Arcana Unearthed

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

The above post brings up a minor point I'm finding increasingly annoying.

I don't understand why the Mage Blade has Cha as its spellcasting ability and the Witch goes with wisdom. The potential for abuse with the Monk, though the Monk spellcaster issue is always there, is just one more piece of straw.

It makes more sense to me to reverse the spellcasting abilities between those two classes and adjust their skill selections accordingly. As it is you just end up with sort of crippled characters.

The way I balance the spellcasters against each other is that everyone with the exception of the Magister and Greenbond are more or less the equivalents of Bards and other minor spellcasters. The Big two are a little limited, but they get a lot more flexibility and tend to have better class abilities.

And, of course, nothing's so nasty as a cleric in any system, but we're all ok with that.

The racial levels are something to watch out for, but pretty much only in terms of the sort of system mixing you would have to watch out for anyways. At the very least remember that a large Giant is going to have to spend a lot of time in extremely close quarters and is going to be insanely easy to spot.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

We're using an unfettered alongside regular D&D classes in my FR campaign and that's working well. I'm playing a magister with access to spells from AU, the Complete Book of Eldritch Might and Mystic Secrets which has been great fun. The flexibility of the magic system makes it very interesting. We've had no balance issues so far either.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Arkhandus]

Y'know Wombat, in Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed, any character can try finding or disarming a trap. They just need ranks in Disable Device and Search if they want to be any good at it, no different from a rogue. Monte just didn't make trap-finding the exclusive domain of any class in AU. Disable Device is a class skill for Akashics, Runethanes, and Iron Witches, and Search is a more common class skill.

 

[Khorod]

I run house-ruled 3x. I run house-ruled AU. I don't mix them. I see no reason too. While they can be used together, and were designed to, they are also different games and I use them as such.

My 3x games are for lower-magic stuff, spellcasting is generally minimally or not available to PCs.

I don't like to use more than 3-4 of the races in the same world. I particularly split up the Litorians and Sibeccai. I can accept dog people. I can accept cat people. I can't accept dog and cat people, particularly if they were at war or adventuring together.

 

[Stormborn]

Hearing peopel say they mix the two is interesting. I have never done it, but would think there are some things from AU that could cross over and be fine, a few of the classes or races, but I would think that running the two magic systems would be the most difficult part.

Has any one used a specifically AU adventure (there seem to be pleanty of those now) with DnD characters? If so how did it go and what changes did you make if any?

 

[PJ-Mason]

Well i got AE a couple days ago and its twice the coolness that AU was. Terriffic book. Flavor and roleplaying is packed into everything in the book. Very good.

I'll say right off that i was quite quick to bad mouth the Diamond Throne setting when it came out. In fact, i sold it off about a week after i got it. I thought it was as boring as it was bland.

That being said, they gave it new life in AE. New maps (expanded) and new setting material, as well as the return of the dragons has made the setting quite spicey!! I'm as impressed with the setting now in AE as i was underwhelmed with it before. I'm actually going to use it instead of the AU/palladium fantasy hybrid setting i was going to use.

Of course thats about 6,000 wasted words and maps i worked up for the campaign i was planning. Damn you Monte!! *shakes fist in air*

 

[Infernal Teddy]

Thanx guys, but that still hasn't answered my question about D&D Monsters in AU...

 

[Captain Tagon]

Thanx guys, but that still hasn't answered my question about D&D Monsters in AU...

AU/AE characters going against standard D&D monsters is no different that PHB characters going against standard D&D monsters. My experience, anyway....

Hope that helps

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Thanx guys, but that still hasn't answered my question about D&D Monsters in AU...

You might run into DR issues. (When an AU class or spell gives DR, it's usually a high number/+something.) This is not a problem if you're using 3.0 or if you use the 3.5 AU DR.

(Read that last bit again. ^^ You'll often see something like DR 25/+1 (15/magic)).

Alignment-based DR and maybe DR x/adamantine may cause problems too, but that's all I can think of.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

Hope that helps

Whooooops. Missed that, thanx!