Review: Unearthed Arcana

I really wanted to like this book. A big book of options and expansions for D&D, new rules for races, classes, skills, magic, and campaigns? Sounded really good. But, no.

Please bear in mind that my new judgement of how good an RPG book is - will I use it in my campaign?

Unearthed Arcana is a 224-page full-colour hardback. It cost some ?23 pounds, which is already a lot. There are six chapters, and a very short appendix.

Chapter 1 is all about races. 42 pages about races, to be exact. This included terrain-based variants to PC races (so, we have aquatic races, arctic races, jungle races, and so on. It included elemental race variants (dwarves are stone aligned, elves fire aligned, and so on). It included a rule for reducing level adjustments, which favours characters of non-standard races. It included rules for bloodlines, where you gain a little bit of extra power earlier on, but later have to spend levels to square it up with other characters. It included racial paragons, which match the racial classes from Arcana Unearthed, and which are also familiar to Aspected and Ogrekin characters in the current campaign.

This material is well-written, it is balanced, and some of it is quite cool. The racial paragons, and the bloodlines are especially interesting. However, I would probably feel the need to adjust either before I use it, and therefore could have come up with them on my own.

Chapter 2 deals with classes. We have 32 pages about classes. There are variants on existing classes, such as a wilderness rogue, the cloistered cleric (skill based rather than combat based), paladins of the CG, LE and CE alignments, and so on. There are rules for spontaneous divine casters (so, a clerical sorcerer). There are rules for variant class features, such as the ability to banish outsiders instead of turning undead, or favoured terrains instead of favoured enemies. There are prestige class versions of the bard, paladin and ranger. Then there are rules for gestalt characters, who advance two classes at the same time (a very high-powered option - think a near-doubling of PC power). There are rules for generic classes (warrior, spellcaster and expert).

Again, these are well-written and quite balanced. Obviously, you wouldn't use Gestalts for one PC and not for others, but other options can generally be used or not with fairly little impact. Again, though, the only things I would onsider using are some of the variant classes (Cloistered Cleric), and perhaps the spontaneous divine casters. In both cases, again, I would be strongly inclined to change the classes significantly before using them.

Chapter 3 is about building characters, and lasts 30 pages. We have rules for complex skill checks (like the extended checks in storyteller). There are two simpler methods of tracking skills (you either have a skill or you don't, but if you have it you have max ranks). There are rules for traits, which tie an advantage and a disadvantage together (like Merits and Flaws in storyteller, but with every merit tied to a corresponding flaw). Entirely seperate are character flaws, which act as anti-feats (you take a flaw, you get an extra feat to spend, but you can only take up to 2 flaws, and only at 1st level). There are some spell-touched feats, which allow characters who have been exposed to certain spells to learn to manifest specific near-magic powers. Then there are weapon group feats, which expand the weapon proficiency rules quite neatly. Craft points come next, which abstract the rules for the craft skill somewhat. Then there are extensive tables for character background, which try to help speed the creation of 'realistic' higher-level characters.

The spell-touched feats are really cool. The weapon group proficiency rules are also very nice, and something I would strongly consider using. The background tables are a nightmare, however, as they produce characters that are heavily multiclassed, without accounting for the vast weakening that this may result in. The traits and flaws rules pretend to be quite benign, but strike me as very dangerous, while the craft rules are rather silly. The skill systems are either unnecessarily complex or unnecessarily simplistic.

Chapter 4 gives us rules for Adventuring. Here we have the rules for a class-based defense bonus (nice), armour as damage reduction (nice), damage conversion (armour doesn't negate damage - it converts some of it to non-lethal damage; nice), injuries (a replacement for hit points that rather resembles the health levels in storyteller; not so nice), vitality and wound points (as in Star Wars; I don't like these, others might), reserve points (another track of hit points, characters who rest convert reserve points into lost hit points at a rate of 1 per minute; nice for a party without a cleric), rules for adjusting the massive damage threshold (nice), variants on the rules for death and dying (using a Fort save instead of the current stabilisation mechanic, for instance; okay), action points (as in d20 Modern; nice), rules for facing (nasty), rules for using a hex grid (don't see the point), rules for variant modifiers (so, instead of adding +2, you add +1d4, and so on; nice), rules for using 3d6 instead of d20 (okay), and rules for allowing players to roll all the dice (monsters don't roll to hit them, they roll to parry attacks; okay).

There's quite a lot here I might consider using. However, the rules for defence bonuses, rules for armour as damage reduction, rules for damage conversion and rules for changing the massive damage threshold are exactly as I would have done them, while the rules for vitality and wound points, for action points, and for using a Fort save for stabilisation come directly from other d20 games. The rest I either fear greatly (facing), or don't see any great advantage in (hex grids, players rolling all the dice, rolling 3d6 instead of d20).

Chapter 5 is about magic. The chapter opens with magic ratings for all classes. Under this variant, a multiclass spellcaster will gain a (small) benefit from other classes, adding to his caster level (but not spells per day) as he goes up in level. For instance, under these rules, a Fighter 8/Wizard 5 will have the same number of spells per day as a Wizard 5, but his caster level will be 7, so his fireball will do 7d6 damage. I like this rule unreservedly. The chapter then has advice on customising the summon monster lists for individual casters. 'cos that's so hard. Then there are rules for power components, where casters use rare an expensive material components to get 'free' uses of metamagic feats. Then there are a bunch of variants for metamagic feats, trying to get away from that awful "requires a slot 4 levels higher than normal" thing. One variant limits metamagic feats to 3 uses per day, while the other uses multiple slots of the same level to cast a metamagic spell. Either is better than the original, but the first is too powerful, and the second too expensive to use. For a far better metamagic system, see Arcana Unearthed. Then we have a spell-points system ripped from the Psionics Handbook. Then a system whereby casters 'recharge' spell levels after use, rather than losing a slot for the day. So, if you cast fireball, you must wait a few rounds before you can cast another 3rd level spell, but can in theory cast a hundred fireballs a day. This system is wonderfully balanced, in much the same way as the Mystic Theurge isn't totally broken. Then we have Legendary Weapons, which are magic items that gain in power as their owner gains levels (like the Samurai ability to improve their katana). This is, of course, implemented with Prestige Classes. Heaven forbid we should do anything else. The chapter is rounded out with rules for Item Familiars, which I initially thought would be a system for replacing the Familiar ability with rules for a wizard's staff, a la Lord of the Rings, but isn't; and rules for Incantations, which are ritual magic usable by non-spellcasters.

There's quite a lot of interesting stuff here. There's quite a lot of crap here. There's quite a lot of really broken stuff here. Truthfully, the only things I might use are the magic ratings for non-spellcaster classes, and the power components for metamagic. The incantations come from Urban Arcana. The legendary weapons would have been fine, except that they're done with prestige classes, the rechange rules are broken, and neither metamagic system solves the 'problem' that they wanted to solve. Oh, and the summon monster variants are fine, but so obvious that there's no point in having them. I mean, honestly.

But my biggest gripe with this chapter is that it's way too short, and has too much stuff in it. I think there is justification for an entire book as thick as this one, which would explore all aspects of variant magic systems, completely stripping out and replacing the existing magic paradigm. But perhaps that's just me.

Chapter 6 finishes the book with rules for campaigns. This chapter is a bit of a grab-bag of stuff. We have rules for contacts, which are fine but pretty basic. We have rules for reputation (from Star Wars or d20 Modern). We have rules for honour (from Oriental Adventures). We have rules for Taint (pretty sure they're from Oriental Adventures as well). And we have rules for Sanity (from Call of Cthulhu).

The rules for reputation should be in the core rules, and most likely will be present in 4th edition. The rest I can take or leave. Only the rules for contacts are genuinely new, and I could have come up with them on my own.

The appendix discusses ways to use all of this material in a single campaign, by running a world-hopping game. This I found to be rather inane - the rules of the game are there to model reality, so why would they change significantly when your character moves world? He presumably doesn't use his armour any differently, so why does it suddenly reduce damage rather than negate it? That's just a matter of choosing your abstraction, and if the maths are the same, making the change is just stupid.

There's quite a lot to like in this book. There's quite a lot I might use. But, the best bits have all been seen before. Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, d20 Modern, Arcana Unearthed and Oriental Adventures have given us all of the best material from this book, and a lot of it has been done better elsewhere. The good stuff that hasn't been seen before I could have come up with on my own, and in some cases I did (there are posts about class-based defense bonuses on this blog, for instance. The numbers generally match). That appears to leave the Bloodlines rules, which I quite like.

A lot of my problems with this book stem from my dislike of house rules (which may surprise you, gives the reams of rules material we're using in my current campaign), which I have recently expanded to include a dislike of supplements (turns out the game runs better without). I suppose it's nice to have all this material gathered in one place, and under the D&D name. I just don't think I'd use much of it.

Aside: Virtually all of this book is labelled open game content. This means that d20 publishers can now include the vitality system without special permission from Wizards of the Coast (which AEG had to get for Spycraft, for instance). This is a nice thing to have, if you're a d20 publisher. However, from the gamer's point of view, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference, so I'm somewhat mystified as to why the various messageboards have been hailing this as a major coup.