Review: Arcane Power

Arcane Power

Following my positive experiences with Martial Power, I decided to pre-order Arcane Power, the new fourth-edition Dungeons & Dragons supplement that deals with additional options for the arcane classes:  bard, sorcerer, swordmage, warlock, and wizard.  Based on my initial reading, I feel pretty confident about saying that the Power line continues to display a pretty high standard of quality.  Class-based supplements have been pretty ubiquitous in D&D since the second edition, and their quality has varied, but like Martial Power, this book seems to fall toward the top of the heap.

Arcane Power is a 160-page book, and there’s a lot crammed into it; it felt a little longer than Martial Power to me, although it’s the same page count.  Physically, it seems similar to other fourth-edition hardcovers; its layout, binding, and so forth all seem decent.  Some people have reported problems with ink smudging in their 4e books; I’ve never experienced any such issues, but if you have, the ink and paper seem about the same to me, too, so that might be something to watch for.

Content is split up into five chapters by class, each of which covers new powers, builds, class features, and paragon paths for its respective class, and a sixth chapter including new feats, familiars, epic destinies, rituals, and a handful of magic items (tomes, for the new wizard build).

Bard: This chapter introduces the Bardic Virtue of Prescience, enabling the creation of bards who have the gift of prophecy — and the ability to grant an ally extra defense once per encounter.  Prescience’s associated secondary attribute is Wisdom, offering the same strengths as a “laser cleric” or “pretty paladin” build; it also tends to favor ranged weapons, as opposed to Valor’s melee or Cunning’s implements.  This new option adds to the bard’s already-impressive versatility.

Powers support the two virtues introduced in the Player’s Handbook 2 as well as the new one, with 4-6 new options available at most levels.  Of the new powers in the book, the bard’s may be the most interesting and complex.  That’s not to say that there aren’t a few straightforward options here… but there are also things like Sculpt Fate, a level 25 daily that attacks all enemies within a burst 2 area within 20 squares.  For each enemy hit, the bard rolls a d20; for the rest of the encounter, he can then force an enemy to use one of those rolls instead of the enemy’s actual attack roll or saving throw.  They spotted the most obvious exploit:  each roll can only be used once.  Still, that could be a very powerful effect, if used correctly.  The bard powers are filled with that sort of thing.  A clever player will probably find the class quite rewarding.

The bard paragon paths struck me as a bit bland, though competent enough.  The Cunning Prevaricator fits the time-honored trickster niche nicely, the Half-Elf Emissary further plays up the “face of the party” role half-elves seem to have inherited this edition, and the Karmic Singer is a neat sort of fate-manipulating class that suits the Prescient Bard very well, but the rest don’t seem terribly memorable.  I wouldn’t say they’re bad, but they don’t excite me.

Sorcerer: Sorcerers get two new spell sources:  Storm Magic and Cosmic Magic.  Storm Magic is exactly what it sounds like:  It draws from the power of storms, and has lots of effects involving thunder and lightning (along with some mist, wind, and cold effects).  Its secondary attribute is Dexterity, and its critical-hit bonus effect is a one-square push plus the ability for the sorcerer to fly a short distance — potentially interesting, tactically.

Cosmic Magic draws on the sun, moon, and stars, and the cycles of nature.  Unlike the other sorcerer spell sources, it’s a very steady, gradual, predictable, and generally non-chaotic power source.  Its secondary attribute is Strength, and it grants a secondary benefit based on the “phase” the sorcerer is in — sun, moon, or stars.  The sorcerer chooses a phase at the end of each short or extended rest, and changes phase automatically the first time he becomes bloodied during an encounter.  He can also choose to change after using a daily attack power (including any daily arcane attack, not just sorcerer powers).

I have to admit that I wasn’t a fan of the sorcerer in third edition, and I wasn’t terribly excited when I first heard of its new direction in fourth.  The class’s actual execution managed to impress me, though, and these additions push it up an extra notch on my list of favorite arcane classes.  I can see each of these options playing differently in game — yet each of them also feels as if they belong to the same character class.  A dragon sorcerer is not so different from a cosmic sorcerer that I have to wonder why the same class was chosen to encompass them, but it’s different enough to distinguish the two from each other… and also from the wild-magic sorcerer in the next town.  I like that.

Sorcerer paragon paths don’t have the blandness problem that the bard ones do; they’re pretty interesting thematically.  The trouble here is that some of them seem very close to the existing paths in the PHB2.  Essence Mage and Arcane Wellspring aren’t the same mechanically, but their concepts are identical.  Similarly, the new Dragon Guardian is almost the same concept as the old Dragonsoul Heir.  Granted, these are pretty common concepts for sorcerers, and the fluff is all up for rewrite anyway (and I do so extensively in my own games)… but I’d have liked to see something with a little bit more variation.  At least a different twist.

Swordmage: I don’t own the Forgotten Realms book in which swordmages appeared, so I have little to say about this class.  Its new feature is the Aegis of Ensnarement, which causes the swordmage’s marked target to be teleported to a spot adjacent to the swordmage if it attacks someone other than the swordmage.  Seems pretty useful for a defender.  The Ghost Blade paragon path seems pretty cool, although it also seems more striker-like than defender-like.

Warlock: The new warlock pact is the Vestige Pact, a pact with the remains of dead gods, nearly-forgotten entities, and that sort of thing.  I don’t know about the mechanics, but the concept is just cool beyond words.  I definitely want to play one of these.  The vestige pact is based on Constitution, with Intelligence (very) secondary.

Some of the new warlock powers grant extra effects to more than one pact.  For instance, the level 6 utility Life Siphon typically grants a +2 attack bonus to the warlock after an ally takes damage.  A dark pact warlock also regains hit points equual to his Charisma modifier, while an infernal pact warlock also gains temporary hp equal to twice his Charisma modifier.  There’s no way for a character to gain multiple pacts, as far as I’m aware; this is just a little extra bit of flavor to make these powers more versatile, which is a welcome change.

Warlocks have the reputation of being the least damaging striker (although they somewhat make up for that through their multitude of control and debuff effects).  I think for the most part this remains true, but the right choice of powers, combined with some of the new feats, should close the gap a good bit for players who are so inclined.  That’s good to see, although personally I appreciate the warlock more for its effects than its raw damage.

The warlock paragon paths may be the best of the bunch; they’re mostly pretty flavorful.  Many of them are limited to a specific pact, unfortunately, like the original PHB warlock paths.  Still, to some extent this is necessary — an infernal warlock plays quite differently from a fey warlock, and neither is really quite like a vestige warlock.  Entrancing Mystic — one of the few that doesn’t have a pact requirement — is my standout favorite, for the ease with which it models the ‘enchantress’ trope.  Master of the Starry Night and God Fragment are also pretty cool-looking.

Wizard: Wizards get three new implement options.  An orb wizard can now choose the Orb of Deception feature, which allows a wizard who misses a target with an illusion power to retarget the power against a different enemy nearby (with an attack roll bonus equal to his Charisma modifier).  Nice, and a very good choice, naturally, for the illusionist wizard, which is one of two new wizard builds presented in Arcane Power.

The bigger news here is the new implement:  the tome.  There are two options to choose from here, one for summoners (the other of those new builds) and one hat’s useful for everyone.  The Tome of Binding offers creatures summoned by one summoning power per encouunter a damage bonus equal to the wizard’s Constitution modifier.  The Tome of Readiness allows a wizard to ‘prepare’ a wizard encounter power of his level or lower that he doesn’t already know, and then substitute that spell for his usual spell once per encounter.  In effect, it gives the wizard an extra encounter power known, although he still can only cast the usual number.  The interesting thing is that, unlike the other implement options, the Tome of Readiness doesn’t increase a wizard’s power; instead, it increases his versatility.  A welcome addition to the wizard’s arsenal.

Designers for Wizards of the Coast have said in the past that the wizard is probably a little underpowered compared to the other PHB character classes, because they hadn’t entirely finalized the controller role before the wizard came along.  Even so, a well-played wizard could own the battlefield with the best of them, and the powers presented here are easily on-par with those druids or invokers got in the PHB2.  Some old friends make their 4e debuts, too:  Grease, Wall of Force, Fire Shield, Glitterdust, True Seeing, Globe of Invulnerability, and others.

Wizard paragon paths offer a couple of standouts.  My favorite is the Hermetic Saboteur, who specializes in setting up magical traps and strategems.  There’s also the Unseen Mage, who specializes in invisibility effects, and the Weaver of Chance, who adds a bit of wild magic to the wizard class (although, at least on a brief reading, it seems as though its mechanics might be weak — the ‘entropy pool’ will often be empty or at one point, over the long run).

Arcane Options: There’s a pretty good selection of feats here.  Small attack bonuses seem to be a bit more common than they previously were, but I don’t see anything really egregious.  Accursed Coordination is pretty strong, but only if there are two warlocks in the party, and it could be seen as correcting an unfair weakness in that case (the inability for a creature, say a Solo monster, to be affected by both warlocks’ curses).  Combat Virtuoso allows a bard to base attack rolls for multiclass powers (and the half-elf Dilettante feature) on Charisma instead of whatever they normally would be based on, but the damage doesn’t change, and bards are supposed to be good at dabbling.  Warlocks and wizards both get a bunch of ways to add damage, but their damage was relatively weak before, so this shouldn’t break anything.  There are feats that allow implements to score a critical on a 19-20 at epic levels, but weapons already had similar feats.

There’s some neat stuff here.  Eladrin arcanists can Twist the Arcane Fabric, and use their Fey Step to teleport an ally out of the area of effect of one of their powers right before it hits, which neatly addresses one of the drawbacks to being a wizard (and gives eladrin a much-deserved leg up).  Ephemeral Stride allows a warlock who has concealment from Shadow Walk to pass through an enemy’s space; he still draws opportunity attacks for doing so, but he’s treated as insubstantial against them.

Familiars are minion-style critters with an “invulnerable” passive mode and a vulnerable-but-granting-better-bonuses active mode.  A dozen options are presented, ranging from the classic cat and raven to the knowledgeable Book Imp or the impressive Dragonling (which I immediately envisioned as a pseudodragon).  There’s an owl option, too, possibly in a nod to Harry Potter.  Gaining a familiar costs a feat, and they can be further enhanced through additional feats.  A familiar can’t attack or flank, and most can’t manipulate objects, but they can scout for you, and each type has its own special tricks to add to your arsenal.  If “killed” they discorporate, and return after your next short or extended rest.  If you die, so do they, but they return to life when you do.  All in all, a pretty cool implementation of familiars that keeps most of the flavor, eliminates the “oh, by the way, you might die if someone steps on your toad” bit, and makes familiars useful without being necessary or overly complicated.  I like it.

We get nine epic destinies, which range in quality just like the paragon paths.  The archlich (a not-necessarily-evil, less-insane version of the standard lich), the Feyliege (an arcanist who’s won renown and standing in the Feywild through his exploits), and the Lord of Fate (an embodiment of balance in the cosmos) are all pretty interesting.  My pick for best is the unfortunately-named Parable, which sees the world not as real but as a story being told… and then influences the story.  I was kind of hoping that its features and powers would be more overtly fourth-wall-breaking, like its concept, but it mostly dwells on illusions instead.  Still, pretty nifty.

There are a half-dozen or so magic tomes (in addition to the generic brand).  An adequate variety; nothing really leaped out at me, although they’re interesting in that many of them “contain” daily powers the wizard can add to his spellbook.  This only further enhances the tome wizard’s versatility.

Next up are 20 or so rituals.  Some of these, I’ll never use.  (I’ve always found Fool’s Gold a problematic spell — sure, the gold doesn’t last, but creative players can do so very much with it in that short period of time.  Sure, they get hunted down later, but that much gold can buy a lot of security.)  Others are good to see; Imprisonment provides a great plot-device effect, History Revealed is a cool Legend Lore-style divination, Guards and Wards brings an old favorite of mine into 4e.  I still think rituals in general could use some love, and they’re not much more than an afterthought here, but it’s something.

Closing out the book is a page of arcane backgrounds similar to the backgrounds presented in the PHB2.  I guess they’re okay.  Nothing special, but they’ll be useful to the people who found the ones in the PHB2 useful.

Once again, there is no index.  Yes, I’m going to keep pointing this out in every review I do, because it just annoys me that much.

Price: $29.95 list; Amazon is offering it for $17.97, which seems like a pretty good deal.

The Verdict: Although some of the supporting material like paragon paths strike me as pretty lackluster, this is still a pretty solid book.  Its core purpose — expanding the options available for the five arcane classes — is fulfilled competently and, in some cases, with inspiring flair.  Most of the new builds feel as vital as anything included in the core rules — not like something the designers are stretching or scraping the bottom of the barrel for.  The feats, the powers, and the familiars are all pretty good.  In fact, I think this central aspect of the book’s mission is executed even better than Martial Power managed, and that’s saying something.  Martial Power did seem to have generally better paragon paths and epic destinies, though.

With Martial Power, I didn’t see any power creep; with Arcane Power, I do.  However, it’s mostly confined to those classes that were a little on the weak side before — the warlock and wizard.  I doubt it will prove game-breaking, but I feel I should mention it.  It also bears mentioning that Arcane Power is almost entirely a book of mechanics, with very little “fluff” to speak of.

I’d rate Arcane Power an 8/10 on first impression.  I’m favorably impressed and looking forward to using a lot of this content in my game.

Related posts:

1. Fox Magic: Arcane Feats
2. Review: Martial Power
3. Review: Divine Power
4. Review: Player’s Handbook 2
5. Quick Looks: Adventurer’s Vault, Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide