- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (1 Feb 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0786931310
- ISBN-13: 978-0786931316
- Product Dimensions: 27.9 x 21.6 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
225,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #15 in Books > Fiction > Science Fiction > Gaming > Dungeons & Dragons
- #98 in Books > Sports, Hobbies & Games > Hobbies & Games > Role-Playing & War Games
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unearthed Arcana D&D 3.5, or the second time around...,
By
This review is from: Unearthed Arcana (Dungeons and Dragons v3.5 Supplement) (Dungeons & Dragons) (Hardcover)
This new version of the Unearthed Arcana is very different in content from the multitude of other d20 supplements out there. Unlike so many of these others, it's not just another collection of new feats, skills, prestige classes etc. What it is is a range of ideas and options, both additions and alternatives to the existing rules, with which to customise characters and campaigns.To offer some examples: in common with such game systems as White Wolf and GURPS, D&D has now added the idea of "character flaws" as a counterpart to feats (take a flaw - get an extra feat), as well as "traits" which can be taken in addition to feats/flaws with each feat containing closely related game benefits and hindrances. There are pages on variant character classes and races to tailor them to suit most concepts (aquatic dwarves, warrior sorcerors etc) while retaining the balance between their abilities, as well as offering variant spell casting systems. Some of the thinking behind the creation of the rules is included, as well as sidebars with brief comments describing house rules that some people have used. Extra rules options have been added to cover such things as contacts, reputation, sanity, action points, wounds and vitality - things that were introduced in other d20 setting and now brought together for easy access. It's perhaps not the ideal book for the newcomer to D&D, but for the more experienced DM or player it's full of interesting and (generally) useful ideas, some of which might be just what you needed.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews) 39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some Decent Material,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Unearthed Arcana (Dungeons and Dragons v3.5 Supplement) (Dungeons & Dragons) (Hardcover)
Overall, I'm pleased that I bought this one, though it is far from perfect. Perhaps the Hit-or-Miss quality of the text, though, is derived not so much from poor conception or execution, but rather from the opposite; after all, this text attempts to collect some of the more interesting "house rules" variants out there, and by definition, different variants would seem to appeal to different gamer-geeks.Cool Things: --sections on "reducing level adjustments" (buying off LA with XP later on) and "bloodlines" (adding a touch of bizarre ancestry to a PC) are well thought out. --in terms of class variants, some of the wizards are decent, but the paladin (i.e. of any alignment) really shines. --the "character traits" (personal quirks added at generation, a la *Fallout*) and "character flaws" (taking penalties at generation to add bonus feats, a la White Wolf) are long overdue to this system; the "spelltouched feats" (adding event-specific magical abilities) are also fertile. --the "defense bonus" variant (a level-contingent statistic like attack bonus), "armor as damage reduction" (self-explanatory?), and "damage conversion" (armor changes lethal damage to non-lethal) are all great; the "variable modifiers" variant (instead of BAB +4, say, one would instead add d8 to the standard d20 roll) is also smart. --many of the magic variants are useful, such as "summon monster variants" (individualized or themed lists), "metamagic components" (such feats have costs in this case), "item familiars" (why not? there's tons of intelligent constructs otherwise), and "incantations" (complex magickes that can be cast by anyone). --the final section, about campaigns, really delivers; here, we get rules for "contacts" (a la White Wolf), "Reputation" (yeah, like in *Baldur's Gate*), "Honor" (which would seem to be self-explanatory), "Taint" (evil corrupts, after all), and "sanity" (yes, that nearly perfect stat from *Call of Cthulhu*). Holistically, the text displays the same sub-par attention to editing as other WotC releases, and the artwork varies considerably in quality (compare the "Paladin of Tyranny" on 53 to the gamer-geek group on 134, for instance). I tend to consider the rest of the text uninteresting for my purposes, though others will surely, and with good reason, find such items useful. And that diversity is precisely the value of the text overall. (It is fair to note in this connection that nothing is particularly badly done, though the "racial paragon classes" are a bit too ubermenschy for my political taste--the game already suffers from a tolkienesque proto-fascistic racialism as it stands; no need to make it even more arriere garde.) The text might be a bit pricey, however, if one ends up using merely one third of the rules contained herein. That said, I'd note that the rules for sanity alone justify the (reduced amazon.com) expense for me. 77 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not a bad rescource for the DM on the go,
By SCSIwuzzy - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Unearthed Arcana (Dungeons and Dragons v3.5 Supplement) (Dungeons & Dragons) (Hardcover)
I'll agree with a few other reviewers that the price can seem high, and much of the content is available elsewhere. However, if you're no longer a HS/university student long on time, short on money, I think the book is well worth it. With a personal life, career, family and home, I don't have the time I used to have, so having this nice little compilation of options (some are very similar to ones already in use by my group) is worth the $20some I spent on it. I'd rather spend my precious free time creating a good adventure for my players than on creating optional systems for everything, and that also goes for scouring the web and bookshelves for the tweaks and options in this one book. It's like going to Jiffy Lube; sure I can change my own oil, but for $20 I'll go across the street and hit the bank, get a coffee and otherwise enjoy my free time while they handle it :)I'm sure someone will flame me for being lazy or uncreative, but hey, my time, my money, my game. But if you're like me and struggle to find the time to do the big stuff (adventures, plots, maps, NPCs, backstory) as it is, this book is likely going to work for you. 15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Creative, interesting, far too brief, and the price has come down...,
By Marcus Roof "Anticitizen One" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Unearthed Arcana (Dungeons and Dragons v3.5 Supplement) (Dungeons & Dragons) (Hardcover)
- First: Don't buy at full price. Some Amazon marketplace sellers are selling this as low as $9. I was expecting disappointment based on the low-balled price, but I was wrong!
- Second: Don't confuse this with TSR AD&D 1st Ed Unearthed Arcana or Sword & Sorcery Arcana Unearthed. Both cool books. - Third: Don't read the Amazon description. It makes you think this book is all about strongholds for some reason... - A minor annoyance is that WOTC already have a DMG2 released and a Player's Handbook 2 planned, and the material herein would be better placed/organized into a larger 500+ page Player's Handbook and larger 500+ page DMG respectively or just merge all these things entirely. Monte Cook did it with a huge Arcana Evolved. Why can't WOTC do this? Why all the individual books (this one is barely 200+ pages)? It's stupid to flip through 100 different books to see all the different classes and races available, make 1 race book, 1 class book and so on...Everyone else is doing it (Moongoose, Green Ronin) but WOTC. I think Hasbro has enough money. - Its variants, house rules, and draws from a variety of sources and influences old and new as others have suggested. You have race variants (desert elf, aquatic gnome, etc. not terribly exciting), class variants (new paladins, etc., cool), Gestalt classes vs. multi-classes (nice), many "Bloodline" race-types (a succubus mates with a human creating a human with some demon bonuses - very interesting), Character traits and flaws, item familiars (very cool), insanity (which goes back to the original AD&D DMG 1st Ed), Rep and Honor (goes back to original AD&D Oriental Adventures 1st ED), Spell points instead of Spell memorization (fire and forget method) (many people use this spell pt house rule), the racial Paragon (sort of like a Prestige Race). On and on. Very neat stuff... Criticism that this book has contradictory rules or not-well-thought-out cohesiveness is missing the point. I like this book more than the regular DMG or PHB. |
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
