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4 3.0 books at $20 and 13 3.5 books at $30 (supporting my FLGS). That's $470, plus PDFs, minis, and software puts it over $500. It's connected to my not going to 4E in this way -- I bought 3.5 materials because I really liked the system. I didn't see the need for 4E and still don't.

25% Crunch, 75% Fluff. Really 10/90 might be better. I blame splatbook power creep for killing 2E and 3.5. Fluff doesn't do that. The absolute best 3.5 book was "Lords of Madness," for its fluff content. BECMI had some great supplements (the Gazetteers) that were maybe 95% fluff and 5%...

Are you suggesting that the game should give you the option of being a specialist or a generalist (like Iron Heroes), or that all "specialization" should be transferable? Maybe you could have two talent trees, with your choice of lesser transferable benefits or greater non-transferable...

But that's the thing -- what might be common for PCs doesn't have to be common for the world at large. PCs are exceptions. The world at large is 99-99.9% NPC-classes, while adventuring parties are usually 100% PC-classes. Drow are 99.99% evil, but most drow PCs are non-evil. The fact that...

"Of any given class" wasn't my point at all. It was the overall number of PC-classed individuals of 5+. I apologize if that was unclear. I believe they did have some demographics on how common the various classes were. Maybe that was just the "randomly encountered NPC party" table? In any...

If you're going to correct me, please correct the point I actually made: "multiple mid-level (5+) PC-classed individuals in every town." Not "a large number of high level PCs." My books are in storage. Can you tell me that if you roll up a town using the DMG math, you will not have multiple...

That's what 2E had, "flight arrows" and "sheaf arrows." One had longer range and d6 damage, the other had shorter range and d8 damage.

Without Improved Crit, they do the same damage when the "flat adds" to damage are 39 (Str, enhancement, Power Attack, Inspire Courage, and a few other things). (So average damage without crits is 44 vs. 46.) With Improved Crit, it's when the "flat adds" are 19 and average non-crit damage is 24...

And it seems that's not unreasonable if the initial amount of control is very low (which, to me, seems to be the case here for at least one situation). If the OP approaches the discussion in a conciliatory, way, saying that he understands the player's point of view, I'd expect a much more...

This became a problem in 3E, with magic items being trivially easy to create, magic items assumed to be for sale, 1st-level casters having multiple useful spells, and DMG demographics suggesting multiple mid-level (5+) PC-classed individuals in every town.

Have you seen the Masters' Set? Some great ideas, some lousy ideas, and more polearm varieties than you can shake a Fauchard-Fork at.

I was all set to make the AOO-monkey in my first 3.5 game, using a glaive and Tumble. But the party needed a healer, so I switched to druid, have played that PC for 4 years. So I've never gotten to see how well the polearm fighter would have been in 3.5. I imagine that the polearm fighter...

3E was absolutely amazing at balancing the weapons. Coming from BECMI, where the "Normal Sword" was simply the best weapon, and 2E, where the longsword was almost always the best weapon, I saw the system as fantastic at achieving balance. I saw PCs using the reach weapons, tricksy weapons...

From the OP: "But of course the other PC's are going forward and fighting the battle so he reluctantly goes along" What would have happened if the PC had just fled? Would the rest of the party have died? In which case the other players would chew him out for getting them killed, and he could...

Whispering, Screaming, Croaking, Howling, Groaning, Hissing, and Roaring Demons? And are we talking the Roaring Demon form that Alphaks takes in M1, or the real deal from the Immortals' Set?

Well, if the situation doesn't allow for an in-character discussion of the proper tactics, you certainly can't have an OOC discussion at that time. As to "enforcing" a decision on anybody else, Teleport is willing subjects only. Say "I'm leaving!" and cast Teleport, DM asks other players "Are...

What if he had reacted in-character? "We've heard about this guy, right? We know he's the most powerful archmage alive, AND he has a beholder, a guardian construct, and two more allies? I conclude that we have no reasonable chance of survival. I grab the two nearest PCs and Teleport out of...

As I see it, everything in the MM is opt-in. The DM has to actively decide to include certain monsters when building his world and his dungeons. Players should not assume that anything in the MM exists (though if they are told "the world is similar to medieval Europe" that does tell them to...

It wasn't terribly hard in 3.5 to use NPCs who weren't walking treasure troves -- you just had to adjust the CR by estimating what the non-magic NPC was comparable to. For a non-caster, figure it's basically unchanged for levels 1-4, -1 CR for levels 5-8, -2 CR for levels 9-12, and so on. For...

But how do you know? Have you empirically tested the effectivness of chainmail bikinis in SCA, with the wearers having a 16 or higher Comeliness? And found them to be ineffective? If you haven't run such tests, then you can't say they don't work. And if you have run such tests, you need a...