Post originally by David Meacham at 2004-03-09 00:48:10
Converted from Phorums BB System

I believe you have perhaps misread the 'Variant Player's Handbook' on the cover as 'Rule Sourcebook'. AU isn't something you just pillage some spells from and stick into another game, it's its own game from the ground up and should be played in that manner. The dog-men aren't generic, the lizardmen are far from noble by any stretch of the imagination, and even the cat-men have more depth than one would expect at first glance, even if they are the most generic of the races.

Yes, the melee classes are better than their 3rd edition D&D counterparts. It's intentional. Just like the removal of insta-kill spells (at least, easy access to them) is intentional. There's a huge power gap between casters and melee characters at high levels; AU's changes brought them to something resembling an even footing.

Yes, you can't just toss in stuff from other d20 systems willy-nilly because of the rule changes. There are conversion guidelines in the book that comes with the DM screen to help with porting spells into the AU format, the process is pretty simple. Also, the newly revised editions of Malhavoc products include AU conversion information in the back, providing a whole lot of fresh spells if you want them. All in all, I don't see it as a big issue, because like I noted above, I consider AU a totally separate game from other d20 stuff and never even really considered trying to mix the two.