I’ve been playing with Arcana Unleashed for the past month, and the latest Dungeons & Dragons gameplay expansion is exquisite. Easily the best released since the game’s Fifth Edition refresh in 2024, and this week might be the best time to grab this book if you haven’t already.
Arcana Unleashed serves up magic-focused gameplay options for both players and Dungeon Masters. There are brand new and refreshed subclasses for characters to be built around like the Vestige Warlock and Arcane Archer Fighter, spells that friends and foes alike can use to solve dungeons, manipulate social situations and command the battlefield from the front or back lines, and tips for building magical worlds and setting up an arcane adventure.
I’ve read Arcana Unleashed from cover-to-cover and have already started incorporating it into the campaign I’m running (both upcoming sessions, and ones I have planned for the future). Magic is my favorite aspect of this game, and this feels like a love letter to the mystical arts.
However the book is far too short — like a delicious cake you’re only allowed a sliver of, I’m desperate for more and left wishing WoTC had served a more generous helping. But this year’s early Amazon’s Big Deals sale has already seen it get a serious discount, and as we head into the holiday sales period proper it could get an even bigger price drop.
A light touch
A Gameplay Expansion is designed for both players and the DMs who run the games. If you’ve picked up previous D&D 5e expansions it feels like a successor to the popular Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything.
The first chapter of Arcana Unleashed is dedicated to subclasses characters can choose at level three — some new like the Vestiga Warlock, most returning options revised following the 2024 5e game reboot like the Fighter’s Arcane Archer, and the Necromancy, Enchantment, Conjuration, and Transmutation Wizard options that were left out of the 2024 Player’s Handbook (finally letting wannabe mages specialize in whichever of the eight schools of magic they most wish to).
I don’t believe you can judge a subclass by pure numbers — I firmly believe the ‘best’ option depends entirely on the individual campaign setting and the vibes expected by the playgroup — but generally the updates to the older classes seem solid, and the new options feel fun from both a gameplay and thematic point of view. A Warlock getting powers from a dying being of great power has so many story possibilities.
Moving into backgrounds and Arcana Unleashed’s feat options, I love how the new Origin Feats — some special feature your character starts the game with — provide mechanical and flavorful ways to create diversity in builds. Arcane Eloquence making a character better at Persuasion and Deception, without forcing them into a typically Charismatic class like Bard or Sorcerer, or Arcane Infiltrator letting you dodge as a bonus action like a Rogue without committing fully to that class.
There are new spells, items and magical creatures to utilize in games too, though I want to focus on the advice it gives for building magical worlds and creating factions your players could work with (or against) on their adventure.
These chapters go into solid detail about the needs and wants of these groups as well as how their allies might be rewarded, and the sorts of folks the factions would work against. They also offer up plenty of inspiration and things to consider in a magical world — like the development of technology, or the sorts of societies that might spring up.
For a more experienced DM these considerations would be second nature, but for newcomers — especially those new to creating a world from scratch — they provide the perfect level of assistance. You have got something to chew on, but no specific right or wrong answers, and plenty of space to be creative.
Even as a DM with a few years under my belt the book has been a helpful world building tool, and has already helped me conjure up a few new locations for my current on-going campaign.
I’ve loved everything Arcana Unleashed has had to offer up, but it’s not without its faults.
Sharing is caring
My first disappointment is the uneven distribution of new subclasses. I love that Wizards finally get updated rules for the remaining schools of magic not included in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, but this comes at the expense of Bards, Barbarians, Druids, Paladins, Rangers, Rogues, Warlocks and Sorcerers who get nothing.
Of course new subclasses with an intrinsic arcane nature would be perfect — giving players new options for characters from a world where everyone has some kind of magical ability. Though they don’t need to be new. The Barbarian’s Wild Magic subclass from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything could have been updated, as could the Druid’s Circle of Wildfire from the same book, or the Circle of the Shepherd from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything.
I’d maybe understand if this book focused on a hyper-specialized aspect of D&D. If it was say, pirate themed, I wouldn’t expect every class to suddenly be granted a swashbuckling speciality. But for something so intrinsic to this game as magic, and when there are so many still to be updated subclasses which could easily have been included here, it feels like such a let down that most of the games’ classes — including many spellcasters — are excluded.
These more expansive subclass options would also help to solve my other upset: the books feel too short.
At just 160 pages Arcana Unleashed feels kinda thin in my hands as I hold it. Meanwhile 5e expansions I keep comparing them to are longer — Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is 192 pages, as is Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, Strixhaven A Curriculum of Chaos is 224 pages, and Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is 256.
Short doesn’t necessarily mean bad, but 160 pages on an expansion dedicated to something so quintessential to D&D just isn’t enough. It hits especially hard when the cost is $49.99 / £41.99 / AU$69.99.
I do think Arcana Unleashed has more than enough going for it to be something folks should pick up — it feels like a true successor to the ‘of Everything’ books I’ve referenced throughout this piece, which were (and still are) some of the most essential 5e expansions — but I’d recommend you wait for a discount.
Be that a sale form a big retailer, or a discount offered by your local game store if Arcana Unleashed cost closer to $35 / £30 / AU$45 (or better yet, less) it’s an easy snap buy. SO keep an eye on it as we head into this year’s holiday sales.
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