I'm going to start off with a quote from the book. You see, there's a dark spectre haunting this book - GM Fiat.
Giving Power Back to DMs
The core rules of the 3rd editions Player's Handbook were written to be as simple as possible-With very little need or room for DM adjudication. Arcana Unearthed is intended for gamemasters, or DMs, with a little experience, who are fully capable of making judgment calls and sensible rulings. This isn't to say that a careful eye didn't watch over the balance and playability of these rules. But that same careful eye also made sure not to overdefine concepts or regulate them too heavy-handedly. DMs have room to make the game their own.
The Good
-A lot of problematic spells are no longer problems.
-Some of the feats are good(Ex, rapid strike)
-Some of the fighter types have really good abilities that re-define combat.
-Everyone casts off of the same spell list.
-I think his fix of monks is actually almost viable. Emphasis on 'almost', but he gets an A for effort.
-Magic item creation feats are broken up into Craft Charged Item, Craft Constant Item, Craft Single-Use Item, Craft Spell-Completion Item, and Craft Magic Arms and Armor.
-He doesn't believe in LA being at least your HD.
The Bad
-A lot of problematic spells are no longer problems because they have simply been deleted with no effective replacement.
-A lot of spells that weren't problematic are gone. Who does he think he is taking out magic missile and fireball!? Sure, MM sucked and all ... But dude, it's MAGIC MISSILE.
-None of his feats are really new and inspiring as far as I can see.
-He broke compatibility between AU and other d20 systems by screwing around with what changing sizes does. For example, tiny chars retain their 5' reach.
-95% of exotic spells are worthless and will never be taken by anyone. The other 5% are overpowered.
-Craft Constant Item has a minimum level of 12.
-The classes sometimes have interesting flavor, but they pretty much all suck. I declare the Runethane to be weak like katana-wielding pirate.
-He engages in bait and switch tactics, in one breath saying that AU is freer when it comes to multiclassing when in reality it still sucks to take more than two levels of any fighter class. However, caster multiclassing pretty much works - As long as you, you know, don't care about class abilities. Considering that all except two of the casters in the book are bardic casters, class abilities are kind of important.
The Ugly
-The cure series of spells, the summon monster series, and all of the illusions have been nerfed.
-HE NERFED CURE SPELLS. WTF?
-The rogue has been broken up into two different classes.
-He explicitly says that a single 7th level spell is an OK reward for a 20th level character.
-Since when is +2 damage for one weapon a perfectly acceptable 20th level ability.
-He actually managed to make shapechanging WORSE despite there being only a single spell in the book, a 9th level spell, for changing shape. He didn't leave any references to what happens when you change shape, what you keep or what you lose in the description of the abilities for the shapechanging class.
-He fucked up every single fighter build worth using.
-His feats often break some of the cardinal rules of feat design, like "This feat is SO MUCH MORE AWESOME when you take it later rather than sooner".
-Empty levels. Lots of 'em.
I had a lot more, but this pretty much sums it up.
Thoughts on AU from the rest of you? Thoughts on my thoughts?
