Unearthed Arcana Revived, Noble Genie and Archivist Revisited in UA

The latest Unearthed Arcana replaces the Revived, Noble Genie, and Archivist subclasses with new versions called the Phantom, the Genie, and the Order of Scribes.

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[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Which is why they didn't put it there by default.

Yes, exactly. Volo's Guide to Monsters have stat blocks for the 8 main wizard subclasses, and they only have one or two key abilities from the subclasses.

 

[Undrave]

Yes, exactly. Volo's Guide to Monsters have stat blocks for the 8 main wizard subclasses, and they only have one or two key abilities from the subclasses.

It's not like the ability to get spells for cheaper is worth mentionning in a stat block either.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

It's not like the ability to get spells for cheaper is worth mentionning in a stat block either.

Yes. It also isn't important most of the time to have NPC wizards copy spells into spellbooks, so it's even less important mentioning that.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I agree. This ability needs to go. It isn't good, and you don't want to use it. It's a pain to keep track of the spells you can't cast, and just overall a crappy ability.

There is also a logic problem. There is nothing to prevent the wizard creating a backup non-magical spellbook via normal expenditure of gold and time.

I have concerns that the level 10 ability could also be abused to turn the wizard into an invulnerable assassin under some circumstances.

The concept is good, but the actual abilities need another pass.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I, for one, don't miss them.

In the other thread about a FR setting book a lot of people made references to the 3.0 FRCS so I looked it up. I came across the stat block for Elminster. Here's most of it, not including his spells and his magic items:

Male human (Chosen of Mystra) Ftr1/Rog2/Clr3/Wiz20/ Acm5/Epic4: CR 39; Medium-size humanoid; HD 1d10+7 plus 2d6+14 plus 3d8+21 plus 14d4+98; hp 219; Init +10; Spd 30 ft.; AC 29 (touch 17, flat-footed 25); Atk +17/+12/+7 melee (1d8+6/19–20, +5 thundering longsword) or +15/+10/+5 ranged touch (by spell); SA Sneak attack +1d6, turn undead 6/day; SQ Archmage high arcana, Chosen immunities, Chosen spell-like abilities, detect magic, enhanced Constitution, enhanced Intelligence, epic-level benefits, evasion, silver fire; SR 21; AL CG; SV Fort +17, Ref +13, Will +17; Str 13, Dex 18, Con 24, Int 24, Wis 18, Cha 17. Height 6 ft. 2 in. Skills and Feats: Alchemy +27, Balance +6, Climb +5, Concentration +34, Decipher Script +9, Diplomacy +6, Handle Animal +7, Heal +8, Hide +8, Intimidate +11, Intuit Direction +6, Jump +5, Knowledge (arcana) +27, Knowledge (geography) +22, Knowledge (history) +17, Knowledge (Dalelands local) +17, Knowledge (nature) +17, Knowledge (nobility) +17, Knowledge (the planes) +22, Knowledge (religion) +12, Listen +13, Move Silently +8, Open Lock +6, Perform (dance) +6, Ride +8, Scry +27, Search +9, Sense Motive +11, Spellcraft +29, Spot +14, Swim +5, Tumble +5; Blooded, Craft Staff, Craft Wondrous Item, Expertise, Forge Ring, Heighten Spell, Improved Initiative, Luck of Heroes, Scribe Scroll, Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Spell Focus (Enchantment), Spell Focus (Evocation), Spell Penetration, Twin Spell. Special Qualities: Archmage High Arcana: Arcane reach, mastery of counterspelling, mastery of elements, spell power +4 (total). Chosen Immunities: Elminster is completely unaffected by attacks that duplicate these effects: detect thoughts, disintegrate, Evard’s black tentacles, feeblemind, finger of death, fireball, magic missile, sunburst, temporal stasis. Chosen Spell-like Abilities (all 1/day): dispel magic, lesser ironguard, see invisibility, shapechange, Simbul’s synostodweomer (converts prepared spells into 2 points of healing per spell level), spider climb, teleport without error, thunderlance, true seeing. Detect Magic (Su): Line of sight. Enhanced Constitution: The Chosen of Mystra template adds +10 to Elminster’s Constitution. Enhanced Intelligence: Elminster used wish spells to increase his Intelligence. His Intelligence score has a +4 inherent bonus included in its value. EpicLevel Benefits: Bonus spell level ×4 (included in the listing below), six effective levels of wizard and five of archmage (included in above total). Silver Fire (Su): See Chapter 2 for details.

Um....no thank you.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

In the other thread about a FR setting book a lot of people made references to the 3.0 FRCS so I looked it up. I came across the stat block for Elminster. Here's most of it, not including his spells and his magic items:



Um....no thank you.

It isn't the crunch that makes the book, it's the fluff. Take out all of the crunch and you still have a book that provides information on essentially every part of Faerun. Point at any location on the map and you can look it up and will have enough information to create a character from that region (knowing which languages to pick and the demographics, for instance). Why it is good isn't because of original content is any innovative design decisions. It's because it had all of those thousands of pages of 1e and 2e content to mine and put together a dense overview of the continent. It's basically just the pure amount of content. It used extra small text to fit everything in.

 

[Guest 6801328]

It isn't the crunch that makes the book, it's the fluff. Take out all of the crunch and you still have a book that provides information on essentially every part of Faerun. Point at any location on the map and you can look it up and will have enough information to create a character from that region (knowing which languages to pick and the demographics, for instance). Why it is good isn't because of original content is any innovative design decisions. It's because it had all of those thousands of pages of 1e and 2e content to mine and put together a dense overview of the continent. It's basically just the pure amount of content. It used extra small text to fit everything in.

My post was purely a response to a comment about 3e stat blocks.

But, if you want to talk about fluff, I am a fan of sparser fluff. Skimming through the 3e FRCS my take is that the word count is about four times what it needs to be to convey the information. I don't need long prose, in fact I don't want long prose because I'm not reading for entertainment I'm reading to prepare for a game. (Ed Greenwood is not Herman Melville.).

(For the opposite approach, check out The Secrets of Skyhorn Lighthouse and The Corruption of Skyhorn Lighthouse, by Kelsey Dionne, on DMs Guild. I recently downloaded them and love the format; rarely am I ready to run an adventure with as little reading.)

EDIT: To make my point a little more clear, I'm talking about taking something like this:

Sewer halflings are a peculiar sub-branch of halflings, which some sages say are distantly related to Lightfoots, although this theory has never been confirmed. The timid Sewer halflings reside in the extensive sewers of cities like Luskan and Waterdeep, although there have been sightings in smaller cities throughout the Realms. As one would expect from creatures that reside in the sewers, sewer halflings are filthy. They can be useful allies, however, for they are inveterate hoarders and consequently can be a....blah blah blah

And condensing it to:

Sewer Halflings (timid, filthy, hoarders)
Location: Luskan, Waterdeep

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

There is also a logic problem. There is nothing to prevent the wizard creating a backup non-magical spellbook via normal expenditure of gold and time.

I have concerns that the level 10 ability could also be abused to turn the wizard into an invulnerable assassin under some circumstances.

The concept is good, but the actual abilities need another pass.

I agree. Also, if they can't get this right (which they should be able to), I want the Archivist back.

Anyone else notice how they took a subclass from the class with the least amount of subclasses, and then turned it into a subclass for the class with the most subclasses?

 

[Chaosmancer]

I agree. Also, if they can't get this right (which they should be able to), I want the Archivist back.

Anyone else notice how they took a subclass from the class with the least amount of subclasses, and then turned it into a subclass for the class with the most subclasses?

I wouldn't phrase it like that per se, but I do not like them taking it from the Artificer.

One of the things I loved about that artificer was that it was making magical AI's. That fits so beautifully into the lore of Eberron. Combing them with the Battle Smith and the Armorer and you can get sentient, mobile, and changeable armor. Where does that sound familiar from?

I also like the point someone made about an artificer for different types of magic items, and magical scrolls is one lacking an artificer.

Not to say that both can't exist. I think they can, but they need to keep the Artificer about where they were in my opinion.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Archivists were my 2nd favorite subclass from the Artificer. Some of their abilities were iffy, but the theme of it I thought fit the Artificer 100%.