3.5 backcompatibility: what's to assume?

[Silveras]

That's what I have done anyway

But I wish there was a general way to go, not just "case by case". If 3.5 products are updating 3.0 books I would wish they also tell me what to do with what they don't update.

I fear you have no choice but to go case-by-case. Some things are kind of obvious, and covered in the 3.5 Update Guide (like changing DR for monsters). Other things are not so obvious, and require the DM to read, evaluate, and decide.

The WotC designers did say that most 3.0 materials would be usable with 3.5 "as is". Anything that did not get pulled into the PH, DMG, or MM for 3.5 was not so broken that they felt they had to fix it. That's also why they said they were not planning on doing "Sword & Fist revised", "Defenders of the Faith revised", and so on.

That being said, it is quite true that many PrCs and Feats in the Complete Warrior are re-writes of ones that were in Sword & Fist or other "splat" books. That may at first seem a contradiction, but Complete Warrior remains purely optional, just as the "splat" books are. If you have S&F and the other "splat" books, you have access to some material that is not in CW; if you have CW, you have access to some material that is not in the "splats" (yes, there is a good chunk of new material).

The advantage to re-writing some material is that it allowed them to fix some errors in the "splats" (S&F has a LOOOONG errata file) and update some things some DMs might have found challenging. Yes, each Feat, PrC, magic item, and so on in the "splats" needs to be looked at individually by the DM, and judged on how well it will work in his/her game; and changed if it needs to be. That was true before 3.5, as well, so I don't think there is any escape from that.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

3.5e backwards compatible? Yeah right! Although WotC claimed that the new edition would be backwards compatible, most of the stuff they are releasing completely supersedes 3.0e. Go figure!

So what's your problem? That's pretty much the textbook definition of 'backwards-compatible'. Anything that hasn't been superceded by an update can be used as printed. Or are you going to complain that in an update they were out of line by updating things, and even more so by *gasp* printing the updates?

It's still your choice to either use the updated version or the existing version, as it is with all things. Geez, it's not like Wizards came to your house and kicked your dog...

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

So what's your problem? That's pretty much the textbook definition of 'backwards-compatible'. Anything that hasn't been superceded by an update can be used as printed. Or are you going to complain that in an update they were out of line by updating things, and even more so by *gasp* printing the updates?

It's still your choice to either use the updated version or the existing version, as it is with all things. Geez, it's not like Wizards came to your house and kicked your dog...

You're forgetting, it's Wizards. Or..uh..Wi$ard$. Or whatever. They're a corporation, and by definition money-grubbing and evil. Or whatever.

 

[MerricB]

Well, there are a few issues of rules incompatibility between 3E and 3.5E (mainly concerning the druid/ranger animal companions issue and a couple of now non-existent spells), but for the most part you should be able to use either the 3E or 3.5E version of a feat, PrC or similar in your 3.5E campaign.

There's a note in the CW that says that you should choose whether to use the 3E feat or PrC or use the updated version. There's no doubt in my mind that the WotC designers changed feats and PrC because they thought they'd work better, but it is also certain that no everyone has the same vision of the game.

Cheers!