DragonMagazine397.pdf

Options for Everyone

Racial

Bonuses

Illustration by Steve Argyle

Player’s Handbook ® 3 introduced a new option for

player character races. Instead of receiving a +2

bonus to two ability scores, each race was given one

constant ability bonus and a choice between two

alternatives for the second bonus. That approach has

been standard in all books published since then.

Most of the races from previous books were

updated in Heroes of the Fallen Lands TM and Heroes

of the Forgotten Kingdoms TM , leaving just a handful

untouched—until now.

This article extends the option to the remaining six

player character races. Now all characters can adopt

those racial archetypes that are thematically fitting

but which previously were less attractive choices.

Deva

For millennia, servants of the gods of good bound

themselves to mortal forms so that they could directly

battle the forces of darkness upon the world. Those

remaining in the Astral Sea watched their fellows’

progress with pride and gratitude, mixed with a

growing concern. The devas’ efforts against the

followers of evil were noble and brave, but uncoor-

dinated and often impulsive. Worse, the devas had

trouble recruiting mortal allies to fight alongside

Ma rch 2011 | Dragon 397

Ability

Racial Ability Bonuses

them. A call reverberated through the Plane Above,

summoning great leaders and evangelists to abandon

their well-earned rests and cloak themselves in f lesh

once more. So it was that new devas began appearing

in the world, dedicated to bringing light against dark-

ness, gathering mortals to their righteous banners,

and guiding their hosts to victory.

secrets of the mind and of the arcane world. With

their characteristic introspection and deliberateness

of purpose, some kalashtar probe that darkness to

fuel their studies into magic and psionics.

warforged along with their more workmanlike fellows.

Examples of these late-model designs tend to be slim-

mer and more graceful in appearance, and often wear a

striking black, gold, or silver finish. They are extremely

logical, as one might expect of thinking machines, with

near-perfect memory and an insatiable hunger for

knowledge and learning. They often pursue careers as

wizards or artificers.

Shadar-kai

The goal of many shadar-kai is to be remembered in

glory when life reaches its inevitable end. They test

their own limits and then strive to push beyond them,

to achieve the only immortality that matters: being

counted among those heroes who are remembered

in legend. To achieve that end, shadar-kai are willing

to take extreme risks, to gamble everything on one

throw of the dice. Some, however, take a longer view

of life. They see the road to glory as a long and rugged

slope rather than as a looming precipice. To them, the

inward-directed life of the monk and the psion hold a

special attraction. A select few, upon tasting the rich-

ness of life beyond the Shadowfell, lose themselves in

the vibrance of the primal world. Like all shadar-kai,

they will always be strangers to true joy, yet this sense of

wonder sets them apart from their kin.

Genasi

Genasi have the wild souls of elemental beings, and

their essentially supernatural nature is part of all that

they do. Just as their souls manifest elemental power

in different ways, genasi are varied beings. Almost all

have keen minds, but their bodies show the effect of

their heritage in different ways. Some are physically

powerful like a storm, while others possess a capacity

to endure like stone.

Ability Score bonuSeS

Fixed

race

bonus

either/or

changeling

cha

Dex/int

Deva

Wis

int/cha

Dragonborn cha

Str/con

Drow

Dex

Wis/cha

Dwarf

con

Str/Wis

eladrin

int

Dex/cha

elf

Dex

int/Wis

Goliath

These mountain-bred nomads forge powerful ties to

the primal world during their alpine wanderings. The

inf luence of their unforgiving environment is obvious

in their culture, which emphasizes honesty, boldness,

and reverence for nature. Goliaths learn from an

early age to draw strength from the mountains that

nurture them. Although most pursue the straight-

forward life of a warrior, their powerful links to the

primal world also urge them toward the paths of the

warden, the seeker, the shaman, and the druid.

Genasi

int

Str/con

Githzerai Wis

Dex/int

Gnome

int

Dex/cha

Goliath

Str

con/Wis

Half-elf

con

Wis/cha

Halfling

Dex

con/cha

Warforged

Most warforged designs, being intended for close

combat, emphasized physical power and durability.

The armorers and artificers of House Cannith, how-

ever, experimented with many different warforged

patterns during the Last War, and smaller numbers of

warforged were built for very different purposes. Some

of the last warforged designs to emerge from the cre-

ation forges were given superior mental ability in order

to quickly master various forms of arcane magic. House

Cannith hoped to sell these warforged battlemages

for a premium price, but the end of the Last War put

a stop to the production of these new, more intelligent

Half-orc

Dex

Str/con

Human

any

none

Kalashtar

cha

int/Wis

Minotaur

Str

con/Wis

Mul

con

Str/Wis

revenant

Dex

cha/con

Shadar-kai

Dex

int/Wis

Shardmind

int

Wis/cha

Kalashtar

Those who know the kalashtar understand the con-

f lict that roils beneath their serene exteriors. For a

kalashtar, every hour is a struggle against the dark

madness that lurks beyond the perimeter of sanity’s

light. But the madness that threatens also contains

Shifter

Wis

Str/Dex*

thri-kreen

Dex

Str/Wis

tiefling

cha

con/int

Warforged

con

Str/int

Wilden

Wis

Dex/con

*Determined by choice of longtooth or razorclaw

Ma rch 2011 | Dragon 397

Con f e s s i on s o f a f u l l - t i m e w i z a r d

Head of the Class

By Shelly MazzanoBle

Illustration by William O’Conner

By now you’ve all probably seen the episode of

nBC’s Community about the most epic dungeons &

dragons ® game ever. if you haven’t seen it, you’ve

probably read all about it. news sites, bloggers, even

the pop culture rags i frequent were all ablaze pre-

viewing, then recapping the episode.

the verdict?

one of Community’s finest episodes and one of the

greatest depictions of d&d ever.

Phew. what a relief ! when the d&d Brand team

was contacted months ago by the producers, we were

excited yet dubious. Community is a huge television

show, which happens to kick off nBC’s hugest night

of television. it also is a critical darling. no doubt this

would generate great awareness for the brand.

But we were skeptical, as always when we give

our blessing to let d&d go out and play with strang-

ers. that’s our baby! i imagine my mom felt the same

way when she let me go off with my new sixth-grade

friends, Kim and alisa, to friendly’s for reece’s Pieces

sundaes. (i smoked my first cigarette in friendly’s

ladies' room and swiped a pocketful of straws from

the ice cream counter, which i later capitalized on

when the spitball craze hit west middle. i guess mom

was right to be worried.)

sure, we always see scripts in advance, as we did

with Community . i begged my boss to act it out with

me (i sooooooo want to be shirley Bennett), but

she thought we could find a better use for our time.

whatever. some people apparently didn’t appreci-

ate my Ode to the Real Housewives of Orange County .

Philistines.

the script looked good on paper—no horrible,

antiquated stereotypes, no perpetuation of ancient

myths, not one mention of doritos. But still . . . what

if the writers changed a line at the last minute?

what if one of the actors improvised? worse, what

if Community’s community just didn’t get d&d’s

community?

let’s be honest, making fun of d&d is like Kimbo

slice picking on the kids who stereotypically play it.

oK, some of the stuff is funny (“ I attack the darkness”

in particular), but for the most part— snooze . aren’t

we over that garbage yet? Haven’t we proved that

people who play d&d also own homes, have pets,

take vacations with their families, live aboveground,

and so on? with the exception of maybe having

higher-than-average intelligence and being better

looking in general, d&d players are just like every-

one else.

Ma rch 2011 | Dragon 397

Con f e s s i on s o f a f u l l - t i m e w i z a r d

thankfully, the Brand team’s apprehension was

put to rest, thanks largely to series creator dan Har-

mon’s own d&d background. He’s clearly not one of

those stereotypes the media likes to promote, and the

writers knew better than to trot out 30-something-

year-old typecasts for a few laughs. instead, we got

a charming, endearing, well-represented game of

d&d. Here are a few things i thought they showed

exceptionally well.

Joining the Cause: the “friends” are a study

group at a community college in Greendale,

Colorado. Believing that a fellow student named

neil was suffering from major depression (because

people keep calling him things like fat neil—

heartbreaking!), they decided to cheer him up by

staging a dice-rolling intervention. the fact that the

group cares so much about their friend’s well-being

outweighed the fact that the majority of them knew

nothing about d&d and, most likely, never wanted

to. this is exactly the stuff a great d&d party is

made of. sign me up.

Fighting the Villain: every good d&d game

has a villain, and every good d&d group collec-

tively goes after him or her. in this case, the villain

wasn’t the dragon. it was Pierce the insensitive,

another student who is bullying and mean and hard

to like even if he is played by Clark Griswold. Pierce

takes great pleasure in belittling and terrorizing

neil, which makes it easy for the players to take

their eyes off the dragon and refocus their anger

on the real enemy. is anything better than joining

forces to take down a common evil? You see this at

sporting events, where a bunch of strangers bond

for a few hours merely because they’re wearing

same-colored shirts and face paint. it’s what brought

my best friend Cindy and i together in fourth

grade—our mutual hatred for stacy Kendrick and

her stupid “baby twin siblings.” umm, stacy, you

had nothing to do with their existence, unless you

count the fact that your parents knew they could

do better, so they tried again. (oh snap ! why didn’t

i think of that cut-down in fourth grade? i need to

find her on facebook.)

Pierce was a jerk, just like any number of d&d

villains my groups have faced. there were those

responsible for the death of a party member, those

who sent us on wild goose chases, those who man-

aged to keep us at bay—bruised, beaten, and bloodied

until that final encounter when we were down to a

handful of at-wills and some crossbow bolts. (those

were the times i would try to use my daily power a

second time, and new dm would totally call me out.

talk about villains!)

Yes, it feels good to achieve great victory unas-

sisted, but there’s something even sweeter about

accomplishing a goal as a group. maybe it’s the

camaraderie. maybe it’s leaning on one another. or

maybe it’s because you look foolish trying to high-

five yourself.

getting Into Character: i remember my first

time. i was so nervous! there was nothing smooth or

confident about my performance. not at all like you

see in the movies or read about in your handbooks.

Yep, roleplaying is so . . . awkward.

Don’t call on me, don’t call on me, don’t call on me i

prayed, sitting on my sweaty palms and trying to

think of ways to get the group into combat asaP.

what do i say? should i change my voice? will i say

the wrong thing and get us all killed? my first experi-

ence with roleplaying was with astrid, my prissy elf

sorceress, and it happened about fourteen minutes

into my first game of d&d. the party was at an out-

door mall in sharn, shopping for adventuring gear

(that part i could roleplay) when teddy, our dm,

asked us to make a Perception check.

astrid was the only one who rolled high enough

to see the suspicious activity on the other side of the

promenade.

“You see one man throw another man over the

railing.”

“oh.”

“what do you want to do?” teddy asked.

“do?” i asked. “oh, you know, just keeping playing,

i guess. i don’t have any meetings until later.”

“Correction,” he said. “what does astrid want to

do?”

“she doesn’t have any meetings, either,” i said,

looking around at my fellow party members for some

guidance. why was he asking me this stuff? He

invited me here!

“does astrid want to say something?” teddy

prodded.

“i don’t know,” i said. “what do you guys think?”

“they don’t think anything,” teddy said, “because

they didn’t see anything. only you did.”

i found this odd, to say the least. i mean, they

clearly heard him tell me that it looks like a man just

threw another man over a railing. in broad daylight,

no less! i pointed this out to teddy, but he wasn’t get-

ting it.

“they didn’t see anything, and they sure didn’t

hear me tell you anything. You’re the only one who

noticed this. what are you going to do?”

i didn’t know. was this a big deal? should i tell the

group? do people throw people over railings a lot in

Ma rch 2011 | Dragon 397

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: