Complete Arcane

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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.

[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 (and later medium 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 a mage who studies & summons creatures beyond normal understanding, eventually becoming an Outsider.
• The Argent Savant is a mage who specializes in force spells.
• The Blood Magus, after being brought back from death, learns to evoke magic from the fluid that sustains their life.
• The Effigy Master masters the creation of magically animated constructs build in the form of other living creatures.
• The Elemental Savant focuses his studies on one of the four elements and its associated energy type.
• The Enlightened Fist combines magic with martial arts and development of the body.
• The Fate Spinner learns how to increase the probability of events in his favor.
• The Geometer is a master of runes, glyphes, sigils, and symbols.
• The Greenstar Adept is the master of the magic derived from green starmetal.
• 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.
• The Mage of the Arcane Order is a member of an academy and guild known as Arcane Order.
• The Master Transmogrifist specializes in spells that changes his form.
• The Mindbender focuses on charms and compulsions.
• The Seeker of the Song wields the power of primal music.
• The Sublime Cord uses bardic music as a stepping stone to deeper insights into the song of creation.
• The Suel Arcanamach carries on the old tradition of the long dead Suel Empire and merge spell casting and sword play.
• The Wayfarer Guide specializes in magical transportation.
• The Wild mage is a master of chaotic magic.

[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.