(total frustration) There MUST be an Extra Feats Academy around somewhere here ...

[Staffan]

MavrickWeirdo, I am intending to buy Arcana Unearthed.

Hi, Edena! I just wanted to make sure that you get the book you're looking for, as this particular title is the subject of some confusion.

Way back in 1e, "Unearthed Arcana" was released, with stuff like the Barbarian and Cavalier classes.
Many years later (IIRC, 2002), Monte Cook wants to make his own "Alternate PHB", that's basically like the D&D PHB but with different classes, races, spells, and some minor rule changes. He thinks it would be cool to call that Unearthed Arcana, as a homage to the original book, so he asks WOTC for permission to do so. They say "No, but you can call it Arcana Unearthed." He does so.
A year or two after that (2004, I think), WOTC release a book of "official house-rules" for D&D. This includes things like gestalt classes, bloodlines, alternate metamagic rules, sanity, and a whole lot more. They call this "Unearthed Arcana".
Monte Cook figures, "Hey, I've sold out of AU, so I might as well make a revised version instead of just reprinting." He does, adding a class (the Ritual Warrior), expanding classes to 25th level, incorporates the setting into the rules, adds a tiny bit of metaplot, and calls the whole thing "Arcana Evolved" in order to avoid confusion with WOTC's Unearthed Arcana.

 

[William Ronald]

Hi, Edena! I just wanted to make sure that you get the book you're looking for, as this particular title is the subject of some confusion.

Way back in 1e, "Unearthed Arcana" was released, with stuff like the Barbarian and Cavalier classes.
Many years later (IIRC, 2002), Monte Cook wants to make his own "Alternate PHB", that's basically like the D&D PHB but with different classes, races, spells, and some minor rule changes. He thinks it would be cool to call that Unearthed Arcana, as a homage to the original book, so he asks WOTC for permission to do so. They say "No, but you can call it Arcana Unearthed." He does so.
A year or two after that (2004, I think), WOTC release a book of "official house-rules" for D&D. This includes things like gestalt classes, bloodlines, alternate metamagic rules, sanity, and a whole lot more. They call this "Unearthed Arcana".
Monte Cook figures, "Hey, I've sold out of AU, so I might as well make a revised version instead of just reprinting." He does, adding a class (the Ritual Warrior), expanding classes to 25th level, incorporates the setting into the rules, adds a tiny bit of metaplot, and calls the whole thing "Arcana Evolved" in order to avoid confusion with WOTC's Unearthed Arcana.

It is slightly confusing, but I have run events with Core Rules and AU characters and they have worked well together.

No character will be ideal under all conditions. This is why the game assumes a party of adventurers. Mind you it is still possible to work with groups of different sizes or for long term games. (In the later instance, slow advancement might be an option for a group that wants to complete a campaign in more time than the average amount of time as determined by WotC's surveys.)