Unearthed Arcana Variant Rules - Previews and Questions

[Poster Bard]

Variant Rules Checklist - http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20040206a

(Note in the OGL section fifteen the use of Green Ronin and The Game Mechanics material)

And from in this month - http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/dndacc/881560000

Monk Fighting Styles variant

Can they breathe life into an underplayed class?

Class Feature variants

Will these be balanced? Does it matter?

Character Traits variant

Must these provide benefits? Could they add something to the system if it didn''t?

Reserve Points variant

Do charatcers recover from injury fast enough already?

 

[Dark Jezter]

I am so looking forward to this book.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Here's the checklist of all the variant rules for those who don't want to download the .PDF

Chapter 1: Races

Aquatic Races
Arctic Races
Desert Races
Jungle Races
Races of Air
Races of Earth
Races of Fire
Races of Water
Reducing Level Adjustments
Bloodlines
Racial Paragon Classes

Chapter 2: Classes

Totem Barbarian
Bardic Sage
Divine Bard
Savage Bard
Cloistered Cleric
Druidic Avenger
Thug
Monk Fighting Styles
Paladin Variants
Planar Ranger
Urban Ranger
Wilderness Rogue
Battle Sorcerer
Domain Wizard
Specialist Wizard Variants
Spontaneous Divine Casters
Favored Environment
Whirling Frenzy
Level Check Turning
Planar Banishment
Aspect of Nature
Prestige Bard
Prestige Paladin
Prestige Ranger
Gestalt Characters
Generic Classes

Chapter 3: Building Characters

Alternative Skill System
Complex Skill Checks
Character Traits
Character Flaws
Spelltouched Feats
Weapon Group Feats
Craft Points
Character Background

Chapter 4: Adventuring

Defense Bonus
Armor as Damage
Reduction
Armor Damage Conversion
Injury System
Vitality and Wound Points
Reserve Points
Massive Damage
Death and Dying
Action Points
Combat Facing
Hex Grid
Variable Modifi ers
Bell Curve Rolls
Players Roll All the Dice

Chapter 5: Magic

Magic Rating
Summon Monster Variants
Metamagic Components
Spontaneous Metamagic
Spell Points
Recharge Magic
Legendary Weapons
Item Familiars
Incantations

Chapter 6: Campaigns

Contacts
Reputation
Honor
Taint
Tainted Prestige Classes
Sanity
Test-Based Prerequisites
Level-Independent XP Awards

Dungeon Master's Guide Variants

Roll Initiative Each Round
Sapient Mounts
Striking the Cover
Automatic Hits and Misses
Defense Roll
Clobbered
Massive Damage Based on Size
Damage to Specifi c Areas
Weapon Equivalencies
Instant Kill
Softer Critical Hits
Critical Misses (Fumbles)
Skills with Different Abilities
Critical Success or Failure
Saves with Different Abilities
Spell Roll
Power Components
Summoning Individual Monsters
Free-Form Experience
Faster or Slower Experience
What Disabling a Device
Means
Upkeep
New Magic Items
Separate Ability Loss
Nonmagical Psionics
Less Lethal Falls

 

[Acid_crash]

This book is going to be worth it.

 

[Dalamar]

Let's see...

Racial Paragon Classes

For some reason, I think of Arcana Unearthed's racial classes whan I see this. Wonder why...

Cloistered Cleric

I'd guess this is the non-combat cleric...

Thug

...and the non-spiritual monk people have been asking for

Wilderness Rogue

Now this one made me chuckle.

Magic Rating

I really wonder what this one is

Recharge Magic

This one worries me a bit, but we'll see.

 

[Felon]

I like what I see. Some of it looks familiar, like the Honor and Taint options that were featured in Dragon some months ago.

I think the Thug is an NPC class, possibly the one featured in S&S's Traps & Treachery. Essentially, an NPC that has Hide and Move Silently as class skills.

 

[Mordane76]

If memory serves, Thug was also an NPC class in Star Wars d20, so this might lend some more credence to this idea. Taint, Honor, and the Tainted Prestige Classes are part of Oriental Adventures, so unless these mechanics have seen significant change from that printing, then this is simply a reprinting of an already existent mechanic in a different book. I half-expect that the Incantations mechanics are more or less straight out of d20 Modern (in Urban Arcana.

A lot of the material presented in the racial area sounds like material we've seen in Dragon magazine. A good portion of the DMG variants were in the 3.0 printing of the DMG, but I assume they've been partially rethought for 3.5.


From the list... it looks like there might be about 50% completely new topics, and about 50% topics that have seen print in other d20 sourcebooks at some time or another. I'm still very interested in this book... but not as much as I was before I saw this list.

 

[Dalamar]

But if it is an NPC class, and thus a new one, it should be between the Sorcerer and Wizard variant classes. But as it is, it's there where the Monk variant class should be.

Edit - The DMG variants are all in the 3.5 DMG. They're just all listed in there, I doubt they'll be in UA.

 

[MEG Hal]

When is it released?

 

[Felon]

Taint, Honor, and the Tainted Prestige Classes are part of Oriental Adventures, so unless these mechanics have seen significant change from that printing, then this is simply a reprinting of an already existent mechanic in a different book.

I don't remember an Honor system in Oriental Adventures, and in OA taint is more of a setting-specific mechanic than a rules variant. Dollars to doughnuts, this is the honor and taint system presented a year or so ago in Dragon. There were also Tainted prestige classes.