Complete Arcane

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Complete Arcane is a supplemental rulebook for the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. It expands upon and replaces an earlier soft-cover rulebook entitled Tome and Blood. It presents additional rules and advice for the creation and use of character classes which specialize in arcane (as opposed to divinely-inspired) magic. Arcane magic, within the framework of the Dungeons & Dragons game system, represents magic that is learned through research or inherent power. It also provides a catchall for anything that doesn't fit into Complete Adventurer, Complete Divine, Complete Warrior, or Complete Psionic.

Contents

[edit] New Classes

The Complete Arcane introduces three new base classes

[edit] Warlock

Closer to a sorcerer than a wizard, the Warlock has been given supernatural powers. Either he or his ancestors made a deal with a supernatural being. A warlock has an innate magical ability called the eldritch blast, a damaging spell-like ability which improves as he increases in level. Instead of spells, warlocks gain a limited number of invocations, spell-like abilities with a distinctively sinister flavour.

[edit] Warmage

Warmages take the concept of "magical artillery" to its extreme. They specialize in direct-damage spells and can wear light armour without penalty to their spellcasting. Though they cast spells like a sorcerer, they have a very limited list of spells they can cast.

[edit] Wu Jen

Wu jen are arcane spellcasters with a distinct Oriental flavour. Wu Jen specialize in the casting of elemental spells. The five elements of Wu Jen magic are wood, fire, water, earth, and metal.

[edit] Prestige Classes

Prestige classes are mainly updates from Tome & Blood.

  • The Acolyte of the skin: forges a pact with demons or devils through bonding of a skin of a fiend to his own. The acolye will eventually become an Outsider.
  • The Alienist is mage who studies & summons creatures beyond normal understanding, eventually becoming an Outsider.
  • The Mindbender focuses on charms and compulsions.
  • The Wild mage is a master of chaotic magic.
  • The Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil can call up barriers of prismatic power, gaining the ability to produce a different layer of prismatic wall each level.

[edit] Feats

Complete Arcane also introduces a number of metamagic feats and several others based on magic, including the Mage Slayer feat tree, which makes a character more dangerous to arcane casters.

[edit] Magic Items

Magic items include variant forms for potions and scrolls such as ceramic tiles that are broken to cause a spell effect instead of liquids that must be consumed, as well as spellbook materials for the discerning (or paranoid) wizard.

[edit] Campaigns

The last chapter of the book details how arcane magic can affect a campaign world, including the uses and abuses of Enchantment spells, flight, teleportation, and invisiblity, and how nonmagical people would react to bards, sorcerers, wizards, and warlocks.

Dungeons & Dragons Core Rule Books
Player's Handbook | Dungeon Master's Guide | Monster Manual
3.5 Dungeons & Dragons Supplemental Source Books
Book of Exalted Deeds | Cityscape | Complete Adventurer | Complete Arcane | Complete Divine | Complete Mage | Complete Psionic | Complete Warrior | Dragon Magic | Dungeon Master's Guide II | Expanded Psionics Handbook | Fiendish Codex I II | Frostburn | Heroes of Battle | Heroes of Horror | Libris Mortis | Lords of Madness | Magic of Incarnum | Monster Manual III IV | Planar Handbook | Player's Handbook II | Races of Destiny | Races of the Dragon | Races of Stone | Races of the Wild | Sandstorm | Spell Compendium | Stormwrack | Tome of Battle | Tome of Magic | Unearthed Arcana | Weapons of Legacy
3.0 Dungeons & Dragons Supplemental Source Books
Arms and Equipment Guide | Book of Challenges | Book of Vile Darkness | Defenders of the Faith | Deities and Demigods | Draconomicon | Enemies and Allies | Epic Level Handbook | Fiend Folio | Hero Builders Guidebook | Manual of the Planes | Masters of the Wild | Miniatures Handbook | Monster Manual II | Psionics Handbook | Savage Species | Song and Silence | Stronghold Builders Guidebook | Sword and Fist | Tome and Blood
3.0/3.5 Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Setting-Specific Source Books
Dragonlance: Dragonlance Campaign Setting • Eberron: Dragonmarked | Eberron Campaign Setting | Explorer's Handbook | Faiths of Eberron | Five Nations | Magic of Eberron | Player's Guide to Eberron | Races of Eberron | Secrets of Xen'drik | SharnForgotten Realms: Champions of Ruin | Champions of Valor | City of Splendors | Dragons of Faerûn | Faiths and Pantheons | Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting | Lords of Darkness | Lost Empires of Faerûn | Magic of Faerûn |Mysteries of the Moonsea | Player's Guide to Faerûn | Power of Faerûn | Races of Faerûn | Serpent Kingdoms | Shining South | Silver Marches | Unapproachable East | UnderdarkGhostwalk: GhostwalkGreyhawk: D&D Gazetteer | Living Greyhawk GazetteerOriental Adventures: Oriental Adventures
Other 3.0/3.5 Dungeons & Dragons Material
Dragon Compendium Vol. 1 | Dragon Magazine | Dungeon Magazine | 3E/3.5 adventure modules