What Unearthed Arcana variants have you used? What did you think of them?

[Mucknuggle]

My DM is considering using some stuff from UA, but he is not too sure which would be good stuff to use. That's why I wanted to get opinions from people that have used some of them. What have you used and how did it affect your game?

 

[Sejs]

Mainly class variants, personally. Loved 'em.

 

[fredramsey]

Level-independent EXP. Very cool.

 

[Psion]

I use:

Action points
LA reduction
Bloodlines
Variant classes (some)
Variant specialists

And am considering item familiars

The only one I don't like so much of those I have tried is the bloodlines. They aren't working that well in play. They have a mechanic that is at odds with everything else in the system and seem to make you pay way more than you get out of them.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Let's see...

Action Points

Item Familiar (bit of a pain with the xp bonus and other bits but otherwise good stuff)

Alternative Core Classes (monk, paladin)

Prestige Paladin/Ranger (options)

Racial Levels

Some other stuff here and there. I haven't used the blood lines enough to get a good idea of their utility.

For those who've used the reduced ECL bit, how did that work for you?

 

[BSF]

"Death & Dying" which uses a Fort save instead of -10 HP
Fractional BAB/Saves
Sanity without tying it to all spellcasting

Looking to add a possible Hero Point system
Have offered Paragon levels and Bloodlines as options for players to test, but we haven't seen anybody use them yet.

I like Death & Dying, though I don't think my players have really stopped to think seriously about the differences.

Fractional bonuses haven't yet had any impact on the game.

Sanity is just there to expose the risk of bad things happening, but nobody has had a serious drop in Sanity yet.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Spell points and Taint

Spell points make for more spell casting but does give a flavor to the game.

Taint is just cool nasty fun.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

I use the variant barbarian classes.

Bloodlines - I have two players using major lines and one player using a minor. The only thing the players have complained about is the affinity bonus since they both choose a race they aren't likely to see very soon (devil and titan)

Contacts - have helped the bard out immensely

Racial levels

 

[Terwox]

Action Points (the APs in UA don't suffer from "extra life" syndrome)
Craft Points (drop the feats for crafting normal items though, that's rather absurd, after that you have a pretty wonderful system for a faster-paced game, especially if you tinker with other thing besides gold to fuel magic power)
Class variants (just allow them all and see what people do, they're all pretty rad)
Weapon Proficiency Groups (more weapon variety for characters w/ less feats without an upward power creep)
That was one campaign.
Current campaign is Gestalt (playing w/ less characters is easier to balance)
and Spell Points (easier for newer players.)
I pretty highly recommend everything in that book, I truly enjoyed it.

If you don't want the game to slow down, just use alternate classes, buying off LA, and maybe spell points if he wants to use it. The rest will slow the game down a little bit, especially the first time they're used. Weapon Proficiency groups is pretty easy, but not worth it for everyone. (Although it certainly was for me!)

 

[Thorin Stoutfoot]

I've been very impressed by Unearthed Arcana

I bought it on a 60% Amazon.com discount, and it's really got great stuff that I plan to use in my next campaign:

- craft points (I don't like giving PCs any downtime
- action points

(and several other things that I've forgotten about)