Dungeons and Dragons Blog

It’s been a while since I came up with a formal plan for this site and while I know I might only be sticking with things until baseball season starts, it’s probably worth the effort.  Traffic has been up a bit so as more and more people stop by, it makes this website more and more of a priority.

In December, one of my “must buys” is coming out.  As soon as I get it in my hands, I’ll do a review of Fiendish Codex II - Tyrants of the Nine Hells.  The last time I was this excited about a project was Tome of Magic, and that came out a while ago.  I’ve bought stuff since then, but I’m really excited about Fiendish Codex II - Tyrants of the Nine Hells.  The tail end of my campaign takes the players through the Nine Hells and the only material I have to work with is what’s in Manual of the Planes and the old 2E Guide to Hell.

I’ll also restart my Blast From the Past series.  This month I’ll take a look at the original Isle of Dread.  Module X1 came came with the original Expert Rules box set and it was the first module I ever owned.  The Isle of Dread has taken center stage because it’s the primary focus of Dungeon Magazine’s Savage Tide Campaign Path.

I’ll also take a look at the next issue of Dungeon Magazine and highlight anything else I find that’s worth writing about.  So hopefully you’ll pop in, especially if you’re on the fence about Fiendish Codex II - Tyrants of the Nine Hells.

It seems like nostalgia is the name of the game in this month’s Dungeon Magazine.  The first adventure is called Masque of Dreams, which takes place in Mystara, one of the original campaign settings.  It’s also the same location as the old basic module, the Lost City (B4).  True to form for an old basic adventure, it’s for first level characters. 

The highlight of this magazine is the continuation of the Savage Tide adventure path.  For the first time in a long time, we’re reintroduced to the Isle of Dread.  The fourth installment of this adventure path takes the party across the Isle of Dread and true to form, the party has to take on a Tyrannasaurusand the latest installment ends when the party tackles a shrine dedicated to Demogorgon.

The final adventure is a high level one (16th level) that takes the party into an ancient Dwarven tomb.  There’s some interesting traps in this one and the nemesis is a high level elven druid. 

Solid stuff.  The campaign workbook also has some good stuff.  The City contains two crime scenes that you can drop into your campaign and The Journey deals with holy sites.

Gazetteer of the Known Realms is Goodman Games stab at a campaign setting.  The reason I bought this was because I’m a huge fan of the Dungeon Crawl Classic series so I went out on a limb and picked it up.

If I had to compare it to a campaign setting, I’d say it most resembles Greyhawk.  It does’t quite have the depth of Faerun (Forgotten Realms) or of something like Ptolus but it’s solid it’s own right.  For one thing, it allows you to link up various Dungeon Crawl Classics and basically turn them into a campaign and it also provides some solid material for things to do while going from one dungeon to the other.  The maps are very nice and well put together and there’s even two Dungeon Crawl Classic modules that come with it.

For about ten years, I’ve been putting together a massive campaign that I’ve never had a chance to run.  Most of it is in my head and I’ve been waiting to play it for some time (which is probably when it’ll be documented).  I also have very limited experience running version 3.5.  I grew up with old school D&D and still have all of my first edition hardcovers.  I have one group who I know I could get together to play, I might run a Dungeon Crawl Classic campaign using Gazetteer of the Known Realms first so we all master the 3.5 rules before starting my grand campaign.

I hadn’t planned on picking up Cityscape this month so I won’t be a doing a formal review.  I’m going to save my money for Fiendish Codex II.  Although, this thread on Wizards.com’s message board provides you with some solid review material to help you come to a decision as to whether it’s for you.  After reading the info, I’m now leaning towards picking it up once I get some Christmas cash but then again, I don’t run a ton of urban campaigns.  My players enjoy dungeon crawls better.  Dungeonscape looks more up my alley.

You can also check out the table of contents.

I figured since I mentioned Complete Arcane several times in my Complete Mage review because Complete Mage builds on the information in Complete Arcane, that it would be worth taking another look at Complete Arcane.  This book is set up very similar to Complete Mage but it does have it’s differences and it’s own benefits.

Chapter one introduces three new classes.  The War Mage is an offensive minded magicuser who’s fit for the battlefield and the Wu Jen is an elemental focused mage that I believe modifies a similar class that was introduced in Oriental Adventures.  I don’t own that product so I can’t say for sure.  The most interesting new class is the Warlock.  These are supernatural beings that invoke magic through force of will.  They don’t receive spells but instead receive invocations, which also modify the Warlocks eldritch blast, which is a ranged attack that the Warlock can impart.  Warlock’s are generally evil so these make for some interesting nemises, and their eldritch blast can get quite powerful at higher levels.

Chapter two is the meat of the book and these are all of the prestige classes. There’s nineteen in all and while some aren’t too interesting, they all can be used in a magic oriented adventure.  Most of my players stick to the basic classes and rarely do they venture too much outside of the prestige classes introduced in Dungeon Master’s Guide.  What I end up using these prestige classes for are the bad guys because they’re basically ready made templates.  I thought the Blood Magus had the most interesting story behind it.  It’s a mage who has been killed, then revived and have a great appreciation for the blood running through their veins.  The Wild Mage is also introduced, although they’re handled quite differently from the old 2E wild magic.

Chapter three introduces a variety of new feats including some draconic feats that are probably built on in Dragon Magic.  Chapter four has a ton of new spells and it also includes all of the Warlocks invocations.  Fireburst is a nice offensive second level spell and I also liked Mass Fire Shield, which is fifth level.    There’s a vareity of spells of all levels and there’s a ton here.  The down side is, if you own the Spell Compendium, you’re going to have some duplication here since some of the spells in that product were originally in Complete Arcane.

Chapter five are the magic items.  There’s a ton of rods, staves and wands and there’s also some new detail on spell books.  The Staff of Mastery (hold person, dominate monster amongst other spell like affects) was cool as was the Staff of Opening. 

Chapter six introduces some new monsters.  The elemental monoliths were particularly interesting (and there was a new spell that allows you to summon them).

Chapter seven talks about arcane campaigns.  It talks about how your run of the mill city would view the appearance of a particular kind of mage and then it also goes into some detail on each of the specialist mages.  There’s a section on spell duels and even some background stuff on arcane organizations.

Complete Arcane is a solid product.  If you want an idea for a unique, magically oriented bad guy, then this is a great book to have.  I thought the spells were a little better then Complete Mage and the magic items gave me some nice ideas.  I give this a solid four out of five stars.