Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN num: 9781588467805
ISBN number: 1588467805
Label: White Wolf Publishing
Manufacturer: White Wolf Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 430
Printing Date: February 28, 2005
Publishing house: White Wolf Publishing
Sale Popularity Level: 106159
Studio: White Wolf Publishing
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Rated by buyers -
I won't get into details, as the other reviewers here have already done a great job. Monte Cook has never let himself be constrained by the conventions that hinder the mainstream rpgs. This book has near-endless customizability--each class, spell, and even race has many options. The book contains rules, setting, and a good bestiary. If I had one gripe it would be the selection of races. Cat-people and dog-people? Come on! At least their backgrounds are fleshed out and believable. Better than your standard Tolkienesque fantasy races, which have been worn out, resurrected, and beaten to death again by many games. This book is full of original ideas, and it just begs readers to introduce their own. There are some great supplements, too, but this is all you need.
Rated by buyers -
Arcana Evolved is, for the most part, a very well-thought out variant of D&D. There are new races, new base classes, and a whole new spell system. Except for the magic system it sticks pretty closely to the d20 rules, so it's recognizable to the average D&D player.
For those of us who dislike the "Vancian" magic system in traditional D&D where spell casters have to memorize spells but forget them once they're cast, the new spell system is a vast improvement. At it's core it's a spell slot system much like sorcerers in 3.x D&D, but more flexible.
The spell system also lets you do a variety of things to change the power of the spells. You can cast it diminished, using a lower level slot but with less effect; you can cast it heightened, using a higher level slot for more effect; and there are spell templates that can tack on an additional effect (for example a Fire Mage would add the Fire template to do additional Fire damage).
That's the "Aracana" part of AE. The "Evolved" part refers to the concept of racial levels. Instead of ECL modifiers from D&D, several of the races have racial levels you can (optionally) take in lieu of a class level to gain the speical racial traits. In addition for all races (including humans), there are "evolved" levels. These take the racial traits and augment them.
All in all IMHO, an interesting variation on D&D. It still has many of the d20 quirks though (especially annoying is the miserly allocation of skill points)so if you really, really detest 3.x D&D because of things other than the magic system, you won't be happy here either. Everyone else should give it a try.
Rated by buyers 
-
From what I understand, Arcana Evolved (previously a grey and white book called Arcana Unearthed and a thin paperback Diamond Throne setting primer now married in one book with colour versions of mostly the same art from the very first book) is the endeavor of Monte Cook to make use of the benefits of the Open Game License to push past what he saw as meaningless and arbitrary restrictions imposed on "Official" D&D material.
His goals are commendable. He wanted to get rid of arbitrary game mechanics that limited the growth of characters (like alignment requirements or race based limitations on multiclassing). He also wanted a clean Player's Handbook, that DM's could use for any fantasy setting, without a bias toward the published setting. Unfortunately this is not Arcana Evolved.
Most of the classes in Arcana Evolved cannot be multiclassed. Some, such as a combination Warmein/Unfettered (Only use heavy weapons and armor/Only use light weapons and armor) are so flatly contradictory as to be a joke in our group. The Oathsworn (basically a monk) can't use any weapons or armour at all. The Magister "disdains the way of the sword" having chosen to channel all of his magic through a staff, whereas the Mage Blade channels all of his magic through an athame or key weapon. Champions are so fanatically devoted to a single ideal that it endows them with paladin-like abilities. Hard to see that devotion leaving room for any other class pursuits.
The races have also given me fits when trying to create non-Diamond Throne settings. As opposed to races like gnomes or elves that can hop settings with very little baggage, there are some races in Arcana Evolved that are really tough to transplant. Sibbecai, for example, are a race of jackalmen raised to sentience by the Giants in Diamond Throne, which is responsible for a lot of their cultural identity. So you either keep that bit of history in every setting (which would be very odd) or you are forced to create a new origin for them that keeps their personality, but does not recreate the Diamond Throne history every time. Likewise the Mojh are a group of humans who have transformed themselves into draconic hybrids out of devotion to the hated Dramojh who were once owned the Diamond Throne's inhabitants as slaves. Hard to break the Mojh apart from the Dramojh of the Diamond Throne--not impossible, but it certainly doesn't seem like a step toward a clean PHB.
Now what Arcana Unearthed has going for it is impressive. The classes are beautifully developed, even if they don't stack very well, and full of fresh, exciting ideas. The weapons list is one of the few I've seen in D20 products that expands on the standard list of D&D weapons to provide some fun new inventions like battle claws, spikesticks, and dire weapons. The list of feats is huge (the summary list is two full pages in tiny eight point font), with a much greater focus on drama and customization. It's divided into General, Ceremonial (connected with the custom of recieving a true name, a big part of the Diamond Throne setting) Item Creation (only a few, but organized based on the duration and nature of the enchantment, rather than whether the item is a staff, rod, or a ring, which always seemed a bit arbitrary) and Talents (Feats that define inherant qualities of the character, and as such must be picked up at character creation or not at all).
The character classes are a bit mediocre. While they're not the typical elves and dwarves, they're not too much more original than that. You have jackalmen (Sibeccai), lionmen (Litorians), halflings that metamorphose into pixies (Faen, two kinds), half-giants (called Giants, but closer to the D&D style half-giant in look), red-skinned pragmatist near humans (Verrik) and a yuan-ti style race of transformed dragon-men (Mojh). There's also a mechanic for leveling up in race instead of class. I'm not sure how I feel about this. While it adds a certain amount of customization to characters, it tends to feel a bit like an arbitrary mechanic--as though someone can grow larger, or gain a breathweapon or claws and teeth through experience? Age maybe...special ritual perhaps...but probably not through multiclassing in your race when you level up. That's just weird.
The art in the book on the whole is rather good. There's only a couple of bad pieces and quite a few that are really nice stuff. Most of it is printed too small--stuff relegated to the margins or a dollar sized art insert, forcing you to squint at it. Likewise the layout is awful. Most of the book looks like it's printed in 8-point font broken into two columns. There's no white space, no rest for your eye. It's dense and impenetrable. Every page feels like every other page. It can get really straining and claustrophobic if you have to read too much of it in a sitting.
So yeah, the content is pretty darn good. Not what I think the authors were trying ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
Get this one. Just buy it, sit down read and be amazed as you see all that was DnD change into what it should have been for a very long time.
Rated by buyers -
I will give you a quick overview of the product itself. Second, I am going to talk about its appearance, ergonomy and detail its contents. Third, I will tell you what I think are the "Critical Hit" and "Critical Miss" of this book and finally conclude with my overall appreciation of the product.
Overview
Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved can be purchased in PDF format on DriveThruRPG.com or in hardcover format at your local game stores, Amazon.com and gaming websites. It is 432 pages long, one of the very first "mammoth volumes" of its kind.
First and foremost, Arcana Evolved combines materials of Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed, The Diamond Throne (detailing the default setting for Arcana Unearthed) and the Player's Guide (which was provided with the Arcana Unearthed DM Screen). If you want a "group price" for these books buy Arcana Evolved. If you have Arcana Evolved, you do not need these books at all (but for the actual DM Screen I was talking about, which is a nice product in itself, but that's another review altogether).
Arcana Evolved isn't just a compilation of previous Malhavoc products. It adds little bits and pieces to the award-winning Arcana Unearthed and makes something new and refreshed out of it. These "bits and pieces" include a new character race, a new character class, new options for your character's development on a "mechanical" level. But it also adds in terms of background, if you are interested in new ideas for your Arcana Unearthed or D&D games: the Tenebrian Seeds allowing acess to "Evolved Levels" and the "Return of the Dragons" to the Diamond Throne (or your homebrew setting), for instance.
Lay Out
The very first impression people get when they open Arcana Evolved is usually one of awe. First, the book is huge (more than four hundred pages, as precised above). Second, it is a full-colour volume. One could expect a very confusing lay-out as a result - lots of colour equals less clarity, right? Not with this book. Colors enlighten the product while not covering or confusing its contents. The lay-out is simple and efficient. The art is sometimes just okay, and sometimes outstanding, but always colored with taste. The overall impression it leaves is one of beauty, simplicity/clarity and coherence (there is a lay-out "theme" in tones, fonts and so on. This is one of these little details making for me the difference between very good and outstanding books).
The Actual Contents
Introduction: New Possibilities - This obviously presents Arcana Evolved to the reader, with its scope, its ambition, the themes and concepts that inspired it, how to use the book and how to create/level up characters. This is an important section for this review, since it states the goals of the product: bring the power back into the DM's hands, increase the player's choices, base the game on the notions of character choice, uniqueness, use a background made of rituals and traditions. With these goals in mind, we can actually know more or less objectively if Arcana Evolved fulfills its mission or not.
Chapter One: Abilities - nothing particularly new for a D&D player here. It presents the main ability scores used in AE, none of which are new. It also presents the classic tables of bonus spells and, something new here though, rites. Combat Rites are used mostly by the Ritual Warrior, the new character class in this book, but also other, revised character classes, such as the Oathsworn (at mid-level) and Warmain (at high-level).
Chapter Two: Races - First, the actual races are: Humans, Dracha (humanoid, medium-sized dragons), Faen (little feys between the PHB elves and halflings which can transform into the tiny, flying Sprytes), Giants (a noble, civilized race whose society is centered on the concept of ritual and tradition), Litorians (lion men), Mojh (humans who decide to become more draconic to uncover the mysteries of magic), Runechildren (kind of "Chosen Ones" who defend the world against agressions), Sibeccai (whose physical appearance is akin to the Egyptian god Anubis - they were animals who have been "elevated" to sentience by the giants) and Verrik (some near human beings with crimson skin. They have a cursed, heavy past and have a close relationship with magic).
Some little things change from Arcana Unearthed. For instance, the Mojh can no longer gain acess to a breath weapon. This is mainly because of a larger, more significant change: the introduction of the Dracha, which is also part of an even bigger change - the Return of the Dragons to the Diamond Throne (see below). The Dracha seem very fun to play. They have a sort of "coolness" about them akin to the dragons many of us love. It's actually great to be able to play a draconic character without having to wait for high levels to do so or rely on various templates that may seem "wrong" or "artificial" when I added to a given character ... Read More
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