Dungeons and Dragons Adventurer Issue 8

Sage Advice

This issue looks at Sizes, describing the different size classes in D&D and what effect they have in play. 

We get the second part of the series on spell effects, this time looking at cones, cylinders and lines.

Finally, mounted combat. Not, perhaps, that urgent for second level characters, but it is very relevant for the Encounter later this issue.

Character Creation

Alignment lists the nine (and a half, counting unaligned) alignments, along with the sort of behaviour associated with each one.

Then a section on Tools, explaining how proficiency in tools works in game and listing common tool sets found in Dungeons and Dragons. Tools includes musical instruments, and I've always found D&D's treatment of this hopeless. The prices especially are way out, but that's a problem with the game itself, not the magazine.

Finally the first Profession, Outlander, is detailed.

Lore

The City of Neverwinter is introduced and there is a section on The Lord's Alliance.

Freebies

More dice. I rather like this set and find the red and black design appealing. They are a little difficult to read in low light levels, and I've played in some pretty dingy games shops in the past. I guess I'll have to pack these and last issues glow in the dark dice as well.

Conclusions

Some useful stuff, though I feel that further guidance on actually playing different alignments would be very helpful.  We are seeing a gradual build up of the essential rules for D&D, but I find this 'drip feeding' to be slightly off-putting.

The Encounter really makes this issue worth while though, see below for more details (and spoilers).

Encounter - Fun At The Faire

The characters are invited to a fair held in their honour, giving them a chance to show off, and foil a dastardly plot.  There are four events that the characters can take part in. 

The final event is a tourney (hence the earlier article on mounted combat). The result of this has a significant impact on the politics of Neverwinter, though it's not clear how much that will reflected in future adventures.

Why do I really like this encounter? It gives chances for characters to shine out of combat, and there are more opportunities to mingle with villagers and outsiders. Each event is different (though I'm not convinced by the musical one, it reads as more poetry), and there is no problem if the PCs fail.