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

mamba · Tuesday at 12:01 PM

Paul Farquhar said:
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.

We also never had an adventure and second book that were tied together like this… no one says it is required, the idea is that it is additional material that is related to the adventure.

We definitely had adventures that included crunch, this time the crunch is expanded and sold as a separate book, along with additional setting information that goes beyond the essentials that the adventure requires

Paul Farquhar · Tuesday at 12:20 PM

mamba said:
no one says it is required, the idea is that it is additional material that is related to the adventure.

The adventure appears to involve the factions from AU. So it would make sense for the PCs to have a background associated with that faction from AU. But it won’t be required. However everything you need to run a specific NPC member of that faction will need to be in Deadfall.

My view is that AU will have content on magic schools and magocracies from various settings. So, as well as having stuff on the Red Wizards of Thay, it will also have stuff on Arcanix (Eberron), Sigil, Stryxhaven, the Arcane Brotherhood, etc.

mamba · Tuesday at 12:26 PM

Paul Farquhar said:
The adventure appears to involve the factions from AU. So it would make sense for the PCs to have a background associated with that faction from AU. But it won’t be required. However everything you need to run a specific NPC member of that faction will need to be in Deadfall.

I assume they give you an NPC and the usual guidance within the adventure. The faction as such will mostly be in the other book, not that factions are the only thing that ties the two together

Stormonu · Tuesday at 9:01 PM

If there's any subclasses in UA, I expect they will be generic - the various school specific ones missed in the PHB, for example.

Deadfall might have some Realms specific subclasses in the Player section, such as a Wizard of Thay subclass, a Witch of Rasheman, maybe Child/Chosen of Mystra. I kinda wish they'd go back to doing a Player's Companion supplement with those sort of things like they did back with Elemental Evil and the other early campaign adventures.

Paul Farquhar · Tuesday at 10:01 PM

Given the short length of the adventure and it's connection to a book containing player options, I very much doubt it will have any itself.

AU has the tools to make, say, a Thayan Wizard, using a combination of specialist wizard and the new feats. No need for an actual subclass.

Background feats are very powerful tools for adding flavour to a character.

Parmandur · Tuesday at 11:09 PM

Stormonu said:
If there's any subclasses in UA, I expect they will be generic - the various school specific ones missed in the PHB, for example.

Deadfall might have some Realms specific subclasses in the Player section, such as a Wizard of Thay subclass, a Witch of Rasheman, maybe Child/Chosen of Mystra. I kinda wish they'd go back to doing a Player's Companion supplement with those sort of things like they did back with Elemental Evil and the other early campaign adventures.

That’s...what this is...?

Parmandur · Tuesday at 11:10 PM

Paul Farquhar said:
Given the short length of the adventure and it's connection to a book containing player options, I very much doubt it will have any itself.

AU has the tools to make, say, a Thayan Wizard, using a combination of specialist wizard and the new feats. No need for an actual subclass.

Background feats are very powerful tools for adding flavour to a character.

The FR book already has the Background and attendant Feat.

Paul Farquhar · 2026-03-18T06:13:09+0000

Parmandur said:
The FR book already has the Background and attendant Feat.

It’s a bit late for any further subclasses to be playtested for AU/Deadfall in any case. Not impossible, but unlikely that we will see any that haven’t been tested yet.

Paul Farquhar · 2026-03-18T10:47:29+0000

Parmandur said:
That’s...what this is...?

Not really, no. The primary purpose of AU is to restore the specialist wizard subclasses and spells from 5.0 that didn't make it into the PHB for reasons of time and space. It's the main event, the adventure is the supplement.

Parmandur · 2026-03-18T10:51:20+0000

Paul Farquhar said:
Not really, no. The primary purpose of AU is to restore the specialist wizard subclasses and spells from 5.0 that didn't make it into the PHB for reasons of time and space. It's the main event, the adventure is the supplement.

It's pretty much exactly what they seem to have intended with the Elemental Evil season before scrapping the rules supplement book in 2015.

Again, the crunnch you mention is only about half the book, at most. So the remainder of the book has to be something, the most likely being that it ties the two books with the cobranded title together.