Evolved is the right word!
Alignment
This review is of
Arcana Evolved's PDF version. I received this PDF as a review copy. While a bit of my work appeared in
Legacy of the Dragons, I have no affiliation with Malhavoc Press.
Initiative Round
Arcana Evolved is Monte Cook’s further development of the
Arcana Unearthed milieu. Its 432 pages are packed with what Cook calls his “director’s cut” of his variant player’s handbook. The book retails for $24 in PDF or $49.99 retail.
From looks alone,
Arcana Evolved’s asking price seems reasonable. It’s big. The type size suggests a slew of information is packed in these pages. Some of the art is breathtaking, and the graphic sensibilities of Lisa Chido served the book well. Her type is easy to read and provides an eye-pleasing page color. Monte’s writing is equally smooth and “invisible,” getting across complex topics and rules in a way that is both comprehensible and entertaining. Not only does the PDF have a great table of contents and index (neither of them linked), but it’s also extensively bookmarked, easily searched. As an owner of the PDF, one can cut and paste until one’s heart is content.
Like its predecessor,
Arcana Evolved is about playing d20 fantasy in a different way. It’s designed for experienced d20 players, but it doesn’t give itself permission to cut corners on rules explanations and completeness. The races are unusual, the classes are unique and innovative, and the rules, especially for magic, are appropriate, inventive, and fun. And, while the rules are not entirely compatible with core
D&D without some (sometimes serious) work, Monte has provided tools to make conversions.
Disparate races are a staple of fantasy gaming, and Monte provides some real color in this section of his work. An assortment of eight races appear in
Arcana Evolved, with one race (the faen) including three subspecies and a ninth “race” that’s really a template applicable to any of the other races (runechildren). The races are humanoid and include humans, dracha, faen, giants, litorians, mohj, sibeccai, and verrik.
Enigmatic are the verrik and runechildren. Yet, the verrik are more or less humans with red skin, a longsighted outlook, and a penchant for witchery and psionic prowess. In fact, these inscrutable humanoids invented witchery (and the witch class), along with the akashic class. Runechildren, on the other hand, are messianic figures with powers forged in greatness and coupled with a will to bring justice and peace to the world. Becoming a runechild is a choice that costs one character level.
Most of the races have options for transformation and customization built in. The faen, a sprightly race of feylike humanoids, have the charm and feel of fairies from fables. They can even magically metamorphose into tiny, gossamer-winged sprytes, allowing a player to explore that role. Giants, much like overlarge humans, are noble caretakers and staunch ritualists. Like the faen, through magic rites (and the gaining of giant racial levels) a giant can grow to 12 feet in height. And the mohj, once-humans who chose to transform (also via magic) into a form more draconic, are a sterile race both mysterious and reviled.
These three examples show a synergistic strength that plays throughout
Arcana Evolved. The races presented are balanced with each other to work as 1st-level characters, but each race has a particular set of possibilities for development. By taking levels in a racial “class,” a mohj can become more and more truly mohj, while a giant becomes more giantish and literally gigantic. Magic is carefully intertwined with the mechanics, so the explanation for a giant’s growth or a fean’s metamorphosis is satisfying on a storytelling level. Those familiar with monster “classes” from other sources, such as
Savage Species, may find this integrated approach more pleasing.
One may also fine oneself familiar with some of the races in
Arcana Evolved, even if one isn’t acquainted with
Arcana Unearthed. A version of the animal-headed litorians (lion-headed) and the sibeccai (jackal-headed) appeared long ago in Monte’s work for Iron Crown Enterprises. Unfortunately, these two races are the least inspired in the book, even considering the clear similarity of the dracha to the dragonkin of
Monsters of Faerûn and the draconians of
Dragonlance. The sibeccai and dracha are somewhat redeemed by their history as created creatures (sibeccai by the giants, dracha by the dragons), but litorians are given no nonphysical distinctions to suggest they’re anything more or less than noble, barbaric humans.
Speaking of humans, one could wonder where humans fit among these wondrous and varied nonhumans. That ubiquitous race with which we are most intimate is still the most versatile and potentially powerful in the game. Further, even humans can evolve.
Evolution, an option new to
Arcana Evolved, can only occur with the aid of a dragon and the mysterious tenebrian seeds. Consumption of a tenebrian seed forces a character to take the next available racial level (if any). If none are available, the character must take the next level as an evolved level.
Evolved levels work like racial levels in that they are taken in lieu of normal class levels. A creature comes to “exemplify and exaggerate the essence” of its race or kind when it evolves. So, a human becomes more human than human, so to speak. The evolved levels do offer power, but the tenebrian seeds carry with them the irrevocable connotation of being thought to be a servant to the dragons and the possibility of madness. Since evolution requires taking levels in the evolved racial class, it’s balanced with characters that simply choose to follow other paths.
Those paths, of course, take the form of classes.
As with the races,
Arcana Evolved gives us a lot of new ground mingled with familiar concepts. It’s clear Monte considered the roles people wanted in a fantasy game and provided those roles. You want a fighter? Well, you can be a fast-on-your-feet swashbuckler sort (unfettered), the martial-arts master (oathsworn), or the armored tank (warmain). Oh, magic is your style? Do you prefer the staff-carrying Gandalf type (magister), the freewheeling, power-within approach (witch), an artificer (runethane), or a character with a connection to the spiritual (greenbond)? The paladinlike champion, the rangerlike totem warrior, the fighter-mage mage blade, and the ceremonially focused ritual warrior find their places in the middle ground. Only the akashic stands alone, providing the catchall category for the skilled rogue, wily thief, and a sort of psychic sensitive.
Don’t let my simplification and categorization of the classes fool you, though. This is sophisticated class design, and each class is chocked full of so many options you might get giddy with the possibilities. Where core
D&D gives the cookie-cutter paladin,
Arcana Evolved presents the champion and its nigh countless causes to fight for. Other classes, such as the witch, offer similar options. Multiclassing, racial levels, and evolved levels all serve to widen the possibilities into the infinite.
Infinity can seem daunting, but even though
Arcana Evolved is for the experienced d20 gamer, Monte saw fit to provide some archetypes for modeling characters. The list is by no means exhaustive. It does, however, cover the ground of common concepts, from archer to woodsman, in such a way as to simplify character creation.
Like character creation, the rules of
Arcana Evolved are familiar but streamlined and often specific to the wondrous world Cook has created. From the combining of Move Silently and Hide into one skill (Sneak) to the rules that very logically base character survival below 0 hit points on Constitution, from middle save progressions (neither good nor poor) to feats designed to describe a character’s history or heritage (talents), this variant player’s handbook shows the author’s insight and creativity. Play can enter very high levels, with spells to match. And hero points, which allow characters to modify rolls like action points from
Eberron or
d20 Modern, were in their infancy in the d20 arena with
Arcana Unearthed.
Arcana Evolved still uses them. Without sacrificing playability, these small changes from the core rules make the mechanics both distinctive and rich.
More resonant is
Arcana Evolved’s magic. The setting is steeped in magic and ritual, and the mechanics support this idea. While power level is toned down from the core rules, magic regains some of its mystique and grandeur from the change. Spellcasters don’t prepare spells in a “fire-and-forget” sort of way—prepared spells act as a daily, customizable list of spells known. Mighty spells are reserved for the truly potent by rules that distinguish between commonplace sorceries and rare eldritch powers. Most spells have heightened and diminished effects that a spellcaster can choose while casting. Spell slots can be “woven” to power lower- or higher-level spells, providing more options for use of spellcasting energy. Moreover, magic can be customized in a way light years more flexible than the metamagic feats from the core rules—spell templates that alter a spell’s essence as it is cast.
Players have many ways to make their magician characters unique.
Arcana Evolved also works better than the core rules in allowing a spellcasting character to fulfill the role of spellcaster in a more satisfying way.
But martial characters aren’t left out in the cold. Smart multiclassing and varying ability choices work together to make the nonmagician a viable partner to the spellcaster. If that’s not enough, many classes have access to a concept entirely new in
Arcana Evolved—the combat rite.
Combat rites are abilities accessed by oathsworn, ritual warriors, and warmains. (The ritual warrior gets the most.) These nonmagical abilities seem strange in that they provide featlike abilities that are interchangeable. While its hard to see how they might work outside the
Arcana Evolved, they do provide a limited resource that fighter types can use to do something special, reinforcing the role of a combat specialist. They also play on and buttress the
Arcana Evolved setting’s ceremonial nature yet again.
That’s a good thing, because Serran,
Arcana Evolved’s world, is lush with fantastic places, creatures, and possibilities. The setting material itself has evolved from its earlier incarnation in the book
The Diamond Throne. It describes a land once enslaved, liberated by war, and facing an uncertain future with the return of the potent and unfathomable dragons. A wider world is presented than the one detailed in older books. Closely intertwined with that world are creatures and prestige classes, much unlike the generic bric-a-brac stuffing so many d20 accessories. (One must remember that Monte Cook was one of the creators [if not the inventor] of the prestige class.)
While the setting is explicated in some detail, nothing is written as absolute canon. The desires and needs of each group using
Arcana Evolved are meant to mold the lands of the Diamond Throne (and its neighboring regions) through play and creativity. Tools are provided for an authentic otherworldly experience, from rituals and religion to language and customs. The setting’s main areas are detailed briefly, but this is meant to be your campaign world.
Rules and material not explicitly tied to the setting are easily transferable, as a whole, to another geography.
Arcana Evolved considers this in a small section on conversions. Covered are both using
Arcana Evolved concepts in other d20 games and using other d20 game material in
Arcana Evolved. The latter is favored, though. You might have considerable work to do if you try to take just one
Arcana Evolved element and append it to an otherwise core
D&D game. The reverse is less true.
Critical Hit
Arcana Evolved is a veritable lesson in thoughtful design. This one book presents everything needed to play in the world of Monte Cook’s vision. Everything. And the content goes beyond the norm by providing truly pleasing alternatives to core d20 concepts. In a product full of d20 jewels, the magic system is the biggest treasure on the pile.
Critical Fumble
Arcana Evolved is not full-color, as the marketing material suggests. A considerable number of the illustrations are monochrome. Like in
Arcana Unearthed, the aesthetic quality of some of the illustrations leaves much to be desired.
Coup de Grace
Arcana Evolved is an evocative exploration of the broader possibilities in fantasy roleplaying game design and setting construction. As one might expect, the mechanics are smooth and full of tasty options. The concepts and setting are very original, with only a few bland elements. While
Arcana Evolved is designed to be a self-contained game and campaign world for players and DMs alike, it can be used for other d20 games with varying levels of labor. Presentation is head-and-shoulders above the industry standard, but it takes a very minor ding from both black-and-white artwork and a few poor illustrations. Including everything needed to play, besides the dice and pencils, makes
Arcana Evolved a valuable resource for anyone who wants to play in Monte Cook’s setting. It offers much to other gamers, as well. Grab a copy and let your d20 experience evolve beyond the core.
Final Grade: 4.65 (rounded up to 5 for playability and general high quality)
Arcana Evolved is available at
DriveThru RPG (PDF) and the
ENWorld Store (print).
This review originally appeared at
d20 Magazine Rack.
