Dragon Magazine 394 - December 2010(2).pdf - Dragon magazine - Kitraida

ISSUE 394 | DEcEmbEr 2010

A Dungeons & Dragons ® Roleplaying Game Supplement

C ontents

Features

5 theexecutionerassassin

By Rodney Thompson

Assassins embrace shadow magic and pledge a shard of their souls to the

Shadowfell to gain their power. We’re pleased to present all 30 levels of the

executioner assassin!

42 BazaaroFtheBizarre

By Matt Sernett

Who knows when a thing thought to exist only in the mind of bards might

leap into the lives of those around it as readily as any story might fire their

imaginations? Such is the case with these four legendary items.

25 totemsoFtheFarrealm

By Jim Auwaerter and Galen Mullins

Throughout the world, there are those who find themselves touched by

the Far Realm. Most fight back and try to reject it, but the Aberrant Soul

embraces it to create a totemic link with an aberrant creature.

48 reFlavoringPowers

By David Gibson

Every power comes with its own f lavor text that describes how the power

looks when it’s used. Those descriptions aren’t set in stone; players can

customize them for the theme of the character or feel of the campaign.

33 channelDivinity: corellon

By Robert J. Schwalb

Corellon is the originator of arcane magic, having seeded its power in the

world. It is said he himself planted the first forests, and the most ancient

woods still bear his mark in the towering trees.

51 classacts: runePriests

By Robert J. Schwalb

Among the many relics left from the Dawn War are the terrifying Runes of

Unmaking, which the gods locked secreted away to protect mortals. Such

power never stays hidden forever.

55 uneartheDarcana: Psions

By Peter Schaefer and Robert J. Schwalb

Elder psions believe prolonged contact with another mind invites a serious

danger from cross-personality pollution and merging of consciousness. The

awakened reject these warnings, at great risk to their own psyches.

columns

60 winningraces: shiFtersintherealms

By Matt Sernett

Shifters understand the essential beast within. The Spellplague brought the

wilderness closer to home, and now shifters are as common as humans in

some parts of the world, as these new backgrounds attest.

4 eDitorial

By Steve Winter

The new character builder reveals interesting

things about D&D players.

76 amPersanD

By Bill Slavicsek

The D ungeons & D ragons ® rewards us with

excitement, intellectual stimulation, and best of

all, friendship.

65 Fiction: arenaoFshaDows

By Sarah Zettel

Duke Arisor had become too cavalier about his own safety of late. He was not

the first of Fairhaven’s prosperous citizens to assume that because the city was

well-ordered it was essentially safe. It was but one of his mistakes.

78 conFessionsoFaFull-timewizarD

By Shelly Mazzanoble

D&D’s “Player-in-Chief ” steps out of her

comfortable wizard’s shoes to try on a pair of

rogue’s sneakers.

onthecover

Illustration by Alex Aparin

82 D&Dalumni : BarrierPeaks

By Bart Carroll

Accompanying the all-new Gamma World

roleplaying game will be a thoroughly updated

version of the only adventure ever to feature

featherless, gun-toting, cyclops chickens.

Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten realms, Eberron, D ungeon , D ragon , d20, d20 System, Wizards of the coast, all other Wizards of the coast product names, and their

respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the coast, Inc., in the U.S.A. and other countries.

This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is

prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the coast, Inc. This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events

No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. For more Dungeons & Dragons articles, adventures, and information, visit www.wizards.

com/dnd

E D I T oR I A l

394

De c emb e r 2010 Houston Rockets

Dragon

vs. the Transit Board

Before I came to work at TSR lo those many years ago,

I was a newspaper reporter. A “city desk” reporter, to

be precise. Instead of covering glamorous sports events

or exciting fires and car crashes, I covered transit com-

mission meetings and school board elections.

Try as I might, it was hard to make that type of mate-

rial engaging to the average subscriber. Given a choice

between reading budget proposals for the bus system

or box scores for the NBA finals, most people turn to

the sports page. The fact is, though, they’d be better

off reading the transit commission minutes, because

the transit commission is spending their money. If you

think your taxes are too high and want to know where

all that money is going, you won’t find the answer in an

interview with Moses Malone (look him up, you kids).

What does that have to do with the Dungeons &

Dragons ® game?

Just this—every month when we lay out our table of

contents and editorial calendar, we face a tug-of-war

between the classes and races that are the most popu-

lar and draw the most readers, and those that actually

need some reinforcement but which aren’t as widely

played. This begs the question of why certain classes

and races are more popular than others—is it because

they have the most feats and powers, or because

they’re the most appealing fantasy archetypes? We’re

pretty sure it’s a mixture of both, but the ratio is open

to a lot of passionate debate.

The new D&D Character Builder is in a unique posi-

tion to answer some of those questions.

From our position as game designers and magazine

editors, we’re beside ourselves with excitement that the

new D&D Character Builder provides feedback on the

types of characters that players are building. It’s way too

early to draw conclusions—as John Feil cautions, “the

Editor-in-Chief

Steve Winter

Senior Art Director

Jon Schindehette

Web Production

bart carroll

data is interesting but not yet useful.” It will become

useful with time, and we intend to make the most of

it in our effort to keep improving the magazines and

delivering articles that players will actually use.

I’ve been involved in publishing D&D for a lot of

years, and this is the first time we’ve ever had informa-

tion like this. We’ve always had theories based on book

sales, surveys, anecdotes, and customer feedback in

every form imaginable. Suddenly, we have actual data.

let me tell you—it’s thrilling.

All we’re looking at is numbers: how many fighters

are there compared to wizards, how many half-elves

compared to humans and minotaurs, how many 15th-

level characters compared to 5th-level.

The core question is how to put the data into

action. If fighters outpull druids five to one, does

that mean we should devote more articles to fighters

because they’re the most popular and the most likely

to draw readers? or should we lean more heavily

toward druids in an effort to boost their popularity?

We have a lot of work ahead figuring out what it all

means and how to put it to use. We’re still giddy that

for the first time ever, we can base those decisions on

something real. That’s big.

let us know where you stand: do you want to

see more articles on what’s most popular or what’s

most in need of a boost? Email your opinion to

dndinsider@wizards.com .

Contributing Authors

Jim Auwaerter, David Gibson,

Shelly mazzanoble, Galen mullins,

Peter Schaefer, robert J. Schwalb,

matt Sernett, Sarah Zettel

Developers

Jeremy crawford,

Stephen Schubert

Editor

miranda Horner

Cover Artist

Alex Aparin

Contributing Artists

Eric belisle, Wayne England,

Tony Foti, christine macTernan,

Slawomir maniak, Jim Nelson,

craig J. Spearing, matias Tapia,

UDON, ben Wootten

Publishing Production

Specialists

Angelika Lokotz, Erin Dorries,

christopher Tardiff

Web Development

mark Jindra

Executive Producer,

D&D Insider

christopher Perkins

Director of RPG R&D

bill Slavicsek

Special Thanks

Josh Dillard

Assassin

By Rodney Thompson

Illustrations by Eric Belisle, Ben Wootten, and UDON

Assassins embrace shadow magic and pledge a shard of their souls to

the Shadowfell to gain their power. By replacing a fundamental part

of themselves with a dark ref lection, they can manifest that piece of

shadow to accomplish incredible things. The infusion of shadow magic

allows assassins to identify weak points in an opponent’s defenses so

that with a few moments of study they can reduce the stoutest enemies

to corpses.

An assassin usually keeps his or her profession a secret, since few trust

those who regularly deal in death. Assassins’ guilds provide some measure

of protection, especially in those regions where the study of shadow magic

and assassination as an art form are banned.

As an assassin, you are an outcast. You traded away a part of your soul

for the power of death, and only the most-loyal companions accept your

skills into their midst. Whatever drew you onto the assassin’s path, you

become a trained killer from whom few can escape unharmed.

The type of assassin you can create with this article is the executioner.

De c emb e r 2010 | Dragon 394

Dragon Magazine 394 - December 2010(2).pdf

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