Mine got to me on Monday. I had just emailed Steve, too, wondering if # 25 was coming and if my sub had run out.

Mine (paper) arrived on Tuesday, and I expect like Lord D. my message to Steve passed my Crusader.

I have been enjoying my Crusader, don't know about you guys. While I was pleased to see my pankratiast class in there, I particularly likes the "Stairway of the Gods" one shot by John Wright. Excellent small adventure you can plug in anywhere in your own campaign or just run at a local gamestore for a demo. As always, one of may favorites is following the Aihrdian chronicles by Steve. Love the heck out of that. Steve, if you read this, you need to compile all that into a book. Really it was all pretty good stuff. Mesopotamian weapons, more ecology, and a fun read of the con recap.

Just finished reading through most of the Issue.

Liked the Stairway Dungeon pretty cool short adventure. Also enjoyed the Mesopotamian gear. It would be interesting to see the Trolls link up with High Moon Media and do a Testament: Castles & Cruades in the Biblical Era game. Or just develop one on there own as a running article in the Crusader. The chimera ecology was cool. Very timely as I have a niece that is now into monsters, including a toy chimera she has.

Pipe - The Pankartist Class was interesting and I like the idea of it replacing the monk as that is IMHO fits better. The Background was great! A lot of good ideas and abilities, but my initial read had me a bit overwelhmed by the varient abilities. I need to try it out in a game to see how it works. I suspect that with Hand to Hand combat, it will be intuitive with constant use of Grapple, Dodge, Overbear, charage, etc. But as I don't have much of that in my games of late, it seemed a bit complex.

Metal,
Glad you like the class. And yeah, it is complex at first, but hand to hand seems that way in C&C at first because of the overbearing and grappling rules. Once you start to use them a few times, then the Pankratiast abilities make more sense. C&C also has rules that cover tactical manuevers like dodge, and so on,which can give an AC boost. Because the class coveres all these little nuances, you really have to be intimate with the system to be comfortable with it. I plan on elaborating on "styles" in upcoming crusader issues, and possibly an adventure showcasing it. My own Airhde campaign uses the Pankratiast instead of the monk, because it fills the same niche, but fits the world's flavor better.

CRAP!! I just bought it in PDF and I could have gotten it for FREE !?

Dang.

M

Got mine. Looking forward to reading it soon!

I still can't keep up with all the changes in this damned hobby, but I'm still a member and I have a subscription, but haven't received my copy yet. Guess I'll have to send an e-mail. Btw, I do have a start on an adventure for GaryCon.

I got mine yesterday (it was sent to an old address so had to go to Florida and then back up to Oklahoma). As you know I'm a HUGE fan of the Pankratiast, so loved seeing it. However, the best words in the whole magazine was the "these classes .... will be explored in upcoming issues" Man, I want to see your other versions, I can't wait to see a dex based pankratiast!

Hey there Mr. Troll. I got the Troll's Tusk, but no answer to my e-mail. I was raised as a redneck, but I can't do redneck things anymore, so this damned hobby is about all I have left. I'm still tryin' to keep my hand in. Like I said, I'll have an adventure for GaryCon (William's Caravan of Woe) , but life's real tough on the old mage these days. How's about an answer?

Thanks Lurker! Glad you like it. Yes indeed, the future will have class variants, including a dex based version. A sneak peek into the class: instead of saving vs dex to avoid a missle attack like the monk, the dex based pankratiast will be able to save vs a melee attack to avoid it (at a certain level). Also, cultural versions will exist, such as that practiced in Carteris in Onwaltig by the orcs. Brutal!

Cooooooooolllllll! I can't wait!

I just got a mental picture from when I was in Thailand with some army guys, We went to do combatives with the Thai military and it was kind of a surreal session. a group of big corn feed Americans trained in some brutal hand to hand squaring of with quick little Thai guys who were kick experts ... Man I want to see that in my game!

Curiously, the PDF of Crusader 25 has nothing but pixelated blurs in place of one of the comic strips. (The top one.) Does the print version have this same problem?

Indeed it does.

~O

Ah - so it was done purposely AND it's not just my eyesight (or sanity). These are good things to know. I think.

Got a couple of questions regarding the Pankratiast class:



pg. 131 of the PHB lists the Base Armor Class as being 12 for Strength non-prime and 18 for Strength prime. Do we just add a +2 bonus to the AC?



How does this work for a Dwarven Pankratiast with a Base Movement of 20'?



Does this mean that a Pankratiast at level one, has an unarmoured Armor Class of 11 + Con Mod?
It can be combined with the Improved Grappling Armor Class rules; does that then give the Pankratiast a Grappling AC of 12/18 + Dex + Str + Con + 2?