Dragon Magazine #106
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DRAGON 1 81 SPECIAL ATTRACTION 45 A plethora of paladins Christopher Wood 16 Seven new alignment-oriented NPC classes Publisher OTHER FEATURES Mike Cook Editor-in-Chief 8 The laws of magic Charles Olsen Kim Mohan Everything you wanted to know about the arcane Editorial staff 14 Casting spells for cash Fraser Sherman Patrick Lucien Price Magic-users are good for more than combat Roger Moore 16 The ecology of the maedar Ed Greenwood Art, graphics, production All about the medusa and her man! Roger Raupp 18 Money isnt everything Carl Sargent Kim Lindau . But a few gold pieces can make a big difference Subscriptions 22 Open them, if you dare Ed Greenwood Georgia Moore Enter an unusual magic item enchanted doors Advertising 24 The ranger redefined Deborah Christian Mary Parkinson More skills to help strengthen the class Contributing editors 33 More range for rangers James A. Yates Ed Greenwood A new system for determining followers Katharine Kerr 38 The way we really play Tom Armstrong This issues contributing artists Thoughts on the development of a Dungeon Master Keith Parkinson Roger Raupp 40 Bad idea, good game? Michael Dobson Jim Roslof Why some bad games fail and others dont Bob Walters 62 Intruder Russell Madden Hank Jankus Being considered alien is always in the eye of the beholder Marvel Bullpen James Holloway THE ARES™ SECTION David Trampier Ted Goff 70 Notes from the Underground Ken Rolston Stephen Hearon How to be a better traitor in the PARANOIA game Richard Tomasic Joseph Pillsbury 76 Stellar Feedback Roger E. Moore Larry Elmore A look through the science-fiction gaming mail 78 The MARVEL®-Phile Jeff Grubb Alpha Flight and Omega Flight, part I 81 The New Humans David Wainwright Pure strain humans in the GAMMA WORLD® game DEPARTMENTS 3 Letters 60 TSR Profiles 90 Wormy 4 World Gamers Guide 87 Convention calendar 92 Dragonmirth 6 The forum 88 Gamers Guide 94 Snarfquest 58 TSR Previews COVER TSR staff artist Keith Parkinson enters the ranks of cover artists for DRAGON® Mag- azine with Valshea. According to Keith, the woman who stared back at you when you first laid eyes on her is Lady Valshea, an elven fighter/magic-user who was cap- tured in color as she, her familiar, and her trusty steed took a break during their pas- sage through Blue Rock Vale. 2 FEBRUARY 1986 More for your money DRAGON® Magazine now costs more than ever before. Thats not exactly hot news to those of you who read this column a couple of issues ago, when we an- a natural armor class of 7; however, high dexter- nounced the upcoming price increase. It Missing maps ity and magic devices such as rings of protection may improve this figure considerably RM shouldnt be bad news to subscribers, Dear Dragon, since the subscription rate didnt go up, I am ecstatic about the module in #104, since I and I hope the higher price didnt come as play the MARVEL SUPER HEROES game a shock to anyone who bought the maga- and am always interested in new plots. But there One or the other zine at a store. was one problem: I didnt have any of the maps What we didnt tell you in December, listed in the adventure, so I couldnt use it. Dear Dragon: but what we can tell you now, is that Another problem: The article on kender in I have a question regarding the spell-casting youre going to get more for your money. #101 contained little signs that indicated kender abilities of the new bard class in the Best of Beginning with issue #107 (March 1986), would make great thieves, but when I looked for DRAGON Vol. III. It states that the effective- bonuses to their abilities all I could find was a ness of a druid spell cast by a bard is the same as the magazines page count will go up from high dexterity. What bonuses do kender get? that of a druid one level lower than the bard. 96 to 104. Because we dont expect our Final question: A while back Mr. Gygax said Under the new Unearthed Arcana rules, it is now advertising lineage to go up, that means something about some new character classes like possible for elves to be druids of unlimited levels well be able to devote those eight pages to the savant, the mystic, the mountebank, and the (except for wild elves). Elves can also be bards of more articles. jester. Are these going to be published and if so, unlimited advancement, according to the article. I wont try to claim that an extra eight when? My question is this: If an elven druid/bard (of pages is worth an extra 50 cents. As I Mark Baxter perhaps 5th/5th level) casts a druid spell acquired pointed out two issues ago, the price in- Orlando, Fla. by his bard class, would the spell be cast at 4th crease is intended to help us cover our level efficiency (as in the rules), or would the elf Of the four maps required to play the Sudden cast it at his normal druid level? After all, the costs, and the costs of the distributors and Dawn adventure, the one for Chapter 1 comes in spell effect is no different for both classes (except retailers who sell the magazine on our the MARVEL SUPER HEROES boxed game for the special few outlined in the article). behalf. Approximately half of that 50 cents set, and the one for Chapter 2 is provided in the Richard Hudson will go directly to distributors and store adventure. Because of space limitations, we were Jackson, Miss. owners; out of the 25 cents that well unable to reproduce the maps for Chapters 3 and receive, weve decided that we can afford 4, but they are both contained in MHAC6, New What we have here is an excellent example of to pay the cost of producing and printing York, New York. If you dont want to buy that what happens when you combine official rules more pages and still end up with enough accessory or cant find it for sale, you can make with unofficial material from a magazine article, bucks to pay the bills. your own maps. The Barcley Research Center is and toss in a pinch of personal preference to boot I dont expect Ralph Nader to give us a similar to the city map in the boxed set, but with The ingredients dont mix very well. Sometimes the addition of a riverfront section. The 35th you can use one or the other (the rules or the medal for caring about the consumer, but floor of the Empire State Hotel has 4 large suites, article), but not both. I am rather proud of the fact that the a storage room accessed by a stairwell, and three In the first place, the rules in Unearthed Ar- company I work for has decided to use elevators, with a central hallway connected to cana were not designed to be compatible with the some of that extra revenue to directly each of them 10 areas in all, counting the unofficial bard class, which was written and first benefit the people who are giving us the stairwell. published several years ago. In the second place, money. Kender have the same bonuses for thieving neither the rules nor the article specifically per- In the next few months, were going to skills as halflings do. This was implied in the mits the existence of a multi-classed druid/bard. be looking into ways to use our page space article (on p. 13), but should have been more Obviously, problems can (and often do) arise as effectively as possible also in the clearly stated. Kender, like all other thieves, also when someone tries to make an illegal multi- receive bonuses for high dexterity class combination work with the existing rules. interest of giving you more for your In issue #103, Gary Gygax mentioned the But if you want to assume that a druid/bard money. Weve already saved one page, mystic, the savant, and the jester (but not the character is possible, Richards question does starting with this issue, by combining the mountebank) as new character classes (subclasses, have an answer. If the spell was acquired by his table of contents page in the ARES actually) that will be included in the Second bard class, the character would cast it as a druid Section with the contents page for the rest Edition of the AD&D® game rules. To the best of of one level lower just like the article specifies. of the magazine. (Thats why the page at our knowledge, he has no plans at present to The fact that the character is a druid in addition the left looks a lot more crowded than it preview these classes through articles in the to being a bard should have no effect on the used to.) As other ideas come to us, or are magazine. If that situation changes, well let you characters ability to cast a druid spell that he suggested to us, well try them out. We know. KM receives by virtue of being a bard. You have to keep the characters dual identities separate, want to do whatever we can to encourage and moderate his spell-casting as a bard as you to keep thinking that the magazine though he were only a bard. KM you buy is worth every penny of the price Armor class answer you pay for it. As always, if you have any ideas on how we can accomplish this, well Dear Dragon, be glad to hear about them.