Unearthed Arcana = D&D Viagra!

[Mercule]

first we had the Book of Exalted Deeds, with its uber-feats and PrC's balanced by role-playing considerations.

That's what it is!

I like a lot of the BoED, but something has been bugging me about it. I think you just nailed the issue for me.

As far as UA goes, I like it. A lot of the variants are really great. This is actually the first time I've seen WP/VP presented in full, so I'm happy with that. Having the Injury Saves right next to it is great, too, just for reference. Incantations are nice, as are the variant specialist wizards. I'm also dying to run a gestalt game sometime, just not right away. There are enough good points in the book that I'd create a huge post listing all the ones I'm considering promoting to my group.

I consider the desert elf, jungle gnome, etc. section a bit out of place in this book. I don't really think they suck, just that they aren't variant -- kinda like I would have been disappointed if there'd been a section of new PrCs somewhere. Paragons were interesting, but will probably never get used. The Paladin, etc. PrCs only convinced me of the fact that 15 is too many levels for a PrC. The new Defense Bonus system was sad. Didn't much care for either traits or flaws. And I was disappointed that the spell point system went only far enough to be uncomfortable without a lot of gain -- hanging spell options is even more bizarre than hanging the actual spells (which is one of my gripes with Monte's AU system).

On the whole though, I don't think I've been happier about a 3/3.5 purchase besides the core books.

 

[rounser]

I think it would be good if WotC realised they're on a roll - that gamers actually dearly love to tinker with their games - and reconsidered releasing Dancey's old idea, the D&D Game Design Handbook, which gives justifications and explains checks and balances for why the rules are the way they are, and guidelines on creating balanced variants. I reckon it would help d20 publishers as well.

 

[Ranes]

I bet I'm not alone in finding threads like these more useful than reviews. Because of this thread and others, I'm going to buy the book tomorrow. Actually, that will be later today. I've heard many well-articulated views and re-examined my own desire to stay as close to the core rules as possible while I've been learning this edition of the game. Well I've procrastinated long enough, almost.

The fact that this book collates a number of ideas from other sources is fine by me. I have a dozen issues of Dragon, some freely downloadable material but nothing that's in UA. In itself, that wouldn't be enough to persuade me to buy it. What has persuaded me is that even those who have expressed some reservations about the book give it qualified approval.

I can't wait to have an opnion on it now.

 

[Desdichado]

Whats the other one? Complete Warrior? If so I wholeheartedly agree.

I'd vote for Draconomicon, myself. I also just picked up GR's Book of Fiends today, and so far, I think it's better than the lot of them, though. We've got your Vile Darkness right here, indeed!

 

[MerricB]

I haven't got the Draconomicon yet, for it is one of those books that I'll only get when I have spare cash and nothing else catches my eye. Dragons just don't interest me much.

Complete Warrior, otoh, is one of the best books from WotC for my campaign in a long time. I was just rolling up a swashbuckler yesterday and being impressed by how different it was in feel from a fighter/rogue.

Unearthed Arcana will hopefully arrive in Ballarat next week - I'm very much looking forward to seeing it. Much like CW, I don't expect to use all of it in a campaign... but that different parts of it will see use in different games, and that it will be good.

The bonuses in the Book of Exalted Deeds being balanced by role-playing penalties was something I actually liked - it makes the mature label make sense! Acting in an exalted fashion is a role-playing penalty, no doubt about it - what bonus then do you receive for it?

The Traits and Flaws of UA seem interesting to me (the traits more than the flaws). Obviously, the DM should vet them carefully to see if the penalties are appropriate for his or her game. In my game, a penalty to Spot would be a nightmare, because I use Spot to determine if that PC is surprised in an encounter.

Cheers!

 

[Foundry of Decay]

I'll certainly chime in and state that UA has been a big boon to me.

I wasn't too excited about it at first as well, but from reading about people's general outtake and review on the book, I proceeded to pick it up.

Reserve hit points alone helped immensely. I have a group going through a homebrew AU (Not UA, Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed) campaign, and as anyone who uses that system knows, healing is at a premium, and there are NO clerics (Greenbond, yes, I'll admit). The last characters they tried to go through the campaign would spend hours and days hanging around safe harbor healing up their wounds, and then would get trounced when they returned to the place they were exploring because the enemy had time to shore up its defenses.

Simply being able to actually get this group through a full story-arc in one night was like heaven. I haven't completed a story arc in this campaign until now with all the need for rest going on.

I've also become pretty envigorated with ideas. I might try using Spell points with exhaustion rules, I love the craft points rules, and the Item familiar rules were exactly what I was looking for.

Granted, the book won't have every idea be a hit with every person. I'm not big on the Legendary weapons, or Gestalt character rules, but I certainly will say It gave me a lot more ideas than I had just using the core rules after these years.

 

[Gothmog]

I'd vote for Draconomicon, myself. I also just picked up GR's Book of Fiends today, and so far, I think it's better than the lot of them, though. We've got your Vile Darkness right here, indeed!

Not to hijack this discussion too much, but how do you like the Book of Fiends Joshua? I've gotten to look through it, but not read much of the flavor text or analyze the critters in detail. I'm getting mine tomorrow, so I'm a little jealous of you now, you lucky bastard!

 

[MerricB]

Just visited the WotC boards to look up reaction to UA, and found this post by Ed Stark:

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=188488
In case anyone's curious, here are some UA variants I plan on using in my next game (and, no, they're not all ones I wrote):

Favored Environment
Craft Points
Armor Damage Conversion
Magic Rating
Metamagic Components
Spontaneous Metamagic
Spell Points
Legendary Weapons
Item Familiars
Buying off LA

I'm itching to see how these work in combination with each other.

Anybody else planning on or already implementing a list of UA rules?

Cheers!

 

[Desdichado]

Not to hijack this discussion too much, but how do you like the Book of Fiends Joshua? I've gotten to look through it, but not read much of the flavor text or analyze the critters in detail. I'm getting mine tomorrow, so I'm a little jealous of you now, you lucky bastard!

To not hijack the discussion, I started this new thread right here just to have this discussion.

 

[Unseelie]

I got my copy of Unearthed Arcana last Thursday and spent the weekend reading much of it -- it helped that ENWorld was down.

This product has reignited my passion for D&D. It is so full of good ideas, or at least ideas that spark the imagination. I want to scrap our current campaign and start all over with something new, incorporating some of the ideas in this book.

I haven't been this excited about a D&D product since "Shelzar."

D&D Viagra?! What, it makes D&D harder?