Malhavoc Press: Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed

Malhavoc Press

Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed Rules FAQ

Since the release of Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed, a few questions have come up more than once, suggesting that additional clarifications might be helpful. This Rules FAQ is a collection of these clarifications based on answers I've offered. Thanks to Soren K. Thustrup for compiling this! Use the links below to jump down to the section you need.

Races
Classes
Skills
Feats
Equipment
Spells
Playing the Game

Races

Why does a spryte's flight maneuverability jump all the way from average to perfect on getting their 3rd racial level? Shouldn't there be a progression to good somewhere in there?

Perfect allows sprytes to hover, which allows them to remain aloft in melee. The difference between good and perfect is minimal. Basically, the only difference between good and perfect is that perfect is easier to play. So I used perfect maneuverability rather than good.

Is the level 17-18 runechild power really mind stab? Seems a bit weak.

It should be psychic blast.

Classes

I'm hugely concerned that the akashic class might make it very, very difficult for a DM to come up with puzzles or mysteries without unfairly crippling the akashic's cool powers. Sure, it might be argued that "not everything is accessible to the akashic," but I don't want to be forced into having every single mystery or puzzle involve lost civilizations or artifacts too old for anyone to remember....

I wrote the akashic (and the spells) with these kinds of concerns in mind. I don't like spells and effects that ruin plots and adventures, whether it's "ask the god a question" or "find the path" type spells. (I've often said that find the path could be renamed "ruin the adventure".)

Many people say that a good DM can get around these things, and that's true, but one of the goals with Arcana Unearthed is to empower the DM, not restrict. But I digress...

You'll find that the akashic's abilities should not ruin mysteries but enhance them. If anything, the akashic's delve into the collective memory ability (specifically) is more limited than the bard's bardic knowledge.

Are there any plans to provide guidelines on how to create new focused devotions for champions? Maybe in a web supplement?

Not at this time. Eventually, diamondthrone.com might consider posting such material, should you come up with some good devotions you'd like to share.

Will we ever see "ex-class" sections for people like champions and oathsworn and the like?

Hmm. Maybe.

Greenbonds get access to all spells with a nature or positive energy descriptor. Does that include Exotic spells too?

They get ALL positive and plant spells, including exotic spells.

How often can the greenbond use its spiritform ability?

1/day.

What happens to a magister (especially a low-level magister) who loses his staff, but has the psionic template?

Caster level doesn't influence what spells you know or what spells you can cast. If a magically poor area has an effect of -1 caster level, spellcasters don't forget spells or start knowing fewer of them: Spells just come out as less effective.
This solves at least one part of this: You can't be made unable to cast spells simply because your caster level went down (although going down to caster level 0 will cause a number of spells to be quite worthless).

This doesn't solve the second part, but because the psionic template explicitly says to ignore focus requirements, a 1st-level magister sans staff casts psionic spells at caster level 1. The lack of focus applies to spells and checks as they are made, not retroactively. If I lose my staff, ongoing spells don't shrink in duration to match my new caster level.

So, when casting from the psionic template, you simply ignore the question: Do I have my staff, or do I need to apply -1 CL and x2 casting time?

If an oathsworn were forced to take a drug of some type, what would the effects be if he became addicted? Now, I don't remember if the effects of drugs count as being a poison or a disease, but if they don't, the oathsworn could be in for some big problems relying on this drug to get through the day....

Drugs usually count as poisons. Also, the point of the oathsworn isn't in finding loopholes in his requirements or specifically following the "letter of the law" when it comes to what he can and can't do. It's all about frame of mind and intent.

Does fast movement for oathsworn stack with flight speed for flying races? What about boots or spells that increase movement?

The intention was that it was just ground speed. A generous DM with a spryte oathsworn could allow it to be flight speed as well.

Is it possible for a runethane to swap out known runes later in her career? Let's say that at 15th level, one of her low-level runes just doesn't make sense for her anymore.

I'd let them use a ceremony like with swapping feats.

Is there a particular reason why runethanes don't get Search but magisters do? It seems incongruous to me that magisters can find traps well, while runethanes, who have tremendous attention to detail and potentially great skill at disarming traps, can't search for them well.

Assigning skills is difficult. I wanted to make sure that most classes got some kind of interaction skill, a perception skill, and so on. If you don't agree with my assignments, you can always switch them around a bit.

Can runes and/or their effects be dispelled with dispel magic, or is the erase rune class ability the only way to remove them? Are inscribed runes no more difficult to erase than regular runes?

Runes are spell-like, so they are subject to dispel magic.

Is there a range limit on erasing runes? A runethane needs to know a rune's location, but if he knows the location of one halfway across the planet, can he erase it?

Line of sight seems to make sense.

Imagine a runethane creating a rune to ward the door to his house before embarking on an adventure. During the adventure, that rune counts against the maximum number of runes he can have in existence. When he creates runes, he knows that the rune on his door exists, and that he can create fewer runes because of it. Then a thief breaks into his house and activates, dispels, or erases the rune on the door. Does the runethane feel that? Does he now know that he can now create at least one more rune? And does he automatically know that that rune in his house has been destroyed? Same question for the ultimate rune.

The answer to every question is "yes."

If a runethane wants to activate one of his touch-trigger runes, what kind of an action does it take?

Standard.

When using the ultimate rune to replicate the effects of a spell, does it use the spell's casting time and does the caster need special components listed in the spell description, or does the spell effect just go off when the rune is touched?

No to the casting time, but in regard to the special component, I'd probably deal with that on a case-by-case basis as a DM (as a general rule, probably not, but for some spells, it might make sense).

How often can the totem warrior ability strength of the bear be used, and what action type does it require? What type of action is it to activate ferocity of the bear and ferocity of the wolverine?

All are free actions. Strength of the bear can be used 1/day.

Is it really a standard action for a witch to dispel his witchblade? If he just drops it (a free action), it disappears.

It is always a free action for a witch to dispel his witchblade.

What are the ranges on the witchery word abilities supposed to be?

Close range.

Can a multiclassed magister/mage blade use a swordstaff as his bonded staff and his athame in one?

Yes.

A multiclass character, mage blade 1 / magister 19, may use his athame to cast a 9th-level complex spell with no somatic components (thus, wearing armor and not suffering spell failure chances), right?

No. If the question was regarding simple spells, the answer would be yes. Spellcasting classes stack, but magister levels -- because only they get complex spells -- are treated a little differently. You could play a 1st-level mage blade/19th-level magister, wear (light) armor, and cast only simple spells, but I'm not sure that's an optimal choice.

Skills

No entries yet.

Feats

If you were to undergo the Bond With Item ceremony, and your chosen item were your witchbag, would you then receive a +1 luck bonus to the save DCs for your spells, provided you used your witchbag while casting?

What if you bonded with your magister's staff? Technically, a staff is a weapon; however, a magister uses it primarily for spellcasting, as a focus component. Would the +1 apply to spellcasting or attack rolls? A mage blade's athame would probably only allow a +1 to attack rolls, would it be unbalancing to allow a PC to choose between an attack bonus or a DC bonus?

The witchbag idea isn't a bad one (it's not unbalancing to take a feat and get +1 to save DCs). The staff thing is stretching it, since the staff is primarily a weapon. It wouldn't be unbalancing to allow your idea, though. It would probably be unbalancing to allow the bonus to spells as well as attacks.

The usefulness of picking up an exotic spell seems to be very dependent on the level at which you take it. Would a character picking up an exotic spell ever consider taking a 2nd-level exotic spell when one of 3rd level was available?

If I understand your question, it's true that it's often unlikely that you'd take an exotic spell of anything less than the highest-level spell you can currently cast. So if you take it at 3rd, you're likely to get a 2nd-level spell, but if you take it at 6th, you'd probably go for a 3rd-level exotic spell.

However, that's not always the case. Most exotic spells offer functionality that exists nowhere else in the spell list. The best low-level AC spell, eldritch armor, is a 1st-level exotic spell. Want a good disguise spell? Sorcerous guise is the best one at 2nd level. You'll be happy to have either of those spells even when you're casting 7th-level spells.

Also note that at certain points in a character's career, he can perform a ceremony that allows him to "switch out" one feat for another feat. This is significant to this discussion because since exotic spells are gained through feats, you can switch out one exotic spell for another if you wish. So if you took the feat at 1st level and have a 1st-level spell, but now you're 10th level and you want a 5th-level spell (and are willing to give up the 1st) you can switch it.

Shouldn't the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat have a third option for ranged exotic weapons? The weapon tables and template descriptions seem to imply that they are a separate weapon type than the melee weapons.

It's lumped in with Agile Exotic Weapon Proficiency because there are fewer of those than Heavy.

Attack from within can be modified with the Modify Spell feat to affect twice the number of creatures. If I cast the heightened version of the spell, which causes it to affect everyone within 5 feet of the target, would that mean that the multiple targets would also take damage from each others' spells?

As a general d20/D&D rule, you don't take damage more than once from a single source (so the old "reflect the lightning bolt so it hits the guy twice" thing doesn't work).

Equipment

In the introduction section, a character's starting gold is given as 4d4 * 10 gp, but in the equipment section it is listed as 5d4 * 10 gp. Which is the correct value?

5d4x10 is correct.

I noticed that light hammers were listed in the equipment chapter, but no heavier hammers. I'm not complaining about this, exactly, but I'm curious as to why they didn't seem to be there. Is it for flavor, realism, or game balance reasons?

Hmm. Good question. It's true that I've never liked the aesthetic of carrying around a big hammer, but they might have just been edited from the list by mistake. It's easy enough to bring them in from D&D.

In the weapons table, the guisarme is not asterisked, but it is called a reach weapon in the text. I am assuming the asterisk is an omission.

The guisarme should have an asterisk. That's errata.

Is it a fair assumption that all reach weapons extend the wielder's reach such that he can make attacks 5' farther away than normal, but cannot attack foes with the weapon who come within his normal reach? The text only says that reach is extended 5', and the glaive is the only weapon (I believe) that explicitly states that it cannot be used against an adjacent foe. A recent discussion on the Arcana Unearthed Rules Forum on Monte Cook's message boards stipulated the idea that the heavy lance can be used to attack adjacent foes, and that seems plain silly to me.

Yes, the 5-foot range extension means that your reach starts 5 feet farther out than normal and ends 5 feet farther out than normal, making it impossible to attack those adjacent to you. That should have been clearer (like it is in the glaive description).
Both lances should have said, "treat as a weapon one size larger if used on foot." That's errata.

Is the omission of the "set against a charge" property of weapons intentional? It is alluded to in the description of the halberd, but never spelled out.

Page 153 says you can ready any piercing weapon against a charge, so there's no special note of it on the table.

On page 134, in Containers and Carriers, it says that the witchbag weighs .25 lbs. On page 136, in Class Tools and Skill Kits, it says that the witchbag weighs 3 lbs. What gives?

A full witchbag weighs 3 lbs.

Magic

What's the use for schools of magic in Arcana Unearthed?

Organization (detect magic can tell you the school, and thus a small clue as to an item's function). Mostly, though, it's for compatibility with d20.

How is death magic being handled in Arcana Unearthed?

There are no (or practically no) save or die spells in Arcana Unearthed. However, there might very well be some corner case of a spell that you can use that if a save is failed, the victim ends up dying.

Can you weave spells to create a slot higher then your highest level?

You can't weave anything to get a higher-level spell than you could normally cast.

A character with access to simple spells only (such as a mage blade or a runethane) takes the Energy Mage or the Elemental Mage feat. Can he cast complex spells such as energy blast or conjure energy creature?

Yes, but these spells will always be of the energy/elemental type of the feat chosen.

Can you apply the fire template to spells twice?

Nope. Remember that there's a general (albeit mostly unwritten) rule that says when in doubt, like effects can't stack. You can't charm someone twice to make them doubly charmed, for example.

Can a spell modified with the feat Modify Spell to affect twice the number of creatures be used with the war template to affect even more creatures?

Spells that can have their targets increased cannot affect areas as such, and spells with "Area" in the spell block can't have their targets increased.

How does the war template work with respect to touch spells? Usually you can only make one touch attack per round, but the war template enables you to affect 2 to 4 targets. Do you get multiple attacks for the round?

Used with touch attacks, the template "charges" the caster's hand to deliver one touch attack per round for as many rounds as the template affords multiple targets.

What is the tainted spell descriptor?

It is not a spell descriptor as such. It is a specific spell term that refers to individuals who have used a negative energy spell within a certain time period and who, as a consequence, have certain bonuses and penalties to specific skills. You'll find it on 171 special descriptor rules.

On page 172, first column, it is stated that if a caster knows the truename of his spell's target and the spell has a somatic component, then the target suffers a penalty to his saving throw. Is this supposed to be a verbal component?

It is indeed a verbal component.

I can't see how to create the basic stat boosting items. Ability boost and ability boost (lesser) have n/a as the cost of making items of that type. Additionally I note that you can't target the stat to boost with either of those spells.

Remember that Arcana Unearthed doesn't replace the DMG. Use the formulas found there for stat boosting items, deflection bonus AC items, armor bonus AC items, and all the standards (using Craft Constant Item rather than Craft Wondrous Item).

Spells

As far as I can tell, the only way for a spellcaster (even a magister) to create a new spell is to take the Unique Spell feat at 1st level. So, individual spellcasters only get to create ONE new spell, ever? That'll slow down magical innovation a bit, no? Am I missing something?

You and the DM should talk to each other about making those kinds of decisions. So, you could do it the hard way and take the feat, or do it another way, which could be more difficult or easier depending on what you and your DM come up with.

Isn't there a magical spell for low-level characters to create food and water?

No, there is no such spell. (There's a high-level spell that creates large amounts of food.) One of the underlying assumptions for Arcana Unearthed is that there isn't a spell to take care of every problem, particularly at low levels.

It appears there are no land-speed movement-enhancing spells in the core book. Is this part of the design philosophy? And as a related question, how much impact do you think the introduction of one would have on the flavor of the game?

I like making people fast because they're fast (the Fleet of Foot feat) not because they have the right spells. Overall, there are things--and this is certainly one of them--that I pulled back on in regard to spells. I don't like spellcasters showing up everyone in what is supposed to be the non-spellcaster's expertise.

Occasionally a nice DM (very occasionally, maybe even rarely) could include a book about a certain exotic spell at random. This makes it more likely some of those 0- to 5th-level exotic spells would actually be amongst a PC's list. It wouldn't be random treasure. There would be a reason it was there, after all. In fact it'd probably be part of a library in a place the PCs are raiding, or perhaps a well-guarded chest.

If I wanted to do that, I'd make it some kind of special one-time magic item that added an exotic spell into your repertoire and then count it as hefty treasure. Or here's an idea. An item that makes you switch out a specific complex spell that you know for a specific exotic spell, so you have to sacrifice something. That's kinda interesting.

The template for incorporeal undead, on page 232, mentions twice that such creatures assume the undead type, but no mention is made of the incorporeal subtype. Should the incorporeal subtype be applied to these creatures and if so, should the subtype be used as written in D&D, except for the different AC calculation in the Arcana Unearthed template?

Yes and yes.

Should a weapon under the animate weapon spell be treated exactly like it was being wielded by the caster? Attacks of opportunity with and against? Occupy a square? Threaten adjacent? Reach?

Yes, although I'd say reach only applies to a reach weapon.

One of my players runs a magister character and usually readies the conjure energy creature I spell. The question that has come up is what is a sonic energy creature? Does the fact that it is sonic make it invisible? Can you identify the location of the creature by sound?

A sonic dire rat is just like a dire rat in every way except for the bulleted list of changes listed in the spell description: DR, immune to sonics, it's a construct, and so on.

The spell defensive field is given a range of personal and a target of you, but its description implies that it could be cast on someone else. Can defensive field be cast on someone other than the caster?

It can't be cast on anyone else.

Shouldn't ride the lightning have a Reflex: Half save?

Yes.

Spell magnet's stat block says Range: Touch, description describes a ray effect requiring ranged touch. What's the correct range?

Correct range is Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels).

The spell list and the spell description differ for two spells: Stabilize soul (list says simple, spell description says complex) and tracer (list says complex, spell description says simple). Which are right?

Stabilize soul is simple, tracer is complex.

The 1st-level spell tear of pain is a curse, yet it does not require a truename. Thus, it cannot be removed by remove curse, which does require a truename. I guess Unbounds shouldn't be cursed forever... So how is this supposed to work?

Any curse without a truename descriptor should have a duration (1 day/level seems good here). That's too harsh for the Unbound (although it's harsh being an Unbound anyway).

Venomblade has no listed save. Surely that's a mistake?

You get a save versus the poison, as normal (the DC being equal to the spell's DC). But the spell has a range of personal and affects the caster's weapon. Neither the caster nor the weapon gets a save.

Playing the Game

Are the Arcana Unearthed classes supposed to be balanced with the core classes if they share the same XP table, or are the Arcana Unearthed classes only balanced with the core classes if each uses their own XP table (Arcana Unearthed's 1100, D&D's 1000)?

I'd make Arcana Unearthed classes use the Arcana Unearthed experience point table, and 3rd Edition classes their tables, although if you don't want the hassle of having two, it's not that big of a deal.

As playtests have shown, the power curve for level advancement of Arcana Unearthed is a bit steadier than in D&D. That is to say that Arcana Unearthed classes start out around where D&D classes do, and then through low levels get more powerful faster than D&D classes, but then don't skyrocket in power the way D&D classes do at the top end (particularly spellcasters).

I guess I could have tried to make the balance over levels follow the D&D curve, but that curve has more to do with game history than design intent. When starting from scratch, it seemed the wrong thing to do.

Having played a lot of Arcana Unearthed, I don't think that the difference is going to actually throw anyone's game out of whack (or I wouldn't have done it).

Does the balance in this game assume that you will have the same gold-piece value for equipment that D&D 3rd Edition does?

Yes.

Do the slightly increased XP requirements per level in Arcana Unearthed have much effect on party wealth? If it does, is the effect pretty consistent across the board, or does it accelerate or decelerate as the characters increase in level? Is the effect significant?

The effect is minimal. If you follow the charts in the DMG regarding encounters and wealth per encounter, at about 10th level, the party will have about one level higher amount of wealth (very roughly speaking). If you decrease the amount of treasure you give out in any given encounter by about 10% or so, there will be no change.

Are the NPC classes in the DMG the recommended NPC classes for Arcana Unearthed and The Diamond Throne or will we see alternates in The Diamond Throne?

The DMG NPC classes are available (but I'd think twice before using the adept in a straight Arcana Unearthed game). For one Arcana Unearthed look at the adept NPC, see www.diamondthrone.com.

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