Plato's Nephew's page

And if you wanted to include the occational new class occationally presented in Dragon? Oh boy! And we aren't even counting variety classes either!

Hey, I'm up in the Great White North, so I don't expect to see Dragon #336 on my shelves until next week. That said, I havn't read the letter page, or know what Erik's question. But I can guess from everyone else's posts on here.

I really like Dragon. After I got my first issue, I went and bought up every back issue my comic store had. I liked how in the five I bought, each issue had a theme to it; #313-317.

Races of Power - Love it, use it any chance I get.
Elemental Magic - Very useful, and fun.
Campaign Classics - I now have a Tortle Cleric kicking butt in one campaign. lol And I eat-up everything Dark Sun I find.
Spies - Not my cup of tea, but you never know when it might come in handy.
Exotic Heros - Again, I love it and use it at every possible chance.

The first "new" issue I grabbed was #328. I have enjoied each and every issue since. Some are better than others, but no one can bat .500 everytime, eh?

There does seem to be an attempt to carry a theme through each issue still. Its not to the same prominence, but that's alright. If you do a Goblinoid-themed issue (first thing to come to my mind), you shouldn't have to put in a less than stellar article just because its all about Bugbear grooming technics (again, first thing to mind.) But if you put in an amazing City of the Realms article about a city bordering on a territory over-flowing with Goblinoids, go for it!

I liked that issue #335 was mostly about the Forgotten Realms. It is a Campaign setting which has endured through-out all of the various incarnations of D&D. Ed Greenwood also has a long and successful relationship with Dragon, its nothing to be ashamed of. (I'm not implying you are, Erik.) And if Dragon wants to have some Realms content each issue, I'm good with it. I find it easy to work into any campaign I'm doing anyhow. hehe :P

Eberron, *sigh* ...what can I say about it? I think the most honest thing I can say is I feel I have a Love/Hate relationship with the new campaign setting. There are a lot of aspects of it that I like, and want to incorperate into my games. But a lot of it feels hard to adapt, unless you are playing in Eberron. Its ties to Psionics are unfortunate as I find Psi rules too complicated. Sometimes when I see a good portion of a Dragon given over to Eberron content, a small piece of my mind just says, 'Enough already!' I can only tell you how I feel, you need to run the magazine the best way you see fit.

Do I think Dragon should have a rigid format? No, but a degree of consistency within each issue is not a bad idea either. Either way, I'm still going to buy and read Dragon...that is, unless you start covering Yu-Gi-Oh or something of that vein. :P lol

lol Ok, I got a quickie question: will you be reviewing material on a certain day of the week, or just at random?

I would like to know, or see, if there will be any new Innvocations for the Warlocks.

The Dark Sun Campaign Setting is considered "dead" as Wizard's don't publish any new material for them. But, if you do want some new, 3.5 Dark Sun material, check out this site: http://athas.org/
It claims to be the official home of Athas now. They look like they've done a pretty good job of it too.

My first character was a Halfling Thief way back in the AD&D days. He found a hat which housed a trapped goddess within a jewled brooch on it. For a while he had to live with her nagging, but it was made easier being privy to her vast knowledge on, well, everything. When she was finally freed, he joined her church and became her favourite cleric. When I finally finished playing, my Halfling was a 20th-level Thief/9th-level Cleric. Maybe I should see about bringing him back as an NPC for my next campaign.

As a student I can't always be at home for every special occation, or partake in family rituals. As Catholics, we have a pancake dinner every Shrove Tuesday. I've found that the local Denny's makes an adequete substitute. My first year doing this, I hadn't returned to D&D yet. So when I saw a group of people huddled around a table in the back of the resturant, it seemed lame. But now that I'm back, I can see the appeal; warm, dry, ample supply of food, and open all-night. I wonder if that group still plays there....?

I can see the newspaper headlines now: "Age of Worms opens can of worms!" hehe Sorry, but I thought we might need a little bit of levity in this post.
In my last campaign, I just asked the players to avoid all issues of sexuality and relationships. They were all pretty young (14-15) and I wasn't sure if they were all mature enough to handle the consequences of their players' actions.

Bravo, Amber! I enjoied your reviews. A balance of crunch and fluff is my personal preference too. While there were a few places I didn't quite agree with you, it is easier to just "let it go" if the arguement is thought out and articulate. Therefore I have no reason to argue with you, at the moment. :P

By the way, I see that you had a healthy 3 pieces published in the most recent issue (#335). Congrates! I especially enjoied the Ecology of the Lizardfolk; it of course had that balanced mixture of crunch/fluff. I look forward to your future submissions.

And to the rest of the 'regular gang' whom I see both here on the message boards, and within the pages of Dragon, I enjoy your articles as well, and look forward to more.

Ok, so we know that it comes out on October 31st. And I am as excited as all heck to get it, but I have one little question (with a few parts): where can I get it?

I know we can preorder from this site, but will it be on sale in book, comic book and gaming stores? This way I could put it on my X-Mas list and het someone else buy it for me instead. And is October 31st just the US release date, or is it like with Dragon and I'll have to wait (at least) one week longer for it up here in Canada?

Thanks for the help!

When I started playing D&D a decade ago, I thought all of the AD&D 2nd ed. stuff was great. And getting a chance to see it, and play it, again with the Campaign Classics is sweet. The 1st and 2nd editions were wonderful, for their time. There is only one constant in the universe, and that is change. With every new edition, we can only hope that the change is occurring to improve things. I love Dragon, and since I started collecting it last year (along with playing D&D again), I have been trying to get as many of the older issues as possible. Unfortunately, anything before v. 3.5 is to painful to try and incorperate into the game. I agree that the articles and graphics need not be altered, but updating the stats can only improve the gameplaying potential. And the marketablility of the collected hardcover too. ;)

On page 166 of Frostburn, there are stats for a penguin. Its not a duck, but they are both water avian, and I'm sure it shouldn't be too difficult to tweek. I have a feeling that there may be chicken stats somewhere, that too (if found) could also be reasonably adapted.

Yeah, so like where the smeg is it!? Are we suposed to get it a week later in comic store, gaming stores, and on newstands?

My party was crossing some grasslands when they came across a Halfling caravan being attacked by Gnoll raiders. The (surviving) Gnolls escaped, but it seems that they had taken an important Cleric of Yondolla with them. The party was asked to save her as they were the only fighting folk left without any major damage after the battle.

At this time, my party consisted of a Neutral fighter, a Chaotic Neutral rogue, a Chaotic Neutral sorcerer and a Cleric of Pelor (who I just so happened to have to play since our numbers were down.) The fighter and the rogue were beginning to drift towards good, but the sorcerer was slowly going the other direction. He'd ask, "How much is riding your valley of the dragon worth?" It was getting harder and harder for the other characters not to beat him (the other players too.)

The fighter and the cleric acted as a diversion so that the sorcerer and the rogue could sneak into the camp. They rescued the halfling, and somehow, the sorcerer just lost his last once of good. As they ran from the camp, he was throwing fire spells at every single tent in the camp. This was not just some Gnoll warparty, this was a community filled with noncombatants! And he was setting them on fire! When we returned the halfling to her people, we held a party meeting and cast out the sorcerer (my cleric was about ready to kill him). The player had put the party (and the DM) into a moral dilemia; how do you deal with a member of your party that's gone rogue? (And not the class!)

I completely agree to adding the new 'Complete...' classes to the 'Class Acts' section of the magazine. 12 classes, 12 issues a year; it works perfectly! If we include the Psionic core classes, you could either print a different one every three monthes, or put them on a rotating monthly basis. I understand how there is only a limited amount of space in an issue, and too much in print can make the game too complicated, but one of the most alluring aspects of the game is that the only limit to a campagin is the imagination of the players.

Ok, so I'm lazy, and busy, so I really don't have time to write these up and submit them. I'd love to get the money and the recognition, but it would be cool just to see it in print too. And I'm sure that most of you out there who are beter then I am at these kinds of things. But here's the idea: prestige classes based on some well known superheroes...

Still with me? Ok, I know you're laughing, but think about it; there is a connection between comic fandom and game playing, many times we are the same people. So why not have the ability to play one of your favourite heroes of villians in a campaign?

With some tweeking, a Paladin could be transferred onto a Sentinel of Liberty modelled after Captain America:
- special mitheral/adamantine sheild
- gain sheild bashing bonus feats
- ability to use the sheild as a range weapon
- special leadership ability that inspires allies

A Rogue could turn into a Arachnidist (ok, the name sucks, but someonw else can fix that) after Spider-Man:
- supernatural ability to 'Spider Climb' at will
- spell-like ability to cast 'Web' (once, twice & then three times a day)
- spider/danger sence allowing the re-rolling of a reflex save 1/day
- Brachiation ablility at either reduced or base speed
- maybe an increase to the Dex score?

There are countless other superheroes, but I've only thought about these at any length. Someone could try to make a Mage that can wear heavy armor a la Dr. Doom, but I don't know how to make it work. And just because I used Marvel heroes doesn't mean that other compnay characters, but at present these were the only character I can fit into being D&D character classes.

Let me know what you think. Feel free to develop the ideas, and if they are to be published, at present I'm not interested in the money, but I would like some acknowlegdement and/or credit.

Yeah, more Celtic stuff! In issue #330 we learn how to create a Celtic warrior from the Fighter's 'Class Acts', and in #329 we learned about inserting the ledgend of Beowulf into a campaign (the Viking invaders brought the legend to Ireland, and socially the two cultures were quite similar.) Plus, a Druid is almost exclusively of Celtic origin. Wait, where was I going with this again?

(15 minutes later)

Oh yeah, I remember now! There is obvious a history of Celtic influence and interest in D&D, and it would be great if it was developed more for the 3.5 market. The Irish people are not given quite the respect they deserve when we study the history of the European continent, and isn't the Middle Ages in Europe the period that D&D is modelled after?

One of the players in the game I'm running asked me a question that has been bugging me for sometime too. Say you have a Small character (or even as big as Large) rolls a natural 20 when they are attacking something like a Tarrasque or a Great Red Wyrm; have they just slaughtered the monster single handed? Can someone so small defeat something so large with a single blow using this amazingly powerful weapon?

Yeah, I was thinking about the elves myself as I typed that. I thought about a race divided into castes and each caste has developed differently in accordance with the role they play. (ie. Larger & stronger for warrior castes, slighter but smarter for priest castes, etc.) Of course, I'd want to have them still able to interbreed, and share traits that can be drawn back to their common ancestory.

I haven't started writing yet, as this weekend is a busy one, but I have this burning desire to start telling everyone what I think, and start asking for input. But, you don't get paid for giving away your ideas online. lol Of course this isn't about the money, but monetary rewards are always a nice bonus to being published and sharing your ideas with others. ;)

Hey folks!

I only returned to D&D last year after a decade long absence. I only started playing again about three monthes ago (don't ask. lol) I only started reading Dragon three monthes ago, and I only joined the site this morning. So I hope you'll go easy on me.

I've been thinking about creating a new PC race. The more ideas I get, the more complex they get, and then I start thinking about maybe I should be creating more than one race instead. But now I'm thinking I can do both. Is it possible to have one race composed of two subraces. Look different, have different stats, but still be the same people?

I also want to create a new god to be their patron, and give him/her (haven't picked yet) a new domain. I'm not going to say that I plan to be revolutionary, but I do hope this could be a fun new choice for players. Give me as any advice you can think of, you all sound more knowledgable about these things than I am.

Thanks! :D