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Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved: A Variant Player's Handbook
Get ready to evolve! This deluxe "Director's Cut" version of 3rd Edition codesigner Monte Cook's popular variant player's handbook offers you all the alternate rules, classes, races, and innovative subsystems of the original — and presents exciting new bonus material, including the dracha PC race, ritual warrior class, evolved versions of all races, new class abilities, 10th-level spells, combat rites, and high-level play with characters up to 25th level! Inside you'll also find a wealth of setting information from The Diamond Throne campaign sourcebook, updated to include the exciting return of the long-absent dragons to wrest the rule of their ancestral homeland from the noble giants. Use this variant player's handbook to supplement an existing game or as a complete rules system unto itself.
430 pages, Hardcover
First published February 28, 2005
28 people want to read
About the author
Monte Cook
211 books124 followers
The game designer
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 20, 2015
I have always been curious about the many role playing game supplement books that appear to be about Dungeons & Dragons but are not published by TSR or Wizards of the Coast. I finally picked this one up at a used book store because it was written by Monte Cook, who was one of the lead designers of the third edition of D&D. It turns out that back in 2000 Wizards of the Coast issued an Open Game License which allowed other publishers to publish materials specifically designed to supplement Dungeons & Dragons, under certain conditions.
Cook's book is halfway between an alternative players handbook and a campaign setting. Like a players handbook it includes new races, classes, spells, and such. It also sets up a setting called the Realm of the Diamond Throne with a rather detailed backstory. The Realm has some nods to the work of Stephen R. Donaldson, particularly with its giants which do not resemble traditional D&D giants. This borrowing from Fantasy authors is not surprising as old D&D drew heavily on Tolkien and to a leaser extent on Vance, Moorcock, Leiber, and Lovecraft.
I am sure the book would be very useful for GM's looking to supplement their campaigns with outside elements. Personally I only read these books for their entertainment value and I found this one quite interesting, especially the elaborate backstory of the giants and the dragons.
Cook's book is halfway between an alternative players handbook and a campaign setting. Like a players handbook it includes new races, classes, spells, and such. It also sets up a setting called the Realm of the Diamond Throne with a rather detailed backstory. The Realm has some nods to the work of Stephen R. Donaldson, particularly with its giants which do not resemble traditional D&D giants. This borrowing from Fantasy authors is not surprising as old D&D drew heavily on Tolkien and to a leaser extent on Vance, Moorcock, Leiber, and Lovecraft.
I am sure the book would be very useful for GM's looking to supplement their campaigns with outside elements. Personally I only read these books for their entertainment value and I found this one quite interesting, especially the elaborate backstory of the giants and the dragons.
September 13, 2023
Would definitely like to play sometime
July 6, 2013
This is easily my favorite variant Player's Handbook. The races are far from derivative, the class system is interesting in how it handles class game balance (hint: not all classes are equal in all situations - surprise!) and the depth of detail is really quite good. I usually prefer less detail to be honest, since I like to fill in the blanks myself. But I find that I really enjoy Monte Cook's style, so I can actually immerse myself in his worlds when I'm preparing a campaign for my players.
The artwork style and quality are top notch as far as I'm concerned, and the volume of actual, hard content is really quite outstanding. I think I paid $50 for my copy, and it's easily one of my most thumbed-through tomes in my personal library.
I can't say I've found a better variant handbook. If you like a setup that goes in a pretty non-standard direction with a significant chunk of the content, this is a great pick-up!
The artwork style and quality are top notch as far as I'm concerned, and the volume of actual, hard content is really quite outstanding. I think I paid $50 for my copy, and it's easily one of my most thumbed-through tomes in my personal library.
I can't say I've found a better variant handbook. If you like a setup that goes in a pretty non-standard direction with a significant chunk of the content, this is a great pick-up!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews