LongTimeLurker
Explorer
Lol, you took the Toughness feat, didn't you?
D&D 3E/3.5 Edition Experience - Did/Do you Play 3rd Edtion D&D? How Was/Is it?
DeadlyUematsu
Explorer
Mind rewording that, friend? That sounds mightily on the line of instigating.
As for high system mastery players, I'm still out to lunch on that. I've had recent experiences where very high level (14+) players were mostly neutralized because they neither had a means to fly or didn't invest in ranged attacks. I think a lot of people are drawn because some combination of mechanics sound very cool away from the table only to be disproven in an actual game.
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balthanon
Explorer
For myself, 3E was the game I started with and while I haven't had a chance to play for awhile (work got crazy, my group fragmented, and the boards I was playing on with Play by Post were killed off), so I haven't had much if any experience with 4E (group choice) and 5E (stopped playing right about this time), it was that sheer volume of material that I loved about the game. I've looked at 5E and just haven't really felt much if any desire to play it because it doesn't feel like it has any real support or options for the players. I've played some other systems as well as Pathfinder, but I kept coming back to 3E because it had everything I've grown to love about roleplaying for the most part.
My longest running game and the one that I most enjoyed DM'ing was actually built partially around controlling the material available by location though. The players were hopping through alternate realities (based on the Wheel of Time's Mirror World's concept, but starting in Forgotten Realms and hitting WoT, Dark Sun, Rokugan, and more) and I basically went through and had a spreadsheet of which classes and prestige classes made sense for a given setting. The players actually had to track down someone that could teach them (other than the very basics) or find some other way of learning what they were adding to their character and in turn I expanded on the multi-classing rules and reduced the penalties for multiclassing because almost everyone would need to do it.
Ton of fun in general-- it went from something like 1st level all the way to 17th or 18th for the first "arc", which ended up with them basically deciding to help the guy I originally had slotted as the "secret big bad" because he had been with the party for so long.
The sheer volume of material that 3rd edition had available was really what allowed me to make a ton of options available to the characters while restricting their choices thematically without it feeling like I was hamstringing their visions though, I don't think I could have pulled that off in other systems without needing to do a ton of homebrew.
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Particle_Man
Explorer
Currently in a long 3.5 campaign, running from 1st to 20th. Most stuff allowed (no BoED, no BoVD, no Bo9S), some house rules. But I got to play a Sapphire Heirarch, which was thematically cool (they are a pro-lawful alignment prestige class that use divine magic and magic of incarnum). It is a big dungeon crawl. And it is all over Zoom. I like 3.5 because there are a lot of options for character creation, if you want to get into it. That said, I will simplify next time with my character choice in 3.5 (because zooming from home when a 5 year old is running around is tricky).
I’m running two very slow campaigns in 3.5e and Greyhawk.
My email campaign started in 1998 in 1e, and we moved to 3e in 2001 and 3.5e when it came out ~2003? My players and I didn’t like 4e. Some like PF1, but we never saw a reason/consensus to change.
My family campaign (with in-laws and their kids in another state) was live during family get togethers, now 8-12 times a year on Zoom. I started 3.5e in around 2018, because I like it. My brother-in-law was the only one with D&D experience, going back to 1e, and also agrees 3.5e is the best version.
My version of 3.5e is Core rules (PHB, DMG, MM1-3 + FF, L&L, Living Greyhawk Gazeteer) with selected rules from outside that, like Feats players have wanted, ideas from PF1, and monsters from 1e I’ve converted.
Why I think it‘s the best is feels to me like the final, organized version of AD&D. 4e was too different and annoyed me as a player (my paladin’s sword attacks felt like spells), PF1 feels overpowered in some ways, and 5e I never played enough 5e to fully understand it.
I have a ton of 1e, 3e, and 3.5e materials - which BTW default to my favorite setting - and reasonable amounts of PF1, 5e, and Harn, with knowledge on how to convert all to 3.5e.
My email campaign started in 1998 in 1e, and we moved to 3e in 2001 and 3.5e when it came out ~2003? My players and I didn’t like 4e. Some like PF1, but we never saw a reason/consensus to change.
My family campaign (with in-laws and their kids in another state) was live during family get togethers, now 8-12 times a year on Zoom. I started 3.5e in around 2018, because I like it. My brother-in-law was the only one with D&D experience, going back to 1e, and also agrees 3.5e is the best version.
My version of 3.5e is Core rules (PHB, DMG, MM1-3 + FF, L&L, Living Greyhawk Gazeteer) with selected rules from outside that, like Feats players have wanted, ideas from PF1, and monsters from 1e I’ve converted.
Why I think it‘s the best is feels to me like the final, organized version of AD&D. 4e was too different and annoyed me as a player (my paladin’s sword attacks felt like spells), PF1 feels overpowered in some ways, and 5e I never played enough 5e to fully understand it.
I have a ton of 1e, 3e, and 3.5e materials - which BTW default to my favorite setting - and reasonable amounts of PF1, 5e, and Harn, with knowledge on how to convert all to 3.5e.
Thunderfoot
Hero
Hold up... I was one of those old thieves... I lived to the ripe old age of 105 (1/2 Elf) and retired as a guild master. You just had to think like a member of the canting crew not a fighter with a utility belt. lol
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
There were some really good mechanics in the 3rd Edition that I wish we had kept going forward. Monster templates and prestige classes come to mind, but I'm sure there were others as well.
I remember creating some of my most memorable encounters (and entire adventures) with just a base monster and a template.
I remember creating some of my most memorable encounters (and entire adventures) with just a base monster and a template.
Thunderfoot
Hero
You know, it wasn't always the DM's who made things difficult back in the day... I do remember a time my cousin, his friend, my sister and I were playing while another cousin ran. He asked each of us about our characters and we gave the fighter from a broken home or whatever BS. And then he would ask their names. My cousin went first and said 'Bob the fighter'... His friend said, 'Robert the magnificent. His friends call him ... Bob. ' Catching on I said, 'I am Bob of the shadows.' My cousin looking up from the screen and yelled 'F&$&$*$;, really? Well at least I have one girl in the group...Who are you?' My sister having caught on was quickly making notations to her sheet. She looked up and said, 'I am sister Bernadette Ophelia Belinda.' 'Finally' said my cousin. 'or Bob for short.' my sister said. Needless to say we incurred the wrath of the DM with good reason. Didn't help when all our characters were named Bob for that very short lived campaign.
Voadam
Legend
As a player I was partial to the round to round active choice/tradeoff recharges of the psionic focus and psychic strike mechanics from the Expanded Psionics Handbook.
I also liked a bunch of options from Unearthed Arcana such as Gestalt, Recharge Magic, and Spontaneous Divine Casting.
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