TM Contents FEATURES 5 CHARACTER CONCEPTS: ARCANE CHARACTERS 12 By Matthew Sernett Arcane Power is out this month! Check out two cool builds using content from the new book to recreate classic D&D characters. 12 THE WHITE LOTUS AcADEMY By Peter Schaefer Many of the world’s best arcanists graduate from the White Lotus Academy. Learn about this unique school, and the specialized knowledge the students there are taught. Sample file 23 23 GET FAMILIAR By Logan Bonner Familiars are back in the game, and while Arcane Power includes several, we’ve got many unique familiars here. Floating skull? Check! Ice mephit? Check! 34 CREATURE INCARNATIONS: ORCS By Mike McNerney and Greg Bilsland Who can’t use more orcs? Get your fill with this newest Creature Incarnations. 34 5 41 COLUMNS 41 EcOLOGY OF THE DEVA 4 EDITORIAL By Chris Sims 78 DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT One of the newest races from Player’s Handbook 2 is By Logan Bonner and Stephen Radney-MacFarland explored here. Explore the arcane in the newest Design & Development column. 53 COURT OF STARS: 81 CONFESSIONS OF A FUll-TIME WIZARD PRINCE OF FROST By Shelly Mazzanoble By Keith Baker Shelly has more innovation for D&D. See what’s up her Dragon’s newest recurring series kicks off with the sleeve as spring rolls around. epic archfey the Prince of Frost! 85 D&D AlUMNI 53 By Bart Carroll and Steve Winter 65 PlAYTEST: HYBRID CHARACTERS A look back at D&D through past editions. Multiclassing is fine if you want to dip a toe in another class, but the hybrid character system lets you 88 RPGA REPORT actually combineSample two classes. An exclusive file playtest By Chris Tulach opportunity from Player’s Handbook 3! The Living FR campaign is in full swing. Learn more about how to get involved! ON THE COVER 91 AMPERSAND Illustration by Wayne Reynolds By Bill Slavicsek Bill previews Divine Power, and discusses more of the changes in store for D&D in 2009. 65 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 TM editorial 374 DRAgoN March 2009 Multiple Character Editor-in-Chief Chris Youngs Senior Art Director Stacy Longstreet, Jon Schindehette Disorder Web Specialist Chris Sims I’m conflicted. Now that Player’s Handbook 2 is out, I’ve started common goal. Maybe they’ll eventually meet up, and the two par- Web Production Bart Carroll, Steve Winter looking at the character sheet for Deimos, my beloved tiefling ties can mingle and swap some members. warlock, and wondering if he wouldn’t look a little more appeal- Time Swap: Your two parties are at different points in the cam- Graphic Design Bob Jordan, Breanne Miller ing if he were, say, a barbarian. Or an avenger. Or, God help me, paign timeline. It would be like having one party adventuring Contributing Authors Greg Bilsland, Logan Bonner, a bard. in an Eberron campaign during the last war with another in the Shelly Mazzanoble, Mike I’ll admit it. I have newcharacteritis. I can’t stop thinking about present day. Both groups could even be working toward similar rolling up a new character. Playing a new character. Leveling up a goals, in theme if nothing else. Or maybe some quirk of the cam- McNerney, Stephen new character. And now that all the PH2 data is in the Character paign means the timeline is in flux, so the groups know they’re Radney-MacFarland, Peter Builder, I’m doubly screwed. More options, and it’s easier to make working in tandem with other adventurers in a different part of Schaefer, Matthew Sernett, a character? Gah! the time stream (think Lost). Wacky! Chris Sims, Bill Slavicsek, So I’ve been thinking a lot about how to get my new character Multi-Group Free-for-All: You run multiple groups all at same Chris Tulach fix. I’ve danced around this topic a bit in a couple of editorials, time, pursuing different but related tasks. Think about the end Developers Stephen Radney-MacFarland, but I’ve given it more thought and I have some ideas. The first two of Return of the Jedi, when one group is attacking the shield Peter Schaefer, Stephen Schubert, are pretty basic, and you’ll hear them from a lot of folks in the generator and one is attacking the Death Star. You could set Chris Sims, Rodney Thompson office here. up a situation where you run a second group during climactic Play More Games. Yes, playing in more D&D games is moments in a campaign, each helping contribute to an immedi- Editors Miranda Horner something we’d all like to do more of. But as we’ve said many ate, pressing, but distinct goal. times, 4th Edition is easier to run than past editions and you have Superfriends: This is my favorite idea. Each player has a stable Cover Artist JP Targete dozens ofSample adventure options to choose file from at this point—there of heroes he or she can draw from for each adventure, kind of Contributing Artists Jamie Carrillo, Matt Cavotta, just aren’t any more excuses. So start a new game, and at least like the Superfriends in the Hall of Justice. Each adventure, the Steve Ellis, Howard Lyon, your friends will be able to get their new character fix. Heck, Hall sends out a different squad. Sometimes Superman, Wonder CR MacTernan, Marco Nelor, maybe your new campaign can involve: Woman, Samurai, and the Flash. In the next, Batman, Green William O’Connor, Wayne Reynolds, Round-Robin DMing. Again, we’ve said this a lot. Whether Lantern, Cyborg, and El Dorado are on the case. The number of Eric L. Williams this is a new campaign or an established one, round-robin DMing PCs available is really unlimited. You could play someone new can be combined with new characters. That way, each DM has each week! Cartographers Sean Macdonald a unique, unchanging group of PCs to deal with, and those PCs If all else fails, you can always get your multiple character always struggle against the same DM. Sounds fun, right? It is! fix by building a hybrid character. Using the playtest article for Web Development Mark A. Jindra Alternatively, you could try my new favorite idea: Player’s Handbook 3 that comes out next Monday, you can wrap D&D Creative Manager Christopher Perkins The Swap Out. Build your campaign structure (or alter an the best of two classes in the body of one adventurer. existing campaign) so that you swap out characters every few This might sound like heresy to campaign purists, but all Executive Producer, levels. You could make the swap after each adventure or adven- these ideas are options I’m considering for the next game I’m D&D Insider Ken Troop ture arc. Your existing character goes on the backburner for involved in. If I don’t figure out a way to try out some of these new Director of RPG R&D Bill Slavicsek some reason, while the JV team gets to step up. After a bit, you character options soon, I’m never going to be prepared for PH3. swap back. You could have a number of in-game reasons for this What about you? Have you found a fun and innovative way to Special Thanks approach. run multiple characters in the same cam- Richard Baker, Greg Bilsland, Logan Bonner, Michele Carter, Geographic Swap: Your different adventuring parties are actu- paign? If so, let us know! Send your stories Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell, Torah Cottrill, ally in different parts of the world, but they’re working toward a to [email protected]. Jeremy Crawford, Mike Donais, Rob Heinsoo, Peter Lee, Mike Mearls, Kim Mohan, Cal Moore, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Peter Schaefer, Stephen Schubert, Matthew Sernett, Rodney Thompson, Rob Watkins, James Wyatt Character Concepts: Arcane Options by Matthew Sernett illustrations by Matt Cavotta Whether you need a quick character for a pick-up game or you’re looking for inspiration for your next Class campaign, Character Concepts has what you need. Marissa has to be a warlock with the infernal pact. In this article, we’ll examine two ideas made more Multiclassing is, of course, an option if some class feasible by the recent release of Arcane Power. The has a power that’s really on target for the theme, first is the hellbound mage. Like Faust, the hell- but it’s likely Marissa can get all she needs from Wbound mage has made a bargain with the forces of being a warlock. Hell for power. The second concept is the arcane archer, a spellcaster who uses a bow to deliver Ability Scores magic effects. Marissa needs a high Constitution, something not easy to achieve given her thematic race choice.