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2 years ago ::
Feb 21, 2011 - 9:47PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Apr 27, 2006
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Dragon 396 Winning Races: Genasi of Athasby Robert J. Schwalb After generations of isolation, genasi are once again being met in the Tyr Region. Talk about this Article here. 
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2 years ago ::
Feb 21, 2011 - 10:22PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Apr 15, 2005
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Looks neat.
Kinda funny that a good deal of issues in both dark sun and the core setting are results of bad planning on before of both gods and primordials.
also, sandslide should probably say something like you can enter enemies' square and don't provoke OA for moving while in that from.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 21, 2011 - 10:43PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Sep 19, 2007
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I really like this, I always wondered how Genasai would turn out in Athas. A Sun/Ash genasai would be quite interesting with the extra manifestation feat and/or the PP. You'd be both the 'dark and the light'. Or i guess...a Dark Sun  . Honestly though, more articles like this, the druid, and the Duergar article are what we need.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 22, 2011 - 12:44AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Oct 15, 2010
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This is a really cool article. I like it lots  It seems odd (especially for the paragon path) that with 'elemental' as a viable keyword (see hierophant druid article) that all these apparently flavored elemental powers don't have it. Anybody else think that's odd? (Or have I got the wrong end of the stick on the keyword?) Cheers Blinkey  (On reflection it occurs to me that 'elemental' is quite probably reserved for stuff that directly links to the elemental chaos which makes sense I guess).
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2 years ago ::
Feb 22, 2011 - 12:54AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Aug 28, 2005
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I'll post the same thing here that I posted on CharOp:
Ember-Soul +1 Reflex is unnecessary and unoriginal. It should have been replaced by something interesting. I've always had a problem with the wording of saving throw bonuses "against ___", when they should instead be "against effects that cause ___". Saving throws are made against effects. It sounds like a stupid nitpick, but there we go. Either way, only against ongoing fire? Lame. Why not just give them fire resistance? Ashfall Evasion should allow for any ability score and shouldn't be restricted to only three stats. I thought that they learned their lesson about these in Dark Sun when they introduced themes. Then again, Thri-Kreen still mess this up. As for the thematic effects of the racial power, meh.
Magma-Soul +1 Fortitude is unnecessary and unoriginal. It should have been replaced by something interesting. The other benefit is exclusively useful to melee characters, and that's not good. Genasi are a very special issue because may consider them to be a singular race, such that it's okay for some to be more specialized because those options don't need to be selected if they wouldn't be benefitial, and I can sort of understand that viewpoint, but it's still a shame. As for Flowing Magma, I've generally been pretty against racial powers that include detriments to their user, and I wouldn't consider this to be one of the exceptions. This is only passable because of the aforementioned little Genasi dilemma, but it would still be better if the excuse didn't need to exist. Also, this still has the problem of being restricted to three ability scores. And again, as far as thematics go, it's just too complicated for a racial power.
Sand-Soul No complains here. I actually like this one. No defense bonus, features are reasonably unique and interesting, both mechanically and thematically, and the racial power doesn't try too hard. Great manifestation, definitely one of the better ones in general.
Sun-Soul Repeat what I said about Ember-Soul with relation to the saving throw bonuses against ongoing damage. This one does try to be more unique, though, with the cute little temperature and sun sickness things. Sun Flare still has the three ability score problem, and also apparently missed the memo that accessory-less powers that target a NAD are now supposed to be scaling at a rate of +3 at heroic, +6 at paragon, and +9 at epic. The racial power here is more thematically interesting than Ashfall Evasion and Flowing Magma, but it's still only so-so.
Why, yes, as a matter of fact I am the Unfailing Arbiter of All That Is Good Design (Even More So Than The Actual Developers) TMSpeaking of things that were badly designed, please check out this thread for my Minotaur fix. What have the critics said, you ask? "If any of my players ask to play a Minotaur, I'm definitely offering this as an alternative to the official version." - EmpactWB "If I ever feel like playing a Minotaur I'll know where to look!" - Undrave "WoTC if you are reading this - please take this guy's advice." - Ferol_Debtor_of_Torm "Really full of win. A minotaur that is actually attractive for more than just melee classes." - Cpt_Micha Also, check out my recent GENASI variant! If you've ever wished that your Fire Genasi could actually set stuff on fire, your Water Genasi could actually swim, or your Wind Genasi could at least glide, then look no further. Finally, check out my OPTIONS FOR EVERYONE article, an effort to give unique support to the races that WotC keeps forgetting about. Includes new racial feature options for the Changeling, Deva, Githzerai, Gnoll, Gnome, Goliath, Half-Orc, Kalashtar, Minotaur, Shadar-Kai, Thri-Kreen, Warforged and more!
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2 years ago ::
Feb 22, 2011 - 2:48AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Oct 25, 2009
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Pure awesome. Makes me want to immediately make a genasi for my DS campaign. Lots of crunch, lots of great fluff. This is what I expect from the magazines.
Diseases in the compendium and now this article. Feb is making me a happy ddi subscriber.
How about this kind of treatment for runepriests? Or artificers? Please?
Want to know more about the history of D&D, especially how to play older editions of the game? Check out Crazy Monkey's "Tour through the editions":
http://community.wizards.com/crazymonkey/go/forum/view/133793/225799/Asylum_Play-by-Post
The current edition is BECMI, the most popular form of Basic D&D and the adventure is the classic Red Box quest to kill Bargle the evil magic user. Check it out, learn about the games roots, and enjoy the story as it unfolds.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 22, 2011 - 3:31AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Oct 28, 2010
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Is there anyone else writing for Dragon these days, or has it become the Robert J Schwalb show? It's not something I've a tremendous objection to, RJS's work is for the most part of good quality, and feels limited more by the WotC policies than his own skill as a writer/games designer. But some variety in writers might help.
A hint to Wizards: there are plenty of people who'd write for Dragon for no money in exchange for the credit on their CV and the chance to enhance the hobby they love.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 22, 2011 - 5:39AM
#8
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Once again, Schwalb delivers.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 22, 2011 - 5:49AM
#9
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Great fluff... not so sure about the mechanics. I always find it a bit of a shame when racial stuff is so dependend on just physical attributes, even more so when it is a racial paragon path. Sure, the PP also includes Intelligence (instead of Dex), but what about Wisdom for druids and shamans? Then again, I am currently playing a swordmage genasi in one non Dark Sun campaign, so I might be biased. At least the PP deals with the implement/weapon issue of the previous genasi racial PPs...
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2 years ago ::
Feb 22, 2011 - 5:53AM
#10
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And here, at last, is an awesome article, full of flavour and useful crunch. This is the sort of thing that should be covered in the digital magazines.
On the subject of the Schwalb show – I love Schwalb's work, so I'm not upset, but I can't help but think that part of the reason the articles are so few and far between (the magazines are a lot smaller these past months) is because it's nearly all R.J. Schwalb.
More writers could also mean more articles per month.
A great man once said "If WotC put out boxes full of free money there'd still be people complaining about how it's folded." – Boraxe
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