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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Merlion" data-source="post: 1046193" data-attributes="member: 10397">Well I've got the book, and it met my expectations nicely. I havent read it cover to cover, focused mainly on races, classes and magic.  Like many others, all of the races didnt exactly get me super excited, but I really like the Faen and the Verrik.  The classes are wonderful. Mageblade, Witch, Runethane and Magister are particularly nice...also the Champion...probably the best holy/unholy warrior I've seen so far. The Unfettered fits the agile warrior perfectly. the Witch's witchery powers are fantastic...finaly a class with actual supernatural powers apart from just spells. and they can really make use of those various blade manifestations to since they have medium BAB. And the Mageblade, at last a single class for the archtype of the magic wielding warrior. About time <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" /> And I looove the Magister Aspects of Power. The glowing eyes, the booming voice, being able to know when your name is spoken or live without food or water by drawing sustence from magic. Great stuff. ANd not to sound repetative but..Runethane, finaly a good runic BASE CLASS. again about time.   The magic system itself is as wonderful as we all thought it would be, and the feats are amazing. In DnD spellcasters have very little choices for feats to actualy influence there magic...in essence, metamagic feats, spell focus, spell penetration. But the AU magic system itself includes many ways to alter spells, between heightning/diminishing, slot weaving, and the fact that there are many spells that can be cast in different ways. then add Modify Spell, and the various "mage" feats, and you've got some real flexibility.  Personaly, I was always a tad annoyed that DnD metamagic feats essentialy have level requirements to use them. Some of the feats in AU require an increase in spell level, but most require "ladening" (using an extra slot), which I prefer.  Now yes this book doesnt look quite as good as the WOTC stuff we are used to. Now this really doesnt matter much to me personaly...while I enjoy good artwork a great deal, the only thing that really enters into my decsion making process as far as RPG stuff is content. the quality of the materials is reasonbly good too...the book is layed out like most of the sword and sorcerery products, which does take a tad of getting used to.  Now the only thing I dont like about the magic(and till I have a chance to play it, I wont really know for sure) is that the overall power of spells does seem significantly reduced...in fact at first glance it seems like Monte might have gone just a tiny bit overboard. I mean virtualy every offensive spell is at least Complex. Of course many of thease things can be easily overcome with a feat or two. and I think the part about most of the attack spells being complex is mainly to give Magisters the role of best offensive caster.  It also just feels like a little bit is missing...there dont seem to be many enchantment or illusion spells, and I'm not totaly satisfied with the summoning.  However again thease things are based solely on reading through the book..wont really know till I get to play. and the taking of a few feats, and possibly the importing of a few DnD spells could easily patch the little holes I see.   Not really wild about the implied setting and racial interactions, but thats purely taste and easily done away with.      The fact that religion, aside from the Faen and there(in my opnion and to my taste) silly creating gods for everything and anything, isnt hardly touched on at all I'm not 100% happy with, but it is better in many ways than how polytheism based around a not always that great an alignment system is shoved down ones throat in DnD. I also miss alignment dependant spells and the like...if I was to run AU I would re institute alignment, but only with Good and Evil..and with things like Detect Evil not always totaly surefire.  The real trouble is going to be, once the day comes that I actualy get to play, deciding what to be. Mageblade, Magister and Witch are probably most likely...or Runethane.  The magic system isnt quite as cross compatible as we were given the impression it would be. I think that importanting an AU spellcaster into a DnD game and just having each type of caster use there native magic system would work...or if your willing to spend more time, conversion either way probably wouldnt be that hard. Plus there are some where it wouldnt really be needful..you dont need Magister and Wizard, or Warmain and Fighter(although Unfettered and fighter could work).   Me, I would like to eventualy see a campaign that merges the two in a deep way. Use whichever of the redundant classes is better, use the AU magic system but with a few DnD spells converted over.  Phew..ran a bit longer than I had planned, but those are my thoughts. Overall, I love it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" /></blockquote>

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