Did They Play Arcana Unearthed?

[hanez]

Arcana Evolved (or its predecessor arcana unearthed) is my absolute favorite system mechanically at least. The racial levels, the spell casting, the depth of all the classes, the oathsworn, and the way the champions or totem warriors work. Each class is LIGHT years more interesting then their D&D equivalents. Leveling sprytes or giants... just WOW.

I would say its only drawback is that its fluff is so different, no dwarves, or elves instead we have dog and cat races that my players dont want to play. If I could see much of its content ported over to traditional D&D fluff it would be my system of choice.



I was surprised when 4e didn't follow its path, I was MORE surprised when pathfinder didn't as well.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

What I loved about it was not the mechanics. They were great to be sure, but if Classic D&D has a fair Tokien vibe (Halflings, that style dwarves, nearly immortal elves etc) then AU was the Covenant books reskinned.

Warmain, Runethain as class names. Very Covenant.
Giants around - Covenant.

The Oathsworn are obviously the Bloodguard (a group that swore an oath that meant they didn't eat, age, sleep - and in addition were unarmed combatants.)


Just the very different vibe really sold me on.

The fantastic rules were just cake.

 

[Andor]

There is a lot to like in Arcana Unearthed, I particularly like the magic system. The classes and races are excellent, although on paper there look to be some real balance issues between the various martial types. I'd have to get a chance to play to know for sure though.

The only thing about it I don't like is Monte's apparently pathological fascination with 1 per day (or week!) powers, which I loathe, but I already made a thread about that.

 

[Obryn]

I loved, loved, loved the setting. I ran an Arcana Evolved game for somewhere around 2 years... We made it to 14th level or so, and it just kind of fell apart under its own weight.

Initially, I loved the magic system. And there's a lot to love about it - it was innovative, flexible, and unified. The claim was that it was a lot more "balanced" than the 3.5 system. I found that ... not to be the case. Between the greenbond and the magister in my group, everything was demolished by spells.

It was the feats that were the biggest problem, IMO. The biggest offenders were the Runic template, the Acid template, and the ... lightning one, I believe.

But the spellcasting system itself was a pretty major offender, too. The combination of flexibility and spammability was just too deadly. Putting a superpowered, spammable, long-range flexible-element fireball into the hands of characters who (1) had super-high intelligence and high spell saves, or (2) the potential of flight ... just basically nuked all the challenges.

It was too bad, too. I found the whole damn thing amazingly flavorful, and it still ranks among my favorite systems to a large extent.

-O

 

[satori01]

But the spellcasting system itself was a pretty major offender, too. The combination of flexibility and spammability was just too deadly. Putting a superpowered, spammable, long-range flexible-element fireball into the hands of characters who (1) had super-high intelligence and high spell saves, or (2) the potential of flight ... just basically nuked all the challenges.


-O

Any system that allows for players setting the "Power Level" of their effects, be it Power Points for Psionics or the AU system does allow some Nova like play choices.