Drmg106, Dragon
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DRAGON 1
81
SPECIAL ATTRACTION
16
45
A plethora of paladins Christopher Wood
Seven new alignment-oriented NPC classes
Publisher
Mike Cook
Editor-in-Chief
Kim Mohan
Editorial staff
Patrick Lucien Price
Roger Moore
Art, graphics, production
Roger Raupp
Kim Lindau
Subscriptions
Georgia Moore
Advertising
Mary Parkinson
Contributing editors
Ed Greenwood
Katharine Kerr
This issues contributing artists
Keith Parkinson
Roger Raupp
Jim Roslof
Bob Walters
Hank Jankus
Marvel Bullpen
James Holloway
David Trampier
Ted Goff
Stephen Hearon
Richard Tomasic
Joseph Pillsbury
Larry Elmore
OTHER FEATURES
8
The laws of magic Charles Olsen
Everything you wanted to know about the arcane
Casting spells for cash Fraser Sherman
Magic-users are good for more than combat
The ecology of the maedar Ed Greenwood
All about the medusa and her man!
Money isnt everything
Carl
Sargent
. . .
But a few gold pieces can make a big difference
Open them, if you dare Ed Greenwood
Enter an unusual magic item enchanted doors
The ranger redefined Deborah Christian
More skills to help strengthen the class
More range for rangers James A. Yates
A new system for determining followers
The way we really play Tom Armstrong
Thoughts on the development of a Dungeon Master
Bad idea, good game? Michael Dobson
Why some bad games fail and others dont
Intruder Russell Madden
Being considered alien is always in the eye of the beholder
14
16
18
22
24
33
38
40
62
THE ARES™ SECTION
70
Notes from the Underground Ken Rolston
How to be a better traitor in the PARANOIA game
76
Stellar Feedback Roger E. Moore
A look through the science-fiction gaming mail
The MARVEL®-Phile Jeff Grubb
Alpha Flight and Omega Flight, part I
The New Humans David Wainwright
Pure strain humans in the GAMMA WORLD® game
78
81
DEPARTMENTS
3
4
6
58
Letters
World Gamers Guide
The forum
TSR Previews
60 TSR Profiles
87 Convention calendar
88
Gamers Guide
90 Wormy
92 Dragonmirth
94 Snarfquest
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 F
EBRUARY
1986
More for
your money
Missing maps
a natural armor class of 7; however, high dexter-
ity and magic devices such as rings of protection
may improve this figure considerably RM
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-
nounced the upcoming price increase. It
shouldnt be bad news to subscribers,
since the subscription rate didnt go up,
and I hope the higher price didnt come as
a shock to anyone who bought the maga-
zine at a store.
What we didnt tell you in December,
but what we can tell you now, is that
youre going to get more for your money.
Beginning with issue #107 (March 1986),
the magazines page count will go up from
96 to 104. Because we dont expect our
advertising lineage to go up, that means
well be able to devote those eight pages to
more articles.
I wont try to claim that an extra eight
pages is worth an extra 50 cents. As I
pointed out two issues ago, the price in-
crease is intended to help us cover our
costs, and the costs of the distributors and
retailers who sell the magazine on our
behalf. Approximately half of that 50 cents
will go directly to distributors and store
owners; out of the 25 cents that well
receive, weve decided that we can afford
to pay the cost of producing and printing
more pages and still end up with enough
bucks to pay the bills.
I dont expect Ralph Nader to give us a
medal for caring about the consumer, but
I am rather proud of the fact that the
company I work for has decided to use
some of that extra revenue to directly
benefit the people who are giving us the
money.
In the next few months, were going to
be looking into ways to use our page space
as effectively as possible also in the
interest of giving you more for your
money. Weve already saved one page,
starting with this issue, by combining the
table of contents page in the ARES
Section with the contents page for the rest
of the magazine. (Thats why the page at
the left looks a lot more crowded than it
used to.) As other ideas come to us, or are
suggested to us, well try them out. We
want to do whatever we can to encourage
you to keep thinking that the magazine
you buy is worth every penny of the price
you pay for it. As always, if you have any
ideas on how we can accomplish this, well
be glad to hear about them.
Dear Dragon,
I am ecstatic about the module in #104, since I
play the MARVEL SUPER HEROES game
and am always interested in new plots. But there
was one problem: I didnt have any of the maps
listed in the adventure, so I couldnt use it.
Another problem: The article on kender in
#101 contained little signs that indicated kender
would make great thieves, but when I looked for
bonuses to their abilities all I could find was a
high dexterity. What bonuses do kender get?
Final question: A while back Mr. Gygax said
something about some new character classes like
the savant, the mystic, the mountebank, and the
jester. Are these going to be published and if so,
when?
One or the other
Dear Dragon:
I have a question regarding the spell-casting
abilities of the new bard class in the Best of
DRAGON Vol. III. It states that the effective-
ness of a druid spell cast by a bard is the same as
that of a druid one level lower than the bard.
Under the new Unearthed Arcana rules, it is now
possible for elves to be druids of unlimited levels
(except for wild elves). Elves can also be bards of
unlimited advancement, according to the article.
My question is this: If an elven druid/bard (of
perhaps 5th/5th level) casts a druid spell acquired
by his bard class, would the spell be cast at 4th
level efficiency (as in the rules), or would the elf
cast it at his normal druid level? After all, the
spell effect is no different for both classes (except
for the special few outlined in the article).
Richard Hudson
Jackson, Miss.
Mark Baxter
Orlando, Fla.
Of the four maps required to play the Sudden
Dawn adventure, the one for Chapter 1 comes in
the MARVEL SUPER HEROES boxed game
set, and the one for Chapter 2 is provided in the
adventure. Because of space limitations, we were
unable to reproduce the maps for Chapters 3 and
4, but they are both contained in MHAC6, New
York, New York. If you dont want to buy that
accessory or cant find it for sale, you can make
your own maps. The Barcley Research Center is
similar to the city map in the boxed set, but with
the addition of a riverfront section. The 35th
floor of the Empire State Hotel has 4 large suites,
a storage room accessed by a stairwell, and three
elevators, with a central hallway connected to
each of them 10 areas in all, counting the
stairwell.
Kender have the same bonuses for thieving
skills as halflings do. This was implied in the
article (on p. 13), but should have been more
clearly stated. Kender, like all other thieves, also
receive bonuses for high dexterity
In issue #103, Gary Gygax mentioned the
mystic, the savant, and the jester (but not the
mountebank) as new character classes (subclasses,
actually) that will be included in the Second
Edition of the AD&D® game rules. To the best of
our knowledge, he has no plans at present to
preview these classes through articles in the
magazine. If that situation changes, well let you
know. KM
What we have here is an excellent example of
what happens when you combine official rules
with unofficial material from a magazine article,
and toss in a pinch of personal preference to boot
The ingredients dont mix very well. Sometimes
you can use one or the other (the rules or the
article), but not both.
In the first place, the rules in Unearthed Ar-
cana were not designed to be compatible with the
unofficial bard class, which was written and first
published several years ago. In the second place,
neither the rules nor the article specifically per-
mits the existence of a multi-classed druid/bard.
Obviously, problems can (and often do) arise
when someone tries to make an illegal multi-
class combination work with the existing rules.
But if you want to assume that a druid/bard
character is possible, Richards question does
have an answer. If the spell was acquired by his
bard class, the character would cast it as a druid
of one level lower just like the article specifies.
The fact that the character is a druid in addition
to being a bard should have no effect on the
characters ability to cast a druid spell that he
receives by virtue of being a bard. You have to
keep the characters dual identities separate,
and moderate his spell-casting as a bard as
though he were only a bard. KM
Armor class answer
Dear Dragon,
I have a question pertaining to the thendar
(issue #101, Creature Catalog, p. 54). Under
armor class it says see below, but nothing is
mentioned in the text about armor class. What is
it supposed to be?
A question of size
Dear Dragon,
I have a question about the size and population
of Ansalon in the world of Krynn. In the article
about the gnomes of Krynn (#103), Roger Moore
said there were about 59,000 gnomes on Sancrist
Isle. How do you make room for all the other and
more numerous races on Ansalon (which could be
(Concluded on page 4)
David Korson
Louisville, Ky.
We neglected to note that because of their
magical and extraplanar nature, thendar have
DRAGON 3
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