D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] lamest terminology change?

[Plane Sailing]

I really hate the way that they have changed cones and lines so that they are a fixed range.

But even more I hate the half-baked way that it has been done. I'm trying to think why, within the 3.5 rules and ignoring any splatbook stuff (as they have with other things), they didn't do it as follows

Range - 0ft
Area - 60ft cone/120ft line/whatever.

Then they wouldn't have had to put in the clunky line in the enlarge metamagic feat to say it doesn't apply to lines and cones. Plus the definition above would make it clear what actually happens: it starts at your position and extends out to its full area.


So that's my contender for, IMO, the lamest change to rules terminology in the new edition. At least it is only a minor thing, but it niggles, like an unscratchable itch.

Cheers

 

[kreynolds]

Personally, I think the Range: 0 ft. line if every cone or line spell would be clunky, but I get what you mean.

 

[Jhyrryl]

Spell Name Changes

IMO, the lamest terminology changes they made from a general standpoint, was renaming tons of spells for no other purpose than to help organize the book better (not that I don't like having things better organized).

Why do we now have greater invisibility? What was wrong with improved invisiblity? They still could have organized things better and alphabetized the listing under invisiblity, improved.

The one the blows my mind the most though is swapping the names of command plants and control plants.

Player: "I cast control plants."
DM: "You don't have access to that yet!"
Player: "Sure I do, it's 4th-level."
DM: "Not anymore it's not."
Player: "What, did they lower it?"
DM: "No, it's 8th-level now, and command plants is 4th."
Player: ::blink::
DM: "But they do the opposite of what they did before."
Player: "Um..."
...

 

[Hypersmurf]

I really hate the way that they have changed cones and lines so that they are a fixed range.

Cool! Persistent Fear!

Everyone in a 60 foot cone in front of me, cower for 24 hours.

Hey! I saw that - you stopped cowering! I don't care if your knees are getting sore - cower, damn it!

-Hyp.

 

[magnas_veritas]

Subdual damage is now "nonlethal" damage.

Almost every other re-naming I can figure out why they did it, but this...(shrug).

Brad

 

[niteshade6]

I miss the classic spell names like improved invisibility and teleport without error but alot of the other spell name changes I can understand. Changing invisibility to undead/animals to hide from undead/animals makes it clear it's a very different effect then invisibility is. And it makes more sense that a spell which completely controls plants should be called control plants, while one that just lets you give commands to plant creatures should be called command plants.

 

[CrimsonTemplar]

I hate the weapon terminology change & how it totally screws the small races over. The Light, One-hand & Two-Hand classifications are easy enough to get figured out after playing 3.0, but small longsword = old shortsword & small longbow = old shortbow is a colossal pain in the @$$ from a damage perspective.

Halflings & Gnomes (& Kobalds, Xvarts, Gobbos, et al) all get gimped on their damage dice & I have to say I'm not thrilled about facing Ogres with Large Greataxes (3D6 base x3 Crit).

 

[The Souljourner]

Small characters do the *exact* same damage they did before - generally one step down from what medium sized characters do.

Light = 1d4, One Handed = 1d6, 2 Handed = 1d8. It's the same damn thing as it was in 3.0, it's just you don't have halflings trying to wield a shortsword like it's a longsword, because it's not made to be used that way.

And Ogres always should have been wielding larger versions of normal weapons. It's not like you saw ogres walking around with 1d8 damage longswords did you? They generally had really big clubs that did a bunch of damage. That hasn't changed either, except that now if you want to give an ogre a greataxe or battle axe or pick, you can do it without the guesswork.

-The Souljourner

 

[Christian]

I hate how they changed the class name 'Magic-User' to 'Wizard'.

Or wait, had they done that before? I can never remember.

 

[Planesdragon]

Halflings & Gnomes (& Kobalds, Xvarts, Gobbos, et al) all get gimped on their damage dice & I have to say I'm not thrilled about facing Ogres with Large Greataxes (3D6 base x3 Crit).

Hate to break this to you, but rules for that were in 3.0, too.

What I want to know is--where are all the d12s in the weapon-size table, darnit!