Arcana Unearthed/Evolved - is it any good?

[Argamae]

Since I am currently reading into PTOLUS to set up an adventure (maybe even a campaign) I couldn't help but notice that Monte mentions his Arcana Unearthed a couple of times.
Now, I have read a little bit about it - but I would like to know if some of you play it and can relate some experiences/impressions?! Do any of the "alternate" rules or options do things "better" than the core rules?

Thanks for taking the time!

[papaholdy]

I have both Arcana Unearthed & Arcana Evolved. The Evolved book was basicly an upgraded version. I think it safe to say, Monte Cook did not realize what a hit AU was going to be, so he wanted to give the fans a better version of the book so he did AE. That said, I think it is great stuff.

Some of the thngs that may appeal/repel folks, no Alignment. While it is easy to say, alignment runs through D&D entire magic system. So the magic system has no alignment stuff built in.

No "divine magic/ arcane magic" all magic is magic. Some classes have access to some spells, some don't. Healing magic is more limited in general.

The races are cool and the classes are interesting.

I would say that to get max benifit it would be best to run a pure AE campaign as opposed to mix and match.

Or races and race levels could be droppeed into any campaign. Especilly for PC's who always wanted to play a sprite type PC. Very balanced race.

[Argamae]

Okay, I see. Thanks for the Info, Papaholdy!
"No Alignment" does appeal to me very much... all too often there are discussions about this. The pooling of arcane and divine magic into MAGIC is intriguing... but there are still clerics and wizards?