Last week's preview of the greenbond class gives a nice glimpse of a lot of Arcana Unearthed issues. First off, the greenbond is no druid. The similarities are there, but once you look closely, you see that they are fairly superficial. And yet, despite these differences, the greenbond might very well be the Arcana Unearthed class that is most similar to one of the 3rd Edition core classes. This book isn't just the Player's Handbook with the serial numbers rubbed off. Yet, it's not so different that you couldn't use these classes right along with the core classes.

You'll notice that the greenbond is very much a mage: lots of spells, bad base attack rolls, low Hit Dice. But wait, you might be thinking, it's a d6 HD -- it could be worse, right? Not in Arcana Unearthed. The lowest Hit Die used is the d6. See, even in the development of 3rd Edition, we realized that the d4 HD is almost unplayable. It's not a matter of balance, it's a matter of making it hard on the DM to devise encounters that allow the fighter to have 95 hp and the wizard only 23. One good fireball, might kill the 23 hp character, even if he makes his save. Ultimately, we kept the d4 HD for wizards and sorcerers because of game history. Plus we didn't want to be tempted to mess with rogue's d6 HD, thus starting a chain reaction through all classes' Hit Dice. We figured players could use the endurance spell as a fix for problems with low wizard hit points (that's why those ability-boosting spells have such long durations), so it would probably be okay. But as with so many things while designing this variant player's handbook, once I was free of the burden of "that's the way it's always been," I was able to get rid of d4 HD altogether.

The greenbond is, without a doubt, the best healer in the game. Not only does the class have access to all positive energy spells (all healing spells have the positive energy descriptor), but it has the infuse with life class ability serves as a handful of really good healing "doses" each day. However, every class that casts spells has access to some healing magic, and magisters have access to all of the spells -- thus they can cast any spell the greenbond can. This overlap ties into my goal of making every class viable but no class vital. It's bugged me for a long time that you pretty much have to have a cleric to have a workable D&D group (that's not an indictment of D&D -- I love D&D -- it's just a pet peeve). The cleric is vital. Although each class is unique and has important, useful abilities, no single one in Arcana Unearthed holds such a vital role, like healing, that you can't possibly play successfully without it.

You can see another example of this versatility in the greenbond's class skills. The class has a lot of class skills to choose from, even though it has only 2 skill points per level.

Lastly, take a look at the bond with the green ability. This is an example of something I referred to in an early Design Diary entry: putting more power back in the hands of the DM. Reading through the description of the power might raise a question or two, such as, "What is happening exactly when the land is 'being harmed'?" Such a lack of exacting detail goes against the 3rd Edition approach (and, apparently, even more the 3.5 approach). But not everyone needs their hand held. DMs must determine some things for themselves.

From a design point of view, this approach can be tough. Tough because the designer has to ask, "Is this fine without further detail, or I am just being lazy?" Sometimes, the designer's just lazy. When that happened to me in Arcana Unearthed, I filled in details, or gave examples, such as in the bond with the green ability. Other times, though, a rule is just fine as is. In such cases, the DM is left to determine some aspects of a very general, usually flavorful (rather than combat-oriented) ability. This means that how DMs use bond with the green is going to vary from campaign to campaign -- some will allow its use every other session, and some will use it once. For a character ability like sneak attack or cleave, that would be terrible. But for an ability like bond with the green, that's just fine.

Lastly, let me point out that another reason for powers like bond with the green is that they allow the PC to really link up with the campaign world, making them feel invested. At the same time, it provides the DM an instant plot hook to interpreted however he wishes.

We'll have more previews of Arcana Unearthed in coming weeks. Keep an eye out for them.

 

DESIGN DIARY PAST ENTRIES

* Spell Templates -- June 26, 2003
"This week I thought I'd discuss an idea that I'm really very happy with. The idea is spell templates..."

* Playtesting -- June 12, 2003
"Playtesting is extremely important to me. When we developed 3rd Edition, we did more playtesting than perhaps any other RPG product, ever...."

* High Magic -- May 29, 2003
"I referred to the Diamond Throne as a high-magic setting. I should clarify..."

* The Diamond Throne -- May 23, 2003
"So it's about time I start talking about the Diamond Throne. The Diamond Throne is a campaign setting for Arcana Unearthed -- the default setting, like Greyhawk for D&D, I suppose...."

* Death's Door -- May 8 , 2003
" I like the D&D death's door rules. I like that at 0 hp, you're still up and can take a limited action, but then you exhaust yourself...."

* Hero Points -- May 1, 2003
"A roleplaying campaign can be like putting up wallpaper...."

* Truenames -- April 18, 2003
"Truenames are common in many fantasy settings. I think I first became aware of the concept in Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy..."

* Go, Go, Go! -- April 10, 2003
"Short entry this time. I hate spells with 1 minute/level durations...."

* Ceremony -- April 3, 2003
"I think I've already mentioned that one of the goals I set for myself with Arcana Unearthed was to make things a little less generic...."

* Things That Rules Take Away -- March 21, 2003
"There are aspects of fantasy roleplaying that rules, inadvertently, can actually take away...."

* Still Talking Classes -- March 13, 2003
"I've saved some of the best classes for last. Let's talk about the runethane, the mage blade, and the witch...."

* More Classes -- February 27, 2003
"This time, I want to tell you about some of the other classes: akashics, magisters, and greenbonds...."

* Build a Better Fighter -- February 23, 2003
"The title this week is facetious. It really should be 'build a different fighter'...."

* The Magic Balancing Act -- February 13, 2003
"In Arcana Unearthed I'm introducing a new method of magic item pricing. First, I streamlined the item creation feats..."

* More Magic -- January 23, 2003
"This week, I thought I'd talk more about the new magic system in Arcana Unearthed."

* Magic -- January 17, 2003
"As a designer, magic in Arcana Unearthed posed a huge challenge. I knew that I wanted to ditch the Vancian system...."

* Design Decisions, Part Two -- December 24, 2002
"Here's a bit more discussion of some of the general issues I faced as I began designing Arcana Unearthed...."

* Design Decisions, Part One -- December 19, 2002
"Before jumping into another big area of Arcana Unearthed's design, like classes or the magic system, I thought I'd discuss some of the general issues I faced as a designer starting the book...."

* Arcana Unearthed Races -- December 5, 2002
"I started with the races. While I knew that the game needed humans as a basis, I wanted all the other races to be new. I didn't want to just create dwarf and elf analogs with different names...."