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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition
Unearthed Arcana - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Tsr 2017
Includes spells, character classes, magic weapons, and other items used in playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Hardcover
First published August 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
July 29, 2012
Unearthed Arcana is a supplemental rule book to the 1st edition rules of the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game (RPG). Since it was penned by Gary Gygax, the book had the full authority of D&D's creator behind it. The rule changes and enhancements dip in and out of nearly every aspect of the game, from new armor types to spells and magic items heretofore unseen.
I've always had mixed feelings about Unearthed Arcana.
On one hand, it seemed to open the floodgates of the endless tinkering, options, and exceptions that--to me--started to erode the foundation of the game from a rules perspective and gave a rationlization to the kind of repeated commercialization that earned TSR, the publisher of D&D, the moniker T$R. Q3 profits looking weak? Sling out a Fighter's Compendium with a bunch of specialized rule sets and sub-classes. Who cares if a generic fighter, role-played to the hilt (ahem), could do the trick just as well.
On the other hand, 1st Ed. D&D always needed a facelift. There were inevitable loopholes and gaping inequities (demi-human level advancement comes to mind) that were in sore need of fixing. Not to mention, well...tinkering can be fun. When every dorky boy between 12 and 20 had memorized the complete list of magic items and the areas of effect for each spell in the Players Handbook, it was kind of nice to toss a curveball once in a while and watch the expressions on everyone's faces.
I suppose, despite my grumbling, Unearthed Arcana added more to the canon of D&D than it took away. And I'm glad Gary Gygax was the one to start the tinkering, if for no other reason than I think he did it best...and showed everyone else how to do it right.
I've always had mixed feelings about Unearthed Arcana.
On one hand, it seemed to open the floodgates of the endless tinkering, options, and exceptions that--to me--started to erode the foundation of the game from a rules perspective and gave a rationlization to the kind of repeated commercialization that earned TSR, the publisher of D&D, the moniker T$R. Q3 profits looking weak? Sling out a Fighter's Compendium with a bunch of specialized rule sets and sub-classes. Who cares if a generic fighter, role-played to the hilt (ahem), could do the trick just as well.
On the other hand, 1st Ed. D&D always needed a facelift. There were inevitable loopholes and gaping inequities (demi-human level advancement comes to mind) that were in sore need of fixing. Not to mention, well...tinkering can be fun. When every dorky boy between 12 and 20 had memorized the complete list of magic items and the areas of effect for each spell in the Players Handbook, it was kind of nice to toss a curveball once in a while and watch the expressions on everyone's faces.
I suppose, despite my grumbling, Unearthed Arcana added more to the canon of D&D than it took away. And I'm glad Gary Gygax was the one to start the tinkering, if for no other reason than I think he did it best...and showed everyone else how to do it right.
August 22, 2015
Great cover art by Easley. 1985: so excited to see this on the shelves. And again on the 2009 re-acquisition. Why would a grown man pay $7 for a used book full of obscure tables? Cheap thrills and nostalgia!
At the time, it was a much-needed injection of excitement into the D&D-verse. The price stung on a kid's budget, but the value was eventually squeezed out. I knew all the spells in this edition. This might have been the peak for me, play wise. After this, I moved on to other game systems.
Comeliness only muddied the Charisma waters and was quickly ignored.
Six elf types, three halfling types, three dwarf types--you can see how the later handbooks grew out of this, but it was a welcome clarification for our group.
The best part was the new character classes, most of which stuck in some fashion: Cavalier, Barbarian, Thief-Acrobat (first sanctioned Ninja prototype? Unless you count assassin.)
Polearms finally explained to everyone's satisfaction. Glave-guisarme anyone? Too bad you can only carry one!
At the time, it was a much-needed injection of excitement into the D&D-verse. The price stung on a kid's budget, but the value was eventually squeezed out. I knew all the spells in this edition. This might have been the peak for me, play wise. After this, I moved on to other game systems.
Comeliness only muddied the Charisma waters and was quickly ignored.
Six elf types, three halfling types, three dwarf types--you can see how the later handbooks grew out of this, but it was a welcome clarification for our group.
The best part was the new character classes, most of which stuck in some fashion: Cavalier, Barbarian, Thief-Acrobat (first sanctioned Ninja prototype? Unless you count assassin.)
Polearms finally explained to everyone's satisfaction. Glave-guisarme anyone? Too bad you can only carry one!
November 15, 2022
Sometimes the run-of-the-mill knowledge that everyone has access to is not enough. So here we get some nice obscure spells and such to torture, oops I mean, entertain your players with. Nice well written game reference. Recommended
July 23, 2015
Here I am out of the closet. I not only play D&D (that's Dungeons and Dragons) but I have been playing AD&D for over 30 years. In that time, I have played a number of characters of many races (Elf, half-elf, Hobbit, Dwarf and human) and many classes (mage, fighter, thief, cleric, druid) and enjoyed them all.
What I haven't done is progressed the way TSR would like me (or the fellow members of our gang) intended. We still play Version 1. Versions 2, 3 and 4 (at least) have come and gone. Version 1 still makes us happy. It's not overly complex and allows plenty of leeway for role-playing. One reason for that is the book currently on the table, Unearthed Arcana. It is both an explanation of some ambiguities and a compendium of additional material. I am told most of it previously appeared in Dungeons magazine.
It is a welcome supplement and, therefore, I give it a high rating. Now, I feel better for having said that, Marcus.
What I haven't done is progressed the way TSR would like me (or the fellow members of our gang) intended. We still play Version 1. Versions 2, 3 and 4 (at least) have come and gone. Version 1 still makes us happy. It's not overly complex and allows plenty of leeway for role-playing. One reason for that is the book currently on the table, Unearthed Arcana. It is both an explanation of some ambiguities and a compendium of additional material. I am told most of it previously appeared in Dungeons magazine.
It is a welcome supplement and, therefore, I give it a high rating. Now, I feel better for having said that, Marcus.
February 6, 2022
Not a cover to cover read but moved through it page by page. I had scoot in my youth but hadn’t seen it in forever. A friend was downsizing and gave it to me as a gift. A compendium of rules, with a few new character classes, spells, and equipment. The pole arm pages aren’t as big as we joked but there’s still a lot.
July 29, 2012
Many 'purists' at the time whined endlessly about this volume, but I thought it brought an added depth to the game. On the minus side, it paved the way for the ungodly array of supplements that have bedeviled the 2nd edition of the game, so I suppose it was something of a Pandora's box, after all.
July 21, 2012
This is by far my favorite 1st edition book as it introduced my all time favourite character class the Cavalier. I continued to use this in 2nd edition as I did not care for the Cavalier kit in the Complete Fighters Handbook.
April 7, 2013
Used this book so much it fell apart on me.
May 13, 2019
Double-specialization? Really?
May 14, 2020
This was a supplemental rules volume for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game (first edition), and as such was the last authored by the game’s creator before he was effectively ousted by his partners from the company. It consists mainly of slightly revised versions of rules that had been previously published in Dragon magazine, and so to someone like me, who already had a subscription to Dragon, didn’t seem worth the money at the time. Thus, I read it for the first time recently, having begun a bit of old-school gaming with friends in recent years.
The first and most noticeable difference between this and earlier AD&D rules volumes is the lack of art. Most pages are text-only, and even when an illustration does appear it tends to be very small (less than 1/8 page) and incidental. This is particularly disappointing in cases of articles which had been nicely illustrated in Dragon, and probably reflects the difficulties that TSR was having with copyright and artists at the time. Most of the illustrations that do appear are unsigned, and the lack of work by Erol Otus, David Sutherland and David Trampier (Tramp) gives the volume a different feel from the earlier rules books. We do get Dragon luminaries like Jeff Easley, Jim Rostoff, James Holloway and Roger Raupp (alas no Tom Wham or Larry Elmore), so it does have a bit of nostalgia value for fans of Dragon.
The text is divided into three sections, a Players Section, a Dungeon Masters Section, and several Appendices. The Players Section is the meatiest, and includes new character classes, new spells, a new ability (Comeliness), and several new weapons, as well as new rules on racial limitations, money, equipment, and armor, ad some minor adjustments to the class system. Probably the most useful parts are the new classes, which include the Barbarian, the Cavalier, and the Thief-Acrobat, and the new spells, which include the concept of Cantrips (now vastly expanded for newer editions) for the first time, and spells that allow magic users to armor themselves more effectively and clerics to, well, do more, with magic. The worst new addition was Comeliness, which simply muddied the waters of the least useful ability score, Charisma.
The Dungeon Masters Section has about ten pages of rules clarifications, followed by the meat of the matter: new magic items. The most significant of the rules material involves acquisition of spells by magic users and illusionists and their spell books. These rules are useful, and if they had been accompanied by rules for generating spell books found in treasure troves (which really should be the number one way m-u’s gain new spells), they would have been great. The new magic items vary from silly (Murynd’s Spoon) to interesting (the various anything items) to valuable (oil of fiery burning) to powerful (the Ultimate Solution). Happily, anything truly game-destroying has been avoided this time around.
The appendices are…a mixed bag. There are four of them. The first two give rules on weaponless and non-lethal combat which seem superfluous – simply adding a new set of complicated combat rules rather than adapting the existing system to a new circumstance. The third is a reprint of Roger Moore’s articles on the pantheons for the non-human PC races (dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, and orcs – because 1st ed let you play half-orc characters). These are great, but vastly reduced in value by not reproducing any of the accompanying artwork or the “point of view” articles that gave so much excellent insight into the cultures of these creatures. And then there’s the fourth article. This is a bizarrely obsessive attempt at clarifying the different types of pole arms used in medieval Europe, written by Gary Gygax. One gets the impression that it was intended for some pseudo-scholarly journal for wargaming nerds, and was rejected, thus he had nowhere else to print it. It adds absolutely nothing to D&D play and actually seems to imply that the D&D combat rules are inadequate for these weapons, despite the fact that about half of them are listed in the AD&D Players Handbook. Gygax’s obsessiveness on the subject is at least shown here, and that probably explains their original inclusion, but really, it’s probably the silliest thing TSR ever printed.
In all, I wouldn’t say my youthful games were missing that much for not purchasing this volume, but at least now I can find all of these articles in one place without having to dig through old issues of Dragon Magazine.
The first and most noticeable difference between this and earlier AD&D rules volumes is the lack of art. Most pages are text-only, and even when an illustration does appear it tends to be very small (less than 1/8 page) and incidental. This is particularly disappointing in cases of articles which had been nicely illustrated in Dragon, and probably reflects the difficulties that TSR was having with copyright and artists at the time. Most of the illustrations that do appear are unsigned, and the lack of work by Erol Otus, David Sutherland and David Trampier (Tramp) gives the volume a different feel from the earlier rules books. We do get Dragon luminaries like Jeff Easley, Jim Rostoff, James Holloway and Roger Raupp (alas no Tom Wham or Larry Elmore), so it does have a bit of nostalgia value for fans of Dragon.
The text is divided into three sections, a Players Section, a Dungeon Masters Section, and several Appendices. The Players Section is the meatiest, and includes new character classes, new spells, a new ability (Comeliness), and several new weapons, as well as new rules on racial limitations, money, equipment, and armor, ad some minor adjustments to the class system. Probably the most useful parts are the new classes, which include the Barbarian, the Cavalier, and the Thief-Acrobat, and the new spells, which include the concept of Cantrips (now vastly expanded for newer editions) for the first time, and spells that allow magic users to armor themselves more effectively and clerics to, well, do more, with magic. The worst new addition was Comeliness, which simply muddied the waters of the least useful ability score, Charisma.
The Dungeon Masters Section has about ten pages of rules clarifications, followed by the meat of the matter: new magic items. The most significant of the rules material involves acquisition of spells by magic users and illusionists and their spell books. These rules are useful, and if they had been accompanied by rules for generating spell books found in treasure troves (which really should be the number one way m-u’s gain new spells), they would have been great. The new magic items vary from silly (Murynd’s Spoon) to interesting (the various anything items) to valuable (oil of fiery burning) to powerful (the Ultimate Solution). Happily, anything truly game-destroying has been avoided this time around.
The appendices are…a mixed bag. There are four of them. The first two give rules on weaponless and non-lethal combat which seem superfluous – simply adding a new set of complicated combat rules rather than adapting the existing system to a new circumstance. The third is a reprint of Roger Moore’s articles on the pantheons for the non-human PC races (dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, and orcs – because 1st ed let you play half-orc characters). These are great, but vastly reduced in value by not reproducing any of the accompanying artwork or the “point of view” articles that gave so much excellent insight into the cultures of these creatures. And then there’s the fourth article. This is a bizarrely obsessive attempt at clarifying the different types of pole arms used in medieval Europe, written by Gary Gygax. One gets the impression that it was intended for some pseudo-scholarly journal for wargaming nerds, and was rejected, thus he had nowhere else to print it. It adds absolutely nothing to D&D play and actually seems to imply that the D&D combat rules are inadequate for these weapons, despite the fact that about half of them are listed in the AD&D Players Handbook. Gygax’s obsessiveness on the subject is at least shown here, and that probably explains their original inclusion, but really, it’s probably the silliest thing TSR ever printed.
In all, I wouldn’t say my youthful games were missing that much for not purchasing this volume, but at least now I can find all of these articles in one place without having to dig through old issues of Dragon Magazine.
December 31, 2024
Honestly, apart from having been written by Gygax and granting some insight on his view of the game, there is not much else to recommend this book to someone who began with 2nd Edition AD&D, as most, if not all of the issues addressed had been resolved in later editions pre-3E.
It is always interesting to see the attention to historical detail permeating these early editions of the game, though, such as the polearm diagram. This sort of grounding of the game in reality is sorely lacking nowadays, where characters are basically superheroes at birth.
It is always interesting to see the attention to historical detail permeating these early editions of the game, though, such as the polearm diagram. This sort of grounding of the game in reality is sorely lacking nowadays, where characters are basically superheroes at birth.
September 15, 2021
This compiled many of the improvements and additions to the game that had been published gradually in Dragon magazine over the years. Some were very useful, but others, like comeliness, for example, ended up being overkill. Added some nice new subclasses and subraces, though. Cantrips were in Vogue for a little while, but then died off in popularity.
October 17, 2021
Unearthed Arcana is the title shared by two hardcover books published for different editions of the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.
Unearthed Arcana (PDF-Online Reading-Download-Summary-Review): https://www.toevolution.com/blog/view...
Unearthed Arcana (PDF-Online Reading-Download-Summary-Review): https://www.toevolution.com/blog/view...
December 9, 2020
I've read this several times through as I play a campaign with James M Ward over on the SciFi Writers Playing Old School D&D. It's the roadmap to one heck of a good time!
https://www.twitch.tv/oldschooldnd
https://www.twitch.tv/oldschooldnd
July 23, 2017
Wonderful artifacts and magical items that would fill thousands of dungeons.
October 14, 2019
Shows the little things you can do in D&D.
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December 25, 20213 copies Midhurst plus 1 GG premium and 1 at farm
February 2, 2024
The best part of the book in my opinion is the last part of it when Gygax describes and illustrates the different pole arms and gives his own method of classifying and identifying the various ones.
August 27, 2024
Often referred to as V1.5, the most remembered portions are the rules on the first round of Psionics that I can recall and the addition of the seventh character attribute: Comeliness.
January 20, 2025
This was a rather rushed and unpolished formalization of many of the rules that had already been established as house rules for a lot of gamers back then.
And for those of us that were avid readers of The Dragon magazine, this didn't present anything new -- and only gave us a poorly bound book of material we already had in our campaigns.
For AD&D book completionists only.
And for those of us that were avid readers of The Dragon magazine, this didn't present anything new -- and only gave us a poorly bound book of material we already had in our campaigns.
For AD&D book completionists only.
September 25, 2019
This is my favorite rule supplement to AD&D. The new Elven races -- particularly the Drow -- are some of my favorite things in all the D&D universe. The Cavalier is my favorite class. The addition of specialization is a game changer. Highly recommended!
March 12, 2009
This is almost vital for anyone wanting to play any edition.
But I highly doubt you will find it!!! >XP
But I highly doubt you will find it!!! >XP
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April 11, 2010Unearthed Arcana (Official Advanced Dungeons and Dragons) by Gary Gygax (1985)
May 15, 2012
One of the last of the 1st edition books.
April 10, 2017
My friends and I played the hell out of this when we were younger.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews