Complete Arcane - What's in it!!

[Nightfall]

*is probably using Warlocks more as NPCs than PC classes.*

In any case not worried about power abuse. I live in such a world anyway!

 

[Shard O'Glase]

while overall I give this book a good grade there are a couple items that cheese me off.

1st off good things gemoter class rock on I loved this class from spells and magic, chain spell, energy substitution, split ray, sudden metamagic, warlock, warmage, wu-jen(even if the alst 2 are reprints), spell imbued undead and lots more.

Things that cheese me off. Various feats that seem to be cut and pasted from T&B without any of the big flaws virtually everyone noted being fixed. For example Delay spell kind of cool but it's foolishly still at +3 spell levels. This would be a weak+1 spell level feat at +3 it just sucks.

Can't remember its name but the prestige class that binds a demon skin to your body still has a 5 lost spell levels. Oh zippy I can once a day do this and that and I get some minor resists to a couple elements that can be coppied by a fiarly cheap magic item. About the only solid thing is what you gain at 10th level which is the DR of 10/good. Heck if you could shoot the fire beams out of your eyes at will it would still not be worth the loss of 5 spell levels. Over 10 levels they should of gained at least 7 spell levels maybe 8. Most prestice classes they seemed to figure out that the loss of a spell level is a bigger cost than they initially thought in 3e but they seem to forget that here.

 

[Nightfall]

Acolyte of the Skin. I've seen better evil based Pr-classes but it's decent compared to others.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Actually, I think you're underestimating the value of Delay Spell. That's a potent ability. It's good for stealth, for sneak attacks, for leverage in negotiation, for combat tactics, for hitting a creature hard all at once... Frankly, I don't think it's overpriced at all.

More to the point, it follows the precedent of fireball and delayed blast fireball.

 

[Fedifensor]

Eldritch Blast versus Bolt of Fire

Eldritch Blast, the power I'm kinda worried about, is apparently useable at will and, at level 20, deals 9d6 damage. As a ranged touch attack. Some of the invocations modify this blast (such as Eldritch Cone, which turns it into a cone attack).

A 5th level Psychic Warrior/10th level Pyrokineticist can fire a 10d6 fire bolt(ranged touch attack) every round. If they have Psychic Meditation and Greater Psionic Shot, they can dish out a 14d6 bolt every round. I can't comment further until I see Complete Arcane, but the Eldritch Blast doesn't seem horribly out of line.

 

[hong]

A 5th level Psychic Warrior/10th level Pyrokineticist can fire a 10d6 fire bolt(ranged touch attack) every round. If they have Psychic Meditation and Greater Psionic Shot, they can dish out a 14d6 bolt every round. I can't comment further until I see Complete Arcane, but the Eldritch Blast doesn't seem horribly out of line.

A 20th level barbarian with Power Attack and haste gets 5 attacks, each doing on the order of 40 points of damage.

A 20th level archer with Rapid Shot and haste gets 6 attacks, each doing on the order of 25 points of damage.

10d6 per round is peanuts....

 

[Gez]

More to the point, it follows the precedent of fireball and delayed blast fireball.

Or rather it would if the spell DC was also raised by 3 points, and the damage cap heightened, and the spell's level (rather than mere actual slot) was also raised, for purpose of bypassing things like minor globes of invulnerability...

 

[Felon]

The warlock does not appear to be a powerhouse class as far I've read--although having said that, the very fact that his abilities have unlimited uses means that a player just has that one broken power that he can exploit ad infinitum.

Even putting the issue of raw power aside, I do think it's easy to see how a character that can only do a few cool things, but can employ them an unlimited number of times lends itself to a lot of tedious combats. If a warlock picks the "chilling tentacles" invocation, for instance, are you content to see every battlefield become a mass of 20-foot spreads full of writhing tentacles? Again, even a sorcerer who only has a few 4th-level spells, and one of them being Evard's black tentacles, isn't likely to have that effect on every combat.

I think the class overall is pretty cool, but some of the invocations either shouldn't have been added, or should have been bumped up in their grade, or should have a more significant limitation on their usage.

 

[Gez]

Totally at-will powers, while they do not necessarily have an impact on the game balance for the PCs, will have an impact on the world through NPCs.

They can have disastrous economical impacts. It's a bit like those spawning undead, in arena-fight they aren't unbalanced, but they hurt the suspension of disbelief something fierce when taken to their logical extreme.

 

[Li Shenron]

The misnamed the energy savant again, I see (translation: I have always thought the energy/element correspondance with equivalences like earth=acid was bent.)

I agree about the bending but I think it's probably late to change it. Also there are 5 energy types (force in theory not being an energy type, negative/positive could be tho) and 4 traditional elements, and there is no obvious association. I would myself prefer to see Air with Sonic, and perhaps Water with Acid (although I would even like better if Acid was not part of the game at all, it just strikes me at somewhat anacronistic!), but I can't figure out what Earth could be

In the realms of color art, I still wouldn't miss Crabapple.

Right. I'm sorry for him/her but the characters are too... junky

Nice to see that overwrought pleas of boosting the spell level on Energy Substition fell on deaf ears.

Do you mean it's still +0? IMHO that wasn't bad. It has been actually a full-worth feat in our games, but not so powerful to suggest house ruling on our part.

At +0 it's moderately useful for a Wizard and pretty good for a Sorcerer, what was the problem with it?

Giant size. Cool. Too bad it's not a wizard spell. It may become one IMC...

Is it sorcerer-only? That sounds really weird :\