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 211DR064 Dragon #64 Are all of the attributes having required minimums to be construed as “principal attributes” for that class with regard to two-classed characters?  Yes, with two exceptions. For the purpose of determining whether a character is eligible to take up a second class, principal attributes for each class are considered to be these: cleric, wisdom only; druid, wisdom and charisma; fighter, strength only; paladin, everything but dexterity; ranger, everything but dexterity and charisma; magic-user, intelligence only; illusionist, dexterity and intelligence; thief, dexterity only; assassin, dexterity, intelligence, and strength; and monk, everything but charisma and intelligence. This includes every ability for which a required minimum is given, except for the fighter’s constitution, which must be at least 7, and the magic-user’s dexterity, which the Players Handbook says must be at least 6. The first exception is made because “The principal attribute of a fighter is strength,” but constitution isn’t mentioned in the same sentence (PH, page 22). A “minimum dexterity of 6” is required for magic-users (page 25), but this is superfluous, since a character with a dexterity of 5 or lower is always a cleric (page 11). Note that the principal attribute(s) for each class may include abilities in addition to those that apply toward a bonus to earned experience. To limit the definition of “principal attributes” to only those abilities that pertain to the experience bonus would make the system unbalanced and unplayable — unbalanced because then it would be easier to become a two-classed paladin than a two-classed ranger, and unplayable because the assassin and monk never get an experience bonus, and so by this definition would not have any “principal attributes.”  
 212DR064 Dragon #64 If a follower gains a higher level than his master, does the follower continue to serve? Can a follower who has reached the proper level gain followers of his own? If so, are they under the control of the master or the master’s follower?  The relationship between followers and their master is, on a smaller scale, similar to the relationship between clerics and their deities: So much depends on how the roles are played, and on the particulars of each campaign, that it's impossible to dictate in a set of rules how one side of the relationship will interact with the other. With regard to followers and when (if ever) they stop being followers, a few general statements may be risked: If a follower ever gains an experience level equal to or higher than the master’s — and the DM has been fair about awarding experience when it is deserved — then the master probably brought about the “role reversal” by not actively adventuring or in some way causing a delay in his or her level advancement. Human (and humanoid) nature is such that a follower who gets close or equal to his master in powers and abilities will think about striking out on his own, and sooner or later he’ll try to do something about fulfilling that desire. Maybe the master will opt for a pre-emptive strike, hoping to subjugate or vanquish a follower who looms as a threat to the master’s power and authority. If a follower remains subservient to his master while both the master and follower keep rising in levels, it’s possible to develop a hierarchy of followers beneath other followers, all of them ultimately beholding to the master who originally became eligible to have followers. In any sort of master-follower relationship, it isn’t possible for the boss to “control” his followers the way you control an undead (or vice versa). A follower’s allegiance to his master may be strong, but it can’t be expected to remain unshakeable for an indefinite length of time unless those who aid their master’s cause are given credit (power and/or other rewards) when credit is due. And followers are just like you and me: the more they get, the more they want. . . . 
 213DR064 Dragon #64 How can the level of spell use be determined for a paladin or a ranger? Is a ranger required to carry a spell book? Do druids, bards, paladins, or rangers gain bonus spells for high wisdom?  An 8th-level ranger or a 9th-level paladin begins using spells as a caster of the 1st experience level in the appropriate class. When a ranger reaches 9th level, he or she will operate for spell-casting purposes as a 1st-level magic-user or a 2nd-level druid, depending on which category of magic is employed. The “level of casting” for paladins and rangers increases by one each time the character gains a new experience level, so that a 20th-level paladin would cast spells as a 12th-level cleric and a 17th-level ranger would have the spell-casting ability of a 10thlevel druid and a 9th-level magic-user. Is this fair? Sure — a whole lot more fair than the other obvious alternative, which would be to let a 9th-level paladin (for example) cast spells as a 9th-level cleric, by equating actual level with spell-casting level. This just doesn’t make sense, in terms of game balance or for so-called realistic reasons. The Players Handbook describes the spell ability of both rangers and paladins as “limited,” and the charts on pages 24 and 25 illustrate many of the ways in which that ability is so limited. One restriction not specifically mentioned is the one suggested above, “limiting” the effective level of a spell-casting paladin or ranger to the number of “spell-casting levels” the character has attained. This certainly follows the intent of the rules, and is logical and playable. Yes, a ranger needs a spell book to cast magic-user spells, and mistletoe to make effective use of his or her druid spell ability. And a paladin won’t get far as a caster of cleric spells without a holy symbol. The rules and regulations on how (and whether) spells are acquired and cast must be met for the spelt-caster, regardless of class, to make the magic work. The druid class should be allowed bonus spells for high wisdom, because it is a sub-class of cleric and thereby entitled to the bonus, the same way that the ranger and paladin can have exceptional strength since they are fighter sub-classes. But, bards should not be allowed bonus spells for high wisdom, first and foremost they are never truly members of that class. Second, nothing in the Players Handbook indicates that a bard was intended to get this bonus. Any bard needs a wisdom score of at least 15, so if the wisdom bonus were meant to be taken into account, every bard would start off with three druid spells — more than some 1st-level druids are capable of having. Because they’re not actually druids or clerics, rangers and paladins don’t get bonus spells for high wisdom. As with the bard, their wisdom requirements are so high that any paladin or ranger would automatically get bonus spells upon acquiring spell ability, making those characters much more magically powerful than they deserve to be. Paladins, rangers, and bards should be allowed to cast their spells with a 0% chance of failure, just as a cleric or druid of equally high wisdom would — but that should be the only way in which wisdom affects spell-casting for those three classes. The ranger’s intelligence does, however, have an effect on how many magic-user spells he or she can learn. High intelligence doesn’t give any direct benefit in the number of spells a character can use at one time; that ability, even for magic-users and illusionists, is tied to level of experience and not intelligence. Instead, intelligence is a measure of the character’s capacity to learn a certain spell and store a certain number of such spells for future reference. The rules state that a ranger “must check as to which spells he or she can learn, just as if he or she were a magic-user” (PH, page 25), and it follows that rangers would also abide by the minimums and maximums regarding how many spells can be learned. A 9th-level ranger with minimal (13) intelligence will have a 55% chance to know any particular 1st-level magic-user spell, and will be able to compile a repertoire of no fewer than six and no more than nine 1st-level spells — but the character can still only memorize (and later employ) one spell at a time.  
 214DR064 Dragon #64 How do racial limits apply to multi-classed characters?  The same way they apply to everybody else: absolutely. Experience points are always divided evenly between all the professions of a multi-classed character, even if the character is not able to attain a higher level in one or more of those classes because of race. A half-orc cleric/assassin could become a high-level assassin, but would never achieve clerical expertise of higher than 4th level. A single-classed assassin needs 6,000 experience points to rise from 4th to 5th level, but this half-orc actually has to earn 12,000 experience points to get credit for 5th level, because half of everything he gets must go toward paying his dues to the cleric class. (Only a half-orc can be smart enough to be an assassin and still dumb enough to want to be a cleric at the same time.) 
 215DR064 Dragon #64 When a character has one ability score low enough to be “forced” into a class, what happens if the character’s other ability scores are not high enough to qualify for that class?  Either you’re rolling cursed dice, or the DM is using a strange, special system for generating ability scores. In either case, the most obvious solution is to crumple up the piece of paper with those six terrible numbers on it, take a fresh sheet, and pretend that character never happened. How and why would a player get in this kind of predicament to begin with? The player decides (in most character-generation systems) which ability to assign to which number — so why would anyone knowingly saddle a character with a super-low score (one of those “here or lower” numbers) and thereby commit that character to a class it is not qualified for? If you’re unlucky enough to roll a 3, 4, or 5 for an ability score, your choices become a lot more limited — but there still are choices. Assign the lowest of your six scores after you’ve figured out what to do with the highest rolls, not the other way around. 
 216DR066 Dragon #66 Are demi-humans able to manufacture magical items?  Yes, of a wide variety of types, though not as many as humans are able to make because of the demi-humans’ limited ability to climb in class levels. Halfling, gnomish, half-elven, elven, and dwarven clerics of 5th level and above may make holy water with the proper materials, as outlined in the Dungeon Masters Guide. Gnomish, elven, and dwarven clerics of 7th level or above may inscribe scrolls of clerical spells of up to the 4th level in power. Half-elven and elven magic-users, with the aid of an alchemist, may make magic potions of many sorts at 7th level and above; they may also inscribe magic scrolls with spells of up to the 4th level (for 7th or 8th level half-elven magic-users) or 5th level (for elves of 9th-11th level in magic-user ability). Protection scrolls may also be inscribed. Half-elven Archdruids can, of course, make any druidical magic item. Beyond this, what can be done? Dungeon Masters might wish to consider the following possibilities. Grey elves (faerie) are supposed to get a +1 on their intelligence scores, bringing their maximum intelligence up to 19. Could these elves perhaps also reach the 12th level of magic-user ability with a 19 intelligence? At that point, they could manufacture a number of other magic items, particularly those with a number of charges that are expended with each use of the item but may be replenished later (wands, staves, spell-storing rings, and so forth). Yet it would appear, from some comments in the DMG (p. 116), that demi-humans are sometimes capable of making items with permanent dweomers. A Dungeon Master could declare that a demi-human cleric who reaches the highest possible level is able to invoke the favor of his or her deity to permanently enchant certain items, in the same way as normal clerics of 11th level or above, or druids of 13th level and above. The range of the items that could be so enchanted might be limited so that the items would be oriented toward the needs and capabilities of that race (as the Cloak of Elvenkind and Boots of Elvenkind are appropriate to elves, and the Dwarven Thrower +3 Warhammer is appropriate to dwarves). Elven cleric/magic-users might be able to make a wide variety of items in this way, such as magic swords, bows, spears, arrows, armor, shields, daggers, helms, and any other such item as appropriate to the use of elvenkind. Dungeon Masters could declare some items as not being the sort elves would want to make, either because of cultural concerns (elves do not generally use axes or tridents) or because those items are beyond their ability to make (Wish rings, for example). Gnomish cleric/illusionists might make and enchant items of illusionist nature (daggers, rings charged with illusionist spells, certain wands and amulets) of temporary or lasting nature; other gnomish clerics or fighter/clerics might make magical axes, hammers, armor, shields, daggers, short swords, and missile weapons. Dwarven clerics or fighter/clerics would make the same sorts of things gnomish clerics make. Halfling clerics and druids do not achieve as high a level at their maximums as do the other demi-human races, so it may be conjectured that their magic items would not be as powerful, but DM’s might want to investigate the possibility of some minor magicitem creation appropriate to halflings in general. Some excellent resource material for figuring out what sorts of specialized magic items a certain demi-human race could make may be found by looking over the description of the particular pantheon that race worships. What sorts of weapons, armor, and items do their deities use? One could simply develop scaled-down versions of the gods’ major weapons and equipment and define those as items able to be fabricated by demi-human spellcasters. Halfling druids who worship Sheela the Wise (issue #59 of DRAGON™ Magazine) might use permanently enchanted shillelaghs or amulets that store Entangle spells; dwarven clerics of Dumathoin (issue #58) might have amulets that duplicate the functions of Wands of Metal and Mineral Detection; Aerdrie Faenya (issue #60) could have elven followers with rings of Feather Falling or Avian Control; and gnomes who are clerics of Segojan Earthcaller (issue #61) could have enchanted crystals that would summon (on a onetime basis) a minor earth elemental for assistance. In any event, Dungeon Masters should try to keep such magical items relatively rare; DM’s should also note that demi-humans will not want to sell or give away their magic items and will fight to keep them. Only in extraordinary circumstances, such as for acts of great heroism or deeds that greatly benefit a particular race, will demi-humans even consider giving away a magical item.  
 217DR066 Dragon #66 How does one make or acquire “elfin chainmail”?  Elfin chainmail is a special type of chainmail armor that is much lighter and stronger than normal, and allows greater freedom of movement. It is made exclusively by elven armorsmiths of above average ability, who keep certain aspects of its manufacture secret for a number of reasons. Even were its manufacturing process better known, duplicating elfin armor would prove very difficult for most armorers. What little is known about making elfin chainmail is that the links of the chainmail are much thinner and smaller in diameter than usual. The metal from which elfin chainmail is made is apparently an alloy of high-quality steel and mithral, a rare and valuable metal of bright silvery color. In the process of making the alloy, the elven smiths add a special substance to the molten mixture to cause the metal to be harder; the nature of this substance has never been identified, since it is either completely absorbed into the metal in the smelting process, or somehow destroyed. Not even magical devices appear to be able to determine the nature of this substance. At any rate, the presence or after-effects of this substance also make the alloy impervious to enchantment, no matter how powerful the spell. Elfin chainmail is linked together in an exceptionally intricate fashion; the pattern of the interconnections of links changes from place to place across the armor, so that certain general designs may appear. One suit might seem to have a tree-like design on the chest, another might have an abstract pattern of criss-crossed lines, another might have sunburst designs on front and back. The intricacy of the links is another reason (aside from the nature of the alloy itself) for the armor’s strength. It appears that only elves, because of their passion for complexity and appreciation of artistic beauty, are able to properly fashion the armor in this way. It takes twice as long as normal to make a suit of elfin chainmail (90 days instead of 45), and may take even longer than that if the maker desires a particularly complex design for linking it together. Only 25% of all elven smiths are able to fashion elfin chainmail, the rest being occupied with making other sorts of armor (ring mail, scale mail, etc.) or being of lesser ability. Making elfin chainmail requires the full involvement of the smith and many years of study as well; player character elves, even those with exceptional characteristics and backgrounds as smiths or armorers, are not able to make elfin chainmail though they could make some minor repairs on it if necessary. Player character elves could, however, obtain such armor as a gift for extraordinary services rendered for the elven people; it is considered a great honor to have a suit of mail made, and some elves who own magical but human-made chainmail will prefer to use elfin chainmail instead. Dungeon Masters who like to start out characters with some minor magical item could offer elven characters an elfin chainmail suit instead, though evil elves would not be able to receive this benefit. Non-elves are not given elfin chainmail by longestablished tradition, and it is never sold. Elves regard it as an artistic treasure as well as an expression of appreciation and distinction; selling it would cheapen its social and cultural value. Most non-elves are not able to wear elfin chainmail anyway, since they do not have the proper build and size to fit an already made suit, though some thin and light humans and a few large tallfellow halflings might possibly be able to fit into it. Elves would not appreciate seeing a non-elf wearing elfin chainmail, however, and might believe the wearer got it by killing or robbing the previous owner. Elfin chainmail weighs about 15 pounds, allows movement at normal speed (up to 12”), and is regarded as non-bulky; its weight is very evenly distributed over the body and limbs. A thin layer of underpadding is required, usually made of tough but soft materials carefully woven to permit free movement and good ventilation. Special small helms are usually worn with it, and these take about a week each to make properly (including decorations, engravings, and so forth).  
 218DR066 Dragon #66 Why are elves unable to become rangers? Why do half-elves have limited ranger abilities? Shouldn’t sylvan elves have ranger-like talents? How are certain of the elven deities able to have ranger fighting abilities if their subjects do not?  These questions are all interrelated to some degree, and are some of the most-asked questions about elves in general. The answer to all of them lies in the nature of the ranger class. Rangers developed among humanity as a response to the presence of the giant-class humanoids as direct competitors for food, living space, and power within the worlds governed by the laws of the AD&D™ game. The deities of humanity saw fit to encourage certain persons to take up roles of guardianship, in essence entrusted with the safety and security of the human race. Rangers are intended to be self-reliant, strong, hardy, and possessed of the wisdom and intelligence to fully appreciate their roles as guardians. They operate in outdoor environments by and large, thus being familiar with normal woodcrafts like tracking, hunting, and camping. Rangers develop skills related to stealthy movement, spying, and so forth, so they may better serve as scouts, keeping tabs on local humanoid groups in the wilderness and in so doing, keeping their home communities and allied settlements informed of all happenings. Tracking, however, does not a ranger make. One of the facts of life about being a ranger is that rangers are going to be on the hot spot, in the middle of some very savage fighting, on a fairly frequent basis. Humanoids don’t like having humans around them, much less having humans spy on them; furthermore, rangers, in their roles as scouts, are somewhat more vulnerable since they prefer travelling in smaller groups. It is forbidden for more than three rangers to travel together, because when this happens rangers interpret this as meaning that they are leaving some other place undefended, and they will immediately try to spread out and cover the widest area possible. On top of this, rangers have (from their upbringing and studies) an intense dislike (to put it mildly) of all evil humanoids. Rangers are not just taught how to live off the land; they are taught to kill, and kill efficiently and quickly. They learn the vulnerable spots giantclass humanoids have, the ways in which they fight and wear their armor, and the best way to do battle with them so that the ranger, and not the humanoid, is still standing afterwards. No bones are made about this; some rangers are fond of describing their jobs as “going to exotic places, meeting interesting creatures, and killing them.” However, it is understood that the purpose of combat is not to make oneself rich, famous, or fearsome. Combat is fought only if it cannot be avoided; humanoids, though, offer all sorts of opportunities for combat with their distinctly aggressive and often sadistic policies toward humanity. Rangers are therefore “on call” at all times in the defense of their homes, communities, and nations. Elves, regardless of how they feel about humanoids, do not make good rangers because their empathy for life and living things runs counter to many of the teachings that rangers must absorb and learn to use. Elves put a lot of emphasis in combat on style, and cannot rid themselves of their distaste for killing any creature, even evil ones and even when it’s necessary for one’s own protection (though they are still perfectly capable of fighting and killing, too). Rangers, whether lawful good, neutral good, or chaotic good, all share a high degree of dedication to their cause (from their loyalty to humanity as a whole, if lawful good, or from their personal standards, if chaotic good); elves see such intense commitment as grievous to a carefree and cheerful spirit. But elves appreciate rangers, because rangers regard them as allies and will usually try to help elves just as they help humanity. Half-elves may become rangers since they usually inherit at least part of their human parent’s viewpoint on life, watering down their elven attitudes considerably. They don’t gain the high levels humans do as rangers because they are slightly smaller and less effective in hand-to-hand fighting, and because they still have some of their innate elven distaste for bloodshed in them. There doesn’t seem to be any particular reason why elves, especially sylvan elves, shouldn’t have a knowledge of how to track wild game. Human or elven player characters with secondary skills of Forester, Hunter, and possibly Trapper might reasonably be allowed a limited skill in tracking animals or persons, around 20-50% in accuracy, in outdoor (and maybe indoor) environments. But the other skills rangers have would not necessarily apply. Finally, some elven deities have ranger talents because their ageless experience and spheres of interest make this possible. Gods do not operate by mortal rules; they make themselves proficient with whatever talents they deem necessary for them to best operate according to their respective viewpoints. For this same reason, gods may have high levels of experience in numerous character classes, though mortals are quite limited in the number and levels of proficiency they may achieve in their own classes. One cannot measure a god’s power with a mortal’s yardstick. 
 219DR071 Dragon #71 ASTRAL, GENERAL TOPICS: Does the Astral Plane contact the Elemental Planes?  Not as far as can be told from the literature. It was pointed out by a questioner that if spell-users could summon walls of stone on the Astral Plane (as well as poison gas, water, and fireballs), then why not let them bring elementals as well? This was a hard point to resolve; it was assumed that the former sorts of spells do not necessarily draw power from the Elemental Planes, and that in casting such spells as wall of stone, fireball, etc., the spell caster is spontaneously creating material from nothing. Others may point out that there are at least two known types of elementals — aerial servants and invisible stalkers — known to roam astral space. It could be conjectured that they got there by being summoned to the Prime Material Plane and then sent into astral space on some mission. They might also have been gated to astral space by their respective rulers on the elemental planes. Taking a cue from Module Q1, however, it appears that the elemental-conjuring spells are not powerful enough to bring elementals to the Astral Plane directly from their home planes. A spell caster might try to develop a different type of elemental-summoning spell that attracts elementals who happen to be on the same plane as the summoner (this would be good for getting aerial servants and invisible stalkers to come to you astrally) — but the referee should consider the possibility that such a spell would actually enrage the summoned creature if it saved against the spell, making it very likely that the creature would then seek out and attempt to slay the summoner. If a spell caster just has to have an elemental on the Astral Plane, then a magic-user could summon an invisible stalker on the Prime Material Plane and command it to follow him into astral space while he uses some other means (spell, psionics, device, etc.) to get there. Or, characters could cast a gate spell, linked directly with the Elemental Planes (and the rulers thereof), and then could try to negotiate for the temporary use of an elemental or two. This could obviously be very expensive, as well as incredibly dangerous, so it isn’t recommended. In most cases, if an elemental is to be conjured, there must be a medium at the place of summoning in astral space appropriate to the type summoned (a water sphere for water elementals, stone or earth for earth elementals, or flame for fire elementals). Only air elementals would require no special medium to move through; they can travel naturally through astral space, just as aerial servants and invisible stalkers do. 
 220DR071 Dragon #71 ASTRAL, GENERAL TOPICS: How does one drink potions in a weightless condition?  Inventive characters can come up with many ways of circumventing the problems of weightlessness (see Gary Gygax’s excellent suggestion for write spells in DRAGON #67.) Using normal potion bottles can be time-consuming, since the liquid contents will not naturally flow out of them all at once unless one shakes the bottle like we normally shake ketchup bottles; unfortunately, shaking a bottle makes it hard to drink the potion at the same time, and too much liquid may flow out at once, making the user choke. This may be simulated by stipulating that someone using a regular potion bottle needs 1-4 rounds to get a full dose of the fluid, and there is a 5% chance per round of drinking (non-cumulative) that the drinker chokes and loses all the potion’s effects. Squeezable bottles may be invented, similar to those used by astronauts and cosmonauts nowadays, so that the rate of flow of the liquid within can be controlled by the drinker. Potion drinking would take only one round, as usual, if such a bottle was used. Other systems might be devised involving straws, syringe-like pumps, and so forth, that would work just as well. 
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