Monte's newest Arcana Unearthed Design Diary

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

The possibilities open to a Akashic in terms of using other people's memories strike me as very Bardic, but I would think that the Witches song and word manifestations also go a long way. Totem Warriors and Champions might also have abilities that mesh with the bard concept.

Relooking at the design diaries I am actually just as excited about the races than anything else right now. Working to speculate on which races pick up which favored class or if he is even using that concept.

The number of races, all except for human, who can take levels in their race really opens up a lot of new possibilities in terms of our discussion of classes.

Perhaps the real way to approach a true sneaky or bard archetype is actually a combination of classes and race.

From the descriptions it strikes me that a Sibeccai Unfettered would actually be more rogue than a true rogue would be.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Looking over at Monte's webboards it seems that several of the classes are very customizable. As such, there may be a great many less obvious options for making our favorite archetypes than appear to us now.

 

[Wuxia]

There is an AU poll here:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44637

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Monte's got a new designer diary out and a promo piece.

The Promo piece is particularly chock full of delight, has details on the missing race, new info on spells, and other goodness.

He has also listed off the types of totems that will be initially listed for the Totem Warrior in the core book.

bear
wolf
snake
shark
hawk
wolverine

 

[mmu1]

Those designer diaries are really starting to look like my personal "What changes would I make to 3E to make it just the way I like it, while still keeping it at least remotely D&D-like." list.

I am being robbed!

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

He did mention that he compromised on the issue of item dependency at least, and he has defended several aspects of DnD that he changes for AU, though he does acknowledge that they don't fit in with what he is trying to do.

This latest Design Diary makes me wonder if there is a mass combat system in the works.

That and if the castle issue might be better solved by purging problematic spells or developing more effective counters.

I'd still like for a Magister to be able to dissolve a wall now and again, just not one somebody runed.