AU - What's good to play?

[Jefe Bergenstein]

For magic goodness, you really cant go wrong with a mohj magister with mohj evolved levels. I've never liked the rune lord class myself. You have weak spell progression, that is supposedly made up in runes, but the runes just (by and large) bring you to what a magister of your level could do. So you're a guy with simple spells who in specific circumstances can do what a magister could do. Witch also suffers from this to a lesser degree. The mediocre witch powers dont justify the loss of higher level spells.

Human Greenbond with human evolved levels can be really great too. Three levels of +1 caster and bonus feat are hard to beat. The right templates can make you practically a magister with the benefit of being able to cast in armor.

I'm not a fan of the AE non-caster classes. The ritual warrior in particular struck me as weak. We use a blend of AE classes with fighters, rogues, barbarians and rangers thrown in.

 

[Nifft]

+ Akashic
+ Champion of Knowledge (cool RP, and very cool mechanical goodies)
+ Greenbond (with a lot of template-granting feats)
+ Mageblade
+ Magister (with a lot of tempate-granting feats)
+ Hawk Totem Warrior (ranger + turn into a bird at 4th level)
+ Unfettered
+ Warmain

IMHO, those are the cool classes.

Dracha racial + evolved levels: oh my juicy goodness. Take one level of Warmain (or something else that grants heavy armor & martial weapons).

Giant racial levels + eventually Giant Paragon PrC. ("High, I'm Huge.")

Human evolved levels! Loresong evolved levels! Mmm, delicious. A Loresong Magister 6 / Evolved Loresong 3 / PrC ++ would be awesome (take the Sprite feat after Loresong 3).

For some reason, I don't like the furry races. (The lizard races are cool, though, so it's probably just my anti-mammal racism showing.)

Anyway. There was a thread a little while back started by yours truly which had some good advice by a variety of people...
Cheers, -- N

 

[Nifft]

I'm not a fan of the AE non-caster classes. The ritual warrior in particular struck me as weak. We use a blend of AE classes with fighters, rogues, barbarians and rangers thrown in.

Ritual Warriors are great if you can take advantage of the feat and stat bonuses. Very few normal classes grant stat bonuses...

Cheers, -- N

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I had great fun playing a magister. The flexible magic system is one of the best things about Arcana Unearthed/Evolved.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Nebulous]

Well if you like spellcasters, AU/AE has one of the best d20 magic systems out there IMO. There is a ton of flexibility when playing any type of spellcaster. I'm currently playing a verrik magister and I love it. With heightening, diminishng, slot weaving/unravelling, and templates I have so many options. It's a lot of fun.

I also like Totem Warriors and Champions myself. Good fighter-type classes with built-in options for different types within the class itself.

Bingo. i'm also playing a verrik magister, and it rocks. The spell system is similar enough to fire and forget core D&D that it is instantly understandable, but it has enough variations so that it still feels very new. Add in the Spell Treasury, and you have so so many spells to choose from; possibly too many, as it can be overwhelming.

Actually, i like every class in AE better than most of the core classes.

 

[lukelightning]

I have Spell Treasury but so far I've stuck with core spells only. Magic can be a bit of a slow-down to the game, I've noticed, because while we've all memorized fireball and dimension door and magic missile, we're less familiar with sorcerous blast and carnivorous plant defense. (p.s. sorcerous blast is awesome)

My players do review the spells, of course, but with all the options they can sometimes take a bit longer to make a decision.

When I make a spellcasting opponent I plan out carefully the first few spells they cast and read-up ahead of time.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I'm not a fan of the AE non-caster classes. The ritual warrior in particular struck me as weak. We use a blend of AE classes with fighters, rogues, barbarians and rangers thrown in.

I've never played a ritual warrior myself. I agree that on paper they appear lacking, but they're like wizards or sorcerers in that way. No flashy class abilities to speak of, but they have the spells (in this case combat rituals) that give them the extra oomph and power they need. I'd love to play one, they look like a fun class. It's the spellcaster player's warrior. (Other than the mage blade, of course!)

The class that always bugged me was the Oathsworn. Great concept, but the execution is lacking. And they really got screwed in AE, which pushed their 20th level ability back to 25 and gave them almost nothing to compensate for it. Even considering all that I still think they're ok as written, just really lacking in the lower and higher levels.

 

[lukelightning]

The ritual warrior in my game is very effective. You have to be a bit more "tactical" and know when to use your combat rites, but it is awesome to be able to sneak attack when the opportunity arises, or do a special charge when the enemy is in the right spot.

Plus they get pretty good saves and combat rites and class abilities can help them resist things like stun and other conditions.

 

[Henry]

Every single race and class in that game is fun to play. Hands down.

My first choice would be the Greenbond or the Magister, because I love the magic system. If you want to be a hulking war machine, play a Giant Warmain. The Unfettered is one of the best archer or swashbuckler classes ever. The totem warriors offer a wide range of roles, with the wolverine Totem warrior being the most fun to me by far.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I've never played a ritual warrior myself. I agree that on paper they appear lacking, but they're like wizards or sorcerers in that way. No flashy class abilities to speak of, but they have the spells (in this case combat rituals) that give them the extra oomph and power they need. I'd love to play one, they look like a fun class. It's the spellcaster player's warrior. (Other than the mage blade, of course!)

My problem is how most of the rituals seem to ALMOST compensate for their 3/4 BAB, a few times per day. So a few times per day they get to be a weak warmain. Id considered bumping their BAB to full and fiddling from there, but on one cared enough about them to warrant me fixing them. I ran a few low level ones as adversaries, and they got smeared.