ISSUE 383 | JanUary 2010 A Dungeons & Dragons® Roleplaying Game Supplement ® Contents Features 5 Player’s Handbook 3 debut: The Hybrid 52 Class Acts: Wizard By Mike Mearls By Peter Lee Get the scoop on the post-playtest versions of hybrid characters, straight from Learn the secrets of evokers, wizards who blast their way to success. PH3! 54 Class Acts: bard 25 invoker essentials By Arthur Wright By Robert J. Schwalb New options bard can use to harass their foes. Learn the secrets to building and playing the invoker, divine controller. 57 Class Acts: Warden 35 devotees oF tHe Gibbous Moon By Robert J. Schwalb By Robert J. Schwalb Wardens who combat intrusions from the Elemental Chaos, detailed here. Learn about these wild shaping druids and the primal spirits they command. 63 Class Acts: ShaMan 40 The art oF bindinG By Tavis Allison By Russell Jones and Jeramy Pappas New options for shamans and their spirit companions. Vestiges are some of the most mysterious entities in the multiverse. Learn about several new vestiges here! 66 WinninG raCes: HuMans By Stephen Radney-MacFarland 44 Hoard to Get: draGon lair iteMs Humans have a knack for adapting and surviving any conditions. Learn By Jennifer Clarke Wilkes more about their techniques. First introduced in Adventurer’s Vault 2 first introduced lair items. Learn about these dragon-lair-inspired items that you can add to your own home 70 WinninG raCes: tieFlinGs base. By Peter Schaefer The bloodlines of Bael Turath have spawned many offshoots. Discover 49 Class Acts: ranGer several of these factions. Peter Schaefer New options for your bow ranger. COLUMNS 73 WinninG raCes: Dwarves 4 Editorial By Robert. J. Schwalb Forgeborn dwarves have an affinity for elemental power, thanks to their long 82 DesiGn & development ago flight from their giant masters. By R&D Staff Another behind the scenes look at the creation of 76 CHannel divinity: kord the D&D game. By Robert J. Schwalb ConFessions oF a Full-tiMe Wizard Weakness is not acceptable in Kord’s eyes. Learn how to better harness the 85 By Shelly Mazzanoble Storm Father’s strength. D&D’s “Player-in-Chief” shares more of her wisdom and insight. 79 WHere do i CoMe FroM? By Peter Schaefer 88 D&D aluMni New backgrounds for your hero, available in no time! By Bart Carroll and Steve Winter A look back at D&D through past editions. 91 RPGa rePort By Chris Tulach The Living FR campaign is in full swing. Learn on tHe Cover more about how to get involved! Illustration by Daren Bader 94 Ampersand By Bill Slavicsek Bill discusses more of the changes in store for D&D in 2009. 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. ©2010 Wizards of the Coast LLC. 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 ed i T o R i al 383 Dr ag on January 2010 Editor-in-Chief Chris youngs Roleplaying to the Max Senior Art Director Jon Schindehette Web Specialist Steve Winter My grandfather was as stubborn as they come. Mulish party with an elf character in it. Another RM deliber- Web Production Bart Carroll doesn’t even begin to describe how obstinate he could ately feigns ignorance to the detriment of his party. “i Graphic Design Keven Smith, yasuyo Dunnett be. it didn’t matter if you showed him documented evi- don’t think my character will understand the message, dence that he was wrong. He just wouldn’t change his so i’m just not going to relay it.” Contributing Authors Tavis allison, Jennifer Clarke mind. That said, he was thoughtful, caring, and played But the worst examples of RMs, as far as i’m Wilkes, russell Jones, Peter Lee, board games with his grandsons at any hour of the day, concerned, are the adventurers who have no right Mike Mearls, Jeremy Pappas, so i’m not complaining. Everyone knows someone like adventuring at all (“My character’s an agoraphobe and Stephen radney-MacFarland, this, and most gamers know someone who roleplays like never leaves the house”) or who are sociopaths (“i kill Peter Schaefer, robert J. Schwalb, this in their games. the paladin in his sleep” or “i steal the wizard’s gold arthur Wright I call this person a Roleplaying Mule. This person when he’s not looking”). Why are these people adventur- settles on a character in a unique manner. The RM com- ers? Who would want to hang out with them? if a player Developers Peter Schaefer, Stephen mits to a vision in his head and flat-out refuses to deviate can’t come up with a healthy reason why her character Schubert, rodney Thompson from it. The vision must be preserved at all costs … even is palling around with the party, odds are good he’s in it if doing so means that the rest of the table suffers. for the wrong reason. Editors Michele Carter, Jeremy Crawford, Before i go any further, let me say for the record All of these players typically fall back on the defense Miranda Horner that i’m a big fan of a well-roleplayed character. i enjoy of, “that’s what my character would do.” There are vari- coming up with my character’s personality even more ants: “i don’t think my character would know that.” or Cover Artist Daren Bader than i like picking his feats and powers. And i’m a “This is the character i made.” They boil down to the Contributing Artists alex aparin, Eric Belisle, power gamer, so picking feats and powers is like picking same excuse, and regardless of the rationale, it’s lame. Emrah Elmasli, Jason a. Engle, which cupcake to have—they’re all so delicious! Find- This is a cooperative game. Neither players nor char- William O’Connor, Sarah Stone ing a hook, a role to play, so to speak, is great, but it’s acters should interact like obnoxious teenagers playing important to remember that the game is a cooperative Halo. The people you’re gaming with are friends, and Web Development Mark a. Jindra experience. You have your fellow players to consider. basic rules of consideration still apply. The RM doesn’t do this. He makes deliberate char- Sometimes, the best thing for the game is to actu- D&D Creative Manager Christopher Perkins acter choices that can hamper other characters at the ally act out of character. Just like in real life, sometimes Executive Producer, table. Playing a character to extremes can be fun, and we’re faced with a situation that forces us to behave in D&D Insider Chris Champagne a little interparty conflict can provide hours of enter- an uncharacteristic way. Just as we all have choices to tainment. one of my favorite characters frequently make, and sometimes we give up our preferences for Director of RPG R&D Bill Slavicsek misconstrued nearly everything his allies said, but i another, we should follow the same principles in game. learned to watch that i don’t cross the fine line between Stubbornly sticking to your guns when it comes to your Special Thanks occasionally-irritating-in-an-amusing way to outright character’s personality can end up robbing another infuriating. player—or maybe all of them—of their chance to have a richard Baker, Greg Bilsland, Michele Carter, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, andy Examples of the RM abound. one version of the good time. if you’re an extreme roleplayer, keep that in Collins, Bruce r. Cordell, Jeremy Crawford, Peter Lee, Mike Mearls, Kim Mo- character pursues his goals so single-mindedly that he mind next time that defensive thought, “Well that’s what han, Cal Moore, Peter Schaefer, Stephen Schubert, Matthew Sernett, rodney ignores everything that anyone else at the table is trying my character would do” springs to your mind. Maybe it Thompson, James Wyatt to accomplish. He always want to turn left, even if the is, but … maybe not this time. rest of the party is headed right. Another is the player How about your game? Tell us about your favorite who builds a character in direct opposition to another oddball character at [email protected]. We’d character. The “i hate elves” RM falls into this camp, love to hear from you! made worse when he does so knowing he’s joining a Commentary andy Collins: At the risk of generalization, there are aC: in 4th Edition, we decided to support the dab- two kinds of characters who blend aspects of multiple bler archetype first and most strongly. Not only did classes: the dabbler and the fusion. The dabbler is the we believe that more characters fell into that category character who stays mostly true to his or her primary than the fusion category, but we also worried about the class, but grabs a small sample of another class’s talents.