Complete Arcane (10 reasons)

[Li Shenron]

First, all draconic feats focuses the sorcerer class' origin too much. I'm a big fan of lots of possible origins for the sorcerer, and all dragon-ancestry related feats cuts down on that a bit. I would have prefered an approach more like the one I took in Quint Sorcerer, and the one taken (in a very similar fashion) in a couple recent Dragon articles, where multiple origins are explored and given benefits and drawbacks.

I absolutely agree. A core class is much better if it's open and versatile on the flavor side as well, and stressing further the very narrow idea of its origin has a restrictive effect on the setting and not just the single character.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

You did Quint Sorcerer?
Crap, mang, why didn't you SAY anything?

Geez man.

I already have "I wrote the Quintessential sorcerer" tattooed on my wee-wee (along with the ISBN, the back cover blurb, and Book of Revelations in phonetic pronunciation).

What more can one man do?


Patrick Y.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I'm a big fan of lots of possible origins for the sorcerer, and all dragon-ancestry related feats cuts down on that a bit. I would have prefered an approach more like the one I took in Quint Sorcerer, and the one taken (in a very similar fashion) in a couple recent Dragon articles, where multiple origins are explored and given benefits and drawbacks.

Patrick Y.

That was you? Man, where is the Quint Sorcerer II already? We use that book frequently in my game! (Do you see anything that woudl require a 3.5 update/conversion in quint sorcerer?)

 

[MerricB]

It is nice to see another couple PrCs for bards, though a couple more would have been nice (come on, throw the bard players a bone now and again).

Not been paying attention recently?

There are Bard Prestige classes in Planar Handbook, Frostburn, Races of Stone, Complete Warrior and Complete Divine.

That's pretty good for a minor class. (I love bards).

Hopefully Complete Adventurer or Arcane will expand on the idea of Bardic Feats - I see 2 in Frostburn and 4 in Races of Stone - and I wouldn't be very surprised to see a few more in Races of Destiny. Those half-elf bards, you know.

Cheers!

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

That was you? Man, where is the Quint Sorcerer II already? We use that book frequently in my game! (Do you see anything that woudl require a 3.5 update/conversion in quint sorcerer?)

To be honest, the only thing I know about Sorcerer II is that I'm not the person they had write it. I'm hoping Mongoose got Gareth Hanrahan to do it, but I think he's been locked up working on a few big projects.

As to what needs updating? Weeelllll, the sorcerer class didn't change that much, but there are a few things I'd work on. Mostly, I think I'd alter some of the arcane powers gained in exchange for spell slots, twist them around a bit so they fit better with the slight play differences of 3.5

Other than that, I think some of the spells could use a bit of polish, to bring them in line with changes in the Core Rules.

There's probably more, but it's not something I've thought about too much, to be honest; my brain is like a dinosaur's, consumed with eating and avoiding large predators.

At some near future point, I might revisit the idea of arcane powers for spell slots though, to reimagine them using the stuff I've picked up over the years, and to take them through to 9th level, instead of 3rd. If I do that, I'll almost definitely be releasing it as a Ronin Arts pdf.

Patrick Y.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Not been paying attention recently?

There are Bard Prestige classes in Planar Handbook, Frostburn, Races of Stone, Complete Warrior and Complete Divine.

Cheers!

Despite that support, I still think bards have gotten the shaft basically since The Complete Bard's Handbook. Where's the Gallant? Where's the Living Blade? There were just so many cool concepts in that book for 2nd edition which I don't think have made the transition to 3rd yet.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Regarding Post # 59 from Felon:

Preach on, brother! Preach on! Amen!

 

[JoeGKushner]

To be honest, the only thing I know about Sorcerer II is that I'm not the person they had write it. I'm hoping Mongoose got Gareth Hanrahan to do it, but I think he's been locked up working on a few big projects..

This makes me sad...

At some near future point, I might revisit the idea of arcane powers for spell slots though, to reimagine them using the stuff I've picked up over the years, and to take them through to 9th level, instead of 3rd. If I do that, I'll almost definitely be releasing it as a Ronin Arts pdf.

Patrick Y.

And that makes me happy. I guess we'll call it even then...

 

[Mercule]

I'm not seeing the distinction in Complete Arcane. The news item suggests that some of the prestige classes would make excellent NPC villains (I agree), but there's nothing against a player from taking them - admittedly, a heroic style of campaign is likely to preclude several of them!

Ah. My misunderstanding, then. I'm still not tickled with the glut of PrCs. Generally, I like them to be prestigeous and not an assumed part of most high-level characters.

 

[Mercule]

The warlock could be interesting, but I don't like the name. WotC is defining just about every name for spellcasters as a specific class of PrC, to the point where synonyms are going to get pretty sparse.

Eh, my players learned a long time ago to not associate in game names for professions with metagame names for classes. There are Fighters in my game who are rogues. There are priests who are Experts. There are Bards who are mages. And so on.

Since 1E, I've had organizations in place that semi-intensionally confound these issues. One state maintains an elite fighting force called "Rangers". Members of the Rangers hail from all classes. Some are actually rangers, but there are also a good number of fighters, rogues, etc. in the organization as well. In fact, there is one branch of the Rangers that is tasked with handling arcane issues. Predictably, these Rangers are largely wizards.

Another organization is referred to as Paladins. They generally behave as you'd expect a member of the paladin class to do. I ditched the paladin class, though. So, none of the Paladins are paladins. They do have a significant number of fighters and priests in the order, but there are also some wizards and even some rogue Paladins in good standing.

In short, I don't really care what WotC calls the classes (well, I'd like the name to have some meaning, rather than random words). N/PCs don't know game terms and will call themselves whatever they please.