Complete Arcane (Dungeons \u0026 Dragons Edition 3.5) by Richard Baker

Complete Arcane (Dungeons \u0026 Dragons Edition 3.5) Reviews

• 
  Kat

  Not the most useful of the Complete series, as I've never actually used a single thing from this book. Weird, because I like to play magic users.
• 
  Daniel A.

  Every so often, Dungeons & Dragons has updated its edition to varying degrees. Sometimes the revisions are significant—the sort-of current 5th edition represented a major revision of the ruleset, culminating in possibly the apotheosis of every previous edition (at least in my opinion); but sometimes the revisions are subtler—edition 3.5 mostly just tweaked the 3rd edition rules (which were themselves a major overhaul of
  Gary Gygax's original formulations of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons when Wizards of the Coast purchased the failing TSR Hobbies) from broken mechanics that didn't quite work, as well as instituted other fixes. But edition 3.5 (as well as 3rd edition in general) had a problem, that 4th edition exacerbated: Around this era, Wizards of the Coast was just churning out sourcebook and adventure after sourcebook and adventure, in a quantity that was simply out of the grasp of all but the most committed, arguably obsessive, and (let's be frank) wealthy roleplayers (those books were expensive! and not available in PDF form, something that IMO continues to plague D&D), not to mention thoroughly out of touch with the actual popularity of the game. 5th edition has significantly opted for quality over quantity (again, at least IMO), but this volume,
  Complete Arcane by veteran D&D scribe
  L. Richard Baker III, represents several of the failures (or at least missteps) inherent in WotC's quantity-over-quality approach of 3rd and 3.5 edition.
  
  At least ostensibly, Complete Arcane represents an effort by Wizards to compile compendia of their alternate and/or additional rules, covering the entire length and breadth of playable character builds within mainstream D&D, but unlike, say, Wizards' Eberron volumes, the Complete __________ series comes from a generalist approach, theoretically applicable to any world in Wizards of the Coast's multiverse. And therein lies at least some of the problem: In part because of a throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks attitude, and in part because it vaguely felt like WotC was simultaneously playtesting new mechanics in real time but somehow not thoroughly playtesting the mechanics enough, Complete Arcane sometimes feels slipshod, no matter how good some of these mechanics ultimately were. Complete Arcane was one of the first iterations of warlock as a character class, and while we can see a little bit of what the warlock would become when fully fleshed out in 4th (and especially 5th) edition, given the ethical essentialism of much of 3rd and 3.5 edition that remained from Gygax's vision of D&D, the restrictions on who can actually play a warlock seem awfully restrictive, even to the extent that they restrict actual, y'know, roleplaying of a warlock character. And at least one other "playable" class in Complete Arcane, the wu jen, makes things worse insofar as that class, from stem to stern, is culturally appropriative of racist stereotypes around "inscrutability" of East Asian cultures, and gratingly and obliviously so, almost to the extent of a bull in a pottery shop. Yes, the warmage class worked well enough that in one form or another, it's remained in 5th edition, as a build within a larger class at the very least, but given other associated mechanics in the game, such as some of the material components for spell conveyance, it feels like WotC really, really committed to this era of
  Oriental Adventures, and that's awkward at best. (Thankfully, it feels like WotC has mostly abandoned this real-world racial essentialism, despite its gross missteps in
  Tomb of Annihilation and the racial mechanics for character generation.)
  
  Plus, there's one more thing that grants a serious penalty (see what I did there?) to not just Complete Arcane, but every. Single. One. Of 3rd and 3.5 edition's sourcebooks: The layout and design (which is why I included a "design" shelf for this book, along the lines of what not to do). To a volume, 3rd and 3.5 edition sourcebooks' design and layout, from font size and font choice to kerning and line spacing to the contrast between the color of the pages and the font color, makes for reading that severely strains the eyes, if not induces an actual headache. For years I've wondered why I've had to take more breaks while in the midst of reading 3rd and 3.5 edition sourcebooks than I've had to for other RPG books—and I now realize that it's because it was physically demanding to actually do so. And reading shouldn't actually, physically hurt to be done right, as I see it. Complete Arcane is no exception; given that I started the damn thing in 2018, put it down for 4½ frickin' years after getting about halfway through, and then, in one sense or another, eventually just slogged through the rest to say I did so, even if only for the sake of completeness, says more about WotC's failings of the era than it does about mine. Never mind that the covers of 3rd edition volumes are both clever in design and interesting to look at; that's nothing without readable contents.
  
  Complete Arcane, then, is a volume for D&D completists. Yes, I may be close to a completist in that regard—which is why I'm still loath to part with the book—but that is in fact the case. It's a good thing that WotC vastly improved on both its mechanics and its business model(s) in later years (
  the recent Open Gaming License fiasco notwithstanding, about which there are, just, so, so many articles), because D&D badly needed changes after books like this one.
• 
  David

  A definite improvement over Tome and Blood. It offers more options, flexibility, and flavour for arcane characters.
  
  This sourcebook introduces 2 new core classes (warlock and warmage) and updates an existing class (wu jen). There are a few new prestige classes but the majority are updated versions from Tome and Blood; so good on the former, not so good on the latter.
  
  The other major content are the feats and the spells. The feats give spellcasters a lot more versatility and options. The spells primarily help round out a warmage's and a wu jen's spell lists, but there are quite a few interesting and devious spells in there.
  
  Rounding out the content are a small section of magical items and role-playing flavour and options for mages.
  
  Overall a useful resource for arcane spellcasters.
• 
  Kat

  Basic Premise: Supplement for D&D 3.5 edition, resource for players of magic users.
  
  There are new spells, magic items, prestige classes, tweaks to core classes, and more in here. It's very useful for anyone interested in playing a more intense magic user. There are also some interesting explanations of the nature of the various types of magic in the game. A handy book.
• 
  R J Royer

  Another book on the DND list. Just give me a heads up if you want it.
• 
  Abraham Ray

  great book for biginning wizards for 3.5 dnd!
• 
  Amanda White

  I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
  
  http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14313253