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

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm not convinced the mystic UA is going into this product. The UA is too new (only can't out in January)

The product isn't due till Autumn. 8 months is more than enough time. We have had significantly shorter turn-arounds than that.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Maybe, though I do think the Mystic Arts Monk was created to replace Tattoo’d Warrior. But we will see.

Yes, I think that too. Same idea, but rather than tie the magical effects to tattoos they run of spell slots instead.

 

[Remathilis]

The product isn't due till Autumn. 8 months is more than enough time. We have had significantly shorter turn-arounds than that.

And If they turn out like the banneret, I'd rather they spend more time to cook.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm not convinced the mystic UA is going into this product. The UA is too new (only can't out in January), and the terminology change (Arcana for the first two, Mystic for the new one) really tell me they are for a different project. I think your arcana subs will be the four wizards, arcana cleric, arcane archer, and tattoo monk. The hexblade is a 50/50 shot of being here or in Ravenloft.

WotC has been cheeky about signposting the UAs. Artificer/Eberron update for Forge of the Artificer. Forgotten Realms for the FR Players book. Horror for the The Horrors Within. Arcana for Arcana Unleashed. I'm guessing Dark Sun will be something like Champions of the Apocalypse and Mystic will be part of something with Mystic in the name. The only exception is the Update UA, but that one so far feels like the biggest "I have no idea where this is going" UA.

Could go either way: for the purposes of estimating page count, I am assuming all 18 Subclasses other than the cellar Ravenloft and Dark Sun are in this book, to maximize the percentage thst might be crunch.

 

[TwoSix]

And If they turn out like the banneret, I'd rather they spend more time to cook.

One thing I've noticed about several of the 3pp creators I respect is that they put out their material for free for years, sometimes going through a dozen revisions, before it arrives at an actual finalized version that gets published (if it even ever does).

I wonder if the constant revenue stream of D&D Beyond might encourage/allow WotC in the future to put up initial material on D&D Beyond for play, collected feedback, and do several revisions before it's actually finalized in a print product. (And that's assuming print products are still a thing in the future, of course.)

 

[Remathilis]

Could go either way: for the purposes of estimating page count, I am assuming all 18 Subclasses other than the cellar Ravenloft and Dark Sun are in this book, to maximize the percentage thst might be crunch.

No way the cavalier is in a book called Arcana Unleashed. You might as well say the Apocalypse subclasses are in The Horror Within because disaster horror is type of horror.

 

[Parmandur]

No way the cavalier is in a book called Arcana Unleashed. You might as well say the Apocalypse subclasses are in The Horror Within because disaster horror is type of horror.

Maybe, maybe not: it's not a purely thematic Splatbook, it is a Season tie-in to a specific campaign involving a war with the Red Wizards of Thay. Takes all kinds to fight a war. However, the point of of my exercise was to try and give the maximum page count for the crunch to compare to the total page count, realistically less than 18 will be in this book, also probably fewer Spells than Xanathar's, fewer magic items than Book of Many Things, and fewer Backgrounds and Feats than Here's of the Forgotten Realms. That's the point of the exerckse: overestimate how much is crunch, and we barely get to half.

The Cvikiar might fit with Dragonlance better, to be fair.

 

[Remathilis]

The Cvikiar might fit with Dragonlance better, to be fair

You've convinced me that all the stuff playtested in 2025, from Reanimator to Spellbreaker paladin, will all be in Arcana Unleashed. Except the psion, that's going in the Dragonlance book this December.

 

[GarrettKP]

Maybe, maybe not: it's not a purely thematic Splatbook, it is a Season tie-in to a specific campaign involving a war with the Red Wizards of Thay. Takes all kinds to fight a war. However, the point of of my exercise was to try and give the maximum page count for the crunch to compare to the total page count, realistically less than 18 will be in this book, also probably fewer Spells than Xanathar's, fewer magic items than Book of Many Things, and fewer Backgrounds and Feats than Here's of the Forgotten Realms. That's the point of the exerckse: overestimate how much is crunch, and we barely get to half.

The Cvikiar might fit with Dragonlance better, to be fair.

I think this is overdoing it by a lot. The Arcane Subclasses will be here, MAYBE the Mystic ones. But we won’t see the Cavalier or the Storm Herald or any of the other martials in this book. The rest of the pages will be taken up by spells, backgrounds, feats, magic items, and lore writeups about the new magic factions they are introducing to go along with the backgrounds.

Also, this IS a thematic rules book that happens to have a tie-in adventure. This is the main release of the two, not the other way around. Arcana Unleashed won’t cater to the adventure, specifically.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Storm Herald

You could make a case that this is a magical barbarian (like a tattooed monk is a magic monk) if you wanted to stretch the theme to include more cool stuff (and increase the page count).

But I think cavalier stretches the theme beyond breaking point. But updating 5.0 content is a pretty high priority. Maybe more “DLC”?

Psion is an odd one. It could (at a stretch) go in horror, it could go in arcane. But I think WotC will want to introduce it as a core class rather than a Dark Sun specific class, so they will want to get it published before Dark Sun.