NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Asmor" data-source="post: 5275432" data-attributes="member: 1154">Disclaimer: I'm a 4e guy.3rd edition is more simulationist. It emphasizes verisimilitude and consistency in rules.4th edition is more gamist. It emphasizes balance and gameplay in rules.A common complaint of 3rd edition is that most of its fun is in a relatively narrow band--around 5th through 10th level, depending on who you ask. Lower level than that and many characters feel limited. Higher and things tend to get too complicated. 4th edition is much more consistent, although it also does get a bit more complicated as you get higher in levels.A common complaint of 4th edition is that the classes all feel similar. There are also many who say they felt this way until they played the game; in fact, a lot of people say 4e plays much better than it reads. It's also worth mentioning that this complaint was at its height in the beginning of 4e; later products have diversified things a bit. PHB3, in particular, has broken the mold in with its psionic classes, and Essentials also introduces some new innovation.By contrast, 3rd edition classes can be very, very different, particularly in later supplements. I'd even go so far as to say many classes in 3e were just excuses to try out some new subsystem.Both systems emphasize combat heavily. Both systems require a battle mat and miniatures (others may disagree on this point, but they're wrong <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />). Combat in both systems can really bog down, particularly if people aren't on the ball.3rd edition tends to assume a party of 4 characters. 4th edition assumes a party of 5. Both editions work well anywhere from 3-6, imho.3rd edition combat usually assumes 1 monster vs. the party. 4th edition combat assumes an equal number of monsters as the party. Both of these are very flexible, though.All this said, if you decide to go with 3rd edition I'd recommend looking into Pathfinder. It has the benefits of being further developed and still supported, and I believe it's supposed to maintain compatibility with 3.5 supplements and adventures. Never tried it myself, though.If you decide to go with 4th edition, you might consider waiting til September when D&D Essentials comes out, which is a product aimed at new players/groups and patterned after the old boxed sets. Don't think of it as "D&D Lite," though, if I understand correctly it should be fully featured, and indeed the new builds and such will be of interest to experienced 4e players as well.</blockquote>

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