After a Petal Throne heavy issue 4, we are back to the regular programming with issue five, and the first one of 1977. The issue starts with some good news, Dragon has moved from a 6 a year thing to a 8 time a year. It would not be enough and soon it would become monthly. What is clearly also happening is the fact that Little Wars, the historic wargaming companion magazine to Dragon, is clearly not selling well, and TSR is figuring out that they spend their time and money better by investing in D&D, which is really outperforming all their other products.

As additional content for D&D we get an extensive but anonymous article on introducing witchcraft into the game. Some anonymous source went really deep into creating a whole lore and social structure to the witches as well as new spells and different kinds of good and evil witches. There’s some actually interesting stuff here, which could and should be streamlined, but it’s an interesting article and addition to the rules. You also get tables for Wizard researching times and expenses, which are fun little customizations. 

This issue also marks the first appearance of the Anhkeg,  (which, coincidentally, I just used as a monster in a session I DMed today, stars align), with a really fun drawing of the monster, probably the best bit of art to grace Dragon until now. An extremely long Gardner Fox story is also featured as is a discussion of the relative player levels of Lord of the Rings characters… Gandalf is only level 5, apparently. Gygax’s Gnome Cache continues in this issue, the first D&D (Greyhawk) set fiction, but the first of many.