They originally appeared for 3.0 in Living Greyhawk Journal #3, one of the members-only issues.
indeed - which is the main reason Scott decided not to include it in the Tome of Horrors.
the norker, FYI, originally appeared in the 1st edition Fiend Folio, as well as the 2nd edition Greyhawk Monstrous Compendium.
Excellent.I am glad to hear that the article is being so well received. I just wanted to note that some of these monsters were pulled from articles with a wide variety of creatures in them. Some of these will undoubtedly show up in Creature Catalog VI (yes, there will be another one at some point in the future).
Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor of Dragon
Quick question.
Will all of the forthcoming CC's be collections of creatures cut from other articles or will people be able to submit monsters specifically for the CC's? I downloaded the submission guidelines, but I didn't see anything regarding it.
That said, the CC was excellent. Great art and great content. Congratulations to everyone who submitted a monster, they were all good... and soon I shall be making use of the Living Wall template.
Oh yes... soon...
How many CC's are confirmed? Will it now be a quarterly or so regular feature? I'm dying to get a monster in, I've been (re)sending my dragons for the Year of Dragons. Oh yeah, I just got my issue last Friday at my gaming store.
Director of Game Design
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Quick question.Will all of the forthcoming CC's be collections of creatures cut from other articles or will people be able to submit monsters specifically for the CC's? I downloaded the submission guidelines, but I didn't see anything regarding it.
Well, I will accept queries with creature ideas for future creature catalogs, but I highly suggest that you make sure to include a number of creature ideas, each no more than 3-4 sentences in length. The ideal number is around 4-6 monsters. This allows us to look for the best ideas and request them to help fill out future installments.
Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor of Dragon
Well, I will accept queries with creature ideas for future creature catalogs, but I highly suggest that you make sure to include a number of creature ideas, each no more than 3-4 sentences in length. The ideal number is around 4-6 monsters. This allows us to look for the best ideas and request them to help fill out future installments.Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor of Dragon
Awesome, thanks.
I got the issue a few days ago, but I've been too absorbed with it and other things to post what I've been wanting to say until now. The rest of the issue is pretty good, although the Catalogue takes up a big part of it. I could really do without the Forgotten Realms fiction, but I know some people love that stuff; on the other hand, Hal Maclean writes a mean feature (is it his first?), and the interesting-as-ever Ecology's history section is compatible with Eberron for a change.* The Creature Catalogue, though, is just BRILLIANT. It's the kind of top-rate material that single-handedly makes an issue great. Every single monster is creative and interesting, except perhaps the norker (it's not bad, but it's eclipsed by an otherwise stellar selection). The nuckalavee appeared on WotC's website a while back (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20030829a), but I prefer Dragon's version (although I'm anal enough to be annoyed by the fact that the illustration lacks transparent skin).
*The obvious adaptation is to have the spider-loving druids be Children of Winter who became obsessed with some of the vermin the sect traditionally regards as bringers of a nature-renewing, apocalyptic "winter"; and the "demon" can be a Daelkyr acting through its minions. Ironic, since the first druids were trained by a dragon to fight aberrations and their Daelkyr creators.
Hmm, am I missing the description of the Tome Dragon's precognition ability somewhere? I've been flipping back and forth and can't seem to determine what this ability does...I can't seem to find this ability in the magazine, either. I'm also wondering, if at some point, we might see some rules for half tome and hex dragons (for me, I'd be most interested in half-tome dragons, myself) as I think that'd be interesting to see how they differ from their more brute-oriented chromatic and metallic cousins.
Same here, anyone figure out what this does other than the obvious insight bonus to AC? Or is that all it does really?
As for half-dragons, those are very easy to convert from new dragons. Only real needs is to figure out its breath weapon and immunity, everything else stays the same as the template. The breath weapons are based off the Young Dragon chart, I'm pretty sure.
HALF-TOME DRAGON: Breath weapon 60-foot line of chosen energy (sonic, piercing, nonlethal bludgeoning, or fire) that explodes in a 15-foot radius, 6d8 damage and, well, no immunities
HALF-HEX DRAGON: 60 ft. line of putrid venom, 1d6 Constitution damage, immunity to poison and disease
Hmm, am I missing the description of the Tome Dragon's precognition ability somewhere? I've been flipping back and forth and can't seem to determine what this ability does...
I haven't received my copy of the issue yet, but as the author of the arcane dragon article... huh... looks like I left that out of my original manuscript too! Guess that slipped past the proof readers. Anyway, it's just a justification for the tome dragon having an insight bonus to AC (a 'spidey sense' kind of deal). This isn't official, but I'd say the precognition ability should read something like:
Precognition (Su): The tome dragon's mastery of divination magic allows it to peer a moment into the future. Knowing in advance where a blow will land, the tome dragon can easily evade the attack. A tome dragon receives an insight bonus to Armor Class that improves as the dragon ages.
'Arcane Dragon' is indeed a class of creatures like chromatic or gem dragons. Or, for that matter, like baatezu or eladrin, with certain traits common to all monsters of that (sub)type.
Well I finally got my hands on a copy yesterday and it looks great! Now I just have the month long wait for 344. ;)
Regards
Mortis