Ah, Unearthed Arcana (1985). If Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was your dad’s well organized briefcase, Unearthed Arcana was the pocket dimension hidden inside it containing an interdimensional blacksmith, a unicorn wizard, and a suspiciously stylish barbarian. Published in 1985, this chunky hardcover supplement for 1st Edition AD&D was Gary Gygax’s attempt to bring a slew of new, often previously Dragon Magazine bound material into the official canon because apparently, the original Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide weren’t complicated enough.

So let’s unsheathe our broadswords, roll a d20 for comprehension, and dive into this deliciously messy addition to the AD&D legacy.

What Exactly Is Unearthed Arcana?

In short: it’s a supplement. But not just any supplement. It was billed as the official book to bring several beloved (and occasionally broken) Dragon Magazine articles into hardcover glory, much of it written by Gary Gygax himself. It offered new classes, races, spells, magic items, and rule tweaks essentially a glorified kitchen sink of game content. This was Gygax’s way of consolidating house rules and optional material he deemed worthy of inclusion before TSR exploded like a delayed fireball in a 10×10 room.

Think of it as the B sides and rarities album of AD&D, except the B sides might just ruin your campaign balance.

A Word on Timing (and Business Shenanigans)

To really understand Unearthed Arcana, we have to put on our retro-futuristic glasses and peer back into the D&D multiverse of the mid 1980s. Gygax had recently returned to TSR from his Hollywood sojourn where he’d been developing the D&D cartoon and plotting world domination via Saturday morning TV. Back in the Midwest, TSR was a mess financially, managerially, and probably emotionally. So Gygax came back and decided to reclaim the company throne by proving he still had the designer chops to wow the masses.

Unearthed Arcana was published in 1985, just months before Gygax was ousted from TSR entirely in what can only be described as a corporate Game of Thrones, minus dragons but with plenty of lawyers.

It was one of Gygax’s final major contributions to the official D&D line before his exile, and that gives the book a strangely bittersweet legacy. It’s equal parts innovation and indulgence brimming with ideas, some genius, some questionable, many with hilariously unintended consequences.

The New Classes: A Mixed Bag of Glory and Chaos

Let’s talk about the meat and mead of Unearthed Arcana: the classes. This is where things get interesting, and by “interesting,” I mean “hold onto your DM screen, it’s about to get wild.”

The Cavalier
A mounted combat expert who specializes in chivalry, noble deeds, and absolute mayhem. Cavaliers were expected to adhere to a strict code of conduct which is cute until you realize the code makes paladins look like reckless party animals. They get ridiculous stat bonuses, immunity to fear, and (if they survive long enough) a unicorn as a mount. Balance? What’s that?

The Barbarian
A beefcake with trust issues. Barbarians are mistrustful of magic, which in theory is thematic, but in practice turns them into a walking contradiction: they can’t use magic items, they hate spellcasters, and they scream “CONAN” every time they swing a sword (well, not officially, but spiritually). On the upside, their hit points are through the roof, and they can break things just by glaring at them.

The Thief Acrobat
This was clearly an effort to make thieves cooler, or maybe just more Olympic. The thief-acrobat can do flips, jumps, tightrope walking, and climb things like a caffeinated squirrel. It’s a strangely specific class that screams “I read Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and want to parkour now.”

The Magic Specialist
This isn’t a new class per se, but it gave magic users the chance to specialize in specific schools of magic like illusion, evocation, or necromancy. The benefit? Bonus spells and increased potency. The downside? You’re not allowed to touch certain other types of spells. It added flavourful variety to the magic system and made school rivalries feel like a Hogwarts AU.

Racial Options: Now With 20% More Half Elves!

The book also expanded racial options, though not always gracefully. There were some real doozies here:

The Drow
Yes, that Drow. Before Drizzt Do’Urden made them cool, Gygax opened the door to playing these dark skinned, underground elves with superior abilities and tragic backstories. And boy, did players jump at the chance. Because nothing screams “balanced gameplay” like a race that’s immune to charm and can cast darkness at will.

Svirfneblin
Say it three times fast. These deep gnomes lived underground, had innate magic resistance, and were basically the hard mode of gnomehood. Rarely picked, often admired from a distance.

Duergar
Evil dwarves. Because obviously what D&D needed was more grumpy short guys with grudges and the ability to become invisible at will.

All of these choices were intriguing, but problematic for balance. When one player is a regular halfling thief and another is a Drow cavalier with a war unicorn and infrared vision, your DM may have to start drinking between sessions.

Weapon Specialization: Now With Added Min-Maxing!

Unearthed Arcana introduced weapon specialization rules, which in many ways foreshadowed the power-gamer arms race of the 3rd Edition and beyond. Fighters could now specialize in a weapon to gain bonuses to attack rolls, damage, and more. It was exciting at the time, but it turned fighters into surgical killing machines compared to their less optimized peers.

Imagine your longsword wielding fighter dealing 1d8+5 damage three times a round while the poor cleric is still trying to remember how turn undead works. It felt like a glimpse into the future one where optimization ruled, and balance limped quietly into the night.

Magic Spells: We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Spellbook

The spell section of Unearthed Arcana is a veritable buffet of new options. For wizards and clerics, it was like Christmas, except Santa brought a spell that could literally disintegrate your enemies.

Some notable entries:

• Abjure: A cleric spell that forcibly banishes extraplanar creatures. Great for demons. Bad for DMs who wanted their demons to last more than one round.
• Sword: A Bigby’s style spell that conjures a floating, magical sword. Because clearly, what wizards needed was more ways to fight like fighters.
• Whirlwind: Conjures a tornado that flings enemies around like socks in a dryer. Fun, chaotic, and capable of wiping out a goblin warband in one turn if your DM is a softie.

Also, illusionists got some love here, with new spells that finally made them feel like more than just walking Phantasmal Force machines.

Magic Items: Overpowered, Underpriced, and Overused

In traditional D&D fashion, Unearthed Arcana brought a slew of shiny new magic items to the table, many of them dangerously potent. Among the most infamous:

• Rod of Smiting: For those times when your enemies really, really needed a smite.
• Horn of Valhalla: Summon ghostly warriors to do your bidding. What could go wrong?
• Bracers of Blinding Strike: Because who doesn’t want permanent extra attacks and a speed boost?

DMs had to choose carefully what to allow into their campaigns, lest they accidentally turn a low magic dungeon crawl into an anime battle sequence.

The Binding: When Books Go to Die

We can’t talk about Unearthed Arcana without addressing the elephant in the bookshelf: the notorious binding.

TSR’s choice of glue and paper for the first print run was, to put it mildly, not ideal. Pages fell out. Spines cracked. Entire chapters spontaneously vacated their housing like disgruntled tenants. Many a gamer has a copy held together with tape, rubber bands, or pure spite. Later printings tried to fix this, but the damage was done.

To this day, collectors eye Unearthed Arcana copies with suspicion especially first editions. Finding one with intact pages is rarer than a chaotic good Drow.

Legacy and Controversy: The Supplement That Wouldn’t Die

Despite its issues, Unearthed Arcana left a permanent footprint in D&D history. Some players swore by it. Others swore at it. It introduced ideas that would be refined in later editions like weapon specialization, magic schools, and expanded races. And it helped set the stage for the mechanical overhauls that came with 2nd Edition in 1989.

Over the years, the Unearthed Arcana name would be revived several times, most notably in 2004 for 3.5e and more recently as a series of online playtest material for 5e. In every case, it retained its original flavor: experimental, occasionally brilliant, often unbalanced, and always intriguing.

Final Thoughts: Brilliant Chaos in Hardcover Form

Unearthed Arcana (1985) is the kind of supplement that gives your game either wings or migraines, depending on your temperament as a Dungeon Master. It’s a wild ride, a chaotic joy, and a farewell letter from Gygax to the world of official D&D design.

Yes, it broke things. Yes, it power-crept harder than a caffeinated munchkin. And yes, it featured the infamous Cavalier Barbarian Drow Weapon Specialist combo that haunts forums to this day.

But it was also a genuine attempt to make the game bigger, better, and weirder. And for that, we salute it.

Just maybe use a PDF instead. Your binding will thank you.