[D&D3.5] The best (and worst) bits of Unearthed Arcana?

[DigitalMage]

I have just purchased Unearthed Arcana and wondered what some of the optional house rules others have used and what you thought of them.

I am thinking of allows the Traits, Flaws and class variants (e.g. Cloistered Cleric, Urban Ranger) as well as Complex Skill Checks (aka Skill Challenges) and possibly the "Players make all the rolls".

I also noticed the spell touched feats which look interesting as well.

Anything I should watch out for?

[iconoplast]

Traits and Flaws - I have never seen these allowed in a game. Flaws may be balanced against feats like Toughness or Skill Focus, but the ability to load up on extra feats at 1st level is almost invariably worth way more than the flaws the player picks.

I really like the alternate classes. I love the specialist wizards. I also have seen the bloodline rules and alternate races in play a lot.

Item Familiars are pretty insanely unbalanced, on the other hand.

[Master Of Desaster]

As denoted in "http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=413040" flaws are something ...

If you use flaws you should make sure that all players take the same number. It's not for the sake balancing - it's for "same level abuseability".

Skill-related (only) flaws / twists are generally acceptable - just don't tell your players about that half-elf (or similar) "you are my friend"-bard at lvl2 getting somewhere around +25 to Diplomacy checks (+4 CHA, +5 ranks, +2 Half Elf, +2 Feat, +2 SF, +2 Twist, +8 synergies) with only a single flaw and a single twist (that's almost automatically preventing a hostile mob to kill your party).

[Mr. Teapot]

Gestalt rules are great, but only should be used in games where all PCs are gestalted.


Fractional BAB is also really good. It helps the Monk/cleric multiclass not suck, and means an Arcane Trickster's BAB won't fall behind a straight wizard's. I'd say all games should use Fractional BAB. Fractional saves are difficult to calculate, though, and could be simplified somewhat.


The class variants are generally good and not too far out of balance. I do question giving the wizard even more neat toys to play with, though. Wizards get enough new toys as is. Sorcerers, OTOH, get one questionable option in the entire book. I'd advise letting sorcerers take any of the wizard variants that require losing a familiar (or other cost a sorcerer could pay).

[Master Of Desaster]

Oh ... yes fractional Progressions. Really useful for multiclass characters.

Fractional safes aren't that hard - you have "low" progression at 1/3 rd class level (round down) and "good" progression at 1/2 class level. Each class that had a "good" safe before grants additional +2 to a safe.

I personally prefer this number game for unified fractional safes: 0.5 per level, a +2 class bonus ("good safe") and a +2 PrC bonus ("good PrC safe"). Well it bumps up bad safes a bit but all other fractions seem to be too much math for my liking.

Now just an insider joke: what does a sorcerer have to sacrifice but his familiar or life ? Ok, maybe spells per day ... (but then you go against the idea behind that class).

[Witness123]

Unearthed Arcana is my favorite WOTC supplement (and I don't like to many WOTC supplements). Here are my list of favorites (and, since the book some is not perfect, I'll also make some notes of things I liked, but don't feel were successful).

1. Environmental Race Variants: Depending upon the campaign setting, these can be useful or inspire ideas.

2. Class variants: I like the following:
- Cleric:cloistered cleric
- Fighter:Thug
- Monk Fighting Styles
- Ranger: urban ranger
- Rogue: Wilderness Rogue
- Sorcerer: Battle Sorcerer

Note: The bard variants are a decent start, but I think they need some additional tweaking of spell lists.

3. Othe Class Variants
- Barbarian:barbarian hunter
- Rogue: Martial (fighter feat) rogue,


4. Specialist Wizard Variant Abilities: These are mandatory for specialist wizards and close to how I wanted them to be handled rather than the default bonus spells each level. The only thing left, imo, is giving them specialized spell lists.

5. Spontaneous Divine Casting: I like that it means divine casters no longer have to pray for spells in the morning. However, when using this option, I prefer to use a specific list of spells useable by all divine casters (e.g., atonements, auguries, blessings, curses, planar ally) and then specific lists for each deity to reflect their domains.

6. Class Feature Variants
- Tracking- Urban Tracking (found under the Urban Ranger variant)
- Favored Enemy-Favored Environment: Used for some of the barbarian cultures and for rangers in my current campaign.

7. Generic Classes: Depending on what I am looking for, this is a good option. I just would have liked to have seen a couple of hybrid classes rather than relying on multiclassing.

8. Complex Skill Checks

9. Weapon Groups

10. Adventuring
- Action Points: They give the characters some protection from bad die rolls and the alternative uses.
- Massive Damage Thresholds: They allow to tailor the grittiness of the campaign.
- Death and Dying: I dislike negative Hit Points and I like what this option brings
- Combat facing
- Vitality and Wound Points: another alternative
- Armor as DR

Note the following are good ideas, but I think were mishandled or needed to be expanded:

- Class Defense Bonus: It should have been designed to work with Armor.

- Injury: I love this in Mutants and Masterminds and True20. The treatment here feels like it is missing something.

11. Magic
- Summon Monster variants
- Spell Points (with vitalizing option)
- Incantations

12. Campaigns
- Contacts
- Reputation
- Test Based Pre-Requistes
Note: Honor, Taint and Sanity look interesting

[Gloombunny]

I'm fond of spontaneous divine magic, but then, I hate spell memorization. I also like how it makes domain choice both more significant and more balanced for clerics. (Domains that only give spells already on the cleric list aren't so bad when you don't automatically get those spells anyway. And even the Healing domain lets you get healing spells a level earlier than other clerics.)

[Xenu's Paradox]

A note: Some gestalt builds actually benefit from NOT using fractional progressions.

[Particle_Man]

I like the barbarian variant: Whirling Frenzy.

I was interested in the "auto max out class skills, never take cross-class skills" simplification. Mind you, this was before Dungeonscape's Factotum character.

I kinda liked the "3 classes only" variant, except I think the Expert got screwed and believe that you could take it down to two classes, giving the expert skill advantages as extra feats to be taken.

[Mr. Teapot]

A note: Some gestalt builds actually benefit from NOT using fractional progressions.

Which is another argument in favor of fractional progressions. A Fighter 1/Wizard 19 // Sorceror 20 shouldn't have a BAB of +20, he should have a BAB that is very close to that of a Wizard 20// Sorcerer 20.

[Will]

Um. A Fighter 1/Wizard 19 // Sorcerer 20 doesn't have a BAB of +20. In fact, he has the same BAB as a Wiz 20/Sor 20 or just a plain Wizard 20.

Fighter 1/Wizard 19: BAB of +10
Sorcerer 20: BAB of +10.

Best BAB is used, so... BAB +10.

[Mr. Teapot]

Um. A Fighter 1/Wizard 19 // Sorcerer 20 doesn't have a BAB of +20. In fact, he has the same BAB as a Wiz 20/Sor 20 or just a plain Wizard 20.

Fighter 1/Wizard 19: BAB of +10
Sorcerer 20: BAB of +10.

Best BAB is used, so... BAB +10.

That's how it should be, but some make valid arguments (some of the text is ambiguous) that you check the BAB every level rather than for the character as a whole. If you check the higher BAB every level it goes like this:

Level 1: Fighter gets +1 BAB, so BAB = +1
Even levels after that: Wizard gets +1 BAB, so increase BAB by 1
Odd levels after that: Sorcerer gets +1 BAB, so increase BAB by 1.


And since this is the only way for a character to get a higher BAB under normal rules than they would under fractional progression, it seems to be what was being referred to. I think it's a stupid rules quirk at best and a cheap exploit if actually used, but that's part of why I say the fractional rule is better. It clears up problems like this.

[DigitalMage]

Thanks for the replies I will likely only allow one Trait and one Flaw at most per character.

I noticed Incantations in there too - are these any good?

[Master Of Desaster]

Thanks for the replies I will likely only allow one Trait and one Flaw at most per character.

I noticed Incantations in there too - are these any good?

The idea behind is great. It opens up "ritual magic".

I haven't used them but I will use ritual casting in a mini campaign in the near future.

The suggested set of used skills relies on knowledge(arcana), but I prefer a broader spread so that the nature of different classes can help (well unless you're a fighter :-( )

There are rules to make up your own incantations including usage of other skills (something I will definitively use to spread the casting job a bit).