Dragon #346 - A Quick Overview

I've decided to make it a habit of giving my impressions of the latest issues of Dragon when they come out. So, we'll begin with #346, pictured to the right - I'll just give a quick list of the articles, and my impressions of each:

1. Core Beliefs: Pelor: I'm of two minds of this series - the fact that they deal exclusively with the Greyhawk Campaign Deities would make it of limited value to someone who isn't running a campaign set in that world. Nonetheless, it's a nice way of giving a background to that particular deity, and I suppose you can very well adapt it to whatever Sun/Good/Healing Deity you have in your world. It gives some extra spells for clerics of Pelor; a 1st Level Spell called Sun Father's Face that essentially gives you a +4 Bonus on a turn undead/wild empathy check and a 2nd Level Spell called Sunmace which I think is unnecessary, since it's basically Spiritual Weapon, which is the same level, but with the added bonus of extra damage to Undead, personally I would have made it a 3rd Level.
2. Three Dragon Readings: Character Generation Through Fortune Telling: This article allows the DM to adapt the TSR Card Game Three Dragon Ante as a character generation method combining random ability score generation with a point-buy system. This is nice because it allows the DM to scale the power levels of the characters with the difficulty level of a campaign - it also helps to give the players a 'feel' for their characters rather than simply picking numbers out of a dice roll. I really like the idea, although I don't know if it's enough to make me buy the product.
3. Games of Chance: Dice and Card Games for D&D: I like this article - it gives a variety of games of chance that the characters can play in the taverns they frequent during the campaigns, and gives a nice change from the ubiquitous Texas-Hold-Em and Craps games that most DMs seem to use, when they use games of chance at all.
4. Supporting Cast: Following the Leader: For those DMs who use the Leadership feat (DMG, Page 106) in their campaign, this article gives suggestions for followers for each of the various classes, along with a 'bit of a twist' suggestion. Nicely balanced, the suggested followers work well with the abilities of the leading class.
5. Impiltur: The Forgotten Kingdom: I have the same problem with this article that I have with the Core Beliefs article - unless you're playing the Forgotten Realms Campaign, this article will be of limited use to you. If you are, however, it's a valuable reference for an area you probably haven't sent your players into.
6. The Ecology of the Rust Monster: I'm aware that there's some discussion on the Wizards Message Boards on this Monster, so here's my 2cp worth; the majority of the people arguing that the Rust Monster is overpowered seem to be of the opinion that 'nothing bad is supposed to happen to the players' and that to me seems wrong, especially in this case, the fact is that the Rust Monster is fairly easy to defeat from a distance with missiles and/or spells - the only way a fighter is going to suffer serious loss of equipment is if he charges the beast solo without backup and really, why should the DM reward idiotic tactics? Also the idea of a rusting effect that's only temporary seems to me to be kind of silly, as anyone who's ever seen an 80's model car can testify, rust doesn't go away, it's permanent.
7. Class Acts: A mixed bag in this issue; the extra feats and options for scouts are handy for anyone who's picked up Complete Adventurer and wants to play the class, and the Sacred Enforcer seems like a nice way to customize monks for specific deities. The article on Eastern Cataphracts is good if you want to run a campaign set in a specific historical period, or if you want to give a different feel to another culture's cavalry. The article on The Power of Truenames seems to me to be only of use if the DM allows that magic variant from the Tome of Magic.

So that's it for this issue, any discussion/argument is more than welcome.