Dragon #279, Part 1

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 all the 2nd edition Monstrous Compendium annuals and appendices to the new edition. That's just too much work for me. The next letter is complaining about the ads. Or rather, about one specific ad that crossed the line into gory and graphic violence. I'm just annoyed at how many ads there are; I don't take the time to absorb them when I'm reading through the magazine looking for articles. The complaint isn't a solo one, so they're going to be more cautious about what kind of ads they accept going forward. We'll see. The last letter promises that 3rd edition psionics are on the way, too. Goody.

Our profile this month is Jason Carl, who was a Magic: The Gathering guy before he became a module designer. He's the author of Sword and Fist, which I just finished reviewing the other day. So he is responsible for the splat-book template for 3rd edition. Now you know who to blame for the bazillion prestige classes and feats.

Gary Gygax climbs back Up On a Soapbox to answer the age-old question, 'what is a role-playing game?' Well, since that question has been answered in pretty much every single RPG ever published, usually on the first or second page, I don't see the need to go over this bit.

Previews is next, and next month's issue of Dragon gets away from racial themes and instead goes to magical ones. And next month will see the release of a new set of monsters: Monsters of Faerûn, as well as miniatures. Well, those I won't be reviewing; I just don't do minis. Nodwick is also on this page in a short strip which involves elves and how human rulers sometimes view them.

Our Countdown to the Forgotten Realms continues, advancing the Faerûnian year to 1372 (fifteen years after the original 1st edition boxed set) and describing the changes to some of the nations of Toril in those years. We get updates on Thay, the Silver Marches, Aglarond, Mulhorand, Anauroch, and the Zhentarim. Meanwhile, Dork Tower turns into an epic musical.

Ah, finally...the preliminaries are done, and now we finally get to an article! Leaf and Thorn, the Secret Life of Elves. Well, it's not so secret now, is it? Much like the Forge and Hammer article from last month, this one goes into detail about the daily life of elves from birth to not-death, aka the 'journey into twilight'. We also get a couple of new spells made available only to priests of Corellon Larethian. They are forager's blessing, which gives a +2 bonus to Wilderness Lore checks when trying to find food. This one's a clerical orison or a 1st-level ranger spell. And so it should be. The other spell is womb of the earth, which clears an area of light vegetation and makes it ready to grow food plants in 24 hours. It can't be a previously-cleared area or a heavy forest, though. This one's a Clr 1 spell.

Next we get the Revenge of the Spider Queen, by Monte Cook. This is Lolth's 'Hand of Vengeance', an elite team of drow ass-kickers who are her instrument of revenge against those who slight her in some way, such as trespassing in the Demonweb or slaying her high-level clerics. Since she's chaotic evil, there's no certainty that this group will actually show up, but you never know. The members include Sierona, a succubus who is also a 6th-level rogue; Phauman, a male drow Ftr9/Wiz5; Vinter, a male drider who is also a 14th-level cleric; Krad, a half-fiend dragonne; Berkurt the Corruptor, a fiendish stone giant; and Jaggedra Thul, a female vampiric half-dragon (black) drow 17th-level cleric. Good Lord, that's nasty. She's CR22, and her list of abilities is just nasty. Her statblock takes up the bottom half of two pages, and we also get another new spell, bane weapon, which is a Clr4/Wiz4 spell. It gives a weapon a favored enemy bonus against a creature type just like a ranger, except that it gains a +2 bonus to hit and deals an additional 2d6 points of damage to the foe. Nice. And thank heavens there are no surface elves on this team; that would have sent me over the edge.

The Elven Marketplace is next, giving us new elven-themed equipment. New arrows with different features such as the thunder arrow (a ranged thunderstone, basically), leaf and wooden armor, starlight cloth, and some special items like star lanterns. Not bad, but nothing spectacular.

Legend and Literature. This article opened last month's dwarf section; this time it's in the middle. This is the myths of elves, most of which don't really look much like the elves we are used to. Like last month's article, this one is a great resource for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the mythology of elves across different culturs. We see the Prose Edda, The Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare, and The Hobbit as example sources. There are more, but those are the main ones.

And again, following the theme, Sean K. Reynolds gives us some pidgin Elvish to learn. The words are much more fluid than the dwarven ones, and while I don't think he cribbed from Tolkien, there is certainly a hint of influence in the words. Nothing groundbreaking, but it's a useful article for immersion purposes.

And that will do it for tonight; I'll finish off the rest of the magazine next time. Until then, game on.