Complete Arcane: A Review
Before anyone gripes, I didn't break my budget scoring the third of four in the "complete class" series. It's fully damaged and can only be considered one of the fringes of B&N. So, since I'd busted ass enough last week to afford two books, now I gotta figer out which two, cause I's thinking of Complete Arcane and Complete Adventurer. Maybe I'll order Deities & Demigods and get Complete Adventurer still....or I could just get MMII and MMIII and wrap up that collection. Or Unearthed Arcana. Hmm. Regardless, next month is Sandstorm and I'm jonesin for that like John jonesed for Frostburn. Prolly my 5 years in New Mexico, but I love me some desert.
Anyway.
As with the rest of the Complete series, Arcane opens up with three new core classes. At first glance, I thought the Warlock was too limited and one trickish, but wholly shit can he do that one trick well. Forgoing spells for "invocations", this puppy treats his invocations as spell-like abilities castable at will. Invocation selection is limited, but what's there is handy. Summon Swarm every round anyone? Warmage is the 2nd class introduced, and John's testing one now. We haven't actually got to see Zeek in action yet, being occupied with dieing teiflings or swimming teenagers, but on paper, he's hardy stuff. The Wu Jen is an oriental mage that gains "spell secrets" through her level progression. These affect one or more spells with certain metamagic feats, but do not raise the level of those spells. All in all, good character classes.
Chapter two, as with the other Completes, is a collection of Prestige Classes. Twenty one in all, but I think most are rehashing from Tome and Blood. Geometer or Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil might make it into our present campaign right quick, but that depends on where Crenius goes. In my opinion, though, Effigy Maker wins out as the coolest new Prestige Class yet. It's the only thing that's keeping me from blazing forward with a character for Monte's campaign. Nothing else really popped out at me in this chapter, but switching gears from player to DM over the last few weeks has yoinked me out of finding prestige classes super cool. I like to use em, but sparingly, so the PCs are surprised by the arrival of an Alienist, and not expecting every non-monster to be an Order of the Bow Initiate or Blackguard.
Chapter three is Arcane Feats. And wholly crap. I don't know what I thought was more interesting:the normal feats that give spell-like abilities 1/day, such as "Soul of the North", granting chill touch, ray of frost, and resistance; or the Draconic Feats, which give sorcerers dragon-like abilities when casting spells, such as "Draconic Breath" which lets a sorc dump spell slots for a breath weapon, doing 2d6 damage per level of the spell. A lot of the metamagic feats came over from Tome and Blood, but what was new was cool. This was prolly my favorite chapter of the book.
Number four was the Spells and Invoacations chapter. Besides introducing new spells and 3.5ing spells from T&B, this chapter introduces "swift" and "immediate" actions. These are basically free actions with limited usage. Definitely be introducing them to me game. Favorite spells? Anticapate Teleportation and Assay Resistance are gonna be great tools for Crenius. Defenestrating Sphere is pretty bad ass in my opinion. I don't see why there's effectively a Fire Wings in both Complete Arcane and Comlete Divine. Greater Mage Armor is a spell that shouldn't have taken this long to make. Reaving Dispell is pretty damn sweet. And how cool is the ability to Transmute Rock to Lava?
I sped through Chapters 5 and 6, as new magic items and arcane monsters make for slightly heavier reading, and I tend to just hit them at certain times in creating an adventure.
And finally, Arcane Campaigns in Chapter Seven is the wrap up that has a few ideas, but not a whole lot that a good DM hasn't already thought of. I liked the info on Warlocks, Warmages, and Wu Jen in a campaign, but the rest of the spellcasters "in a campaign" sections have all been printed somewhere else, either in Tome & Blood, multiple Dragon articles, or way back in 2nd edition in the "Complete Wizard's Handbook". The pacing and magic building sections have decent info, but again, I've been a DM for almost 20 years. I found the bit on Arcane Duels interesting, glossed over the "arcane organizations" section, and was saddened by the "alternative spellbooks" cause some of it happened to be things I wanted to use in a Dragon article.
All in all, tis a book I'd pay $21 for with my B&N discount, but I didn't have to. That means that thanks to Boolah's gift of Complete Divine for Christmas, I'm only paying for half of the "Complete" series. Gotta share some love for that.
I should give props to Nick as well. Early last week, he realized he had two copies of MM3.5 and probably had accidentally not paid for one. So, he gave it to me. The easily-influenced-by-the-spirit-world redneck in me wants to say that this windfall of D&D books means I'm on the right path in starting an RPG company. The securely-founded-in-the-real-world side of me realizes this font is too small AND free books just means I have great friends. Thanks guys.
Anyway.
As with the rest of the Complete series, Arcane opens up with three new core classes. At first glance, I thought the Warlock was too limited and one trickish, but wholly shit can he do that one trick well. Forgoing spells for "invocations", this puppy treats his invocations as spell-like abilities castable at will. Invocation selection is limited, but what's there is handy. Summon Swarm every round anyone? Warmage is the 2nd class introduced, and John's testing one now. We haven't actually got to see Zeek in action yet, being occupied with dieing teiflings or swimming teenagers, but on paper, he's hardy stuff. The Wu Jen is an oriental mage that gains "spell secrets" through her level progression. These affect one or more spells with certain metamagic feats, but do not raise the level of those spells. All in all, good character classes.
Chapter two, as with the other Completes, is a collection of Prestige Classes. Twenty one in all, but I think most are rehashing from Tome and Blood. Geometer or Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil might make it into our present campaign right quick, but that depends on where Crenius goes. In my opinion, though, Effigy Maker wins out as the coolest new Prestige Class yet. It's the only thing that's keeping me from blazing forward with a character for Monte's campaign. Nothing else really popped out at me in this chapter, but switching gears from player to DM over the last few weeks has yoinked me out of finding prestige classes super cool. I like to use em, but sparingly, so the PCs are surprised by the arrival of an Alienist, and not expecting every non-monster to be an Order of the Bow Initiate or Blackguard.
Chapter three is Arcane Feats. And wholly crap. I don't know what I thought was more interesting:the normal feats that give spell-like abilities 1/day, such as "Soul of the North", granting chill touch, ray of frost, and resistance; or the Draconic Feats, which give sorcerers dragon-like abilities when casting spells, such as "Draconic Breath" which lets a sorc dump spell slots for a breath weapon, doing 2d6 damage per level of the spell. A lot of the metamagic feats came over from Tome and Blood, but what was new was cool. This was prolly my favorite chapter of the book.
Number four was the Spells and Invoacations chapter. Besides introducing new spells and 3.5ing spells from T&B, this chapter introduces "swift" and "immediate" actions. These are basically free actions with limited usage. Definitely be introducing them to me game. Favorite spells? Anticapate Teleportation and Assay Resistance are gonna be great tools for Crenius. Defenestrating Sphere is pretty bad ass in my opinion. I don't see why there's effectively a Fire Wings in both Complete Arcane and Comlete Divine. Greater Mage Armor is a spell that shouldn't have taken this long to make. Reaving Dispell is pretty damn sweet. And how cool is the ability to Transmute Rock to Lava?
I sped through Chapters 5 and 6, as new magic items and arcane monsters make for slightly heavier reading, and I tend to just hit them at certain times in creating an adventure.
And finally, Arcane Campaigns in Chapter Seven is the wrap up that has a few ideas, but not a whole lot that a good DM hasn't already thought of. I liked the info on Warlocks, Warmages, and Wu Jen in a campaign, but the rest of the spellcasters "in a campaign" sections have all been printed somewhere else, either in Tome & Blood, multiple Dragon articles, or way back in 2nd edition in the "Complete Wizard's Handbook". The pacing and magic building sections have decent info, but again, I've been a DM for almost 20 years. I found the bit on Arcane Duels interesting, glossed over the "arcane organizations" section, and was saddened by the "alternative spellbooks" cause some of it happened to be things I wanted to use in a Dragon article.
All in all, tis a book I'd pay $21 for with my B&N discount, but I didn't have to. That means that thanks to Boolah's gift of Complete Divine for Christmas, I'm only paying for half of the "Complete" series. Gotta share some love for that.
I should give props to Nick as well. Early last week, he realized he had two copies of MM3.5 and probably had accidentally not paid for one. So, he gave it to me. The easily-influenced-by-the-spirit-world redneck in me wants to say that this windfall of D&D books means I'm on the right path in starting an RPG company. The securely-founded-in-the-real-world side of me realizes this font is too small AND free books just means I have great friends. Thanks guys.
posted by Amazing Shafeman at 5:00 PM
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