Illustrations by Stephen Shepherd

I absolutely love the introduction of exotic weapons into D&D. It's one of my favorite things about 3rd Edition. In Arcana Unearthed, I wanted to make sure that the exotic weapons were worth the feat required to use them.

Sibeccai kopesh and litorian warclub

But I found that very difficult. The thing about D&D is that the range of damage, critical threat ranges, and other factors isn't wide enough to allow a large variety of weapons. That's not necessarily a criticism, because of course some weapons are cool just for their appearance and flavor -- however, not everyone's going to want to spend a feat just for appearance and flavor. It occurred to me that if you got the benefit of being able to choose the superior weapons and the flavorful weapons with the same feat, people would be more likely to take the feat.

So what I did was divide exotic weapons into two categories: heavy and agile (with ranged weapons being a subset of agile). Some weapons are exotic because of their bulk and general unwieldiness, I reasoned, and some because they are so light or flexible, so that seemed a good distinction. Thus, in Arcana Unearthed there are only two feats for exotic weapons -- take Heavy Exotic Weapons and you gain the ability to use all the weapons in that category, from the sibeccai kopesh to the swordaxe and the litorian warclub. Agile Exotic Weapons gives you the ability to use battle claws and spikesticks as well as the litorian bola and shuriken.

The other reason for the change to feats is because Arcana Unearthed uses weapon templates (with masterwork being a familiar one). These templates can change a weapon into an exotic weapon. For example, a dire weapon is one that is covered in spines, hooks, and other wicked additions. In the hands of a normal warrior, it's terribly unwieldy and awkward, the curved spikes and things just getting in the way. In the hands of the trained warrior (someone with the Heavy Exotic Weapons feat), however, it deals even more damage.

Dire short sword and dire bastard sword

I like the exotic weapon concept so much I applied it to armor as well. Exotic armor simply requires special training to take advantage of all its capabilities. Some, for example, is articulated, so that lightweight plates on the armor shift slightly to help the wearer protect needed areas.

I also tried to make every type of armor -- or, to use the proper term, every armor harness -- a good choice. Since I didn't have D&D history to worry about, and I had already departed from historical fantasy considerably, I was able to make it desirable to wear chainmail again. (The chain hauberk, for example, offers a +5 armor bonus and +4 maximum Dexterity, for 250 gp. The breastplate offers +5 armor, +3 maximum Dexterity, for 200 gp. Both now have a place in the game, the chain hauberk a choice for those who have a good Dexterity score.)

Lastly, in my attempt to ensure that the guys who wear lots of heavy armor have some of the best Armor Classes in the game, I created suits of high-end, extremely expensive armor, like dragonscale armor, articulated plate, and the much coveted "definitive harness."

 

DESIGN DIARY PAST ENTRIES

* Greenbond Notes -- July 17, 2003
"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...."

* 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...."