ARCANA UNLEASHED Part 2 - Necromancer's Finally Get Nice Things

Four Wizards walk into Arcana Unleashed. One teleports around insisting that swapping places is exciting. One looks like somebody's tiefling dad going through a stage-magic phase. One brings an army of disposable skeletons specifically so he can blow them up. And the last one turns into a T-Rex and starts casting Disintegrate. Somehow, this is still a more functional party than most adventuring groups we've played in.

Welcome back to Arcana Unleashed, where today's lesson is simple: Wizards apparently needed more things to do.

Show Notes

Part Two of our Arcana Unleashed review is all Wizards, all the time, and Tyler finally gets his moment.

We start with the Conjurer, which continues its identity crisis between "master summoner" and "person who is really, really enthusiastic about Misty Step." Benign Transposition and its upgrades make teleportation useful, especially once Randall figures out how to combine swapping places with summoned monsters. But the real excitement comes later, when Durable Summons, Focused Conjuration, and Splintered Summons finally let the subclass lean into what everyone actually came here for: putting more creatures on the battlefield.

Then we meet the Enchanter, whose artwork immediately gets described as a middle-aged tiefling dad who took up stage magic during a midlife crisis. The subclass gets better social skills, a much more playable version of Hypnotic Gaze, and some frustratingly limited spell-twinning. Things improve considerably at higher levels, especially when Alter Memories turns magical manipulation into full-on fantasy Men in Black nonsense.

Necromancer is where things get wonderfully irresponsible. Undead familiars can finally contribute, Animate Dead gets stronger, summoned undead become tougher and hit harder, and eventually your disposable corpse army becomes a collection of walking necrotic grenades. Tyler tries repeatedly to explain the mathematical shortcomings of undead attack bonuses while Ash tries repeatedly to enjoy himself despite Tyler's best efforts.

Finally, the Transmuter arrives with the traditional Transmuter's Stone, some questionable attempts to make Alter Self exciting, and a substantially improved Empowered Transmutation. Things really come alive with Shapeshifter, which lets the Wizard Polymorph themselves while keeping their mental abilities and continuing to cast qualifying Transmutation spells.

Which leads to the discovery nobody knew they needed:

T-Rex. Casting. Disintegrate.

• Arcana Unleashed (affiliate link)

• Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall (affiliate link)

• Fizban's Treasure of Dragons (affiliate link)

• AmateurJack.com - Recovery

• Long Rest - Cozy D&D Business Sim

Key Takeaways

• Conjurer is much better when it remembers that people choosing Conjurer probably want to summon things, not just teleport slightly differently.
• Enchanter has some weak spots, but Instinctive Charm and Alter Memories offer genuinely fun tools for manipulation, infiltration, and absolutely horrifying roleplay possibilities.
• Necromancer may be the standout of the bunch. Stronger undead, useful familiars, better Animate Dead support, and exploding minions finally deliver the "commander of the dead" fantasy.
• Transmuter still has an unhealthy emotional attachment to its rock, but Empowered Transmutation and Shapeshifter give the subclass some genuinely exciting options.
• The most important rules discovery of the episode is that turning into a T-Rex apparently does not prevent you from solving problems with high-level Wizard magic.
• Tyler likes Wizards. Ash would like Tyler to stop explaining why the things Ash likes aren't as good as Ash thinks they are.

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Meet the Hosts

• Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.

• Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.

• Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.

Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.

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Tyler Kamstra

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Ash Ely

• Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
• BlueSky: @GravenAshes
• YouTube: @ashravenmedia
• https://ashelydm.com/
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Randall James

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• Amateurjack.com
• Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link)

Producer Dan

• @Lzr_illuminati