VHawkwinter
Explorer
I absolutely hate the game design of many of the later classes and it discards the AD&D setting flavour for which I am playing D&D rather than another system, so that's going to be a no from me, chief. IMO that suggestion one where the 'cure' is worse than the ailment. I'm inclined to keep most of the later 3.5 classes out of the game regardless of their relative balance. Too close to 4e for me. I'd make selective PF1 content swaps instead.
My "Simple" change would be just the Spellcasting and Spells sections below, with the same book list I gave above.
Your approach is simple but has too many undesirable side effects for me, so I would take a different approach to pull the playable classes closer to a trend of Tier 3-4 gameplay if I really want to touch it up. That said, your wants from the system may also be different than mine, so I won't be too shocked if you don't care for my 3.x revision outline below.
But as for how I would rebalance 3e without much from those later 3.5 books while retaining a lot of the 'vibe' of AD&D I'm showing up for, and a relatively small workload? It is definitely more specific than just book selection (an outline, but I would print the new material out as a booklet). The end result will be nerfed spellcasters in a direction towards AD&Dism, some retained 3.0 elements, cherrypicking PF1 content to add, and some variant rules baked in, with just a little bit of homebrewing required:
Hawkwinter's 3.x Core Rebalance (Outline)
v1.00 (2025-10-24)
Spellcasting
- (From the 3.Y AD&D Inspired Houserule doc): It takes 10 minutes per Spell Level to prep spells for prepared casters and 5 minutes per Spell Level to recover slots for spontaneous casters. If you use Power Points (Psionics) You recover a max of 100 points per night. (13 per hour)
- Ban natural spell, or nerf it severely.
- All divine casters have the "spontaneous divine casters" variant from UA. No whole-list access for anyone. If you'd normally get a domain or spontaneous spell conversion type feature, you know those spells for free, they don't count as your limited spells known.
Spells
- Mostly 3.5 spells.
- Drow have Deeper Darkness as their SLA, not Darkness.
- Bull's Strength etc either retain their 3.0 version at 1 hour per level, or I split the difference and make them 10 minutes per level.
- You can only attempt to magically cure injuries once per day. Any damage remaining beyond that, the injured party notes down - they can attempt to heal it further with magic after 24 hours.
- I don't have a better Polymorph, Remove Disease, or Remove Poison or Remove Curse fix off the top of my head. Could use the PF1 Polymorph, but I don't particularly like it. Maybe a rework of Polymorph based on Savage Species rituals. Remove Disease and Remove Poison and Remove Curse are just generally too reliable at too low a level for too little a cost.
- Use the expanded "Designing Spells" rule in Ultimate Magic as a core rule, not the less fleshed out one in Tome and Blood.
Classes
This is the part with big changes, with a lot of content importing from PF1 that stays closer to the PHB classes concepts than those later 3.5 book classes do. A little bit of rewriting required for Druid, Fighter, and Paladin.
- Wizard and Sorcerer: They get a d6 HD. That's it for now.
- Bard and Barbarian - Maybe they stay the same - Maybe they get some new features ported from PF1.
- Cleric is subdivided into & replaced with:
- UA Cloistered Cleric (still with the spontaneous divine casters variant and spellcasting changes above).
- PF1 Warpriest.
- PF1 Inquisitor, if I don't merge it with Paladin completely.
- Druid is subdivided into & replaced with:
- A UA "Cloistered Cleric" type druid (still with the spontaneous divine casters variant and spellcasting changes above). The druid's wildshape starts with tiny and small size animals only. At level 11 it can do medium animals.
- A Wildshape focused druid rebuilt built from the PF1 Warpriest Chassis. Perhaps include PF1 style elemental forms, and magical beasts. Who doesn't like an owlbear? Maybe this one can Natural Spell with its delayed spell progression
- A Beast Master focused Druid inspired by the PF1 Broodmaster Summoner mixed with druid. Druid spell-list with the summoneresque bard progression, still has Summon Nature's Ally spells known automatically (and doesn't get the summon ability or the eidolon features instead getting animal companion features - but not at buffed levels like the Summoner). While no single animal companion can be treated as higher than your level, your effective druid level to divide up is buffed to maybe 1.5x your druid level, or perhaps Druid Level +4. It has the 'Cloistered Druid' nerfed wildshape.
- PF1 Swaps: Swap Monk for the PF1 Unchained Monk or the PF1 Monk with the Qinggong archetype; same for Unchained Rogue*, PF1 Ranger, and PF1Paladin.
- Rogue - Skill Unlocks - I'm iffy on those. They often leave me wondering why the functionality requires a special feat (or rogue feature) plus the skill rather than just being part of the skill. If I ended up making the skill unlocks a universal part of having enough ranks, the Rogue's Edge abilities would probably give a nice +4 to +6 to different skills.
- Ranger and Paladin spellcasting: Ranger and Paladin get the casting progression of Duskblade. Ranger gets a a mix of the Druid and Ranger lists. Paladin gets a mix of the Paladin and PF1 Inquisitor lists.
- Ranger can choose any animal companion a Druid can, but has the usual -3 Druid level for that selection. "Strong Bond" (Beast Master Ranger again) is available at 12 as an ACF for Camouflage. Ranger can swap the Animal Companion for a PF1 Druid Domain
- Some Marshal and PF1 Cavalier stuff is made available to Paladin as ACFs.
- Fighter is tricky to fix with a simple swap out without going for the encounter power guys. It's really just too narrow a focus. Maybe swap it for PF1 Slayer as a base, and then allow some Marshal and PF1 Fighter and PF1 Cavalier stuff to be taken as ACFs.
- Add in Magus and allow it plain or with the Eldritch Archer archetype for ranged. Adjust spell lists to replace missing PF1 spells as needed.
Prestige Classes
- Test-Based Prerequisites by default, but if someone wants to try to convince me to let them take one without a test, or wants to learn only one ability from a PrC as an ACF or a Feat or something - I'm available for negotiation. But most characters won't have them without organisational membership or a mentor.
Skills
- Skills would be the 3.5 list, but they're 1 for 1, max ranks is based on if you've ever taken a level with it as a class skill, for simplicity.
- Instead of 2/4/6/8 Skill Points per level + Int Mod, you get 5/6/7/9 Skill Points per level + half Int Mod (Round Up).
- Diplomacy is replaced with either the 3.Y rewrite or the Alexandrian rewrite - or some variant on the PF1 Unchained Influence skill replaces Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate
- The PF1 Unchained Background Skills variant is also in play.
- PF1 Unchained Expanded Skill Uses is in play.
- I'd skim through the d20pfsrd skills looking for additional uses beyond their 3.5 uses and add many of them to the appropriate skills as well.
- PF1 Unchained Alternate Crafting and Profession are a maybe.
- Similarly Mongoose Games Designer's Companion "New Uses for Old Skills" - some of those may be worth including.
- Craft (Trapmaking) in Mongoose Games Designer's Companion.
- Skill Unlocks (PF1 Unchained) might just be rolled into the skills, buffing skills across the board. Maybe.
Combat
- 3.0 Combat (with the simpler action types), but with PF1 Revision of Tower Shields and no "Large Long" creatures that have facing.
- PF1 Unchained Wound Thresholds are in effect.
- PF1 chart of magic items overcoming named DR types by bonus.
- Aerial Combat - probably from Mongoose Games Designer's Companion.
- Called Shots - Games Designer's Companion has some, and there are some in the DMG - I would consider working them in.
Multiclassing Experience Penalties
- Probably not - but if I did include them, they wouldn't count Prestige Classes.
Wealth By Level
Making sure the players all have adequate gear has always been a big headache. To make it so you don't really need to worry about it:
- PF1 Automatic Bonus Progression, but:
- Weapon attunement can be swapped for something useful to casters. Maybe a Pearl of Power type effect of equal gp value.
- If the player gets a physical magic sword or armour, they trade their +1s for the magic item's named effects. If the magic item is better, they keep the surplus.
Familiars and Animal Companions
- Perhaps use the PF1 Familiars and Animal Companions. They have a lot of fun ones.
- Multiple Animal Companions are permitted a la Ranger Beastmaster Archetype - Though perhaps adjusting it per the Encounter level rules rather than a simple division of HD. I'd have to check it first.
- "Improved Empathic Link" from Beast Master Ranger is available as a combat style (or regular) feat for any character with an animal companion with 3 Druid levels.
- The PF1 feat Boon Companion is available.
- Games Designer's Companion has expanded rules for training animals at the back, and I believe there are some in the Arms and Equipment guide as well.
Nonhuman Characters
- Either use Oslecamo's monster classes (and I may set a minimum number of monster levels for a monster, else require you to play it as a juvenile and age enough to advance it in more levels); or use the GitP LA Reassignments and Negative LA.
- The Rituals from the back of Savage Species are available.
Other Stuff
- Dungeon Master's Guide II: Chapter 5 and 6 have good stuff that should have been in the DMG1. That's most of its value though. Contacts are also in UA. and I think in Ultimate Campaign.
- Ultimate Campaign Downtime and Campaign Systems chapters have some good subsystems. Bargaining in particular.
- Games Designer's Companion has Merchants and Trading, similar bargaining niche filling.
- Gamemastery Guide 'Advanced Topics' chapter has some good stuff for chases, disasters, haunts, gambling.
- Unearthed Arcana's Campaigns chapter as well. Contacts.
- Cityscape's Houses, Guilds, Organisations, and Churches are good, and they're likely where you'll learn your Prestige Classes from.
- Cityscape's City Services should have been in the PHB. Useful stuff.
- City Works has a bunch of useful urban variants, as well as a different Chase system - I would probably use the PF1 Chase system though, with a chase deck.
It might be fun to gradually build this into a big 3e houserule doc in another thread. I'll bookmark this post in the meanwhile to think on it.
