FitzTheRuke
Legend
I think there will be quite a bit of pages of fluff, generic or not. I suspect not, but it may include quite a bit of multi-setting fluff, and not be overly focussed on FR.
Dungeons & Dragons Announces Arcana Unleashed, New Magic-Themed Sourcebook at $49.99 Price Point
- Thread starter Christian Hoffer
- Start date
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Their usual MO is to have their cake and eat it, too. Easy enough to do with FR and generic High Fantasy D&D homebrew.
Jefe Bergenstein
Legend
Jeez, I just noticed Horrid Wilting deals a pathetic 10d8 as an 8th level spell. Can someone tell wizards to stop using damage values from 40 years ago? Ogres don't have 18 HP anymore.
Stormonu
NeoGrognard
About the only Realms tie-in I'm expecting in Arcana Unleashed is the name of a handful of spells with FR character names in them.
For example, the first spell appears to Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Withering, not just generic "Withering". We'll may also see Alustriel's spells, Lorlevium and maybe even spells from Nybor or Elminster. But we have that sort of thing in the PHB with Bigby, Mordenkainen and the lot, without any details on those mages (well, beyond in the back of the DMG now...).
For example, the first spell appears to Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Withering, not just generic "Withering". We'll may also see Alustriel's spells, Lorlevium and maybe even spells from Nybor or Elminster. But we have that sort of thing in the PHB with Bigby, Mordenkainen and the lot, without any details on those mages (well, beyond in the back of the DMG now...).
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Well, the book is set to be about 192 pages...with ~100 pages of crunch if we assume it had the most Spells, the most Magic Items, the most Backgrounds of any 5E book and every Subclass from UA...
So providing player information for the Adventure with the same title is probable, to put it mildly.
Are we under the impression that this is going to have a lot of backgrounds? I’m expecting 8, for each school of magic, and that’s it.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
The point he is making is that even if the book is packed with more of every single thing than anything since the core books, it is still gonna have a lot of pages left over for other stuff, probably things that will at least conveniently dovetail with the adventure.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I think it will have a lot of feats - a background feat for each school of magic that is functionally similar to Eberron dragon marks, plus "advanced" versions.
And each school of magic has a new faction associated with it. each of those will need a couple of pages of lore.
There also exists the possibility that the psion is in this book.
I expect there will be at least as much on bastions as there was in Forge of the Artificer.
Spells? At least as many as Tasha’s, there are a bunch of 5.0 spells that didn’t make it into the PHB and need updating.
Then there are the now obligatory campaign outlines for three different types of campaign.
Oh, I think Abi-Dalzim was a Greyhawk character.
Last edited:
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Assumimg for the sake of giving the crunch the absolute highest page count. The 100 pages give or take assumes it has as many Backgrounds and Feats as the FR books last yearz all the UA Subclasses other than Horror as many Spells as Xanathar, and as many magic items as the Book of Many things. That still only gets us to just over half the page count.
The book will have something in it.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I will just point out again, that in the 5e era WotC have never published an adventure that required anything that was not in the core rules to run.
Similar Threads
- Event post
Recent & Upcoming Releases
-
June 16 2026 -
June 16 2026 -
September 16 2026
Arcana Unleashed(Dungeons & Dragons)
Rulebook featuring "high magic" options, including a host of new spells.
Replies (197) -
September 16 2026 -
October 1 2026 -
October 6 2026 -
January 1 2027
