Arcana Unearthed vs. Unearthed Arcana

[Palanan]

So, I'm wondering about the difference between these two books. I know and love UA, but I'm not too familiar with Arcana Unearthed and not sure what it's trying to be.

As a DM, I'm very guardedly open to third-party sources, and I'm wondering if Arcana Unearthed is worth looking through. I've seen a couple reviews on Amazon suggesting that AU is "D&D 3.25," something transitional between 3.0 and 3.5. Would the material in there be appropriate to include in a 3.5 campaign? Are the classes, feats, etc. reasonably balanced, underpowered, or just off playing Calvinball on their own?

[Jeraa]

Unearthed Arcana is a book of variant rules for 3.5 D&D.

Arcana Unearthed is an alternate Player's Handbook, designed for Monte Cooks Diamond Throne setting (but has been replaced by Arcana Evolved). Its a hybrid between 3.0 and 3.5 rules. Basically, it takes the normal PHB and throws it out the window. It wasn't meant to supplement it, but to replace it.

[Novawurmson]

It's worth noting that a good bit of Unearthed Arcana is free on the srd (http://www.d20srd.org/) under "Variant Rules."

[Jeraa]

Though from some reason, it does leave out the Level-Independant XP Rewards part, even though it is declared as Open Content. Other than that, and a few bloodlines, the rest of Unearthed Arcana is there.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Jeraa
Basically, [Arcana Unearthed] takes the normal PHB and throws it out the window. It wasn't meant to supplement it, but to replace it.

Okay, interesting.

Could individual classes, races, feats, etc. be imported without too much trouble? There's a class called the "greenbond," apparently, which is supposed to be some sort of alternate druid. Could this be dropped wholesale into a 3.5 campaign?

[Jeraa]

Greenbond is a spellcasters, and Arcana Unearthed has its own spellcasting system. So you would either have to also import the entire spellcasting system, or convert the Greenbond to work with 3.0/3.x spells (which would just be choosing its spell list. it still uses spell slots, just different spells).

Races work mostly as is, though some do have spell-like abilities that aren't found in 3.x. You would either have to change those to something else, or import the spells.

As for classes, you either have to convert them all to using 3.x spells, or import Arcana Uneartheds spell system.

The majority of feats are already in 3.x, and the ones specific to Arcana Unearthed should work just fine in 3.x.

Edit: And after further looking, Arcana Unearthed is not "3.25". Its 3.0, but with some homebrew material. I don't see anything specifically 3.5 in the rules, its all 3.0.

[Palanan]

Okay, thanks for the rundown; that's actually very helpful. Unfortunately, it sounds like using AU in my campaign would be a lot of work. :smallfrown:

On the other hand, this is the internet. Do you know if someone's already done a 3.5 update? At this point I'm more curious than anything.

[Amphetryon]

Okay, thanks for the rundown; that's actually very helpful. Unfortunately, it sounds like using AU in my campaign would be a lot of work. :smallfrown:

On the other hand, this is the internet. Do you know if someone's already done a 3.5 update? At this point I'm more curious than anything.

Arcana Evolved is the updated version, intended to be 3.5-rules compatible - though again, it's a replacement for the PHb, not a supplement to it.

[Manateee]

It's an alternative PHB, but it's not hard to shift stuff between AU and D&D. There are a couple skill list changes, and most spells are drawn from a unified list, but it's pretty easy to just tag D&D spells with descriptors or to specifically designate AU spells to spell lists.

There's still a problem in that AU material is really lackluster under D&D paradigms - most of the classes are riddled with dead levels, and many of the noncasters have expanded and scaling abilities, but they pale beside the non-core D&D alternatives.

There's some stuff that might be worth picking over though. One of my players ran a Ritual Warrior alongside a Swordsage and Shugenja in a level 5-15ish game, and it worked well. I'm not sure what else would be worth using though - the Magelord looks like a boring Eldritch Knight build turned into a base class and the Greenbond looks like a toned-down Druid, but it's all pretty dry TBH.