll be rather unpleasant to say the least.

G'Grokon just look strange. Semi-bipedal bug things, they're pretty weedy, but spit acid balls with a very high RoF, so if you're standing still, your life meter'll go down fast. Another case where I can see the game tropes showing through and contrasting with the usual D&D design ones to interesting effect.

Parthoris harpys fly around and dive on you. Another one that seems like a decent challenge, but not too spectacular or imaginative in terms of abilities. Not a bad conversion, overall, and they've added a nice amount of ecological data. This is rather better than the endless rehashes lately.

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 6/8


Arcane Lore: Music based magic. You seem a fairly familiar subject. Spooky music based magic? That's a pretty decent combination. Distinct enough to be unique so far, but common enough mythologically to draw upon. Has potential.

Chant of Dark Summons lets you bring forth lesser demons from the abyss. As usual, this carries pretty substantial risks. And don't even think about trying to summon cascade the buggers. That will not go to your benefit. I'd go with regular animals instead.

Chorus of Wrath buffs those who join in. The more people who join in, the more each individual is buffed. Power in numbers! I do love synergistic effects.

Danse Macabre is a lesser version of the city undeadifying ritual from recent Ravenloft adventures. Honestly, next thing you know everyone'll be using it, and then someone'll develop a planetwide variant, and then where will we be? Screwed, that's where. Sure, everyone being undead may sound neat at first, no more death, no more horrible crawling squishy ecosystem of everything eating everything else, but sooner or later your fingers are going to start coming off, and who'll replace them? Cotton to sew stuff comes from plants you know.

Haunting Melody brings the victim back as a ghost. If done without their consent, this may make them cranky. And of course, knowing ghosts, they may wind up going nuts after a while anyway.

Nocturne envelops you in gloom, so you can brood properly without being disturbed by that irritating sunlight. Perfect for vampires who need to be up and about, and don't mind making themselves conspicuous.

Eerie Piping is like Heat Metal, if you don't get away, it gradually gets ever more unpleasant. Still, it's very very unlikely to have it's full effects on most listeners.

Fiendish Fantasia twists everything into a nightmare landscape, distorted and looming. Once again I refer you to the wondrous creepiness of Watership Down.

Keening is basically a banshee wail. Had that before. In a proper sourcebook too. Run better editorial checks. The new spell compendia should make that easier too.

Melody of Madness is another one that gradually builds in unpleasantness as time goes on. This kind of thing is why you need mates around to catch you when about to fall. Keep those curative spells handy.

Nightmare Lullaby is a lower lever variant on the regular Nightmare spell. The goal is the same. Disturb their sleep, give them penalties later. Muahahahaha.

Siren Song makes people let you wander through undisturbed, and wind up surprised if you do anything nasty. Turnaround is fair play when so many monsters pull tricks like that.

Sorrel's Dirge is another angstfest. Nothing wrong with turning depression on other people to make them suffer penalties instead of you.

Swan Song brings us to a close, with a spell that may well kill the caster, but will at least let them take quite a few of the enemies with them. Sounds about right. Swans do make an awful racket if you annoy them. They're not quite as psychotic as geese though.

Edit: Was going to post a comment, but changed my mind. Ignore this post. Thanks.

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 7/8


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Another Rogue focussed article interspersed with the other ones this month. They're always appreciative of magical items that enhance their ability to take stuff, although sometimes not to the extent of actually paying after having them commissioned.

The Harp of Screams is an interesting little alarm system. It'll make a ghastly racket if triggered, which is useful for both thieves who want a diversion, and people guarding their stuff.

Shadowgloves let you reach through containers to get at the valuables inside without disturbing things. Just don't use them on extradimensional storage devices, for the usual ugly boom happens.

Wandering Eyes give you a security network you can easily flick through. Just plonk them in strategic locations for maximum benefit. Since they can't propel themselves, this is once again probably more useful for foiling thieves than assisting them

Liar's Boots create a false trail of footprints going in a different direction to your actual destination, while leaving no actual tracks on you. Dead handy, really.

Darkdust is a very cliched name indeed. It creates a black cloud wherever it is thrown, hopefully blinding the victim and allowing for escape. Well, it's slightly less obtrusive for a burglar than the similar ones that blind by flashes of light.

Rings of Dodging let you improve your AC against one opponent. Once again we see a trick that would become standard next edition. I suspect those are going to increase over the next few months.

Ringdaggers are yet another way of concealing a weapon and then instantly calling it to hand. Yawn. As if we don't suspect everyone automatically by now.

Spider Rope stretches out and ties around things on command. No great surprises there.

Keys of Disruption completely seal a door magically. You'll have to rely on old fashioned violence to get out. Better hope you didn't make your fortress impregnable then

Chameleon Keys aren't as good as skeleton keys, as you have to touch them to the key you want to imitate. Still, that does seem less likely to break an entire adventure. Once again with the weaker variants for game balance's sake.


Role models: So minis are finally back. Like other systems, they've had a spotty treatment in the magazine. One of the things bumped off in the 96 "refocussing", it looks like they've decided there's enough public demand to give them another go. And once again they get a new column name. That's the fifth time. Just don't stick, do they. Lets see how long this one lasts.

As with Dungeoncraft last month, they start out with a cost analysis of getting into minis in the first place. More evidence that the staff are more money conscious now than in the TSR days. You'll need one for each PC, a modest selection of models for monsters, and preferably some paints as well. This actually probably won't cost as much as the three AD&D corebooks, but it's not a trivial expenditure either. Running parallel to that is an explanation on how you translate movement rates into scale inches. So once again they really are starting from level 0, aiming at people who don't have a clue what they're doing, and wouldn't research this kind of information proactively. Since being spoonfed isn't really to my tastes, and I remember the advanced mini painting advice in 1980, I do feel inclined to make a darn kids, gitoffa mah lawn quip. Make gratification too instant, and people won't value what you provide. Don't get insecure because the internet now offers infinite distractions. Stick to your guns.