Amadeus's page

My first character was from the Red basic set. He was a fighter. That is to say a human fighter. His name was Territh and I played him till he gained the 22 level, then he got level drained and fell to level 21. I finally tired of him and had him die.

Thanx guys, sorry for the mix up. But yeah, those Pazuzu domains will defiently come in handy.

I like the articles, in fact I love them. I allow worship of the infernal powers in my campaign, in fact, I allow pretty much everything. But for an aspiring cleric of Pazuzu, or maybe Fraz'Urb'Luu, what do they do about domains? I understand Trickery could be a good choice for both, maybe destruction for Fraz'Urb'Luu since he's gone mad, the Demon domain from the Book of Vile Darkness?

I love the articles, but for those players who want to worship the Demon Princes, what domains can they choose from? When a god is mentioned in one of the articles lately, I notice a little side bar that describes them like they are being handled in The Races of "" books. I like it, maybe not as much as I like the old system of writing info on the gods (where the symbol was given in written form, very nice since one artist's representation while nice doesn't take into account the variance of holy symbols a world would have).

So, could you put in a side bar like that for the demons? Or maybe just put down what domains they offer to potential clerics?

Life's Bazaar when they were looking for the kids. They wanted to get a good opinion of all the people in high positions of what they thought was going on. Vhalantru did them one better, he allowed them free reign of his "personal library".

That was hilarious. Those comics are great.

*laughs and smiles* That actually would be a pretty amusing Rougue's Gallerish article. Maybe slate it for an April issue or something? Man, now that it is mentioned, I actually really like that idea, I watched the cartoon when I was younger, and although I didn't really like it, it always made me laugh.

Hmm... an article similar in nature to this, but based entirely on the Power Component idea was already published in one of the Dragons, I believe the Races of Power issue. But I take it you mean even more things, like what parts could be used to make interesting alchemical substances and things. If so I just might be able to make some money, I do that in my campaign. Components for making items is a prerequisite for a lot of the items of my campaign, got the idea from some Dragon articles that had that kind of thing, and I really liked the idea. But, ya know, if the idea doesn't take with Dragon, I could either post some of them here or e-mail it to you, guess we'll just see.

Yes-- I use the content in Dungeon to the fullest. I just got Steel Shadows, and frankly, that Warforged Juggernaut is going to become an awesome monster in my capaign. The warforged can be a monster race just like anything else, same with the shifters and such, they are even in Monster Manual III. If you don't like the adventure, pull out the stat blocks or magical items, names, maps, whatever you think might be useful. I don't often use the dungeons as are anyway, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. For me Dungeon is a place for a good couple storylines, some inspiration, some fun, some stat blocks and items, and most importantly, some laughs and memories.

The only thing I really miss from Dragon Magazine are the interesting fonts and layouts. Everything feels too, I don't know, open in the new magazines. But like all versions of Dragon Magazine, it seems to just be a phase, and it'll pass soon.

I only have the Races of the Wild, but I love it. I don't really like the Raptoran because my setting is already chock full of enough races (course as a DM there can always be secrets) but the section on the Elves really helped me out. In my world there was a schism between elves and half retiend their tie to arcane magic and nature whereas the otber half took on a militiristic and well, human standpoint. This book helped me out rather well to further flesh out those two races.

Beyound this the section of new gear was a favourite, and the inclusion of the info on Mithral armors makes my work a whole lot easier. All in all, great book.

Only thing that makes me sad is that there weren't very many racial feats, which I was kind of hoping for.

I always thought the Kenku were more wizardly than thieflike thanks to the game Eye of the Beholder, and I must say I'm thankful to the Ecology of the Kenku article for giving me an intriguing change of perspective and also for giving me a nice tidbit of legend to flavour my campaign with.

I just remembered that there are also abilities that are socially based. I forgot to talk about them, but I'll just put a short blurb here. Humans gain an extra feat because of their willingness to learn and their diverse ways, and dwarves gain a +4 against giants due to training against them, these sort of bonuses which represent training or a willingness to learn are social factors, and you can pepper your races with them as well. Just another thing you can work with. Hope you well.

Pazuzu is the Lord of Skies and Pestilence. As such he uses all manner of flying demons, such as succubi. If you need more flying demons than the succubi, the vrock, the Anzu and whatever other demons with fly happen to be in the Monster Manual (my memory eludes me) the Dragon Magazine Humour and Hellspawn (it was an April issue with a succubi on the cover) contained an interesting demon called the air demon which may also b a possible servant of Pazuzu. Furthermore, as stated in the Ecology of the Kenku article (right after the Pazuzu article if memor serves) it was stated that the Kenku had a history with Pazuzu, and that some may still serve him in the hopes of retining their former glory. Beyound this anyone could be a servant of Pazuzu. Unlike many demon lords, Pazuzu takes a personally vested interest in the Material Plane, and as such could have recruits in all manner of places. Even a famous hero in your campaign world could have been subverted by Pazuzu, and if so it makes it all the more tragic if he sold his soul to save his nation, or the people he cares about. Pazuzu makes for an insidious and interesting opponent.

Edit: I forgot about the pestilence part! Some more possible servants of Pazuzu could be locusts, rats, or other creatures that bring about plague and famine. Interesting additions could be any creature that has a disease as part of an attack form. Look around also in your history books or search Google or something for interesting plagues or famines and what caused them. Your players may expect to fight a demon cultist or a flying demon, but what will happen when Pazuzu throws the bubonic plague at them?

I loved the Beowulf article, and laughed my butt off when I saw it too. I had just finished creating the layout for my Beowulf paradoy side quest when I decided to take a look in Barnes and Nobles for D&D products (particularilly that wondrous book Races od Destiny I still hope for) when I saw the Beowulf articles coverline on the magazine. I smiled deviously, decided Races of Destiny could wait awhile and picked up the magazine. By applying the fiendish template to Grendel and adding that creul energy draining tentelcle attack I had thought up I created quite the memorable encounter that my players truly hated. Thank you Dragon.

On a more analytical level, the article was truly invigorating, it gave a nice surmise of the tale of Beowulf and the Firedrake might just make an appareance in my campaigns as well. The only thing that makes me sigh is that there wasn't a sidebar detailing what Beowulf would be like if given equipment suitable to his level. They used to have those in the older magazines if I remember right and it helped me when balancing characters. Oh well, nothing I can't fix myself.

Dragon continues to be a plethora of wondrous information.

I've got to say that I found the Pazazu article rather thrilling...except for those evil nightmares I had after reading it...darn those chocolate covered expresso beans. *smiles* But seriously, on a more analytical level. The sidebar (on who Pazuzu is in real life and also that short blurb on him in the media) was highly informative, just the sort of thing I love when playing D&D. Once again Dragon magazine expressed it's psychic abilities in giving me just the background to that evil dissembling intrigue game I was running at the time. And my fetish for Fiendish enemies was definetly sated by the horrificly strong Anzu.

As someone mentioned earlier, the foremat for these demon articles are quite helpful, they make referencing the rather substantial article a pleasure instead of a pain.

Plus, it came at the perfect time, I was just starting to delve into the MMIII and was truly pleased to see a 3.5 rendition of Kenkus, the article on Pazuzu and also the Ecology of the Kenku were two of my favorite articles from the issue. Together they spelled out a future campaign I might just run. I hope to see more of these articles about Demon Princes.

I'm curious as well, will we be seing any Archdukes of Hell in similar articles?

Sure, it is quite possible to have two different subraces within one single race. On a cultural and a biological level such an idea might be very similar to the Caste System. Ants and bees use this system. Drones and Workers are still Bees, but techically speaking they are very different from each other in both form and function. You just need to decide what race you want and also how they will interact with each other. Why are they different, what funtions are they to perform for their given societies or race? Keep these and other important questions in mind as you try to create the race. Furthermore, Dragon's interesting new Familiar Winning Races, the Dm's Handbook, and of course the Player's Handbook's Races section might become indespensible in creating your own race. Look at what others have done, maybe take a close look at the monster manual and see what different abilities are given to what. Make certain to try the race out and establish it in a balanced way.

Sounds like a lot huh? But with the new D20 system and the plethora of tools at your disposal it is actually quite an easy task. In my campaign I have various different races, some very similar to what you are talking about. Elves for instance, in both my campaign and the main game are a very good example. You have Wood Elves, Drow, Aquatic Elves, Gray Elves, you get the point. Through time and practice these Elves have gained very different perspectives on the world based on both their environment and their societies. Not to mention their personal worship.

Their is an interesting article in the issue Humour and Hellspawn (still back orderable I do believe) which talks about environmental variant templates you can apply to a race. Mayhap that will help you create your race. Anyway, your possibilities are endless, and I do wish you the best in your creative endeavors, maybe when you are done you will submit it to Dragon and the rest of us may revel in your glory.

Personally, I've read the old Dragons (though to get my hands on those illustrious beauties for my personal use has been a little harder) and I must agree that Dragon has changed. It has changed a lot, because Dragon, like the game it helps uphold is a living entity unto itself. Kind of like the American Constitution it is something that evolves as needs and dictates and it's readership changes. The game has underwent drastic changes, and so has the magazine. For awhile the very eye-catching "Bazaar of the Bizarre" was switched out for the more utilitarian "Magic Shop". The magzine seems to be just experimenting, and really, isn't that what it is for? I see much content in Dragon continually trun up in collaboritive pieces and official rulebooks because it is the testing ground for new ideas. The magazine is indeed essential to the hobby as a whole. Without the grand article of in issue #300 we would have lost an entire section of the Draconomicon(The evil extraplanar dragons). As you can see if you review the books coming out a lot of the older information in Dragon serves as a sort of preview to the new and soon to be. The magazine continually pushes the envelope of what D&D will be.

Having been through four editors in the past two years alone it is no wonder that these expirimental times are a bit strange to us, but frankly I love them. The new First Watch section of the magazine is my second stop (after Wyrm's Turn of course). And the Winning Races Familiar is great when trying to add original flavour to your home-brew campaigns, or for adding interesting twists in character generation to well established campaign worlds. Remember, when the story warrants it, canon is your enemy.

I've heard the argument that Dragon has become a tool of advertisement, but I cannot see why people take this as an offense. It allows us a diverse look at a growing market, with the revolution brought on by the D20 system there are all sorts of products out there, and sometimes we miss out on that perfect supplement because it doesn't have the D&D logo stamped on front. Lord knows that without those advertisements I'd never have found Dragonmech, and the book has added various elements of technology to my home-brewed campaign. Sure, I don't use the mechs, but there are other things you can glean from such books.

In conclusion, I just have to say that the magazine remains a vital and important part of the hobby.