Dungeons & Dragons Announces Arcana Unleashed, New Magic-Themed Sourcebook at $49.99 Price Point

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Because Dark Lord Florida Man, did something really horrible

First Dark Lord to deal with both alimony and a chronic skin condition.

 

[Reynard]

The crunch we know is in there doesn't seem to justify the page count by itself.

Only if you go by the very weird assumption that they would have UA'd everything that would have been in the book. Why would that be a thing?

 

[mamba]

Yeah because unlike Ravenloft which needs alot of space for lore/setting, Arcana Unleashed is probably mostly just crunch.

probably, but that is still what, around 120 pages you have to fill with stuff that are not subclasses? That still seems like a lot to fill with crunch only. Spells won’t take up that much room, do we have any idea what will be in it?

 

[mamba]

Only if you go by the very weird assumption that they would have UA'd everything that would have been in the book. Why would that be a thing?

there is a lot of room between only what was in the UAs and the number of pages this book is likely to have. What they UA-ed fits in may be a quarter of it, so while there will be some we have not seen, that feels like a lot if you limit the pages to crunch

 

[Parmandur]

I think it’s setting agnostic - only the adventure is FR, setting specific stuff will be in that.

In what basis do you day that? They are specifically being sold together as a pair with tied titles, and the Adventure tied to Arcana Unleashed takes place in an area WotC specifically decided to call the "Arcane Empires" a few months ago into he new main FR book.

 

[Parmandur]

Only if you go by the very weird assumption that they would have UA'd everything that would have been in the book. Why would that be a thing?

Nope, I make no such assumption at all since the pr view images show us material that was not tested (4 Backgrounds, 3 Feats, and 3 Spells at least last confirmed).

However, for Subclasses and Classes they have not released anything that did not go through UA since March 2020 for Wildemount.

The smaller companion Adventure is 112-128 pages based on price, so this book will have more pages than that.

WotC tested 10 Subclasses, the image attached to the OP shows 2 Subclasses on one page. Let's give it 15 pages for all 10 Subclasses to be generous.

Let's also assume this has as many Backgrounds as the FR PC book, so about 10 pages worth.

Let's also assume that they have a similar number of Feats, about 8 pages worth. Heck, let's say it has more Feats and assume 10 pages.

So of the confirmed material (Subclasses, Backgrounds, Feats, Spells, and Magic Items) that puts us at about 35 pages for player character build options. The mock up on the initial page shows Chapter 2, Spells, starting at page 33, so given that player options tend to be in Chapter 1...sounds about right.

So, for a book of greater than 128 pages (maybe not much more, 164 maybe, or 192) thst gives approximately 130 pages for Spells and magic items and anything else.

I think there is something else, probably Setting fluff to tie in to the Adventure for which this is a companion.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

In what basis do you day that?

The faction text that is visible in the photo is clearly not FR related.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The faction text that is visible in the photo is clearly not FR related.

I don't see why not. They're not Sword-Coast or the Dalelands, sure, but how much do we know about Arcane Factions in Thay post-1500dr?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't see why not. They're not Sword-Coast or the Dalelands, sure, but how much do we know about Arcane Factions in Thay post-1500dr?

Try reading them - there is nothing to suggest they are Thayan. They seem more Sigil if anything.

A few other points:

The marketing for the adventure makes no secret of the setting. However the marketing of the splat book makes no mention of FR.

The book contains what are, in effect, core wizard subclasses that there wasn’t space for in the PHB. I don’t think they would add those is a setting book.

Most of the wizards depicted in the art are not wearing red or tattooed.

Alustriel lives in Sigil as of V: EoR.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Try reading them - there is nothing to suggest they are Thayan. They seem more Sigil if anything.

A few other points:

The marketing for the adventure makes no secret of the setting. However the marketing of the splat book makes no mention of FR.

The book contains what are, in effect, core wizard subclasses that there wasn’t space for in the PHB. I don’t think they would add those is a setting book.

Most of the wizards depicted in the art are not wearing red or tattooed.

It's not a big deal either way. The book is, by its nature, meant to be both a generic Arcane Sourcebook, AND support for the follow-up Thay Adventure. I'm not going to get into an argument with you on just-how-generic it is, seeing as I DON'T KNOW.

All I was saying was that they can be, and are meant to be, available to be used in the Adventure. Which is written for FR, but I'm sure they'd be happy if you set it anywhere else.