D&D 3E/3.5 The 20th Anniversary of 3rd Edition D&D

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Talking to people about D&D in 1E meant letters to the editor in Dragon magazine. 2E meant USENET and TSR's AOL forum (the former a lawless #&$%-show, the latter a draconian-enforcement "adore us unconditionally or F-off" reservation. 3E was able to be birthed in the light of the world wide web and at least marginally moderated but mostly neutrally moderated web forums. That meant a lot to me. I ultimately lost a huge amount of appreciation for 3E after WotC decided to let the inmates start running the asylum. I went back to 1E for a long time, but finally came to grips with how I wanted to run 3.5, and probably actually prefer it over ALL other editions, recent or ancient - when kept firmly under control of a DM who simply understands why it needs to be controlled.

 

[Richards]

I switched to 3.0 when it came out - I didn't really have much choice at the time, if I wanted to continue on as a freelance writer for Dragon and Dungeon magazines - but immediately came to love it. So much had been changed for the better, rules-wise, and the possibilities were so wide open as far as character creation. I felt a little constricted at first in the monster selection, because unlike during the 1E to 2E switch you couldn't really just take the monster stats from the previous edition and run with them, they needed a much bigger conversion effort, but over time (and subsequent monsters in the Fiend Folio, Monster Manual X books, and even third-party works like the indispensable Tome of Horrors) things got better on that front. (And, I have to admit, the 3E Monster Manual did do a good job of providing a decent initial selection of monsters.)

When 4E came out and I had to make the same choice again - purchase and learn the new edition or leave my freelancer days behind me - I stuck with 3.5 and never looked back. (I'm not slamming 4E, it just didn't look like the changes they'd made to the game were going to be my cup of tea, nor those of my players.) I've been playing 3.0/3.5 since the edition(s) first came out and I don't see myself ever needing to move on from it. Sure, higher level combat starts to get clunky at times but I've found I don't mind the extra effort and I've been blessed with players who build characters they think will be fun to play, not seek the most broken loophole combinations they can come up with.

It's been a good 20 years and I look forward to the next 20 years of 3.5 gaming.

Johnathan

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I bought the most of 3.5 D&D translated into Spanish by Devir Iberia. My collection is my little threasure. Can you imagine the emotion when I showed the Draconomicon to my little niece and this said "this (dragon) is my favorite".

I remember 3rd was in the 2000 year, but it is little hard to remember my university years were two decades ago.

 

[Erekose]

I’d stopped playing during my degree. This wasn’t that long after 2E had been released but we‘d made the transition seamlessly. I played the various CRPGs based on 2E but it was 3E, and the excitement around 3E, that brought me back to TTRPGs. It’s still the best version of the game IMHO. We have house ruled a lot of the complexity and so, at the table, it plays as fast as 5E.

 

[MGibster]

I got tired of 2nd edition in the 1990s and came back to D&D with 3rd edition. Overall I liked the 3rd edition rules and most of my problems with the game were pretty minor. I really loved the idea of Prestige Classes, but I hated how a player had to plan a roadmap in order to get to that class. i.e. If something came up in the game and they were interested in Arcane Archer, oh, too bad, you didn't take these skills two levels ago.

What I most remember is the glut of d20 products and how bad many of them were. The d20 versions of Legend of the Five Rings and Deadlands were flat out horrible and let's not forget the myriad of books with magic items, terrible adventures, and even worse character classes. Some of them were gems though. Games like Spycraft, Call of Cthulhu d20, and adventure paths like Rise of the Runelords were fantastic. But I can remember my FLGS had some of those d20 books on their shelves for years.

 

[R_J_K75]

But I can remember my FLGS had some of those d20 books on their shelves for years.

I took a break from gaming for about a year or two in 2005-2007 towards the tail end 3.5. The game store I played at and bought alot of books from had gone out of business in that time and someone opening up a new store bought most of their remaining stock. I remember when I finally went to check out the new game shop, 99% of the 3PP garbage released from 2000-2008 were languishing on that guys shelves.

 

[Highland Raider]

I'd started gaming with AD&D, continued into 2e and lost interest in D&D for several years. Played a bunch of other systems during that time. My wife and I wed in September 2000, and several of my friends gave "us" a copy of the 3e Player's Handbook as a wedding gift. and told me it was something to keep myself occupied during the honeymoon. My wife gave them a look that kills at twenty yards . . . .

 

[Voadam]

Other big 2e to 3e changes.

Stats Instead of AD&D's idiosyncratic reverse bell curve stats had a unified linear bonus.

Racial Class limits All races could play all classes.

Level Limits All classes and all races were unlimited in class levels regardless of stats.

XP unified chart.

Multiclassing Any class combos for all races with cumulative class features for attacks and saves.

Balance Design 3e's design goals was for each character of X level to be balanced with other characters of that level for combat, instead of weak at low levels balanced against strong at high levels or by different xp charts or by stat restrictions to get into powerful classes.

 

[Stalker0]

XP unified chart.

I think this one is easy to forget. For the first time, Level X meant something...it wasn't contingent on what class your playing or god forbid multi-classing.

 

[Arvok]

Sorry to be the grumpy, old Fatbeard here, but most of my observations about the changes wrought by 3e are negative.

Sure, 1st and 2nd edition were clunky and quirky, but I saw that as a feature not a bug. I can understand the appeal of a streamlined rule system (especially for new players), but I missed saving throws versus Rod, Staff, or Wand. Nostalgia, I guess.

My biggest beef with 3e was that the writers seemed to have very little understanding of medieval warfare, weapons, or mindset. I get that D&D is fantasy, but it was originally designed as medieval fantasy. From 3e on, it seems that it is simply a modern mindset with some old technology thrown in. When the writers can't shoehorn something modern into a Middle Age setting because of a technological issue they hand wave 'magic' at it.

Yeah, I know. I'm a grumpy, old man. GET OFF MY LAWN!