Dragon Magazine #379, Dragon
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ISSUE 379 | SEptEmbEr 2009
A DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
®
ROLEPLAYING GAME SUPPLEMENT
®
CONTENTS
Features
16
5
Player’s Handbook 3 debut: skill Powers
By Mike Mearls and Robert J. Schwalb
A new mechanical piece from
Player’s Handbook 3
is described here, exclusively on D&D
Insider. Check out skill powers, new ways to augment your characters’ skill use.
16
tHe assassin: Heroic tier
By Mike Mearls
The assassin—and the shadow power source—are here! The class includes two builds, and
the first installment will present the heroic tier and feats for the class.
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tHe assassin: Paragon tier
By Mike Mearls
The launch of the assassin continues into the paragon tier. New powers and new paragon
paths show up in this installment.
35
tHe assassin: ePic tier
By Mike Mearls
The assassin class concludes with epic tier powers and a new epic destiny.
39
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warden essentials
By Tavis Allison and Eytan Bernstein
If a cleric isn’t in your future, maybe a warden is more your style! Once more, new warden
character basics, along with more mechanical support for your new or existing warden
hero.
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49
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cleric essentials
By Logan Bonner
Interested in playing a cleric? This article will get you
well on your way with cleric fundamentals, character
building advice, and a slew of new powers and feats
for your cleric character.
columns
4
editorial
74
design & develoPment: classes
By R&D Staff
The staff discusses the goals, strategies, and details
of class design.
77
d&d alumni
By Bart Carroll and Steve Winter
A look back at
D&D
through past editions.
81
rPga rePort
By Chris Tulach
The Living FR campaign is in full swing. Learn
more about how to get involved!
89
amPersand
By Bill Slavicsek
Bill discusses more of the changes in store for
D&D
in 2009.
58
FigHter: tHe great weaPon
By Robert J. Schwalb
If you’re playing a great-weapon fighter, this article
is must-read material. With new powers, feats, and
more, your great weapon fighter will be ready for
anything.
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adventurers oF tHe realms
By Chris Tulach
More regions of the Realms are provided with unique
paragon paths, especially suited for your Forgotten
Realms campaign.
on tHe cover
Illustration by Howard Luoni
68
Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten realms, Eberron,
D
ungeon
,
D
ragon
, 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 OR I A L
379
THE FUTURE IS NOW
Dragon
Se p t emb e r 2009
Editor-in-Chief Chris Youngs
SeniorArtDirector
Jon Schindehette
WebSpecialist Chris Sims
First and foremost, D&D has always been a game
about people. Since the dawn of the Interwebs, the
game has enjoyed a vocal, enthusiastic, opinionated,
and sometimes boisterous group of fans willing to
offer feedback on topics as wide-ranging as individual
campaigns can be. From bulletin boards to blogs,
we’ve come a long way as a D&D community.
Last week, Wizards of the Coast launched the
latest online community offering so far. From straight-
forward message boards, which had largely been
the community experience on our site, we now offer
individual profile pages, wikis, blogs, and more. Chat
is back (after not working for almost two years in the
old system), and you can access a slew of options made
popular on the most robust of social networking sites.
Yes, the feature set is not complete. Given more
time, we know lots of little fixes or changes we would
like to make. But we wanted our forums back online
as quickly as possible, and we were immensely satis-
fied with the new system even if it does have room to
grow.
If you haven’t checked out
yet,
you should. It really is something to see. Create a pro-
file, check out the groups that are already there, and
start thinking about how you can use this new system
to improve your game. That’s where we’re headed, and
we need your feedback and suggestions to make this
the best community site that we can.
Some of the things we’ve been doing with the new site
so far:
Building groups for our individual campaigns. You
should check out Chris Perkins’s public
if you’re looking for ideas to kick start
your own campaign group. Upload your maps, fill up
your calendar, invite your gaming group to join, and
you’re off ! I’ve been using my own group’s blog to post
session synopses, and I’ ll be using the forums soon to
discuss the PCs’ goals and long-term aspirations as we
close in on the paragon tier.
Getting feedback. I keep tabs on the new
on a daily basis. If you haven’t already
created a profile and you’re a subscriber, you should
come join up. We’re a subscribers-only group, and
we have plans in the works to take advantage of this
group for community-focused news and announce-
ments. We also plan to start highlighting community
member profiles or groups that are particularly inter-
esting or fun, and members of the D&D Insider group
will certainly be frequent targets.
Getting feature requests. As I said, this new
system isn’t yet fully realized. (That’s why we’re call-
ing it a beta release.) But we have so many plans for
this new feature of the site -- well, you’ ll just have to
keep checking back for updates. I’ ll be sure to make
announcements on the D&D Insider group, and I
know we’ ll do the same on the
as we get
more information from the community team.
What features would you like to see on the new
Wizards Community? What do you miss from the old
forums that might not be there? What would you like
to be able to do with groups? What sort of informa-
tion would you like to see posted on our official group
pages? Send your feedback to
. As always, we’d love to hear from you!
Do you know what else we’d like? To be your
friends! It’s not as if we’re competing to sign up more
friends than everybody else, but this is the way for you
to keep track of what we’re up to. So send those friend
requests to the D&D Insider team.
WebProduction bart Carroll, Steve Winter
GraphicDesign Keven Smith
ContributingAuthors tavis Allison, Eytan bernstein,
Logan bonner, bart Carroll,
mike mearls, robert J. Schwalb,
bill Slavicsek, Chris tulach,
Steve Winter
Developers Stephen radney-macFarland,
peter Schaefer, Stephen Schubert,
Chris Sims, rodney thompson
Editors michele Carter, Jeremy Crawford,
miranda Horner
CoverArtist Howard Lyon
ContributingArtists Eric belisle, Emrah Elmasli, Empty
room Studios, tyler Jacobson,
James Kei mcClellan, William
O’Connor, Eric L. Williams
Cartographers rob Lazzaretti, Sean macdonald
WebDevelopment mark A. Jindra
D&DCreativeManager Christopher perkins
ExecutiveProducer,
D&DInsider Chris Champagne
DirectorofRPGR&D bill Slavicsek
SpecialThanks
richard baker, Greg bilsland, Logan bonner, michele Carter,
Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Andy Collins, bruce r. Cordell, torah Cottrill,
Jeremy Crawford, mike Donais, rob Heinsoo, Nina Hess, peter Lee,
mike mearls, Kim mohan, Cal moore, Stephen radney-macFarland,
peter Schaefer, Stephen Schubert, matthew Sernett,
rodney thompson, rob Watkins, James Wyatt
SKILL POWERS
Design by Mike Mearls and Robert J. Schwalb
Commentary by Mike Mearls, Peter Schaefer, and Robert J. Schwalb
illustrations by Eric Belisle
Welcome to another installment of the
Player’s Hand-
book 3
debut series!
In previous months, you’ve seen the
and the
This time, we explore a brand
new concept for the game: the skill power.
Skill powers are utility powers that you qualify for
not based on your class, but by virtue of your training
in a particular skill. They’re available to every charac-
ter in the game, whether you’re playing a fighter built
using only the
Player’s Handbook
or a genasi hybrid
invoker/wizard using content from a wide range of
resources.
Player’s Handbook 3
—and this article—includes
powers for each and every skill in the game, from
Acrobatics to Thievery. This debut content includes
a selection of those powers (roughly half of the total
appearing in the book), as well as the introductory
section detailing how to use these powers in your
game.
Tune in next month to check out the next part of
the
Player’s Handbook 3
debut series, available only to
D&D Insiders like you!
Commentary
WHy SKILL PoWerS
mike mearls:
Skill powers came about as a way to give
characters an additional way to specialize in a skill. The
concept first came to me when I was playing a tief ling
wizard with a 16 Charisma and training in Diplomacy
and Bluff. It was fun serving as the party’s spokesmen,
but that didn’t quite feel like enough. I wanted the option
to do interesting things with my skills outside of the spe-
cific scenes and roleplaying moments that came up. A
skill power is a way for a player to make a skill important
in whatever situation he wants. If you want your high
Diplomacy character to feel like a charismatic leader in
battle, just pick out a combat-useful Diplomacy power.
With a skill power, you extend a skill into whatever situa-
tion that power applies to.
mike mearls:
You could argue that giving more options
to boost a skill’s bonus does the same thing. However,
that method has two drawbacks. First, a skill isn’t always
useful in every situation. Second, that game breaks down
if the gap between one character’s checks and another’s
grows too large. We don’t want the typical DCs to be
impossible for one set of characters. Skill powers give the
player a button to hit that will make a skill useful, regard-
less of the exact situation. They also let a PC express skill
mastery in a way that doesn’t lead to automatic success or
DCs that no one else has any real chance of handling.
tm & © 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC. All rights reserved.
Se p t emb e r 2009
|
Dragon 379
5
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