The Dragon #5, March 1977

Another month, another Dragon:

• There's a very long article on witches in D&D - not as players, but as enemies.  It details different kinds of witches, the spells they use, and the magic items they possess.  It's fairly interesting and mostly well thought out, although the author does admit that he created them solely to be a challenge to the 11th level wizards in his game (if you have to create your own super-powerful monsters to challenge your players, you've probably done something wrong).
• This is the first issue where we start seeing significant content for Metamorphosis Alpha, the sci-fi roleplaying game invented by D&D personality Jim Ward.  I won't comment much on this material going forward since it's non-D&D, but I do find the premise of the game and what I can glean of the content to be interesting.
• This issue's Creature Feature (called Featured Creature here for some reason) introduces another classic, original D&D monster - the ankheg (here spelled anhkheg originally).  I've never encountered these in a table top session, but I do have fond memories of my party being torn apart by them in Baldur's Gate.
• The Out on a Limb segment (the letters column) is a little dull this month:
• There are a couple of letters supporting the inclusion of fiction in the magazine - obviously picked by Tim Kask to justify his editorial choices.  To be clear, I'm enjoying reading the fiction included in the magazine, I just think the magazine would have been better off with a strict focus on gaming.
• There's another article debating elves in Lord of the Rings.  Look, I'm as big of a Tolkien fan as anybody (as well as Star Wars, Star Trek, and other major fantasy and sci-fi franchises), but I never fail to be amused by fanboy rage over minutiae like this.  It's also humorous to know that fanboy rage is a phenomenon that predates the internet.
• Speaking of fiction, we get another Niall of the Far Travels story.  It's no Conan, but it's still enjoyable.  I had never thought of myself as interested in old-school sword and sorcery fiction, being more partial to high fantasy, but I have a growing appreciation for it.
• There's an article on research rules for wizards that's not particularly compelling.
• And if you still haven't gotten your fill of fanboy debates, there's a whole article debating that Gandalf was a 5th level wizard at best (as opposed to the ultra-high level wizard we would normally assume him to be).  This assertion is based on the analysis by the author that all magical effects performed by him in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings could be explained by spells 3rd level and below.  It just makes me chuckle.

We're almost out of the product desert - only two more issues to go!  Hang in there with me, as we'll get to explore the classic Holmes basic D&D rules.