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Arcana Unearthed by Monte Cook- whacha think??

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 3:53 am
by BLOOD AXE
I thought it was just a reprint of the old classic Unearthed Arcana. You remember the one with Cavaliers & comeliness,etc.,etc. Its certainly NOT that book.

New races & classes,etc.

If you've seen this book- what do you think?? Are there are other books like that? Any support?? Just wondering.

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:12 am
by serleran
I almost picked it up, but when I went to, it had changed to Arcana Evolved, and I never bothered at that point. Not sure why. Maybe it was what I was hearing in the rumors (still have never seen a physical copy of the book...)

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:23 am
by Harry Joy
Arcana Unearthed is a very interesting book, but more of a campaign setting slash game system than an alternate handbook. AU has some material that simply MUST be stolen for any 3.x game, such as the Totem Warrior or the Witch, and some of the races. But the nitty gritty of some of the rules, not such a good fit.

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:28 am
by BLOOD AXE
Yeah, its a completely different setting altogether. No Dwarves, Elves,etc. Is there support for it, or is it just a "one-off"? Its labeled an "alternative players handbook".

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:35 am
by Harry Joy
Heck no... Malhavoc released tons of support for it... Adventures, splats, miscellaneous all kinds of stuff...
http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?arcanaevolved

A huge chunk of the catalog is related to or compatible with AU.

Re: Arcana Unearthed by Monte Cook- whacha think??

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:16 am
by TheNewGuy
BLOOD AXE wrote:
I thought it was just a reprint of the old classic Unearthed Arcana. You remember the one with Cavaliers & comeliness,etc.,etc. Its certainly NOT that book.

New races & classes,etc.

If you've seen this book- what do you think?? Are there are other books like that? Any support?? Just wondering.

As others have said, some good and clever ideas, but it really can change the basic nature of your game if you don't think about the impact of adding certain things.

Also, my mathematician gamer pal (he's a chaotic good rules lawyer -- works for the good of the game) and I often joke about how Monte Cook never met a magic user he didn't like -- meaning, Monte's pretty good about game balancing within his own concepts ... unless it involves giving more power, options, and "cool stuff" to magic users. And true to all rules tinkerers with a blind spot, Monte doesn't even seem to realize he's doing it.

That's our experience, anyway; others will certainly be of a different opinion (especially if they play magic-users! hahaha). It's not that Monte ignores other classes, it's that (again, in our opinion) Monte favors the magic using classes with more options, more often, even if only in a collection of small ongoing ways.

So, good books, but you gotta read them with yer brain switched on, so to speak, and ask yourself "What will happen if I add this particular idea to my game?"

My opinions (and only my opinions) anyway,

Hope this helps!

TheNewGuy

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:01 am
by Treebore
I own Arcana Evolved, definitely some very cool ideas. I could even be talked into doing this under 3E rules.
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:51 pm
by Omote
Never seen this.

-O
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 1:16 pm
by Moorcrys
I own Arcana Evolved, which you should definitely pick up instead of Arcana Unearthed -- it's a bit tweaked from the original and has a bunch of new stuff.

I think it's a great, very flavorful. It has a lot of well-done variant classes and races -- it doesn't quite mesh with 3.5 evenly (AE classes are more powerful with more options) so you'd have to make some choices if you wanted both 3.5 and Arcana Evolved in one game. I find the classes to be much more interesting. The spell system is better than 3.5 (do yourself a favor and pick up the Spell Treasury if you seriously want to play an AE game) and I like how he collapsed some of the skills (such as Move Silently and Hide into Stealth).

That being said, I'm with TheNewGuy and his friend. The two major spellcasters, the greenbond and the magister, seem to have the upper hand in Monte's system -- but it's not severely broken to me, any more than a mid level wizard in C&C or 1e compared to a 1e or C&C fighter. There are a bunch of fighter-with-extra-stuff alternatives in the book that seem really cool to play. I would, however, make sure a pure fighter type had access to WoTC's PHB2 and other books for some fighter-friendly feats. You could also incorporate the Book of Nine Swords into AE and it would probably not outshine Monte's spellcasters.
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 3:54 pm
by BLOOD AXE
Harry Joy wrote:
Heck no... Malhavoc released tons of support for it... Adventures, splats, miscellaneous all kinds of stuff...
http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?arcanaevolved

A huge chunk of the catalog is related to or compatible with AU.

Thanks!

Wow, $50 for the main book is a bit steep though. I have the old original one.

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:57 pm
by Treebore
BLOOD AXE wrote:
Thanks!

Wow, $50 for the main book is a bit steep though. I have the old original one.

Shop around, you may find it considerably cheaper like I did. I got mine for about $25.00 including the shipping.
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:17 pm
by rom90125
I love AE and wish I had a chance to play it more. I've only played it at Gen Con (the past two years) but I'm hoping to start playing it soon with FGII.
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:25 pm
by Hybban
rom90125 wrote:
I love AE and wish I had a chance to play it more. I've only played it at Gen Con (the past two years) but I'm hoping to start playing it soon with FGII.

Same here. It is a really nice PHB/Setting. Very nice product, orgeous graphics and nice tweaks on 3.5. This is one of the alternative I would have loved to see as a successor of DD3.

Hyb'

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:28 pm
by BLOOD AXE
I really like some of the new races & classes.

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:43 pm
by trollwad1
I own Arcana Evolved. I added 20+ of Monte's spells (i like the way he tiers his spells so the same spell can be cast in a greater or lesser fashion), I added his Mind Witch class, and I like some of what he did with Greenbonds and with Ritual Warriors.

Monte is incredibly creative but he may clash if you like rules lite.

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:35 pm
by Brutorz Bill
Great book. I have the original (autographed by Monte even!). Really cool ideas. I got to play it in a brief campaign several years ago, lot's of fun. This would even be one of the few things to get me to play 3.5 again. It's that good!