Complete Arcane: Too Much Wu-Jen?!?

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I picked up CA and I'm kinda turned off by all the wu-jen stuff, especially the spells. IMO, there are far too many wu-jen specific spells and it seems like too many spells were slotted for the wu-jen rather than existing spellcasters. This is the only WotC product that I know of that places so much emphasis on a single class. Maybe the warlock as well, to a lesser extent.

What's goin on? Does someone at WotC have a real love-on for the wu-jen?

 

[fredramsey]

I have to say, it was something irritating in an otherwise very cool book.

Simple solution, though. I am letting all those spells be Wiz/Sor spells, because some of them are just too cool to let go.

I picked up CA and I'm kinda turned off by all the wu-jen stuff, especially the spells. IMO, there are far too many wu-jen specific spells and it seems like too many spells were slotted for the wu-jen rather than existing spellcasters. This is the only WotC product that I know of that places so much emphasis on a single class. Maybe the warlock as well, to a lesser extent.

What's goin on? Does someone at WotC have a real love-on for the wu-jen?

 

[Moorcrys]

I found this odd as well. I like the class and it's certainly interesting, but if you're going to have class-specific spells it seems like a strange choice to devote so much space to.

But it's no big deal to simply let wizards and sorcerers pick those spells if they want them.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

It's probably because they wanted to reprint every Wu Jen spell from OA. But even when OA was around I'd let Wizards and Sorcerers pick any of those spells, and Wu Jen pick any of the Wiz/Sor spells, even though some Wu Jen spells are Druid spells (would it really alter the balance of the Wizard if they got Control Plants?).

 

[Psion]

They had to do something to fill the book up...

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Because if they didn't, we'd see a bajillion complaints about how the wu-jen got the shaft, or how it was mangled just as badly as the samurai in Complete Warrior.

It's a no-win situation.

I agree with some others; if it bothers you just add those spells to the sor/wiz spell list.

 

[Psion]

(would it really alter the balance of the Wizard if they got Control Plants?).

Alter the balance? Probably not.

But for some of us, flavor and distinctiveness are still issues.

 

[fredramsey]

I would be a little picky about certain spells. If they seemed like they should just belong to a Druid, I wouldn't let an arcane caster have them. But I would decide on a case-by-case basis.

Alter the balance? Probably not.

But for some of us, flavor and distinctiveness are still issues.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Because if they didn't, we'd see a bajillion complaints about how the wu-jen got the shaft, or how it was mangled just as badly as the samurai in Complete Warrior. It's a no-win situation.

I dunno about that. I haven't seen much hue and cry for the wu-jen in 3E. But giving a class its due is not the same thing as devoting more material to it than anything else.

I was really looking forward to CA, but now it's sorta fallen to the bottom of my list in terms of the Complete books. It's not horrible and it's salvageable, but it was a real turnoff reading "Wu Jen" over and over and over again. :\

 

[Thanee]

Hmm... I don't really have a problem with this.

If they are going to include another caster with a somewhat unique spell list (and the inclusion of some oriental style classes isn't new here), then it makes sense to also put up the spell descriptions. And being an arcane caster, the Wu Jen seems to fit well into the book.

Now, I would have preferred a Complete Oriental, which has all the oriental stuff together, kinda like Oriental Adventures, but it's ok that way, too.

Bye
Thanee