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Dragon 419
Compilation
By Jim Auwaerter, Logan Bonner, Ed Greenwood, Doug Hyatt, Claudio Pozas, Robert J. Schwalb, Steve Winter

Visit the blighted Mournland and discover the inner workings of sentient living spells. Find out why many consider bladelings to be the ideal soldiers. Equip your game with the engines of war. Plus, the first wielders, hobgoblins, and the Dead Dwarf Mine!

Talk about this magazine here.

 

The bladeling will need some serious errata...it's very amateurish.

The hobgoblin was actually kinda nice, my only gripe is the Warcaster Tactics feat...maybe restrict it to one per encounter or only working with dailies and encounters?

Clockwork Rookery remind me of the Siege Tower on Threats to Nethir Vale...wish is nice. (yesterday my party hijacked one of those, i am allowing them to spend money for mats to upgrade it and use it for outdoor encounters) 

I liked the Winning Race: Hobgoblin and Bladeling but i think Razor Storm should scale +3/6/9. I would have wish for better feats support but its still cool to get new Winning Races in a long time

The Sentient Living Spells, Engines of War and First Wielder articles bring interesting new monsters.

The Eye on the Realms is good too,  about Clan Harhund and Dead Dwarf Mine

PS Welcome back to Steve Winter at Dragon Magazines!

Jan 14, 2013 -- 5:55PM, Plaguescarred wrote:

The Sentient Living Spells, Engines of War and First Wielder articles bring interesting new monsters.

Haven't had the chance to download it yet.

Darn, I was hoping that the First Wielders article would be new weapon styles for Slayers and Knights (maybe Scouts, Hunters and Thieves, too).

Here's hoping for those later in the year.

Jan 14, 2013 -- 7:51PM, MalakLightfoot wrote:

Jan 14, 2013 -- 5:55PM, Plaguescarred wrote:

The Sentient Living Spells, Engines of War and First Wielder articles bring interesting new monsters.

Haven't had the chance to download it yet.

Darn, I was hoping that the First Wielders article would be new weapon styles for Slayers and Knights (maybe Scouts, Hunters and Thieves, too).

Here's hoping for those later in the year.

Those classes have little chance of being expanded because of the design of those...they are not as "modular" as classic classes or the semi-essentials classes such as hexblade (hexblade having the best potential to be expanded, this being the reason for it being expanded quite during the years)

I thought for sure that hobgoblins would get STR as their flex stats. I know hobgoblins have a strong arcane tradition, but I cannot abide that hobgoblins make subpar fighters.

Jan 15, 2013 -- 9:39AM, Paladin-s_Pride wrote:

I thought for sure that hobgoblins would get STR as their flex stats. I know hobgoblins have a strong arcane tradition, but I cannot abide that hobgoblins make subpar fighters.

They don't make subpar Fighters. They don't make optimal Fighters, either. They make subpar Rangers.

It's still weird that they make better wizards than fighters.

Jan 14, 2013 -- 5:51PM, mexrage wrote:

The hobgoblin was actually kinda nice, my only gripe is the Warcaster Tactics feat...maybe restrict it to one per encounter or only working with dailies and encounters?

It is certainly strong, but I do not think it overpowered. The ally must be adjacent, this is quite a serious limitation. Limiting it further would mean it does not fit into the 18 strongest feats for a sorcerer or wizard, essentially rendering it useless.

The "Unarmed Strike is High-Crit" feat should have no Preqs.  The "You have an unarmed strike feature" feat should give +3/1d8 light-blade unarmed strike, and Ki-proficiency (or something of that caliber).

The Storm-Pillar companion should be labeled a defender, and have an MBA.  Area denial more a defender thing than a striker thing, and it has no extra damage source to justify the label.

Re 2/4/6 vs. 3/6/9.  I increasingly think that many of those powers should just gain the implement keyword.  See "Ki Focus" above for one solution to that (or grant the race Ki-Focus profiency as a racial feature.  It's not like it would over power them.  At all.) 

Jan 18, 2013 -- 10:07AM, kilpatds wrote:

The "Unarmed Strike is High-Crit" feat should have no Preqs.  The "You have an unarmed strike feature" feat should give +3/1d8 light-blade unarmed strike, and Ki-proficiency (or something of that caliber).

That's pretty close to my original draft of these feats.

I hate when that happens.  (Edit: I'm gonna guess you said "+3/1d6 light blade, Enchantable like Gnoll Claws".  That's still a crap martial weapon, which is a shame for a feat.  The shortsword has the good grace to be off-hand out of the box, and the rapier is a die sized higher.  So +3/1d8 light blade (rapier) and Implement proficiency combine to make a suitable racial feat, IM(ns)HO)

Edit: BTW, Nice art.

I've been playing a bladeling avenger in LFR who's currently 10th level.  I've never bemoaned the lack of feat support but I was excited to see this article.  However, I don't understand the motivation behind the nerf to Improved Razor Storm, the one feat that was printed along with the Bladelings in Manual of the Planes.  The ongoing 5 damage on a hit now only triggers on a crit and doesnt' scale to 10 and 15 with tier.  Since this is a power that attacks everyone I haven't found it terribly powerful in 10 levels of play because I have to be careful to avoid my comrades so this nerf feels unneccessary and I'm wondering if this was Claudio's idea or did it happen in development?