Abinadi's page

Increased 2nd-level abilities.

I'm not sure how much I can reprint, but I will try and give you what you need.

5 level progression, d10 HD, fighter BAB, good Fort save, poor Ref and Will Save.

Req: BAB +6, Knowledge (appropriate to creature type) and Sense Motive 4 ranks. Must swear a vow to destroy all creatures of chosen kind which must be in response to a great personal loss by the character because of the creature.

4 skill points per level. Bluff, GI, Knowledge (appropriate to creature type), Listen, MS, Search, SM, Spot, and Survival.

Proficient with simple and martial weapons, all armor, and shields (except tower).

1st level: Sworn foe +1 (vs. creature type on Bluff, Listen, MS, SM, Spot, Survival, weapon damage, stacks w/sworn foe).

2nd level: Animosity +3 (vs. specific kind of creature on sames as sworn foe, stacks w/sworn foe and favored enemy).
Determination +2 (on saves of creature type's special attacks, spells, and spell-like abilities).

3rd level: Nemesis [Exalted] feat (originally appeared in Player's Guide to Faerun, I believe) Can sense creature type within 60 ft. and pinpoint its location and deal +1d6 weapon damage to evil-aligned creature type.
Sworn foe +2

4th level: Animosity +5 and determination +4

5th level: sworn foe +3
Slayer Attack (study specific kind of creature for 3 rounds to make a single melee or 30-foot ranged attack which must make a Fort save [DC 10 + SS class level + SS Int mod] or be killed or destroyed). Must use attack within 3 rounds after completing study.

I hope I don't get into trouble, but there it is. I think it goes without saying that the spcific kind of creature mentioned in all abilities needs to be the same as what was in the req.

Dragon 356
Ship Date to Subscribers: 05/08
Date Received: 05/14
Shipping Time: 6 days
Average Shipping Time (Jan-Aug ’07): 10.2 days

Before I get started on the review, I am going to put my 2 cents in regarding the cancellation of my favorite magazine (and its redheaded stepbrother, Dungeon). I am sad to see them go. I have been gaming for well over 20 years and for most of that time Dragon magazine has been a huge part of my gaming arsenal. Although Dungeon (and Polyhedron, R.I.P.) was not a frequent buy, when I did purchase (or subscribe to like Polyhedron), it was very valuable to my needs. Something better must come out of this decision to end the magazines.

Unfortunately, I never took WotC’s survey. From what I read, it was a random pop-up on their homepage. I hardly ever visit their homepage, because I am only interested in their D&D products. So I had to read about it on the D&D forums. From those second-hand accounts, what WotC was asking looked interesting, but I had to wonder how much it was going to cost me. Gone are the days that I would buy every book that came out just because I had to have it in my collection. Now I have things like tithing (yes, I am a devout Christian), mortgage, school tuition (I’m going for my second degree, long story), a wife, a child on the way, a career that I have to personally finance, and other hobbies. I have become less selfish when it comes to my desires and I am a better man for it.

My D&D purchases basically boil down to this: subscription to Dragon (much cheaper even if I don’t get any utility out of one or two issues a year), Eberron products (I hold Dragon magazine and WotC’s preview articles personally responsible for getting me addicted to this world, I had no intention of adding another game world to my collection) which includes the novels (my FR novel purchases have gone done exponentially; last purchase was the first anthology of the Year of Rogue Dragons), and for a short time the miniatures game (I found others more interested in that then gaming, so what could I do). So how was I to afford a subscription to an online service/e-zine? The books I can pretty much pick up anytime/anywhere. Magazines, or pretty much any subscriptions, to any have a limited span of availability. Those become more important to get, in my way of thinking. Well I guess you could say that the cancellations of the magazines are a good thing. It has given me a way to subscribe to the new service being created. I would go into the details, but if anybody has taken an Economics course, you might see what I have been talking about.

So enough about what has happened and what is going to happen. I have a magazine to review. I just have one last thing to say about WotC’s initiative: it better be good…and affordable.

Cover
I like the cover quite a bit. Two dragons battling it out while a couple of adventurers are in the midst, just trying to stay alive. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to use two fo the new dragons that appear within these pages. Noted on the cover is: 5 new metallic dragons (chromium, cobalt, mickel, tungsten, iron), core beliefs: hextor, Confession: a new tale by Paul S. Kemp, and ecology of the linnorm. On the spin is: Dragons, Ferrous Dragons, Core Beliefs: Hextor, Confession, Ecology of the Linnorm.

Shorts and Staples
Editorial by Erik Mona
Here is Mr. Mona mussing about the cancellation of the magazines. I could be wrong but it seems that from reading the first few paragraphs that Mona is a little bitter about the decision. I could be wrong.

Scale Mail
There is a letter about the cancellation and surprisingly it is not hateful, thank goodness. I got tired of reading those within 10 seconds of vewing the boards. Another letter about the impact of Dragon magazine and what letters Sage Advice answers. The third is about the Modrons. Someone wants stats for the rest. Well, I can happily say because I don’t use them, that space will not be wasted on the rest because we only have a few issues left and I want Dragon to go out with a bang, with very cool, very useful articles. In my opinion, the modrons are useful to a small portion of the gaming community.

First Watch
WotC’s releases next month include Expedition to Undermountin. It is not labeled as a Forgotten Realms product. I really dislike when they do that (as I look up to my booksheft and see an ugly brown spine that is Races of Eberron among my beautifully-dark spines with with a dragon’s skull on the other Eberron supplements). Undermountin is FR. WotC can supply a web enhancement that gives suggestions on how to use it in other worlds. Second to be previewed is the Sinister Spire, the sequel adventure to Barrow of the Forgotten King. It has drow and undead in it. Character levels are 4th-6th level. The last, and by far my favorite is the Forge of War, and Eberron accessory. This book seems to be mostly fluff. I like fluff, but mostly if I can use it as a character or DM. A historical reference (what this seems to be) has little use to me. But don’t get me wrong, I can think up something to use, like was my character part of the war and what battalion did he belong to? Maybe some ancestor wronged someone else in the war and it has caught up to the play many generations later. Something I noticed as I read this preview is that it mentioned battle scars. These were also mentioned in the preview article on WotC’s website. What character options do these allow? I am highly interested.

Next month in Dragon #357. Demogorgon, the next installment of Demonomicon of Iggwilv and apparently very useful to the Savage tide adventure path in Dungeon (according to what I read in this month’s Savage Tidings). Defiled Creatures looks interesting. I don’t know if they are templates or what, but it seems to be different types of staple creatures, like the bloodlances (unicorns without their horns), beast wraiths, and deadwood revenants. Fur and Feather: more options relating to animal companions (and possibly familiars). This issue appears to have a beastly theme. Also is the ecology of the titan.

Other previews are: Crown of the Kobold King (the first adventure in Paizo’s Game Mastery series, or the second if you count their adventure for Free RPG Day on June 23rd), Hero Lab (I haven’t checked it out yet, but I like computor programs for creating characters and such), Night Below (Raistlin, Large Chaos Beast, and Frost Giant Jarl pictured). The Book of Treasure Maps (six adventures from Goodman Games), Flip-Mat Tavern (another Paizo product, this is a laminated tavern map), Dark Wings Over Freeport (Green ronin returns to Freeport with this adventure for 9th-level characters), three adventures from Expeditious Retreat Press geared towards D&D’s first edition rules for those that don’t like change or for those that need a change. Dungeon # 147 (I do look forward to this because it has an Eberron adventure for 5th-level characters; it also has the last of the Seeds of Sehan campaign arc for 10th-level characters and the latest Savage Tide adventure path for 15th-level characters), Ziggurat Con ( small convention for our troops in Iraq), graphic novels for Dragonlance Chronicles and Icewind Dale Trilogy from Devil’s Due Publishing (now if they can just come out with another Eberron comic), and Free RPG Day on June 23rd.

Scale Mail by Andy Collins, illustrated by Andrew Hou
The questions this month relate to critical hits, damage, and healing. I felt this was a fairly informative month.

The Meat
Top 10 Most Wanted Dragons in D&D by Tim Hitchcok and Nicolas Logue
I am so glad that there is a Dark Sun dragon on this list, even if he is number ten.
10. Borys of Ebe from DSCS and the Curulean Storm.
9. Utreshimon, the blue from Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.
8. Growf! From What’s New with Phil and Dixie (please, let’s keep this list to real dragons; did I just say real?).
7. Chronepsis, the god of fate and jugding of the spirits from Draconomicaon and 2nd edition’s A Player’s Primer to the Outlands.
6. Ashardalon, from Bastion of Broken Souls.
5. Klauth from Neverwinter Nights, Dragon #244, and FRCS.
4. Calcryx from the Sunless Citadel (same as Meepo).
3. Flame from Dungeon #1, 17, and 100.
2. Cyan Bloodbane from Dragonlance Chronicles, Dragons of Dreams, and Dragons of a Fallen Sun.
1. Dragotha, the first dracolich, from White Plume Mountain, Dragon #134, and Dungeon #134.

Ferrous Dragons by Kevin Baase and Eric Jansing, illustrated by James Zhang.
These dragons are really cool. I don’t even need to know what they can do. It’s really based on the art. I think Zhang did a really great job on their pics. My two favorite looking dragons are the cobalt and tungsten variaties. The other three are the chromium, iron, and nickel. Along with their stats there is a table relating totheir half-dragon kin. So a few things they can do: chromiums have two breath weapons (solid ice and freezing crystals) as well as the ability to turn flesh to crystal, the cobalt has a pulsing magnetic breath weapon, iron dragons can change form, breath either superheated sparks or a cone of gas, and turn flesh to iron, the nickel can breath a cone of corrosive gas and use an ability called mass irritation which causes your skin to itch or develop a rash, and the tungsten has a blasting sand breath weapon and can use immolation and sand cloud. I am very happy with these dragons.

Core Beliefs: Hextor by Sean K. Reynolds, illustrated by Andrew Hou, cartopgraphy by Robert Lazzaretti
I don’t know if it is just me or not, but it seems there is a larger portion devoted to Hextor’s history. I’m sitting in bed right now typing this, so I don’t have the desire to check any of the other Core Beliefs to check my theory. I do like that Hextor is about law. If his clerics give their word, they are expected to keep it. There are sections devoted to the roles of assassins and blackguards. The myths are done very well, especially the one where Hextor chooses not to be like Heironeous because he doesn’t want to be second best at being good, he would rather be the best at being bad. There is a small list of additional summonable creatures, which includes a nightmare. A couple relics and spells along with a a couple NPCs round out the article (along with Hrinnom the nightmare).

Confession: A Tale of New Dineen by Paul S. Kemp, illustrated by Ramon Perez
Mark your calendar. This is going to be the very first short story that I will have read in Dragon magazine. It’s not that I have never wanted to, it’s just it has never been a priority. So here it goes…I read the first line and closed the magazine. I don’t desire language like that. Not in my house, in the movies I watch, or in the books I read. So, I guess my streak of not reading any short stories in Dragon is still alive. But now I wonder how many of them have, in my opinion, vulgar language.

Regulars
The Ecology of the Linnorm by Jacob Frazier, illustrated by Peter Bergting
I hate to say this but I think this article could have been so much more. All I kept thinking about were the old Viking Campaign scourebook and the two Dragon articles that had the linnorms in them (for 2nd edition of course). Frazier really only writes about three of the linnorms: the gray and dread linnorms and the corpse tearer. I’ll end it there, although a sea linnorm is stated out.

Savage Tidings: Into the Abyss by Robert J. Schwalb, illustrated by Ben Wootten
This is the appetizer to the Demogorgon article coming next month. It gives a little info on the Prince of Demons as well as quite a few magic items. Suggestions on getting replacement PCs (because you just might die on the 8th layer of the Abyss). Lastely there are updates for the organizations

Volo’s Guide: Wyrms of the West, East, and South by Brian Cortijo, illustrated by James Zhang
I won’t go into too much detail of the three dragons portrayed here. The wyrm of the west is Acuakvacaesin a LN mature adult green dragon sorcerer 8. Yep, Lawful Neutral. I pretty good story to go along with it too. Rhyaexthadarsh is the wyrm of the east. She is a CE ancient white dragon. She is also smarter than the average white because she has a headband of intellect +6 on her finger. Lastely is Svernvignarngix, the wyrm of the south, a NG old brass graond. He is on a mission to save Calimshan.

Dragonmarks: The Gatherng Stone by Tim Hitchcock, illustrated by Tyler Walpole
There is a place in Darguun that has a large shale stone. Historically used as a gathering place for the Dhkaani, it has started seeing much use these days as the goblinoids try to resurrect their empire. This empire details what goes on there, like how they settle disputes through arena-type games

Class Acts illustrated by Jon Hodgson
Adventurer: Bard Guide by Amber E. Scott
You are all familiar with what these will contain. Some important tables (bardic music effects and qualifiers, perform and use magic device stuff, and bardic knowledge) as well as the class’ special abilities, which include: bardic music, bardic magice, and bardic knowledge. These have lists of feats and prestige classes that fit those abilities.

Arcane: Occult Mutations by Tim Hitchcock
The accessory Unearthed Arcana introduced character traits. You can roll or pick up to two and they give you light benefits and penalties. This article expands on those, although for the mutations, you are only allowed one (but you can still pick another character trait, just not a mutation). Described is amphibious, bleached pupils, corpse flesh, lidless eyes, midnight pupils, rune-scarred, toad warts, and unnatural aura. There are some very unwanted conditions there if you as me.

Aztec Mythos III by David Schwartz
Part three of fleshing out the aztec deities. Here we have Cihuacoatl, who represents the earth. She is the giver of life, giving birth to all. She is also the devourer. She eats all that has died. Then there is Huitzipopochtli, the god of war and the chosen deity of the Aztecs.

Mercenary Companies by Paul Leach
Two real world civilizations are given the organization treatment. Changing the names is pretty much all you need to do (and probably some of the foreign words, too) in order to make them fit into your campaign. These are the Scots-Irish Galloglas, which fight with axe and sword, and the German Landsknechts who fight with two-handed swords (possibly bastard swords) or halberds.

In response to F2K's post, all of your reasons involve the primary purpose: harm (except for investment, more later).

Hunting: There are many other ways to get food (bowhunting which I've done, traps, and the above mentioned farming and raising cattle).

Protection: To keep someone from harming you, hence you harm them.

Recreation: Practice to harm.

Investment: Not using something means not using it at all.

Protecting your neighbors: see above.

Protecting your country: I doubt all 80 million people will have the single purpose of protecting the U.S., it's more likely they will protect their own interests.

I don't intend for these remarks to be angry or hateful. I'm just pointing out that in my opinion, none of these answered my question.

Do I have a solution to the problem? No. Do I know what I can personally do about it? No. Do I want something done about it? Yes. It sucks, but because of the acts of the few (and our efforts so far are not correcting the problem), we have to take more drastic measures.

Okay, I didn't read everyone's posts because this has gotten long really fast. Plus I would like to voice my opinion on a couple things just because my wife here's about this at work all day so she doesn't want to talk about it when we are home.

MSN.com went into a little detail about the guy's background in South Korea, saying that his parents were poor and such. The way I read the article, it sounded like the media was trying find ways to blame his condition on his childhood. He moved to the U.S. when he was 8 years old. That was 15 years ago. In my opinion he has been completely Americanized in that time. Unless he was brainwashed by some terrorist group when he was a toddler and sent over here to cause destruction (wait, Jack Bauer dealt with that a few days ago, sorry bad joke), then it falls on our society to take the blame.

I've read on other posts from people that are against gun control a frequent argument: we don't outlaw other types of weapons like knives. (Maybe we should, but that is another argument for another time). My main point against their argument is that guns only have one purpose: to harm. There is no other ligitimate purpose for a gun (such as using it as a paper weight). If someone can come up with another reason for a gun's creation and use, I will gladly listen and take it into consideration. Knives, even though you can easily harm someone with one, have other purposes (i.e. sharpening sticks for marshmellows, cutting string, etc.).

Those are the two things that have really been bothering me.

Also, in my local news (I live in Vancouver, WA) someone wrote on a mirror in the girl's restroom at WSU-V Tuesday that "if you thought what happened at VT was bad, wait until I come back at 8:00" or something to that effect. I'm not going to write what I feel like doing to the person, mostly because that would just make things worse.

Dragon 355
Ship Date to Subscribers: 04/03
Date Received: 04/11
Shipping Time: 8 days
Average Shipping Time (Jan-Dec ’07): 11.25 days

Wow, Dragon has gone bi-weekly! Just kidding, but it sure feels that way. I received issue 354 around 3 weeks ago, so I wasn’t expecting the next issue for a little while longer. Since I received this issue fairly early, I am going to try and get this review up quicker, also. So far it has been taking me a week (what with work, school, etc.) to post the reviews. Only time will tell.

I’d like to note that on this issue’s web page, the cover and the preview of contents was up in a timely manner. Kudos to whoever is getting their job done.

Cover
The cover is done by Howard Lyon. He has called it the trophy hunter. I am not sure what it has to do with the content of this issue. The closest thing I could find on just a flip-through is the Savage Tidings article which has things like poison and stuff. I guess I’ll find out when I read it. Other than that, it looked fine. The guy looked like a zombie on first glance, but on closer inspection, he’s just had a hard adventuring life.

Listed on the cover is “Seven Saintly Domains,” “Music in D&D,” “Ecology of the Devourer,” and “Creature Catalog: 12 Killer D&D Monsters (Dungeon Phantom, Giant Slug, Cave Fisher, Rot Giant, More.” On the spine is noted Creature Catalog VI, Seven Saintly Domains, iDragon, and Ecology of the Devourer.

Shorts and Staples
Editorial by F. Wesly Schneider
This is pretty much about the Monster Ecology supplement that has just come out or about to. Apparently there is some new stuff in the book, but so far nothing game related as far as I can tell. What has been added are some author thoughts on what their favorite monsters are. And not just any authors, but greats like R.A. Salvatore, Margaret Weis, and others. It’s still not enough for me to get, though. I’ll have to look at it and see. It’ll have to have things related to the game that was not included in the magazine.

Scale Mail
Only a few letters this month, but there is something special included. If you want to make an alu-fiend, James Jacobs through together some rules on how to do that.

First Watch
WotC books coming out: Complete Champion, Drow of the Underdark, and Star Wars Core Rulebook. I’m not interested in Star Wars (although I did play in one campaign and I was really impressed with my character, other than that ‘no thanks’). I am really interested in Drow of the Underdark. I love drow. Be a hater. I don’t care. The book even has stuff from Dragon issue 298 that was all about drow. Good job. Complete Champion sounds cool. They give all the core good deities the organization treatment from Player’s Handbook II.

Next month’s issue (number 356) looks great. Brand new dragons, Hextor’s core belief article, and the ecology of the linnorm (I remember them from way back when in Dragon magazine and they went with the Viking sourcebook I had). There is a story by Paul Kemp called ‘The Confession.” I have never read a short story in Dragon magazine, not because I don’t want to, but because it is not high on my list. I fully intend to go back through my mags and read every single one…someday. I just thought of something. I’m going to have to review it. Well, I guess here’s a toast to starting to read the short stories. Last is an article on the top 10 dragaons that have appeared in D&D. Could be interesting.

The True Dungeon previewed looks cool, especially the tokens you can get (you can buy them separately from the event). I hate to say that I have never been to a gaming convention. Several comic conventions when I was younger, but not strictly for D&D. I almost convinced my wife to go to one this summer, but our closest timeshare to the event was several hundred miles away. Let’s have something up in the northwest, okay?

I’ll just list the rest of the stuff, because none of it makes any different to me. Stonehenge board game, Torches & pitchforks card game, Gale Force Nine’s markers (these are the coolest of what is offered), Exalted” War of the Throne board game, Reaper miniatures, Dungeon magazine issue 146, Castles & Crusades RPG, a collection of Downer comics, Privateer Press miniatures, RPGA Report featuring Chris Tulach as the new Content Manager, Mass Effect video game, and Odin Sphere video game.

Scale Mail by Andy Collins (illustrated by Andrew Hou)
This month’s focus is on armor and shields and the like. AoO, Weapon Focus, and other options for shields. Sunder, size, DR, etc. for armor.

The Meat
iDragon by Jose Montero (illustrated by Andrew Hou, playlists by James Jacobs and F. Wesley Schneider)
I went into reading this article convinced that it was going to be a waste of my time. I don’t use music at all during my gaming sessions. Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of music, even scores to soundtracks. My favorite is the score for ‘Conan the Barbarian’ (which doesn’t appear on any of the mixes shown). But when it comes to gaming, background music, even quietly, tends to distract me. It doesn’t matter what I am doing, whether talking to someone or studying. It’s funny then that music is an integral part of my job (I’m a fitness instructor).

The article explains that with today’s technology, getting the music we want for our gaming sessions has become a lot easier. It’s even easier than that to compile our music any way that we want. That’s the bulk of it. Included are several listings for different scenarios (need a playlist for a major villain?) which look to include mostly music from movies. An added bonus is that you can get these exact playlists from iTunes in their iMixes section. That is probably the best thing about this article.

The mixes listed (with some sample songs): Heroes (Slaves to Rome from the movie Gladiator and Daniel’s Mastadge from the movie Stargate), The Dungeon (The Forest of the Dead/Graveyard from the movie Army of Darkness and Down the Pipe from the movie The Descent), Villians (Salazar’s Theme from the show 24 and General Bethlehem from the movie The Postman), and The Savage Tide (these were done in a specific order to go along with the adventure path). A few others were mentioned, but no lists were given. These are Battle, Horror, and Town.

Seven Saintly Domains by Hal Maclean (illustrated by Andrew Hou)
Hal Maclean wrote the article ‘Seven Deadly Domains’ back in issue 323. This article complements that one almost completely. The only thing this article didn’t have were new spells. Looking through the domain spell lists, I thought that there definitely should have been some new spells created. For instance, the spell prying eyes for the Generosity domain doesn’t seem to fit.

Other than not having new spells, I thought the domains were done fairly well. The domains are Charity, Chastity, Generosity, Humility, Patience, Temperance, and Zeal. There are some roleplaying suggestions for each domain and there is a sidebar that lists each domain and the possible religions from Eberron, Forgotten Realms, and Greyhawk to use.

Creature Catalog VI illustrated by John Gravato, Ramon Perez, and James Zhang
There are 12 new or updated monsters in this section, each one dome by a different other (mostly). I’ll at least list them separately with the author.

1. Black Beast of Bedlam by Thomas M. Costa
This CR 14 outsider can make targets that it has hit insubstancial, among many other abilities.

2. Cave Fisher by Kevin Baase and Eric Jansing
CR 3 magical beast. This creature I remember from many years ago. Drizzt Do’Urden fought one in his youth. This is a cross between a lobster and a spider.

3. Dragonfly, Giant by Nick Herold
CR 2 vermin. Rules are included to use the giant dragonfly as a mount.

4. Dungeon Phantom by Jason Bulmahn
CR 6 undead. This is a pretty cool idea. It can create undetectable (at least by the normal person) traps out of thin air.

5. Giant, Rot by C. Wesly Clough
This CR 8 giant is gross, literally. A decay aura, disease-imbued attacks, and exploding pus defenses make this one of those creatures I wish to never encounter. Perfect menace.

6. Golem, Cannon by John Flemming
CR 14 construct. It looks silly, but I understand its usefulness during sieges. Nice self-destruct ability, too.

7. Maedar by Kevin Baase and Eric Jansing
CR 4 monstrous humanoid. I believe these first appeared in a FR monstrous compendium. It’s about time this male version of the medusa appeared in 3rd edition.

8. Obliviax by Kevin Baase and Eric Jansing
CR 1 plant. It sounds familiar, but I can’t place it. There is a nice side bar that gives rules for making the memory moss (the obliviax mossling’s “master”) as an environmental hazard.

9. Scarecrow by Kevin Baase and Eric Jansing
CR 3 construct. I think everything having to do with horror came from Ravenloft, so that is where I think this came from, but I could easily be wrong. There are rules on making different types of scarecrows, like conscious, dread, and quested scarecrows.

10. Seedroach by Nick Herold
CR 1 plant and CR 7 plant (swarm). These roaches can be up to 4 pounds. I hate bugs. Especially ones that can turn you into a blood-filled tree.

11. Slug, Giant by Jason Bulmahn
CR 7 vermin. It spits acid. Death to all bugs!

12. Springheel by Nick Herold
CR 8 fey. An evil creature that presumably feeds on fear, so the more creatures it attacks, the more enjoyment it gets.

Regulars
The Ecology of the Devourer by Owen K.C. Stephens (illustrated by Peter Bergting)
I love the history of the devourer. They were originally githyanki that tried to slay the Lich-Queen, Vlaakith. I really like the githyanki, so anything that pertains to them is great. There are alternative historical ideas if you are not into the githyanki origin for your campaign, though.

Savage Tidings: The Market is Bad by James Jacobs and Richard Pett (illustrated by Ben Wootten)
This article gives additional information on the market of Scuttlecove. It goes into a summary of the factions that vie for control of Scuttlecove also. Described are a few of the merchants that work in the market along with a few of their wares. Ingram Cadgraydian is a wizard who deals in enchantments (a few new magic items are included), Riordan Darkly is a poison expert (some new poisons here), Morann is a golem maker, and Thevanan Quain makes perfumes and such (included is osssra is an inhaled substance that first appeared in the FR accessory Serpent Kingdoms).

Volo’s Guide: Demon Cults of the Realms by Eric L. Boyd (illustrated by Andrew Hou)
This is a great tie-in for the Demonomicon articles. It gives information on the cults of Baphomet, Dagon, and Graz’zt (who hasn’t received any love from Dragon magazine yet). Also included is information about Eltab (from Champions of Ruin), who looks like a very nasty fiendish minotaur (I like minotaurs).

Dragonmarks: Way of the Shackled Beast by Nicolas Logue (illustrated by Tyler Walpole)
Four pages for Eberron while only three for Forgotten Realms, score for us. Anyway, this article blends the shifter race with the monk class. There are five new feats: two general (Beast Strike and Fear No Binds) and three shifter (Disrupting Strike, Fierce Mind, and Shiftsilver Mastery). A new martial arts style for monks appropriately called the Way of the Shackled Beast Style uses three of these new feats as monk bonus feats. There is also a new minor artifact, the amulet of the twelve moons, and a new weapon substance, shiftsilver. Good stuff for feat-lovers (like me) and shifter-philes (I like all of the new races).

Class Acts illustrated by Julie Dillon
It’s Christmas! Instead of four we get five Class Acts this month.

Adventurer: Strangulation by Shane O’Connor
These are the rules for strangulation from the accessory Song and Silence. I had completely forgotten about this stuff, so I guess it was good that this has been updated. Included are optional rules for hit point strangulation and items like the cord and leather collar.

Arcane: Arcane Laboratories by Tim Hitchcok
Presented here are three workshops (Arcane Distillery, Astrological Observatory, and Construct Lab) for use by wizards (mostly) who will be working on items or learning about things. With each building you receive benefits towards the specialized area of expertise.

Divine: Druid Guide by Amber E. Scott
By now you should expect one of these in each issue until at least all of the core classes are done. I don’t know if the non-core classes will be covered (like marshal and wu jen). Abilities covered and given suggestions for feats and prestige classes: Animal Companion, Wild Shape, A Thousand Faces (no feats or PCs), and Spells.

Psionc: Power by Discipline by Scott L. Gable
Instead of lists of spells for the other classes we’ve been given, we get powers listed by discipline. Complete Psionic is included.

Warrior: Eldtrich Warriors by Scott Noel
The purely new and usable by players right now are nine new alternate class features for the fighter. These are: Armored Savant, Bonded Armor, Eldritch Grace, Eldritch Juggernaut, Fortification, Warrior of Air, Warrior of Earth, Warrior of Fire, Warrior of Water. Several of them can be used together to make some really interesting combos.

Every week. I can't get enough of it, although I have been able to get to bed on time on Monday nights recently.

Just a couple more weeks and I will start losing sleep again Monday nights.

Thanks for the kind words. I try to be objective about the content, but I am also biased on several things, so I add my opinion, too. If you ever feel like you don't agree with anything I write, that will be okay, too. Check ya later.

Just as well. When they were combined before, I thought it was pretty much a waste of space. I only liked two of the d20 campaigns provided and they were both fantasy, not modern or future. These were the Githyanki campaign and the Spelljammer campaign.

Although it was hard to understand Sucros' Elmer Fudd (? spelling) impersonation, it is always nice to have different opinions about what Paizo (and WotC) put out. Kudos to Sucros for getting into character while doing the review.

Sucros, if you are not excited about the adventure paths, then why do them? Isn't the point of gaming to have fun? If I ran an adventure that I didn't like, I would have a hard time making it enjoyable for the players, also. Just my thought.

Dragon 354
Ship Date to Subscribers: 03/06
Date Received: 02/22
Shipping Time: 16 days
Average Shipping Time (Jan-Dec '07): 12.33 days

So far since I started reviewing this magazine, this issue has taken the longest time to get to my house. If I didn’t get it by Saturday, I would have e-mailed customer service about it. Last year I had an issue take almost a month to get to me. I corresponded with the powers-that-be and they said they would put an issue in the mail for me. It was either the next day or the day after that I ended up getting my late issue. I e-mailed CS back to apologize for not having enough patience and thanked them for their willingness to serve.

Anyway, onto issue 354. When I read in last month’s preview for this issue about the modrons, I was uncertain how I would receive a featured article about them. Back in first edition, I thought they were really silly. Probably somebody at TSR lost a bet or something like that. When Planescape came around in 2nd edition and their culture was fleshed out for the plane of Mechanus, I thought it was done very well, but I still thought they were weird. I never used them or Mechanus in my campaigns. Now they are back for 3rd edition.

Last month I commented that they should have been included in issue 353 since it was predominantly about the planes. Then I saw the cover on Paizo’s website. It instantly clicked. The April issue.

Cover
What can I say about it? A lone modron sitting down with a white background. It screams to me “April Fools.” The art looks an awful lot like Planescape’s own Tony Diterlizzi’s stuff, but it is Andrew Hou. I only know the main artists, so I don’t know if I’ve seen Hou’s stuff before. But doing these reviews are helping learn to differentiate between artists. Authors, too. Not much else is listed on the cover. Just Heironeous (I really like the Core Belief articles), Ancient PCs (I’m hoping this will give me some ideas to make my non-playable elven race more exciting), and articles on FR and EB. The spine lists Cormanthyr (the FR article) and the Ecology of the Kopru.

Shorts and Staples
After reading Erik Mona’s editorial on the modrons confirmed that I should make light of this issue. His take on laughter being a central part of roleplaying made me think back to my teenage years, especially when one of the PCs got dissed by a barmaid for old man…and the noises they made in the next room. Well, I don’t have stuff like that in my campaigns anymore, but that doesn’t mean there are outrageous moments. I think it was in “The Sunless Citadel” (I was a PC so I don’t really know) where my wizard found a fountain with a firebreathing potion effect to it. As it turned out, I drank straight from the fountain and started belching, at random, flame. A few minutes later I ended up blowing myself and the kobold I was chasing up. I made a ranger after that and I came up with things then that would probably be worthy of using Action Points now (like holding a door closed while the rest of the party gets ready to battle the hobgoblins trying to bust through said door, and throwing our only torch at the mad druid, catching him on fire and causing him to run away, fun times).

Scale Mail had three letters about issue 352, my first review, and all three had a different take on it. In the First Watch section we have previews of Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (I think this would have been better as a FR product, what with the War of the Spider Queen and all), City of Peril (I like the maps because I’ve been playing D&D Miniatures lately), Dragon Presents: Monster Ecologies (its just reprinting the ecologies from recent years, which I have, so there is no need for this product on my shelf), Game Mastery: Critical Hit Deck (these are interesting products, but I buy a very small amount of stuff each year that these will never be on my priority list), Dwarven Forge’s Den of Evil terrain set (I suppose if you set it up right, you could use it with D&D Miniatures, definitely making it look more real), SOTA Toys’ H.P. Lovecraft figures (I’ve mentioned before that I have no use for busts and the like), Zorcerer of Zo (an RPG that is inspired by Oz, Neverland, and Narnia), edible dice (need I say more?), a blurb about Gen Con Indy (in 20+ years of gaming, I’ve never been to a gaming convention), Castle Shadowcrag (an adventure that you can put your two cents in on their web site before it is even produced), Fin Fang Foom HeroClix figure (I am really into superhero stuff, but I have never gotten into this miniature game), War of the Burning Sky (I’ve actually downloaded the free guides for this 12 part adventure path from enworld.org just to check it out, but I haven’t read it yet), a blurb about a new movie coming out in 2008 called ‘The Dead Matter,’ and a one page article on the new Shadowrun video game for the Xbox 360 (it looks like KOTOR which I was really excited to play…then I played it for an hour and was really bored).

I have mixed feelings for next month’s Dragon issue, number 355. Creature Catalog VI has new and old monsters. They list a few (which sound like the old ones) are: the cannon golem (the picture they have looks like it should have been in this issue), the obilviax (wasn’t this a many legged FR creature?), the rot giant, and the scarecrow (from Ravenloft?). Hal Maclean writes ‘Seven Saintly Domains’ which are charity, chastity, generosity, humility, patience, temperance, and zeal. I haven’t checked, but I am assuming that Maclean also wrote the ‘Seven Deadly Domains’ article a year or so ago. I’ll have to check. I’m happy to get some good guy stuff. There is an article about music in D&D. This won’t interest me. I feel that music is distracting during gaming sessions. And listed for the ecology article is the devourer.

Sage Advice focuses on the Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords this month. I have only read what has appeared on the WotC website so a lot of this stuff is over my head. It looks cool though.

The Meat
Core Beliefs: Heironeous (written by Sean K. Reynolds, illustrated by Andrew Hou, cartography by Robert Lazzaretti)
I really enjoy these articles. They definitely make me want to game in Greyhawk. I like that I don’t have to go out and buy a bunch of new campaign books if I ever decide to use the oldest D&D campaign world (although getting the Greyhawk Gazetteer would probably help). I love the history given for the deities (I don’t know how much has appeared in game products, so they are all new to me) as well as what the typical cleric is like and what they are supposed to do for the faith. There are a few new spells as well as a few additions to the summon monster spells.

Return of the Modrons (written by Ken Marable, illustrated by Julie Dillon, special thankts to Tony DiTerlizzi)
Even though I have never used the modrons and that I probably might never use them, I really enjoyed this article. Marable went through their recent history and even mentioned the vestiges of Primus and Tenebrous, which appeared in Dragon #341). For player’s use is an exiled modron playable race. One thing about this I don’t like. It uses the construct (living) type. I think this should stay in Eberron. But at the same time I cannot think of any other way to make these free-thinking constructs unless you just turn them into outsiders with different abilities. Several modron types are stated out: the monodrone (with a messenger variant), duodrone, tridrone, quadrone (with winged variant), and pentadrone. There are even rules to add modrons to summoning lists and adding monodrones to the list of familiars you can get with the Improved Familiar feat.

Ancient PCs (written by Hal Maclean, illustrated by John Gravato)
I was hopping there would be something in this article for my hate-all-things-nonelven elves. My elves are few in number, but very powerful. They are not a PC race. So far I have enabled them to be the only race that can gestalt classes, but I wanted something more, or at least another option, to make them stand out. The one thing that I can see using for my elves is the new endless extraordinary ability. It gets rid of all bonuses and penalties of aging and it allows the creature to live forever (unless it makes the mistake of catching some bands of adventurers attention, this ability only makes it immune to aging). It seems the author is assuming that you are already going to play an ancient character at 1st level. His rules for player characters include a new feat, available for 1st level characters only, that enables you to pick one of a list of backgrounds that have differing abilities. Then there is one new feat for each of the backgrounds giving you additional benefits related to your chosen background. Maybe its just me, but I find it hard to believe that if you’ve been living for a few thousand years already, you’re going to be higher than 1st level. Maclean does give a few suggestions as to why you might be this old at 1st level, but I prefer think that age equals experience.

Regulars
The Ecology of the Kopru (written by Tito Leati, illustrated by Peter Bergting)
I’ve never used the kopru, but after reading this I think I will start. I thought their history was really cool (a very powerful and widespread race that declined because their food source also declined). There is also a variant that used to be this race’s noble class. Their young were purposely deformed in order to become stronger and smarter. Even if I don’t use the kopru (I am not really big into sea-based adventures), it has given me some ideas.

Savage Tidings: Heart of Darkness (written by Greg Vaughan, illustrated by Ben Wootten)
I’ve seen on the message boards that some people have been waiting for a prestige class to go allow with the theme for Savage Tide adventure path. Here it is, the Totemic Demonslayer. It has two main abilities: favored enemy (outsider) and totem tattoo magic. I think Vaughan did a great job meshing these two abilities into a 10-level progression prestige class (along with a few other abilities including some divine spellcasting). Included is a list of tattoos that the character can get, all with vastly different abilities.

Volo’s Guide: Cormanthor (War Amidst the Trees) (written by Eric L. Boyd, illustrated by James Zhang, cartography by Rob Lazzaretti)
This is a timeline of events that have taken place in Cormanthor since Eleasis 28, 1372. There is a spoiler warning for those that read the novels and purchase the adventures. Which is great for me. Now I don’t have to read the novels. I’m kidding. I get so little time to do personal reading that I am still on the Year of Rogue Dragons trilogy (it took me a week to read this magazine and write this review). Even though I don’t game in FR anymore I still enjoy reading the novels, but for now Eberron comes first (I’m struggling through Tales of the Last War right now).

Dragonmarks: Boromar Clan (by Nicolas Logue, illustrated by Jon Hodgson)
This organization hasn’t gotten much attention in Eberron. A thieves guild consisting mostly of Halflings makes since right? So why does it seem so strange to me when the majority of halflings are nomadic dinosaur riders and there is a whole nation of gnomes that deal in secrets better than anyone else? So a standard D&D group of thieving halflings doesn’t seem to fit for me. Anyway, the Boromar Clan is given the new organization format treatment.

Class Acts (illustrated by James Zhang)
Adventurer: Elements of Surprise (written by Jasin Zujovi)
This article gives someone who wants to play a ninja some different options. The three new variant class features coincide with the elements (the standard ninja is seen as already having the air element). For fire we have the Blinding Flash option, water the Deceptive Mist option, and earth the One with the Earth option. I think they are all pretty cool.

Arcane: Power Word, Spell (written by Eric Jansing)
This is just a list of all spells do not require somatic components. I’ve said what I think about these types of articles before.

Divine: Aztec Mythos II (written by David Schwartz)
The next installment of deities has Chalchihuitlicue and Tlaloc. Two more cool histories and deities. I like that these two and the two previous were all seen as the Sun, just during different time periods.

Warrior: Barbarian Guide (written by Amber E. Scott)
This article gives some tables that are useful to barbarians and breaks down their abilities. I like that Scott has listed feats and prestige classes that take advantage of the barbarian’s abilities.

I haven't made it through the Civil War series yet, but I kind of guessed that Captain America couldn't come back. My theory is that Steve Rogers is Ronin (previews for the Initiative say someone different is Ronin).

Again, I haven't reached the end of Civil War, and it'll even be longer before I get to the Initiative.

So articles like "Demonomicon of Iggwilv" and "Core Beliefs" are not enough for you GH fans? Everything core is GH. It is the default world.

Last nights episode was awesome! There was so much stuff going on and now it's like Fifty-Two Card Pick-Up. Everything has been scattered, revealed, connected, blown-up, chaotic. Exciting!

I wonder what will become of our heroes now? It was kind of nice that they focused on one "location" for this episode, but I don't want it to happen too often, unless all the heroes are in one place of course. I was still constantly wondering about Nikki/Jessica and her new job, about the love triangle, and when Hiro will be actually doing something!

the last few episodes have been really good. I hope they keep it up!

I, too, like Fake Healer's suggestions. Here are a few of my own.

Focus on being creative. For example, how creative is it to always start an adventure by meeting a guy in a bar? That's old and bland, and parents probably don't even want their children to pretend about drinking alcohol. Look to movies for inspiration (someone commes to vistit Indiana Jones at the school, etc.).

Stay away from very sexual/violent content. In my recent review of Dragon 353, I wrote that I likely wouldn't use Malcanthet because of what she represents, but if I did I would tone it done to her just being a demon of persuassion. Still for a school setting where parents are going to be expecting you to screw up, I would stay away from it completely.

Get the parents involved. It will take a little more work, but type up a recap of the adventure for the parents, emphasising the good choices the players had made to solve problems. You can either do it in story form or bullet point. An added bonus is that the parents might get interested also (a lot of people like to think about what they would do in a battle of good vs. evil, especially men; I probably didn't need to mention that).

Stay away from adult/explicit content. Have clear rules on what you will allow and not allow, especially on how the players conduct themselves. I suggest at the least to not allow the books of VD and ED. Yes even ED. It is labeled as an adult book even though it deals with good. There is nudity in it and some of the stuff could be over their heads.

I would also probably stay away from things that could mock peoples ideals/religions. A roleplaying game based on a parent's religion (like the game Covenant) could upset them.

I'm highly religious, but I find a way to make this game work. Have a clear line between good and evil. Encourage participation, thinking, problem solving, all those things that parents want their children to be able to do in the real world.

That's all I can think right now. Good luck. Keep us posted because there might be others out there trying to do the same thing. We can make this game fun and respectable.

I'm happy to get comments on my reviews from some of the authors. No matter what I might think of the content, I am impressed that someone can get their ideas in print. I respect those people no matter what.

I guess it goes to show that even though my heaviest gaming was during 2e and that I had pretty much everything core, FR, DS, and SJ, I can forget things like what monsters appeared where and such. I am glad for the corrections from those that have done the research.

I look forward to more comments on my opinions and also corrections if I state anything that is wrong. Thank you.

I haven't read book three yet, but I really like the first two. I also think that if more people who played Eberron read these books by the creator, a lot of the debates on the WotC website about certain things would end (like how warforged can look different from each other). I look forward to book three.

Ship Date to Subscribers: 02/06
Date Recieved: 02/14
Shipping Time: 8 days
Average Shipping Time (Jan-Dec '07): 10.5 days

Cover
I’ve given my opinion before on scantily clad women on the covers of these magazines before, so I won’t reiterate. I will say that it looks like Malcanthet’s head has fallen off. I enjoy Wayne Reynolds’s work, yet this is twice this year I’ve had the same problem with what is on the cover. More on this when I write about the Demonomicon article inside.

By looking at what is mentioned on the cover, I got interested in reading about the demiplanes, the princes of elemental good (I mentioned last time that I had recently re-read the princes of elemental evil article from issue 347). Normally I really enjoy the Demonomicon articles, but the sexual nature of this one doesn’t sit well with me. Still, I know that it will be written according to the highest D&D standards. I wasn’t quite sure what the Keeper was (I like Eberron so my first thought was of the god, but this is an ecology article on monsters, so I was at a loss) and I have lost interest in almost all things Faerunian, especially when there was an article on half-outsiders in Forgotten Realms not to long ago, so an article on outsiders seemed to much.

Shorts and Staples
I chose to read this issue front to back this time instead of my usual order. The editorial confused me this month. It usually ties in with something within the magazine, but this time, it didn’t. It did bring back my own memories of when I gamed during high school. My friends were less interested in acting out their characters and more into stabbing each other in the back. I wouldn’t play like that anymore, but those were good times.

The first watch section didn’t “wow” me. All three D&D previews didn’t scream at me to buy. I buy a limited amount of books (not because I don’t want to, I just have set my budget very low for these things). The only one that I would get is the Magic Item Compendium and that’s if I didn’t have most of what was inside since I make my own compilations of stuff (that’s what I do in my free time).

Next issue (354) piques my interest. We get another Core Beliefs article, this time on Heironeous. I really like the detail put into this stuff. I don’t normally game in Greyhawk, but these articles give a lot of great ideas. I am really curious as to what the modron article will have. It would have fit better in this issue. I really like the 2nd edition Planescape, but I didn’t play it enough to know what was going on with the plane of Mechanus. There was an article in Dragon that came out the same time as the Tome of Magic that had a new vestige in it pertaining to the modron’s “god.” It gave us some of the story that happened in some of the Planescape adventures I think. I wonder if the modron article will reflect those changes. There’s an article on adventuring at old age. In one of my worlds, the longevity of each race pretty much correlates to how powerful they are. Elves, being the oldest humanoid race, are the most powerful. They are not allowed as PCs. They don’t rule the world, though (even though they would like to) because there is so few of them. They are at war with the young humans who are quickly spreading across the continent. Anyway, I look forward to seeing if there are things I can incorporate into this world, if the PCs can live long enough that is.

I really like D&D Miniatures, but the ones pictured (blood golem of Hextor, Large black dragon, and the dire lion) don’t excite me as much as some previous previews. I’m not a big fan of Stephen King. I actually tried reading the first book in his Dark Tower series, and I had to put it down before I let it hit me in the head from falling asleep. So a comic book adaptation of it is not up my alley. Right now, comic book-wise, I am interested in Civil War, although I am behind on that as well as everything else (I can’t wait until I am done with my business degree so I will have more time for myself).

Out of the rest of First Watch only the new D&D Tactics game looks interesting to me. Unfortunately is for the PSP. I’m a Xbox man myself. Although I have been thinking about getting some type of handheld or portable DVD player for those long road trips that I end up getting sucked into all the time. This might be a necessary purchase.

Other First Watch entries: A comic adaptation of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (I might not buy this, but I’ll read it), Monsternomicon II for Iron Kingdoms, a new Talisman board game, and new monster statues. That’s it for that.

The Meat
Demonicon of Iggwilv: Malcanthet, Queen of the Succubi. I really enjoy reading James Jacobs articles on these unique denizens of the Abyss. I’m all for showcasing evil, as long as it is clear that it is meant for evil. This one though was a little uncomfortable to me as I have a problem with erotic material. I read on another post that Jacobs did his best to try not to go too far and yet describe what really makes her evil. I appreciate that. Out of all the demons featured in these articles, she is that last one I would use. If I did use her, it would probably be only as an enchantress and deceiver. I think that can be plenty enough to create havoc for the PCs.

Even though when I was a teen we had plenty of campaigns where the PCs were evil, I would not allow evil characters in my campaigns now without a lot of damage control. For instance, I have an idea for an evil campaign that features monstrous humanoids hearing the call of war and traveling to the hobgoblin warlord’s capital to possibly serve in his army. Two of my favorite monsters I can picture among them: a minotaur and a yuan-ti (although the PCs can be whatever they want). In the beginning they will have to try to work together and fend off human and dwarven attacks. This is actually part of my world that I mentioned above.

I do really like the amount of detail in the Demonomicon articles and this one is not an exception. Malcanthet’s abilities are quite interesting and can be used even in my toned-down version.

Multiple Dementia: A Guide to the Demiplanes. The new demiplanes featured in this article are very imaginative. I can definitely see campaigns incorporating a quest to one of these to find a legendary NPC or lost knowledge. The new demiplanes are: the Black Abyss, the Demiplane of Imprisonment (not Ravenloft), and Moil, the City that Waits. I’m a little confused with the last one. I thought that Moil was a place in Greyhawk, yet here it says it came from a world called Ranais. I guess there can be more than one Moil. Also included is a list of other demiplanes with one sentence descriptions. I’m not sure if any of them are new or just reprinted from Planescape products. I do recognize several of them: Cynosure (from when I was a diehard FR fan), the Demiplane of Dread (Ravenloft), and the Mazes (the Lady of Pain’s garbage chute) just to name a few.

Princes of Elemental Good: The Archomentals, Part II. I think that can be whole campaigns built around the wars between all the elemental conflicts, enough to fill several timeslots of daytime soap operas. Featured is Ben-Hadar (Prince of Good Water Creatures), Chan (Princess of Good Aerial Creatures), Sunnis (Princess of Good Earth Creatures), and Zaaman Rul (Prince of Good Fire Creatures). They have a range of 20-24 CR. What really differentiates them from each other (other than their element) is their history. That’s what makes these individuals really exciting. This is also the article that has the only new feat presented in this issue. I really like feats. This is not enough for me. I can’t even really call it a “brand-new” feat as it is just the opposite of the feat present in the evil archomentals article. Oh well.

Regulars
The Ecology of the Keeper. So this has nothing to do with the Eberron god the Keeper. I don’t have the Fiend Folio, which is where these knowledge hounds come from. They remind me of a cross between Agent Smith from the Matrix and those guys from Dark City (? Sorry, its been a long time since I have seen that movie, I might not even have the name right). They all look the same and can even switch places with another keeper so you don’t realize the one you have been battling as just been replaced with a fully-healed counterpart. I do like the fact that Paizo is branching out from the Monster Manual and getting into less-mentioned creatures. It could even encourage someone (like me) to go out and buy the Fiend Folio. Although it might take a few more from the Fiend Folio to get me to put it higher on my list.

Savage Tidings: Advancing the Wyvern. I have to say that I pretty much glossed over sea voyages in my campaigns. I don’t know if it is because there is so much more that needs to be considered rules wise or if it’s because I have a fear of treading water and having a huge sea monster swim up from under me and swallow me whole. So this article doesn’t have anything I would really use. There are mundane and magical items that can be used to upgrade ships. There are a few new NPCs and a couple new ideas on where to get replacement PCs. I haven’t really checked out the new adventure path, but I guess there is some underground adventuring in it as there is some info on what could possibly be going on underneath the Isle of Dread.

Volo’s Guide: Outsiders of the Forgotten Realms. There are four new outsiders in this article, two celestial and two fiendish. The two celestial are the harmonious choir of the words and the sliver. The two fiends are the death devil and umbral gloom. My favorite is probably the harmonious choir of the words since it uses rules from the Book of Exalted Deeds. Even though I do not own that book, I am familiar with some of its rules, including the Words of Creation, which the choir uses. One thing I found odd is the picture for the death devil. In its descriptive text, it says it has four wings and wears a robe. The picture does not include four wings, only two and, even though this is less important, it is not wearing a robe. Also, up until now, the number of pages for both the FR and EB articles have been fairly equal. This time, the FR article has over twice as many pages. I realize that the new monster format takes up a lot of pages (and I like having all the additional information) but I wish there was equal consideration for both worlds. I could just feel jaded because I like Eberron more than Forgotten Realms.

Dragonmarks: Manifestly Strange. Manifest zones are a huge part of what makes Eberron different. I appreciate the three new locations described here: Fantaran hot springs, Ivory Mountain, and the ruins of Pelmarane. I like all three equally well. They are all different enough to find places in any campaign.

This month’s Sage Advice coincides with the theme this month, which deals with planar stuff. There are some good questions this month.

Class Acts: Adventurer-Spellthief Substitutions. I am not too familiar with spellthieves, but it is always nice to have new rules for the non-standard classes. There are five new variant class features described: cursed blow, hamper magic, spelleater, spellskill, and trickster. My favorite is the spellskill. It allows you to sacrifice spells to gain bonuses to skills.

Arcane: Spells Without SR. I understand the need for something like this, but I think a better idea would be a list of spells for each of the subschool types. For instance all the spells with the fire descriptor or from the mind-affecting spells. I’ve made my own lists so that I know how hard it will be to get spells if someone wants to specialize in something (like mindset spells which I’ve only seen in Races of Eberron, and there are only a few there). It would be hard for me to submit my own lists though because I don’t have access to too many books.

Divine: No Turning. Several new variant class features that replace the turn or rebuke undead class feature. Each one even lists suggested core deities that would most likely use these variants. There are fourteen in all.

Warrior: Fighter Guide. This is probably the most useful class ability guide so far. Granted the only class ability the fighter has are the bonus feats and a list of all the feats that qualify as fighter bonus feats would be nice, what Amber E. Scott did is much more useful. Scott summarized the most likely options that a fighter would choose for attacks. She also chose two feats that are a fighter would likely choose as one of their fighter bonus feats, Power Attack and Mounted Combat, covered their rules and how to use them with other actions like two-weapon fighting (for PA) and cover (for MC). Very nice.

My Wish List
I wish for downloadable pictures from the magazine on the website. More web enhancements (maybe a few more feats for the fighter guide and a couple more manifest zones). Also, why hasn’t Paizo put the cover on the website?

I saw it Friday and I thought it was dumb. Granted I haven't collected comics for many years but I do remember the first Ghost Rider, who was Johnny Blaze, and the second one that came out in the 90's (after the movie I went back through my old stuff and found my GR issues 1-16). The original GR looked nothing like the one in the movie, he looks like the new one. None of the villians in the movie were familiar to me and Mephistopholes was completely wrong.

I knew going in that the movie was probably going to be corny, but I vowed to see all superhero movies. I thought that this didn't follow anything that was familiar with. I do realize there is a lot that I have missed in the 10+ years I haven't collected so maybe things have changed. (Like maybe Johnny Blaze is Ghost Rider again, and he looks like the new, cool GR).

I still give it two thumbs down.

It took 16 days for me to get the last Dragon mag. I am tracking the days for each issue now.

Ship Date to Subscribers: 01/03
Date Recieved: 01/16
Average Shipping Time (Jan-Dec '07): 13 days

Cover
I don’t think Dragon has had a very good track record with devoting a large section to one campaign world. There was an issue about Shannara, which I don’t know anybody who runs it or has taken anything from it and put it into their own world. The Dark Sun issue didn’t go over well, either. I love Dark Sun, but I wasn’t going to run a campaign set 500 years in the future and had paladins. So the theme for this issue is the world created by China Mieville. I had my reservations.

I did look forward to reading the article about custom warforged. I’m biased to anything Eberron. I’m also biased to FR. I have been tired of it since shortly before Eberron hit the scene (so, for a short while I didn’t like any published worlds, which is rare for me). I could only guess that the undead abominations article was the Volo’s Guide portion of the magazine because it was lumped with the Eberron one on the cover.

I enjoy the ecology articles, so the one on the yrthak sounds interesting. The artwork is a welcome change from anime-inspired works that seem to be saturating our society right now. I must say that I didn’t notice the cords attached to the sword and I had no idea what a possible sword was.

Shorts and Staples
The editorial was a nice like description and opinion of Mieville’s novels by Eric Mona. I do have to say though that it didn’t get me excited about reading those articles.

The first watch section I enjoyed. I’m glad that Paizo doesn’t just reprint the text from the back covers of the WotC books, like WotC does in their web article ‘Previews.’ On the other hand, Paizo didn’t write anything about the miniatures they previewed, which WotC does, so if I were to score points, Paizo and WotC would be even on this regard. I have no desire to buy busts of any kind, especially from LotR. I was tired of it before the first movie came out. None of the additional products reviewed looked interesting to me. They usually don’t.

Something that has always confused me is this. Why is there a preview of a Dungeon issue that will be off the shelves right after this Dragon magazine hits the shelves? I think they should have a preview of next month’s Dungeon; the one that will be out very shortly. The Dragon preview of next month’s issue always excites me. I guess I am never happy with what I have. Before I have even flipped through the magazine, I am looking at what is coming next month. Other than the FR article on outsiders (we had an FR article on half-outsiders very recently!) there is a Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Malcanthet (love these articles) and the Princes of Elemental Good (I just reread the evil archomentals article last week, so this is fresh in my mind).

I enjoyed Scale Mail this month. I like to play monstrous characters, so some of this was helpful. The Class Acts articles are probably 95% exciting. This month’s bundle was around 75-85%. I really enjoyed the skill specialization rules. You get some type of benefit for having certain skills while also being forbidden from taking other skills. It’s described as being like a specialist wizard for skills. It’s something I wish I had thought of. Now I get the pleasure of making my own. Thanks Hal Maclean. The Sorcerer Guide was one of those things that doesn’t help me. I have most of the information presented, plus a lot more. I make my own charts and tables and such that includes races, feats, skills, alternate abilities, classes, etc. I can see how this will help someone new to the game or just hasn’t taken the time (or doesn’t want to) to organize stuff like this. Aztec Mythos I (so we can look forward to more) was a little interesting. It includes two new deities: Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. There is even a blurb about them being used in the Savage Tide adventure path in Dungeon. I have gotten to really like organizations. It is a way for characters to get more benefits, more contacts, more plot hooks, without sacrificing levels or feat slots. The Burning Gauntlet Sisterhood is one of my favorites. It even has a new feat (I love feats).

Regulars
I like reading mythologies of creatures. It’s a way of saying how something happened while still leaving it open to debate. If the DM doesn’t like how the creature came to be (in this case a prideful bard who was tempted by a succubus), he can easily change it. Knowledge checks and creating advanced versions also really helps. The Colossal yrthak (He-Who-Hums) looks like a great alternative to the tarasque.

I’m going to assume that the new adventure path in Dungeon deals primarily with the Isle of Dread because there has been quite a bit about it in the Savage Tidings articles. This article describes the Olmans, with weapons, feats, and the Olman Tribes organization. All good stuff for characters.

Volo’s Guide to the Forgotten Dead has two 2nd edition updates and one new creature. Other than being FR specific, I thought these undead creatures were well done, with a good range of CRs (3, 9, and 11).

Warforged: Fierce and Furious was really good. There are tables to help customize your warforged. It is also fairly easy to come up with new tables if these are not enough for you. There are also two new components and a warforged-only organization. I was a little dismayed to find out that Keith Baker didn’t write this article. When I read months ago that ‘Dragonshards’ (an online article by Keith Baker) was returning, then these ‘Dragonmarks’ articles started appearing last moth, I thought these were it. At first I was glad because the first one was written by Baker. Now I hope the ‘Dragonmarks’ returns to the online because I can’t get enough of Eberron’s creator’s insights.

The Meat
The first two pages of the “super-spectacular” articles is an interview with the author himself, China Mieville. This gave me a quick overview of his novels Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council, which all take place in the featured world. This interview told me what type of novels he writes. Mieville is influenced by H.P. Lovecraft, specifically Call of Cthulhu. Everything I have read about Cthulhu, mostly in the pages of Dragon Magazine, has steered me away from it. So far, I still am not interested in Lovecrafts’ works.

Now for the large chunks. Here is the list in order: Bas-Lag Gazetteer (predominately about the city of New Crobuzon but with a healthy chunk of other stuff outside the city), People of Bas-Lag (four new races to play, the cactacae with LA +2, the khepri, the remade template with LA +1, and the vodyanoi with LA +1), and Monsters of Bas-Lag (the anophelii with females being more powerful than males, the garuda which is a playable monster, the grindylow, the symbiotic handlinger, the scabmettler with solidifying blood, the slake moth, the weaver, and the wyrmen.

I really enjoyed the gazetter, especially the detail of on politics and government. It seems that the novels are thick with political concerns. That interests me. Remember that ‘possible sword’ I mentioned at the beginning? It’s a 3,000-year-old artifact. It takes up about two-thirds of a page. Is that enough for something featured on the cover? I don’t think so. It brought back memories of when D&D Online was given a headline on the cover a couple years ago, but it only had a quarter of a page inside. I think that anything featured on the cover should have a significant amount of content inside the magazine. Other than that, it is a really cool sword. Using a charge duplicates your attack 19 times (for each value you didn’t role on the d20) deal different amounts of damage whether they hit or not.

The new playable races, while having very interesting societies, histories, political issues, and interesting abilities, they don’t interest me, I hate to say this, physically. Plant people, especially cactus’, don’t do anything for me. The khepri are humanoid females (the males are not playable as they are large bugs) have insect heads. Again, their nonphysical aspects are quite cool, but I hate bugs. The remade seem to me like living zombies. Criminals and others that offend the powers that be are recreated as cyborg-like creatures. They gain some enhancements, but also some drawbacks which I feel have a deeper impact on roleplaying than the advantages. Finally, the vodyanoi are frog-like creatures with the power to manipulate water. I guess the type of races I like, even though I think it is a wide variety, doesn’t include any of these.

I think each and every one of the new monsters are very imaginative. I could see them popping up in campaigns that have nothing to do with Bas-Lag. I was raised in a part of the U.S. that has swarms of large mosquitos, making the anophelii would be something I would dread. The rest all could have their place in my worlds.

All in all, I would have to say that China Meiville has an interesting imagination. I wouldn’t be opposed to reading any of his books, but as for running Bas-Lag as my campaign world, I’d have to say no. Both worlds I have created have their own mixture of adventure and political intrigue, so I don’t see any reason to add anything like it to my gaming worlds.

Unfortunately I did not receive issue 352 in the mail this weekend, so if I get it this week, my review will be coming on the weekend because I have school during the week.

I've decided to start posting everything that I like about each issue of Dragon this year. I was going to start with issue 351 because it is the January issue, but I was so busy in December that I didn't get to finish reading it until a couple weeks ago, so I have decided to start with the issue that I actually get in 2007.

Although I have not received issue 352 yet, I am posting this as sort of an accountability for me to keep my word.

I'll write mostly about what I like about each issue. I'll, hopefully, keep my criticism to a minimum as I don't like to criticize others. I'll also note some things I wish was in the issue or on the website.

I hope I get the issue in the mail today or tomorrow so that I can have the review up by Monday. I welcome any comments concerning the issue or anything I write.

I suppose I'll at least start with the preview of issue 352. I am not familiar with China Mieville. I do like articles about new cultures and such, but I have to wonder why they are devoting so much of the issue to a single campaign. The issues about Shannara and Dark Sun were not that interesting to me (and I am a huge fan of Dark Sun). Oh well, I am kind of sitting on the fence about this until I actually read the articles.

I really like Eberron, so an article about customizing warforged is right up my alley. I'm assuming that the undead abominations article is the Volo's Guide. Even when I liked FR, I never really liked any of the Volo books and such.

Ecology articles are always interesting. I have never used an Yrthak or been up against one, but maybe this will change after I read the article.

Looking at the webpage for this issue, I wonder why there are no descriptions of the articles there. It seems to me that Paizo is fairly inconsistent with their postings. Wish List: Downloadable pics from the magazine and web enhancements. The two web enhancements they had (or were there more? I seem to remember so additional stuff on the preview page itself or maybe it was just extra previews) were quite good, even the FR/Hordelands stuff. On each of my reviews, I will probably always add to the wishlist the two items above because I think they are very important.

I hope to post in a few days with my thoughts. Have a good weekend everybody.

I would like to apologize myself. I don't usually voice my opinion, especially when it comes to religion. I have strong religious beliefs, and one of them is to not judge others. But I am only human. I would rather post things about what I like about the magazines, not what I dislike. Unfortunately it is easier to critic than to praise.

You won't see me posting anymore my religious beliefs unless someone has an honest question and I will try and make the answer as diplomatic as possible.

As I have written before, I do appreciate the human body and what we can do to make it healthy, beautiful and respectful. I work in an environment that sometimes tests my religious beliefs, but that is the price that I pay in order to help those who want to become healthy.

I just want Paizo to know that I did not buy Dungeon #143 because of the cover. I bought it because it has an Eberron adventure. Those are the only ones I get.

I applaud Wayne Reynolds for his artist skills. He is one of the handful of D&D artists that I really like. Unfortunately, this is not one of those that I did appreciate. "Nobody can please everybody all of the time," as the saying goes.

So I appologize to anybody that was affended by my comments. I hope that in the future, as our posts cross paths, we can have honest and adult conversations. Enjoy the magazine.

Holy in that context means clean in the eyes of the God of the Hebrews. The temples you are describing would not be considered holy but rather unholy. :) The cover art only brings to mind SoS 7 if you let it. I see no naked women on the cover. In fact she is fighting which is not what the woman in SoS is doing. At all. Pornography is attempting to draw the infinite from the finite. SoS is not immune.

This art is fine.

The cover is pornographic. You can see the sides of her breasts. God's laws do not change. They are the same now as they were before. Man changes the laws to suit their whims. It is culturely acceptable, not morally, to have something like this on the cover of a magazine that anybody could buy.

My reasons for disliking this aspect of the picture is predominately religious. For those of you that don't care about Christian beliefs, don't worry, I'm not going to start writing of fire and damnation.

But I will say that our society has become too perverse. We need to treat our bodies as holy temples, not incouraging sexual thoughts from anyone that looks at us. We become sexual objects, and nothing else.

Granted this is a drawing, not a real person, but the same applies. And children can purchase this magazine without showing any ID. I wouldn't allow any of my children to buy Cosmo, Maxim, or any magazine that has sexual content in it, drawings included.

Now to the practical aspect of the picture. I don't know of any women that would wear something like that top for any type of extreme activity. Just a quick turn of the body will cause a breast to pop out.

I have seen other posts purtaining to inappropriate covers and the answer is always that partial nudity-sex sells. Where is Paizo going to draw the line? When will the line get pushed further?

I could go on about the immorality of the subject, but I won't unless someone has some specific questions to ask. I enjoy the content of Dragon & Dungeon. I enjoy great looking art. The woman on the cover could have looked as cool and awesome if she had a little more on.

I like Wayne Reynolds art and I am all for perfectly shaped bodies (I am a fitness instructor), but I really disliked that her breasts are practically falling out fo the sides of her top. I think that was uncalled for for many reasons I can go into later if anyone asks.

Too bad the Monster Ecologies isn't an update of older articles. I have all the magazines for the last three years. Even if there is going to be some new info, I can't justify spending what they are going to be asking (assuming it is going to be around what the DC vol. 1 is).

If you go by WotC rules, the text takes precedence. But I don't know about Paizo. I would apply the same rule until we hear further.

Dragon issue 313 or 314 and the Savage Progression articles on WotC's website have monster class progressions for lycanthropes. I personally like Dragon's better; it's less confusing. It also has some feats appropriate to the shapechangers.

WotC recently posted a new Epic Insight article that has new epic feats for the warlock.

Unfortunately, I can't think of anything for the soulknife. I don't have my stuff with me right now, but there might have been a Class Acts in the last 5 months geared towards them.

I am not a big fan of FF; I have not played since FF7 or 8. But I didn't mind. I know alot of people like FF and D&D, and so it seemed like there was good/understandable crossover. It is just like stuff printed for FR. I do not run FR, but I know others readers do, and I don't mind.

FR is D&D, FF is not. I don't particularly want FR content as I haven't liked the setting for about five years, yet I am willing to forget my disdain for it if I can get Eberron content. I don't want Ravenloft, Mystara, or Hollow World content, but will accept it if I can get Dark Sun, Planescape, Birthright, or Spelljammer content.

That being said, I will say:

1. I love the First Watch section. There is always non D&D stuff, and I like to see it. It is a nice way to keep me informed. In that way, this article was ok, because fans of FF probably need/want more detail. And I guarantee a good 50-75 percent of D&D fans play/have played FF games, so I am sure that area grabbed some readers.

Those that like FF (or video games in particular) know there are better sources to get the information they want. The D&D content in Dragon is only in Dragon. I mentioned before that I don't want non-D&D material that interests me in Dragon magazine because it is strictly a source of D&D content, "the official D&D magazine."

2. I don't get any gaming material out of the comics, the letters ot the editor, first watch and any other number of sections, but that does not make them worthless. I like things other than "crunch" now and again; in fact, I prefer a balance.

Crunch and fluff as refered to roleplaying are, respectively, new rules and world development. The ad-article for FF falls into neither catagory as it has nothing to do with D&D.

Pages reserved for the editor's letter, letters to the magazine, product reviews, etc. are staples of all popular magazines (and most scholarly and opinion journals). For the most part, the ones in Dragon directly pertain to D&D.

3. Someone said that FF is Scifi/Fantasy, so it should not be in. I say that is a damn shame. Past articles in Dragon have covered Alternity, Gamma World, Boot Hill, etc. I don't think it ALWAYS has ot be fantasy. In fact, I would love to see d20 Modern/Future stuff now and again.

I made that comment and I stand by it. As for the games you mentioned, where are they now? There are no new articles on them. Why is that? Because they were not D&D. D20 Modern/Future used to have a place in Polyhedron (RIP), which was the right place for it (in my opinion).

Furthermore, FF is more like Space Fantasy (think Star Wars), otherwise known as Fantasy-in-SF-clothing.

it's not a stretch.

It's a stretch calling it Fantasy-in-SF-clothing. Star Wars and FF are definitely SF. There is nothing about Star Wars that is Fantasy. The closest thing is the Force, but is is more like psionics (which is originally a SF ideal) than magic. Even though I like psionics in D&D, it is quite foreign to the fantasy genre.

Anyways, this reminds me of the countless "Wil save/Class Acts/Article X sucks" threads that say since something is not useful to everyone, it shouldn't be printed. Simulataneously, these people lament that their pet settings are nto covered.

Nobody can please everybody all of the time. Yet those articles you mentioned are about D&D, therefore thtey have a place in a D&D magazine.

It's two pages people. Treat it like I treat the fiction: skim or skip it.

That's two pages of missed D&D content (whatever it could be). It's sad that instead of the makers of FF purchasing ad space, Paizo paid someone to write a biased article on a non-D&D product.

This month's First Watch was better to stomach. Instead of 2 pages for one product, we have 1 page for two products. I would still rather have that page be filled with D&D content, though. Also, there have been ads for Pax Nora in Dragon for several months already, so we already know about it. They just got some free advertising from Paizo.

Anything generic done by WotC is Greyhawk. so unless it has Forgotten Realms or Eberron (or one-shots like Oriental Adventures and Ghostwalk) the default world is Greyhawk.

Need help, James?

Holding up sign that says:
WILL WORK FOR FREE PRODUCTS

Granted I am really busy with work and school, but I am already college edgemicated (going for second degree now).

Do you guys do contract work? I'd make your guys stuff a priority over work, house, wife (if you tell her, I'll deny it).

I understand that updating material would require their sayso, but why do they need to okay a product in general?

This thought came to me before when someone asked about the next Adventure Path hardcover and McArtor (or someone else from Paizo) said that it was up to WotC to allow it. Why is that? if it was good enough to put into either magazine, it would stand to reason that then you could put it into another product wihtout their approval.

This is a great show. It really takes me back to when I used to collect comics. Everybody behind the camera is doing a good job.

I have decided to save all the episodes on my DVR. They replayed the first 3 episodes Sunday, so now I have all 5. I'll still buy the DVDs of course (need the extra content).

I wondered about the dad and DL/Syler being all over, myself. My wife helped me out on this one because I started thinking really weird things like teleportation, multiplying, etc. (it's nice have a wife who you can drag into your addictions with).

They are from the middle of the country, so hopping on planes with get them anywhere fast. I assume the dad's job gives him a lot of resources. His family knows he flies a lot. But how does DL get around if he is a wanted man? (Sorry, I am assuming DL is also Syler, but my mind can be easily changed.)

I feel kind of bad, though, because I don't visit the main Heroes board and put this stuff on there. I need to also thinking about joining the craze of MySpace and putting my thoughts of Heroes on there).

Well, I've decided to renew my subscription. I'm not going to allow one bad apple ruin the whole bunch. So, Paizo, you have one more year to improve yourselves.

Like I said before, I am willing to pay more for content. People will generally pay more for something that is important to them. For example, I will pay around $2 for a healthier snack bar than 50 cents for a candy bar. That's important to me.

When Dragon starts to have less content in it, it loses its importance. Leave the non-D&D material out of the magazine.

Paizo had a survey not to long ago. I don't remember what the questions were (mostly about Dungeon?), but I can't see most of the readers wanting previews (or reviews) of non-D&D material in place of game content, especially when it is NOT bringing in additional revenue (Paizo paid for this article; that's free advertising for FFXII).

Unless Dragon can prove that there is a direct corelation between what Dragon readers read about the game and them going out to buy it because of it, it has become a liability. I would love to see the results of a survey that is set up to determine that.

I'm interested in the shows "Smallville" and "Heroes." So where are the articles on those? Hopefully there will never be articles about those shows in Dragon. There is no D&D roleplaying relation between the them. Dragon is the official D&D magazine. Keep it that way.

Out of curiosity, will there be an actual Silicon Sorcery on FFXII in the near future? And if not, can we submit one?

Sure, submit one, but two FFXII articles in one year would be pushing my limits. I have three issues remaining in my subscription and I am glad I have waited to renew. We'll see how good the next couple are.

I usually don't mind small changes to the magazine, even if I don't agree with them, but this seems to be the start of something larger happening, like less D&D content and more ads/articles related to video games.

When I read the article, marketing immediately came to mind. It makes sense that the makers of 'product X' would want to advertise in 'magazine Y' if they think it will boost sales for that product.

Unfortunately (and I don't have the magazine in front of me to clarify this, so I don't know who actually wrote: Dragon staff or game company) it read like an actual Dragon article instead of an advertisement. I've run across this before in other magazines. Fitness mags, such as Msucle & Fitness (I think that's the name) is more ads than articles. Even some of their articles are actually ads if you look closely enough.

Example: There's an article in M&F about a specific product. Looked cool and it must be really great if the staff of M&F was devoting a whole article on it. But it wasn't written by them, it was written by the manufacturer (no author was mentioned and in the corner of each page it said 'Special 6 Page Ad'). M&F gets a lot of money selling space in their magazine, meaning savings for the subscriber or off-the-shelf buyer. Unfortunately, the mag is mostly ads with very little unbiased-opinion articles.

I don't want to see Dragon become like M&F. I want more article content than ad content. Even if the FFXII was an article written by Dragon staff, it's still on the side of an ad; I can even go as far as saying a biased-opinion piece.

I see this "article" as the white spec on top of chicken crap. What's the white-spec on top of chicken crap, you ask? It's chicken crap, too.

I don't mind a few pages mentioning new products and such. Most magazines have them. It lets me know what else is out there relating to my hobby (and I can make a very strong argument that role-playing is vastly different than video games; not the same hobby). Once you start trying to be everything to everyone, you lose your focus. And you lose your hardcore fans. I haven't even gamed in several years, yet I still subscribe because this is the official D&D magazine. Keep it that way.

We pay more for this magazine then others of its size because of the lower/cheaper ad content. That's a price I am willing to pay. I even wrote to scale mail a couple months ago stating that I would be happy to pay one or two more dollars per issue for an extra 8 to 16 pages of content.

Isn't FF sci-fi/fantasy? I remember machines and guns and robots in the last one I played. D&D is fantasy.

I'll not be looking forward to reading about Zelda next issue. Even though it is just fantasy, an article on it has no place in Dragon magazine unless do something like create some stats for his sword (weapon of legacy?) or something like that.

I hope that's enough, but I would be more than happy to defend my arguements. I would even be happy to start researching this topic for anybody interested.

I did notice some odd stuff on the computer screen, but that is it. I've got DVR, but I erase the episodes after I've watched them a couple times (which I've done).

Am I the only person that doesn't need instant gratification? This slow progression for character development is interesting to me. Don't get me wrong, I like shows that are action-packed (like 24 and Prison Break), but this is a welcome change. Just sit back and enjoy the ride. I'm sure there will be action up ahead.

I'm glad it's not a show where the heroes are battling a new villian every week. The 'freak of the week' really only worked for the X-Files (which is one of my all time favorite series, until DD left). It hasn't worked all that well for Smallville (I've almost left that show several times, either due to the lame 'freak of the week' episodes or to the abundance of sexual content).

So, here's to a show that is going to focus on one main plot and spend its time developing the characters.

Just watched episode 2. I liked most of it. Pretty much what I didn't like were the lopped-off skulls with the brains missing. A little too violent for my taste, but I guess I expected scenes like this after seeing the two guys that Ali killed in episode 1.

What I did like:

Speaking of Ali, I am getting a better understanding of her power. It's triggered by violence, yet violent itself. Less a protector, more executioner. And it seems it has been acting for some time (i.e. the other body buried).

Tokyo boy was in the future! That was a cool twist. But now we know the timeline for season 1. The heroes have 5 weeks to save New York.

Short notes: both brothers have the same power, cheerleader evil dad knows about her, new character (from Felicity) is a cop who gets arrested because of his power. Good stuff.

I like the character development and introduction of powers they have on the show. I don't want them running around as a superhero team yet. If they did that, it would be really silly. Again I think of Mutant X. This show seems more real to me because they are starting from the very beginning.

Saying that, I don't want it to be too slow for too long. They all need to migrate to NY like all true superhero teams do (ala Marvel).

I've got more thoughts, but I have to get to work.

I thought that it was great. It's not a movie so they can slow things down and really get into character development. I'm interested in how their abilities really work (ex. Tokyo guy moving time backwards enabling him to also teleport, interesting and what is Ali Larter's ability anyway, does she create a double of herself or does she take on another aspect of her psyche?) It's a hundred times better than Mutant X was (most UPN shows had a general theme of lame in my opinion).

Here's two thumbs up for the show. I can't decide if I want them in costumes or not, though. Probably not. *shrug*

I hope it is not on at the same time as Prison Break because I go to bed pretty early (work at 5 AM) so my DVR is set to record PB. If it's on at a different time, I will be sure to record it and watch it Wednesday.

Well, with no other comments from anybody in the know I am going to delete the Deep Diver from all my records. Pressure Resistance no longer needs it.

The Pressure Resistance feat in Dragon issue 314 lists the Deep Diver feat as one of its prerequisites. I am unable to find it. Does anybody know where it is?

Ahhh, bringing back these campaigns would be great. I might even jump back to FR now and then if they did revamp those lands. I remember fondely when they came out. I guess even back then I was getting tired of Faerun. When the 3rd edition Oriental Adventures came out and the campaign it supported was Rokugan (spelling?) and not Kara-Tur, it hurt. Adventures for these realms were great also. The OA one with the monkey god was great and the trilogy for the Hordelands was one of my favorite FR adventures. The chance to play an eagle or jaguar knight from Maztica definitely excited me (I know that Dragon mag had an article for these PrC in their first Campaign Classics, but more needs to be done). So, here's hoping that something interesting happens to bring me back to FR.

Granted, there is not much FR content in Dragon, but IMO what is there is not anything I would use, even if I still used FR. I have not read a single short story in Dragon, ever. Not that I don't want to. I fully plan on going back through the issues and read them. Sometime. They are last on my list of things to read.

I thought the Wizards Three was a joke. They used to be alot better. Plus, being tired of Greenwood's writing style and subjects, it was a double whammy (Sorry Ed! I mean no disrespect, really).

I wouldn't even try to modify any of the cities or realms to my own campaign. It would be easier to create my own than to change everything that needed to change, not to mention that it would still seem like FR to me, but that's a personal problem.

So the only one that I can see as useful to me, whether I pick up FR again or get ideas for my own campaign, is the relics article.

I hope that helps clarify my opinion.

I will try not to make this a FR-hate post. I have gotten really tired of FR. I think it is saturated with too much magic, powerful characters, and rehashed fluff. Also, I got really tired of Ed Greenwood's descriptions of things like fences and cutlery.

That said, there is a lot to the realms that have not been touched in a long time. Zakhara, Kara-Tur, Evermeet, Maztica, and the Endless Waste have been pretty much forgotten (especially Kara-Tur and Zakhara because they were seen as seperate campaigns).

Even though I said that I have gotten tired of rehashed fluff, I wouldn't say no to rehashed (updated) crunch. I, too, used to like "Faiths of Faerun" before I quite the realms.

If there were going to be more articles that are realms-specific, I would think that the best ones would be how to incorporate the new rules books into the campaign as the top choice. Other cool articles would give NPC stats, new rules, etc. related to the novels. I still read them (although a lot less frequently now; other than keeping up on Salvatore's books, I am on the Year of Rogue Dragons series, about 2 1/2 years behind).

There's my two cents. I hope that everybody can get something they like, which also means that not everybody will like everything.

Abinadi (ah-been-ah-dee) (spoken in a hushed voice) is only used on this sie. It is really from the Book of Mormon (pronounced a-been-a-die).

I mostly use Falen everywhere else. This is the name of Denis Leary's character in Judgement Night. It wasn't until a few years later that I found out the spelling was really Fallon. I kept it because that is what people knew me by from MUDDs and such. I have had it for about 13 years. Sometimes it will be FalenKU (University of Kansas, where I went to school).

I do get upset when it is taken. I don't know what happened on these boards. Maybe I finally felt like a change.

I wouldn't want to spend $40 on a book dedicated to the classic campaigns. I would hate to have pages and pages of Mystara or Dragonlance that I would never use. I would rather have one book per setting. Dark Sun, Planescape, and Spelljammer were my favorite. Brand new material to supplement the official world websites written mostly/in conjunction with the those sites contributors would be a given.