ardlings are a new race, what they look like is irrelevant to their in game culture/origin. Also from real human legends/myths, animal/human hybrids as gods is far from unheard of. Egypt, Africa, india, heck even greek/roman half of zeus' offspring have animal traits.
far as alert, its a buff, you can literally always go first in party now. (swap with highest roller) since you can switch, on average, you will have access to a higher roll more often. Its a hugely better feat.
lets say you are an assassin rogue, its way more likely you can attack enemies first.
I mentioned the crit system in other posts, its a more usable/balanced game mechanic with the changes. The variation in player/monster crit damage in builds severely limited a lot of other design elements. That said, it doesnt matter if its better balance, if overall the game doesnt feel more fun. However the nerf to crit stacking, and multi die crit rolls is a large boost to monsters relative power. A meta type player's max damage potential is roughly halved now. Monsters don't need crits now, they get to survive longer.
