25 Years Ago...

Okay, to close out the month of January, we have the beginning of a series on gateways in the Forgotten Realms. The series is Perilous Gateways, and our first entry is Voices of the Lost . This is set in the town of Illefarn, which should be familiar to old-school FR players and fans, as it was the site of the very first official Forgotten Realms adventure way, way back in 1987. It was called Under Illefarn , module code N5. And just because, here's the cover of that long-ago module: Ah, that brings back memories. Anyway, this is a fairly short article (clearly not written by Mr. Greenwood). It starts off with a history lesson about the ancient elven kingdom of Illefarn, which was at its peak even before the legendary Myth Drannor. Like Myth Drannor, Illefarn had a series of gateways or portals, though not as extensive as those in Myth Drannor. And unlike that cursed place's gateways, these weren't gates to other planes; they were instead teleportation portals that would ta...

Okay, better late than never, I suppose. This is the third 'official' adventure released for 3rd edition in the old module style, and it's for 5th-level characters with the expectation that they will get up to 7th by the end of the adventure. On the front cover we have an elf and a monk getting ready to fight what looks like a combination of a purple worm and a hydra with Lidda the rogue in serious trouble in the hydra-worm's clutches. And this isn't in a dungeon; this is in a city. The city is called Brindinford, and it's the setting for the entire adventure; no dungeon crawling here. The premise is that there's a mind flayer who intends to recreate the ancient illithid empire and make himself a god in the process. Well, even mind flayers can have big dreams...and mental illness. This mind flayer, named Ghaerleth Axom, is an outcast after an incident with a beholder mage and a gelugon devil. So, he's decided to start building his godly empire on the sur...

Today, we have three online additions to our collection: A spell, a Fight Club competitor, and a monster template. Let's dive right in, shall we? Our spell is called Bladesong . Fans of 2nd edition elves will recognize that name as an elven fighting style connected to one of the most broken kits in the game's history, the Bladesinger. However, despite that connection to this month's elven theme, the spell isn't going to make you a kick-ass warrior with an elven fighting style. It just makes your sword play music in combat. Oh, and it gives you an additional touch attack per round that does no damage but dazes the target if they fail a Will saving throw. It's a 2nd level spell for bards and sorcerers/wizards. This one is definitely on the 'meh' level. Our Fight Club competitor is  Muukk', a Green Hag/Rogue/Assassin/Sorcerer . Good Lord, that's just nuts. And this one ties into the monthly theme, as Muukk' grew up as a young hag having to move arou...

Well, as I mentioned on my other blog, this week was not a good one . But the show must go on, as they say. This is another tree-related Map-a-Week, The Swamp . As the description on the archive website says, "This ramshackle lair in the bayou makes a great out-of-the-way base for secret goings-on." Again, there's not much to say about this one.

We have a double-shot of online stuff today. First up is another Celebrity Game Table article, The Campaign Kick-Off by Ed Stark. Here he discusses how he started playing in someone else's 3rd edition game, but soon took the plunge to do his own game. He decided to let his players create 6th-level characters rather than starting at first, and ended up with an interesting group: The halfling thief who is actually a wizard, the cleric of Wee Jas who is far too friendly with the undead (I've seen this before ...), a barbarian, and a multiclass rogue/cleric/something else. The backstory was a Thanedom where the Thane was dead and his rightful heir was away. The local council kept him in the dark long enough to consolidate power in their own hands, and the players were hired by the heir to recover the sword of office (buried with his father). Typical stuff, right? Ed got creative in the dungeon, giving the players mystic puzzles and challenges to overcome rather than the usual unde...

Our new Map-a-Week is the Evergreen Forest , continuing the elf/forest theme. There isn't much to it, really; it's just another tree house. And...that's all I've got to say about it, frankly.

Alright, we're back with the latest issue of Dungeon magazine. We have five adventures in this one, ranging from 3rd level to 15th, so plenty of variety. The big one (and by big I mean 40+ pages) is elf-centric, or at least drow-centric. Let's get to it. There are a couple of 'Maps of Mystery' here. The first is a mountainous peninsula with a few small islands off the coast. I'd say this should be scaled pretty big, so that this is easily big enough for an entire campaign to take place. Then there's a two-page map of the Halls of Huhueteotl, the Lord of Fire. This is 100% Aztec in nature, complete with step pyramid overlooking a lake of lava. Sure, why not? It wouldn't be too hard to make an interesting adventure with this map. The Harrowing is our first adventure, and it is the aforementioned 'big one'. It's for 15th-level characters, and it's about Lolth's daughter's efforts to take over the Demonweb. Yes, Lolth's daughter. Sure...

Alright, let's wrap this one up as we're more than halfway through already. The next article is our D&D Movie pimping article. This time it's a profile and interview of Bruce Payne, who plays Damodar. It's only a couple of pages, so it's not overly burdensome. We learn that Payne does do fencing and likes armor, so playing Damodar was a natural fit for him. However, he's not a gamer except for video games. Next up, we're back with more Unusual Suspects. This time it's about monks and druids. We're told that the monastic tradition, while assumed to be primarily a human thing, can also be set up as demihuman traditions in your campaign. After all, you can do whatever you want now. So, there might be a sect of dwarves dedicated to Moradin that embraces the idea of dwarven perfection, achieved through monastic discipline. Drow monks might have training in unusual weapons in addition to their unarmed combat abilities. And so on. The interesting part o...

See? I told you this month was all about elves. This month's issue will give us probably as much stuff about elves as last month gave us about dwarves. And more on the D&D movie, of course. It may have bombed at the box office and been a critical bust, but that isn't going to stop WotC from hyping it all the same. Let's get started. We begin with an editorial by Matthew Sernett lamenting how difficult it is to play elves due to their longevity and the fact that a 1st-level elven fighter is twice as old as your grandfather. Or, in my case, twice as old as me. Really, it's not that difficult. Just act like you're better than everyone else and look down your nose at them while lamenting about how things were so much better back in the day. Scale Mail gives us more letters. The first one, along with several others, praises the creature creation article from Dragon #276 , a sentiment I share. However, I do not share the letter-writer's enthusiasm for converting a...

The Ghosts of Aniel is another of the free adventures available on the WOTC website. It's a very short, 5-page adventure for four 6th-level characters. It takes place in a small elven hamlet in the forest, and it appears to be both abandoned and haunted. Needless to say, the PCs are going to be asked to investigate. The background tells of an elf wizard named Navae, who is obsessed with his master's magical gemstone. Despite being told to stay away from it, Navae secretly looks for forbidden lore and...oh, come on! Seriously? He ends up worshiping Lolth?! That's two adventures this month with elves going all pale drow on us. What is with this trend? Lolth is bad, remember, guys? Sworn enemy to all surface elves and all that? Good Lord, that's irritating. Anyway, Navae tries to steal the gemstone but is caught by his master and by the local hunter Tarlen, and while the master is killed by a phase spider's bite, Tarlen kills Navae. Dying, the elf clutched the magical...

So, our latest Map-a-Week is a lighthouse built on a seriously-eroded island. I doubt that thing would last another twenty-five years. I'm not sure how this would fit into the 'elvish' theme of the month, although I suppose you could spot aquatic elves from the top if you really wanted to.

Okay, this is the last chapter of the book, which I wasn't expecting. This chapter looks to contain plenty more crunchy stuff, so let's get right to it. We begin with a long list of new exotic weapons to play with. They go from Tiny to Large size, including a couple of things I think I've seen before: Mercurial longsword and greatsword. I think those were in an article on unusual weapons. Bear in mind that learning to use just one of these weapons costs a feat (Exotic Weapon Proficiency), so even a 20th-level fighter who does nothing but learn how to use Exotic Weapons won't learn them all. We also get stats for 'Mighty Whips', which are basically like composite longbows except they're whips that require extra strength to use effectively and do additional damage. This also counts for the 'whip dagger', which is a nasty weapon that is a whip with a dagger on the end of it. So, getting hit with this thing is going to hurt like hell. It also lets you do...

Okay, sorry about the brief detour, but let's continue on. The next part of Chapter 4 talks about Monstrous Fighters and Monks. A bugbear monk is a weird idea, but a possibility. How about a gnoll fighter? Or an ogre mage monk? Or a minotaur fighter? Be afraid. We get a brief discussion on how these characters would be possible in the game, and talking about their advantages as combat classes. We also get a couple of new feats: Large and in Charge, which lets bigger monsters prevent opponents from closing within their reach, and Multitasking, which lets the monster with many arms (at least four) do separate and distinct partial actions in the same round such as attack with one pair of hands, and reload a crossbow or even cast a spell with the other. Nice. Then we get a couple of sections on flying monsters, natural weapons and speed for monstrous fighters and monks. Oh, and damage for different weapons sizes and monk unarmed attacks, too. That bugbear monk I mentioned? He's doi...

I know, I was planning to post every day, but when you pull a 20-hour shift in your kitchen, blogging time is hard to come by. And instead of continuing with the Sword and Fist , we have a detour to another Cliffhanger adventure, The Tower of Lore , released exactly 25 years ago today. This is one of the higher-level adventures we've seen so far, being written for 8th-level characters. It's set in the Duchy of Urnst, so it's a Greyhawk adventure. I wonder if it could be used as a Living Greyhawk adventure. I don't see why not. And it uses an older Map-a-Week from October, The Old Tower . I did a post on this map at the time, stocking it for a quick adventure. But now it's being used for a Cliffhanger, so let's see what happens. Here's the map again, just as a refresher. There's some background to this; the tower was originally built by an elf cleric of...Lolth?! The hell? Not listed as a drow elf, and why would a drow have a tower built on the surface i...

See? I promised I'd be back to this one. Let's move right on to Chapter 3. This chapter is a fluffy chapter; it's about role-playing rather than more game mechanics. It starts off with a discussion of how fighters and monks fit in the world they live in, as well as their most common adventuring roles. For fighters, these roles include professional soldiers, mercenaries, and knights. For monks, they are often penitents, Zen masters, spiritual advisors, or spiritual enforcers. We also get a bit of a recap of the information from the Hero Builder's Guidebook  on race/class combinations and the benefits and drawbacks to each. For example, gnomes have a Strength penalty but a Constitution bonus, while dwarves are of course the quintessential fighter. Next is a discussion of organizations in the campaign, particularly fighting orders suitable to these two classes. Several of these organizations are described, and some are linked to the prestige classes from the previous chapt...

Yes, I know...but it can't be helped; this was released on Jan 5, 2001, so what else am I supposed to do? This is the first Web Enhancement released by Wizards of the Coast for a 3rd edition product. There's one for Sword and Fist  as well, but it's not released for another two weeks after this one. The Speaker of Dreams  is an adventure module that will be reviewed later this month; this Web Enhancement is a ten-page addition to the module that provides more details to the city of Brindinford, which is where the action of the module takes place, as well as some additional encounters that can supplement the action while not necessarily being part of the main plot; after all, not everything that happens is related to the greater adventure. The first page just reviews the basics of city adventuring in the module: Events rather than encounter locations, tougher encounters since the players have much more access to rest and healing in a town as compared to a dungeon; peace-bon...

Yes, it's another Map-a-Week day, which means I'm not posting the next Sword and Fist  installment; that will be later. This month, the Dragon magazine theme is elves, so naturally we get trees in our maps this month. This week's installment is Deciduous Forest , with a treehouse for elves to frolic in while they're bored out of their minds. It also comes with a Legend , which looks suitably elvish as well: So, the treehouse looks interesting; most of it is already labeled, so it's easy to stock it. One thing that's missing: Stairs. There doesn't appear to be any obvious means of getting from one part of the treehouse to the others. How are the elves getting around? Maybe elves in this mapper's campaign are half-squirrels. Let's see what we can stock here. 1. Upper Lookout. There's always an elf on duty here, checking the skies for potential aerial assault from dragons and the like. 2. Upper Quarters, Level Two. I lied; there is a ladder leading ...

Okay, Chapter 2 of this book is all about new prestige classes. Nineteen of them, in fact. Note that in all the 2000 products, there were a total of seventeen. So in one book, we've more than doubled the number of available prestige classes. A sign of things to come... So, let's run through them one a time with brief descriptions. We begin with the Cavalier. A late-addition core class in 1st edition, a kit in 2nd edition...the Cavalier is now a prestige class. He's great on a horse, of course, with most of his special abilities involving mounted combat and riding. And they are the nobility of the fantasy realm, at least most of the time. They get better Will saves than regular fighters, but you have to be a minimum of 8th level to qualify for this as the class requires a +8 base attack bonus as a prerequisite. So, this is not a class that will see much play in dungeon settings. Next is the Devoted Defender. If you ever watched The Bodyguard  with Kevin Costner and Whitney H...