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November 5, 2008

Word of Wizards - Previews for November and Beyond

Preview for November and Beyond

It's that time again. This month's preview is filled with product launches all the way to January. There's so much previewed so I'll mostly be doing a summary of my thoughts and interesting points for each item. You should definately check it out for yourself.

So let's get the ball rolling.

November

Although Martial Power and Draconomicon are out this month and some people have already received their copies, it's still not stopping them from teasing us with more excerpts (which would probably end by this Friday).

For Martial Power, this preview shows some of the feats that will be found in it. I'm surprised to see a longer list of epic feats than the paragon and heroic feats but I'm guessing that it balances out what is in the PHB.

We'll be seeing the warlord paragon path; the Flamebrow this friday.

For the Draconomicon, this preview reveals the exceprts schedule until next week.

Friday 11/07: a new variety of dracolich called the bone mongrel (1 of 4 new dracoliches in the book . . . and for that matter 1 of 15 new undead dragons).
Monday 11/10: "Heart of Darkness," a sample dragon lair designed for 18th-level adventurers.
Friday 11/14: a new kobold called the dragonkin!

4 dracoliches and 15 undead dragons?! I can't even imagine myself needing that many.

I remember the dragonkin were a race by itself in FR. Now, I'm not so sure about them being a subrace of kobolds. I will be interested to see this next friday.

As a continuation of the list of famous dragons that appeared in every setting in the previous excerpt, the book will contain a hall of fame of dragons, complete with 4e stats. Here's the list of dragons that made it to the hall of fame,
Ashardalon
Cyan Bloodbane
Dragotha
Gulgol
Nefermandias
Rime
Tiamat
Zebukiel

I don't understand why is there the need to stat Tiamat for this edition. She has been canonized as a god now in 4E and I had thought that they would drop the whole 'stat for gods' thing after reading the PHB. This just revived one of those things that I wished didn't carried over from 3.x.

Just to sample how these dragons will be stated in 4E, this preview has a 4E version of Dragotha of White Plume Mountain which is a nasty 31st level Solo Controller. Its attacks are so crazy that it makes me want to convert the module to give my players a chance to kick his ass in 4E style!


Still no sign of Klauth though.

December

December will also be another month of double releases. First is the second module of the P series; Demon's Queen Enclave.

After reading the introduction, it looks like this adventure will revolve around the PCs trying to stop an exarch of Orcus in the Underdark! You can have a worse combination than that.

The second product is the Manual of the Planes and it's goodbye to the Great Wheel.

The default cosmology for 4th edition is now known as the the World Axis where the material plane (which is now just called the World) stands between the Astral plane and the Elemental Chaos. The Astral plane will be where the gods reside while the Elemental Chaos is the homeplane of the elementals.

Familiar places are mentioned like the City of Brass and Sigil but what's got me very curious is that Tu'narath, city of the Githyanki has turned into a plane.

Previously we got a glimpse at Graz'zt himself, the devil turned demon lord. Now, we got a peek at his cult and some of his servants.

The idea of the Six-Fingered Slayer is cool but was a bit surprised that they were humans. I mean, how many six fingered humans are there?

The cult of Graz'zt is probably meant for paragon tier adventurers after reading the stats for the Dark Acolyte.

January



January is the month of the undead with the launch of Open Graves. There isn't much from it so far in this preview except a few theories on the origin of undead.

What stands out from this preview is the mention of an old name; Nerull who is apparently 'succeeded' by the Raven Queen.



Like I said before, this month's preview is just filled with so much goodies to read that you really should check it out yourself. If you're still not conviced after reading this post, let me just say that this post is probably just a fraction of stuff that I'm talking about.

What are you waiting for?

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