Gen Con
August 18 to 21, 2005
Indiana Convention Center
Indianapolis, IN

LGR Gameday
August 20, 2005
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, ON
CANADA

Dragonflight
August 26 to 28, 2005
Bellevue Sheraton
Bellevue, WA

Winter Fantasy 2006 announced!
February 23 to 26, 2006
Hyatt Regency Crystal City
Arlington, VA

The third in a series of beautifully illustrated supplements focusing
on play in specific environmental climes, Stormwrack contains rules
on play in watery environments.
Not only are rules for sea
campaigns offered, but rules for including water environments in land-based D&D campaigns and dungeon adventures are also covered.

Included is extensive information
on lakes and rivers; hazards such
as exposure, storms, and
waterspouts; races, including non-aquatic races associated with the
sea; equipment, including
detailed deck plans for ships; monsters; magic, including
psionic elements; skills; feats;
and more.

    Out next Month

This supplement introduces a magical substance called
incarnum into the D&D game.
With this book, the players
characters can meld incarnum
the power of souls living, dead,
and unborninto magical items
and even their own bodies,
granting them special attacks, defenses, and other abilities
(much as magic items and spells
do). Incarnum can be shaped and reshaped into new forms, giving characters tremendous versatility
in the dungeon and on any battlefield.

This book also features new
classes, prestige classes, feats,
and other options for characters wishing to explore the secrets of incarnum, as well as rules and
advice for including incarnum in
a D&D campaign.

 This adventure showcases the
classic high fantasy for which the Forgotten Realms setting is
known. Sons of Gruumsh features
an epic quest to prevent war
between the orcs of Thar and the cities of the Moonsea. Though set
in the Forgotten Realms,
Dungeon Masters can place this adventure anywhere in the
Realms, or easily adapt it for
their own D&D campaigns. This
adventure features encounters
written to facilitate the use of D&D Miniatures and is designed for
4th-level characters.

Issue 179 Volume 25 Number 9

Origins 2005 Recap and Look Forward to Gen Con 2005
by David Christ

On June 29th, thousands of gamers descended upon the Greater Columbus Convention Center for Origins 2005. The weather was unbelievably hot for Ohio this time of the year, which coupled with the problems in the GAMA ticketing system, made for some grumpy times for the show coming out of the blocks. The problems were sorted out as quickly as possible and the show continued on its way.     MORE

Ready to Set Sail?
by Lorena Dinger

Has the summer heat been getting to you? Well, Wizards of the Coast has a cool new D&D supplement that may be just the thing you need! Stormwrack: Mastering the Perils of Wind and Wave should be available at your local gaming store on Friday, August 12, 2005. This new book has something for everyone. Heres a quick summary of what youll find.

Chapter 1: Into the Maelstrom
When the stream is most boisterous, and its fury heightened by a storm, it is dangerous to come within a Norway mile of it.
Edgar Allen Poe, A Descent Into The Maelstrom

This chapter offers a wealth of information on aquatic terrains, water hazards, and special dangers that characters might face, such as diseases and storms. It should be very useful for DMs. Youll also find information on sailing, naval combat, damage, sinking, and repairs. Tables abound, and theres also a list of 20 ideas for marine adventures if you need some help thinking of ways to put all of this new information to use.    MORE

Combat Medic
by Adrian Drake

I am your Combat Medic, here to help you look at and maximize your D&D Minis and make your warband better. It's not always about the rares you put on the table. Sometimes it's all about how you use them.

The Warband

This month, Chad (Rust) submitted to me (op-insider@wizards.com) an army with an interesting note:

Dear Combat Medic,

Here is the all-Monk LG Warband that I usually play. I find that I have more fun with a theme army than with an army picked just because the pieces have good game stats, but my win record is pretty poor.

Thanks,

Chad           MORE            

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Foolishly Answered Questions

The players of Five Foot Steps regularly answer your burning questions about roleplaying, game etiquette, and the Dungeons & Dragons rules. Note that we did not specify the answers were particularly helpful or accurate. Consider yourself warned. This time around, were giving the whole column over to our rules expert, Zaid, to answer some thorny questions relating to creature type. We strongly urge that you make a particular effort to not take any of the following advice.

Q.The main villain so far in the campaign Im playing is a sorcerer who likes to toss charm person around. Weve fought him three times, and my 4th-level human ranger has gotten charmed each time! Is there any easy way to defend myself against this spell?

Zaid the Powergamer: You do not need to defend yourself against this spell at all. Your character is not actually a valid target.

If we read the text of the spell charm person, it begins, This charm makes a humanoid creature regard you as its trusted friend and ally (treat the targets attitude as friendly). The target line further confirms that only one humanoid creature is affected. Therefore, the question we find ourselves with is whether or not your human is a humanoid. The answer? No.   

Humanoid is defined in the Monster Manual as a creature type; A humanoid usually has two arms, two legs, and one head, or a humanlike torso, arms, and a head. Looking through the rest of the book, we find several examples of creatures with the humanoid type: elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, goblins, kobolds, and a few others. However, there is NO entry for humans. Therefore, we cannot say with any certainty that humans have the humanoid type; we must assume that humans, unlike every other creature in the game, have no type whatsoever. This makes humans immune to a wide variety of spells, including the dreaded charm person. Now, in case your Dungeon Master argues that a human must by necessity be a humanoid, you can always point out that the word humanoid implies in its very construction that the subject is NOT humanotherwise, wouldnt they be called humans, instead of humanOIDs?      MORE