Complete Arcane: Too Much Wu-Jen?!?

Compelte Oriental ... or some sort of OA update book would have been nice ... but then they'd still probably reprint Wu-jen and Samurai :uhoh:
 

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I'd imagine that if the Warlock's incantations were included in the spells section as spells, people would be upset because there seemed to be too many of them as well...

The Wu-Jen is different enough that it needs its own spell list with its own spells. I'm actually pleased that they devoted content to the Wu-jen, I tend not to like new core classes, but I hate the ones that are done seemingly as an after-thought (Hexblade anyone?).

As has been mentioned, there is no real reason those spells couldn't become Sor/Wiz or even Dru and Clr spells if you so desire. If they had been listed that way in the book, would you still be dissatisfied?
 
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Wolf72 said:
Compelte Oriental ... or some sort of OA update book would have been nice ... but then they'd still probably reprint Wu-jen and Samurai :uhoh:

hijack:

I like you sig Wolf, Im a big Farside fan.
 

Talmun said:
If they had been listed that way in the book, would you still be dissatisfied?

Maybe, maybe not. But they weren't listed that way. That was my point. We can all say "Well, they could have done X and Y and Z" but they didn't. And that's what my original post was about. Changing them to sor/wiz is a workable solution, but it doesn't really fix the problem: too much focus on one class.
 

Ogrork the Mighty said:
(snip)...but it doesn't really fix the problem: too much focus on one class.

It's only too much focus if you don't want to play and/or don't like the Wu-Jen; if you do, then you're probably thankful that you have a fully fleshed-out spell list that has it's own flavor and doesn't require you to buy OA or d20 Rokugon.
 

That's why I keep only four spell lists. A wu-jen's spell list is the same* as a wizard's spell list, and it's just simpler that way.

* Not totally true, since wu-jen have some descriptor-specific limitations and adjunctions to their spell-list.
 

I kind of wish they had a little MORE info on the wu-jen. Like, what are these spirits that Wu-jens deal with? Regular ghosts?

Also, I'd like more info on Warlock invocations, like durations, save vs. nausea when you are a swarm of bats, whether hideous blow draws an aoo (and whether it does when mixed with vitriolic blast), confirmation that a souped up eldritch blast can be cast in one round, not three rounds, etc.
 

Talmun said:
It's only too much focus if you don't want to play and/or don't like the Wu-Jen

Not true at all. I'm ambivalent on the WJ, but when more of the book is devoted to it, then that means less gets devoted to everything else; and that's much too focused for a book that's titled Complete Arcane - not Complete Wu-Jen.

No doubt it's great for players who want to play the WJ, but it shouldn't be taking away from everything else in the book. Personally, I find the WJ out of place for CA and its prominent inclusion was to the detriment of the rest (sort of like the Goliath in Races of Stone, IMO). The WJ's level of detail would have been better suited to an OA book, otherwise just include the standard writeup like all the other classes.

Some of my group's players flipped through CA last session and their first question was "What's up with all the WJ stuff?". That shouldn't be the first question someone has when they read Complete Arcane.
 

Ogrork the Mighty said:
No doubt it's great for players who want to play the WJ, but it shouldn't be taking away from everything else in the book.

Unless you have something else that is more compelling to include that was not, I'm not really seeing the problem here.
 

FWIW I looked through Complete Arcane and was also put off by the emphasis on Wu-Jen. It is not as if an equivalent proportion of feats in Complete Warrior were Samurai-only, is it?

Complete Arcane looked quite disappointing in terms of lack of new generally-applicable material, particularly sad considering the wonderful OGL arcane magic stuff that has been produced.

Cheers
 

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