Arcana Evolved + D&D 3.x = ?

[Aus_Snow]

I'm just after some accounts of GMs' and players' experiences with mixing AE and D&D. Or for that matter, reasons for deciding not to mix certain elements.

In particular, what parts are/were mixed, and why those as opposed to others? I'd like to know, for example, how many people use both magic systems together, how many people use classes such as Fighter and Barbarian with those like Warmain and Unfettered (no, those are not parallels! - I know that). . . and so on. And the positive, negative or ambivalent reactions to, and criticisms of, these decisions to combine, or not combine, elements of each system 'package'.

 

[Erekose13]

The two systems work great together. You can even play a wizard and magister together without any worries. The one thing you want to make sure is that the wizard sticks to core metamagic and the magiser to AE metamagic type feats. In regards to that comparison they each have their own strengths; the wizard will have more powerful spells, but the magister far more versatility. Personally my current game features an elven mageblade along side the other more core D&D characters.

 

[JoeGKushner]

As a GM of one game, there was a magister and a mage in it. The mage specialized in summoning creature, the magister in blowing things up real well. I'd say that at mid levels the magister was doing a bit more but that the mage had more options due in part to a wider spell base.

In the game I'm currently running, there is a ritual warrior fighting alongside the group. Seems to be going pretty well.

My rule of thumb that's worked pretty well is that everything from AU/AE must remain using the rules from AU/AE and everything from D&D uses D&D.

 

[satori01]

The two systems work fine together, no different (and perhaps a bit easier) then if you had regular base classes and say classes from XPH or Magic of Incarnum.

On of the players in my game is a Unfettered 5/Paladin 5/ Knight of the Pale 2. She has feats from AE, Divine Feats, and regular PHB feats, and is a viable, cogent, and not overpowered character.

The Melee classes just add and extra dimension to fleshing out archetypes. They are fine to multi class with PHB classes, themselves or stand on their own.

Major decision you will have to make overall is what skill base will you use 3.0 or 3.5?(I use 3.5 and rolled in the AE skills like Intuit Direction into 3.5 survival for example), what type of DR will you use 3.0 or 3.5?(I use 3.5), Wether to use alignment,(I use Alignment), and Wether you should grant the bonus Talent/Soulname feat to all characters(general consensus is yes).
In all the decisions are ones you would make taking a standard 3.0 character and converting them to 3.5.

Magic is a bit trickier but not really. First thing is you want to decide if you want AE magic to be classified with an Arcance/ Divine split,(ie Magister: Arcane, Greenbond: Divine), or left w/o
that descriptor, like say Psionics.

After that it is pretty much cake, as most people have PHB magic using classes use PHB meta magical and magic influencing feats, and AE Magic using classes use AE Feats.

Again not very different than using XPH or Incarnum books from WOTC in terms of magic style intergration.

 

[satori01]

I do agree that a Magister can easily outshine a Wizard at the Mid Levels, say 5-7. Not only can a Magister use the wonderful Sorcerous blast, which is more versatile then Fireball, he or she can also use Greater Battle Healing and in effect become the best Nuker and Healer in the game at this point.

Once you start hitting the 12 level + I think the balance shifts a bit towards Wizards, as once you start getting 7th level spells as a Wizard the power level really ratchets up, while a Magisters spell list tends to have a more gradual curve.

Without the standards of Magic Missle, Shield, Disentergration, Circle of Death etc, a Magister player might feel a bit underpowered or lacking the breath of power spells that PHB classes have.

 

[Nebulous]

I made up five 5th level characters for a Conan one-shot i wanted to run. I used the Conan core book, AE, and Grim Tales. They all turned out very different, and of comparable power levels (although all were fighter types). I think a lot of stuff can be swapped between game books if the GM and player are keen to the repercussions.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I use the AE classes alongside the Core D&D classes as well as a few other from the Complete series, IK, and WoW and have had no problems. The one thing that I do is keep the spell lists and metamagic feats seperate. Beyond that, mix it up all you wish.

Kane

 

[ruleslawyer]

I mix and match rather than use parallel systems; however, I don't think that approach is for everyone, as it requires quite a bit of tweaking.

Basically, it's practically axiomatic that AE classes used with AE feats, spells, etc. will be balanced with D&D classes using core feats, spells, etc. However, I don't really like this from a campaign perspective for two reasons:

1) IMHO, less is more. Having so many fighter classes (fighter, ranger, barbarian, paladin, warmain, unfettered, and all umpteen variations of totem warrior) just seems "wasteful" to me, especially given the overlap between the warmain/unfettered and fighter, and totem warrior and ranger/barbarian. (That said, I now use Iron Heroes fighting classes, so there are EIGHT different fighting archetypes IMC now!) Likewise, while having the wizard, sorcerer, and magister all in one campaign may appeal to some DMs who will get mileage out of playing off different philosophical approaches to magic, I prefer having one primary arcane spellcaster and allowing customization through feats, templates, etc.

2) I feel that AE does some things flat-out better than D&D. I like the magister and its related features (spellcasting method, spell templates, metamagic, and spell list) much better than either the wizard or the sorcerer, and I'm happy to ditch the spells that AE throws out. (IMC, sorcerous blast also goes out the window; it's too easy a replacement for all the no-brainer combat spells in D&D.)

There you have it. Incidentally, my campaign, prior to the introduction of IH, used the following classes:

-Fighter
-Magister
-Rogue
-Ranger
-Cleric/Druid (both greenbond variants)
-Oathsworn (used 3.5 flurry, etc. rules)
-Bard (BoEM version)

The following were prestige classes (modified from original versions, of course):

-Unfettered
-Warmain
-Totem Warrior
-Paladin
-Mageblade

All classes used AE feats (general/ceremonial), spellcasting, templates, etc. The magister's HD dropped to d4 and he gained some spells from the D&D spell list (mainly from the FR books, since I play an FR campaign).

 

[Voadam]

I threw an unfettered as a noble fencer NPC BBEG in my D&D game and it went well.

I think they make better swashbucklers for D&D than the duelist prc or the Complete Warrior swashbuckler class.

I'm playing a giant with a racial level in giant in a greyhawk Age of worms level 1 pbp game and it seems fine. Changed the background so his parents were humans cursed by a hexblade while he was in the womb. Now he's a big guy who unnaturally speaks giant and is subtype giant.