Okay, here's a run done and opinions on everything
Chapter one: Character Options
Here they have herioc merits and tragic flaws. THe interesting thing is they are tied to attributes. So, if you happen to have a low attribute you can get merits for it and at the same time if your stats are to high you get flaws. THe merits I found botring the flaws I found rich and fun. THere are also racial class modifiers that give a difference between classes depenedant on races. These are small things like a +1 reflex save for adroit feet or treat a charsma 2 points higher towards dwarves because of the their nice beard.
Chapter 2: Character classes
THere's the Dilettante, a prestige class that needs to have 4 levels of seperate classes and 20 skills with no more then 5 ranks in any. THey can gain almost any aclass ability from the other classes.
the elemtalist is pretty much what one would expect, the gallowglass is the ultimate in armor wearing fighters, the gemcaster is self explanitory, pit fighter is really cool and so much better then the Wizards version, sidestepper is a class the specializes in teleport like abilities it s great
then there are elite prestige classes. Basically they are tougher classes to get into requring 12 levels or higher.
arcane warrior is pretty basic, plant master is cool, rogue hunter is also cool, temperal mage is possible one of the best takes on temperal magic I've read, undead bane is also good but basic
Next are epic levels. XP progresssion slows down taking 30 thousand to go from 21st to 22nd for instance. ranks, feats, attributes bonuses progress like pre 20th level. THese only go up to 30th level so I feel they work very well since they don't have to scale to infinity and beyond. They only extend the core classes but do them like second edition high level book which I really liked. The one think they don't do that I would have liked is tenth level spells.
then come the truely alternate rules in Chapter 3: alternate combat rules
there are new rules for iniaitve, critical fumbles, complex fumbles, alternative combat rules like phased combat (it increases the uncertainity in battles), weapons speeds, armor damage, wound level system, detailed critical hits...
Chapter 4 is new arcane spellcasting systems
you have man based system, skill based system, spell criticals
Chapter 5 variant Magic
Aethercraft (magic through science) with a core class for it
Animism again with a core class
Geomancy (ley line magic) with core class
Soulcrafting "art of personality thrft and identity buglary" sounds really cool and of course has a core class
New spell lists for each of the core classes and new spells for the classes
Chapter 6: Castles and Keeps
THis is a really cool system that works communities like characters. They have specific feats they can take to enhance the towns, their own ability scores tro help define them, etc. Its a really cool idea and I wish I was running the type of game this could be used and meaningful.There's rules for the places reputation, figureing out its welath, governemnt, philosphies...its one of the most inovative systems I've seen.
So, in conclusion it has some great options and options I'm not so interested in (the combat stuff). I've yet to actually get to use any of it yet, it like just doesn't fit my character ofr my game at the moment.
