ISSUE 380 | OCtObEr 2009 A Dungeons & Dragons® Roleplaying Game Supplement ® Contents Features 5 Player’s Handbook 3 debut: The seeker 45 CHaraCter ConCePts: Primal CHaraCters By Robert J. Schwalb By John Zamarra Commentary by Robert J. Schwalb and Stephen Radney-Macfarland Check out builds for levels 1–30 for a powerful shaman healer and a glaive- The next class from Player’s Handbook 3 is here, exclusively on D&D Insider! wielding warden, incorporating material from the Primal Power supplement. Learn about the seeker, an archer who controls the battlefield through the mystical powers granted by her connection to the divine. 56 CHannel divinity: The raven Queen’s CHamPions 18 abyssal Genasi By Robert J. Schwalb By Peter Schaefer Those who serve the Lady of Fate are privy to mysteries others view with While most genasi are touched by one of five elements, some have a darker envy. Unlock some of the secrets of the Raven Queen for your character! heritage. Learn about those genasi whose bloodline has been tainted by the Abyss. 67 bazaar oF tHe bizarre: draGonsHard items By Eric Cagle 24 barbarian essentials New magic items using the magic of dragonshards are here. By Rob Heinsoo Learn about the essential character building and play options for your 75 PlayinG vistani barbarian character, and get some new powers and mechanical options as By Chris Sims well. Planar wanderers? Thieving gypsies? Kidnappers? The vistani have been given many labels, but few understand this clannish group. Learn their 36 Wizard essentials secrets, and discover what drives the vistani on their endless quest in the By Eytan Bernstein first of a three-part series. Character building and tactical advice for your wizard character, as well as some new spells and other options. 5 COLUMNS 84 PlayinG vistani: seCrets oF 4 editorial tHe Caravans 92 DesiGn & develoPment: Classes By Chris Sims By Michele Carter and Bill Slavicsek The Playing Vistani series continues with feats and Michele and Bill reminisce on Planescape as they other options for vistani characters. discuss Sigil’s inclusion in Dungeon Master’s Guide 2. ConFessions oF a Full-time Wizard 89 PlayinG vistani: maGiC 94 By Shelly Mazzanoble and mystery D&D’s “Player-in-Chief” shares more of her By Chris Sims wisdom and insight. The Playing Vistani series concludes with rituals and magic items from the vistani caravans. 99 RPGa rePort 56 By Chris Tulach The Living FR campaign is in full swing. Learn more about how to get involved! 103 AmPersand By Bill Slavicsek Bill discusses more of the changes in store for D&D in 2009. on tHe Cover Illustration by Emrah Elmasli 75 Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten realms, Eberron, Dungeon, Dragon, d20, d20 System, Wizards of the Coast, all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., in the U.S.A. and other countries. this material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. this product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely coincidental. Printed in the U.S.A. ©2008 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. For more Dungeons & Dragons articles, adventures, and information, visit www.wizards. com/dnd e D i T o R i al 380 Dr ag on October 2009 Editor-in-Chief Chris Youngs What You’re Senior Art Director Jon Schindehette Web Specialist Chris Sims Looking For Web Production bart Carroll, Steve Winter Graphic Design Keven Smith Contributing Authors Eytan Bernstein, Eric Cagle, it’s another big month here at Wizards of the Coast, The biggest change (other than two extra days Michele Carter, Rob Heinsoo, especially for Dungeons & Dragons. Since we didn’t of new content) is that we’re moving away from Shelly Mazzanoble, Stephen feel we’d shaken things up enough—or given our- extra-long feature articles. We’re still intending to radney-MacFarland, Peter selves enough to do—we went ahead and launched do several longer features each month, but they’ll Schaefer, robert J. Schwalb, a new D&D website. We hope you’re as happy with be about half the length of our longest features to Chris Sims, bill Slavicsek, Chris this new site as we are. it’s been a labor of love for date. The rest of the month, we’re going to bring tulach, John Zamarra well over a year now, and we think it shows the hard you a series of shorter, 2- or 3-page articles focused Developers Stephen radney-MacFarland, work of everyone involved. We also think that users, around a single concept, and typically tied together Peter Schaefer, Stephen Schubert, both new and old, will have a better experience on with new mechanics. You’ll see many more Class Chris Sims, rodney thompson the site, and that it’s never been easier to find the Acts articles in this new scheme, as well as articles content you’re looking for. focused around races (Winning Races), faiths (Chan- Editors Michele Carter, Jeremy Crawford, But wait, there’s more! nel Divinity articles), roles (Know Your Role), and Miranda Horner As you may have noticed, since we pushed all of power source (Power Play), among others. Cover Artist Emrah Elmasli our DM support into Dungeon magazine, Wednes- Why these shorter, more frequent articles? We’ve Contributing Artists Drew baker, Christopher burdett, days are looking pretty crowded on the content looked at articles our subscribers are download- Emrah Elmasli, Jason A. Engle, calendar. We were pretty sure this would be a side ing the most, and this is the direction the data is William O’Connor, David rapoza, effect of the change, but building out the october guiding us. The major reason, however, is that we Evan Shipard, Matias tapia, calendar really cemented this in our minds. know bigger articles often mean that a given issue Eric L. Williams, Kieren Yanner In addition, we’ve come to recognize that player doesn’t have something for every player. We’re content in Dragon magazine has grown, well, plump. aiming to change that. if your class isn’t represented Web Development Mark A. Jindra our features are routinely hitting ten pages and up, one month, then your race, power source, role, or D&D Creative Manager Christopher Perkins and this makes for a lengthy online reading experi- another element of your character should be. if it Executive Producer, ence. Plus, it means that we’re spending more words still isn’t, then let us know. D&D Insider Chris Champagne on fewer topics. As a result, we’re making one more Dragon has long attempted to be as inclusive of significant change to how we’re approaching D&D every player as possible in a given month. Now we’re Director of RPG R&D bill Slavicsek Insider content. taking steps to fully realize that vision, starting in Special Thanks Starting in November, we’re moving to a five-day- November. Stay tuned for next month’s content cal- a-week content schedule. You might have seen this endar, which will be hitting the site later this month. richard baker, Greg bilsland, Logan bonner, Michele Carter, writing on the wall, considering our new content cal- Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Andy Collins, bruce r. Cordell, torah Cottrill, Jeremy Crawford, Mike Donais, rob Heinsoo, Nina Hess, Peter Lee, endar features five days in a week rather than three Mike Mearls, Kim Mohan, Cal Moore, Stephen radney-MacFarland, like the old calendar. Peter Schaefer, Stephen Schubert, Matthew Sernett, rodney thompson, rob Watkins, James Wyatt Mechanical Design by Robert J. Schwalb Commentary by Robert J. Schwalb, The Seeker and Stephen Radney—MacFarland illustrations by David Rapoza tM & © 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC. All rights reserved. October 2009 | Dragon 380 5 The Seeker “I am the lightning strike, the earth’s upheaval, the When a seeker looses a missile, the primal spirits Commentary unruly sea. I am the bringer of your destruction.” bound to it through ancient evocations are freed, robert J. Schwalb: For the Player’s Handbook 3, we sometimes as terrifying beasts and sometimes as wanted to expand the family of primal classes to include Class TRaits a new controller. i pitched several options, laying out nature’s raw destructive potential. role: Controller. You are a primal hunter who forges routes we could go. We ultimately decided the most dis- As a seeker, you are both a hunter and a mystic. bonds with mysterious spirits to gain their aid in bring- tinctive an interesting concept was a weapon-wielding You attune yourself to the wilderness you call your controller, something we hadn’t tried before. The seeker home, but you are equally tied to the spirits that ing down your prey. Depending on your choice of class would imbue his or her ammunition with primal energies features, you lean toward either defender or striker as and then rain them on her foes at a distance. By putting dwell in the world around you. With your people’s a secondary role. a weapon in the seekers hand and focusing on ranged traditions and whispered advice from the spirits, attacks allowed the class to stake out its own territory you navigate the wilds with ease, at home as any Power source: Primal. Through ancient ceremonies without trampling on the druid.