[3.5] Significant Improvements?

[Aaron L]

My DM hated the new Damge Reduction when he first heard about it. He talked about not wanting characters having to carry around different weapons to hit different things. I tried to explain to him that the assumption was that you WOULDN'T get through the DR, but he didn't get it.

After 3 games with the new rules, he just said to me last night how much he LOVED the new DR rules. Heh heh.

Adamantine weapons are now rad. I plan on carrying around an adamantine hand axe as a tool, chopping through doors, cutting holes in stone walls, cutting through manacles and chains, etc. Makes me think of Clash of the Titans, when Perseus dropped his sword and it sliced through the marble pillar.

 

[bret]

Changes that I thought were good:

• Fixing Harm and Heal. I think that Haste is also an improvement, the change brings it back into line with the original spell, but it is disruptive to many character strategies.
• Allowing spontaneous casters (Sorcs/Bards) to exchange spells as they go up levels.
• Allowing Druids to spontaneously cast Summon Nature's Ally.
• Changing the Druid weapon restrictions.
• Giving Paladin's more smiting goodness.
• Expanded Synergy bonuses.

Changes that I did not like:

• Rangers becoming the best at sneaking. They now have enough skill points (having effectively gained 3/level) to max hide and move silently without a problem, gain Hide In Plain Sight and Camoflauge, and have spells to help them hide. I think they have seriously invaded territory that was traditionally the rogue's forte.
• Too many changes to the rules that will have effect on what is possible. The changes are large enough to cause continuity problems in an existing campaign, you can't simply upgrade. I find the the transition between DnD 3.0 to 3.5 is a larger change than Ars Magica 3rd to 4th, Hero 3rd to 5th, or GURPS 2nd to 3 or 3 revised.
• Too many tweeks on the spells. It takes a while to learn the spells. Too many of them have changed, some of them not obvious, which means we are back to looking up the spell each time it is cast. Some of the changes will also cause continuity problems for existing campaigns and characters.
• Many of the skill changes. I'm not happy with the new Perform, the renaming of skills, putting Alchemy under craft but then requiring spell casting ability to use it, making rogues as clueless at navigating a maze as a fighter (intuit direction used to be a class skill, now it is rolled into Survival which is cross-class), and some of the other changes.
• Using PrCs as a way to deal with the multiclassed spellcaster problem. I haven't read the DMG section on creating PrCs yet, if they gave [bold]excellent[/bold] guidelines to creating these type of PrCs this might be somewhat reduced as a source of irritation.

 

[Uller]

Hey y'all...I've been away for a while (too long) but I'm back.

*Allowing spontaneous casters (Sorcs/Bards) to exchange spells as they go up levels.

This is actually a rule now? Cool...I've had a house rule that allowed this since 3e came out. I started using it just because my group was getting to know 3e (and D&D and RPGs) so I didn't want people to be locked in to spells (and even feats) that they hated. So if they don't use a spell for an entire level, they can exchange it upon level up. We had many debates round here and some people were very much against "retroactive" changes to characters (for the life of me I never understood why they thought it was retroactive...people change in RL, no?)

What is the "3.5" version of the rule?

 

[jester47]

I LOVE the wilderness adventures section. Forests and marshes have become quite deadly! It becomes real easy to make up a random battle area with a 200 square map (it becomes a 100 square map if you do everything in 10' squares).

I really like the rules for trees. Should have been there in 3.0. Also the fact that you can mix and match terrain types is really cool. For instance if you need spacely forested rugged hills, you know what the percentage of the map will have "typical trees" slopes cliffs and light undergrowth.

There are some great tools in the wilderness section. I like that addition, even though it is geared toward the minis. It makes making the maps for random terrain much much easier.

I wish I had this when the pary's rogue gnome (that is a gnome that is a rogue rather than a gnome that has simply wandered off) was running from a wizard on a Wyvern.

Aaron.

 

[Simplicity]

Druids can spontaneously cast summon nature's ally. Best change in the book.

Bard Perform was fixed. No more grabbing 1 level of bard and
then cross-class your way to high-level bard powers.

Familiars in three sizes: Wee, not so wee, and FRIGGEN HUGE!
(From Tome and Blood, but still good stuff to make core).

Skeletons and zombies are templates now! About time...

Liches are MUCH tougher unless you know the MM very well. Have you checked out the DR on a lich lately?

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Wee, not so wee, and FRIGGEN HUGE!

I love that line.

Things I think were improved in 3.5:

* DR. I like the fact that DR can have varying degrees of effectiveness, instead of the all-or-nothing it was before. Now a party can overcome creatures for which they don't have the proper DR "key"...though it will likely cost far more resources than it would have.

* Bards casting in armor.

* More smites for the paladin. Possibly the new poke-mount, though I haven't seen it in play yet to say.

* Heal/Harm.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Uller the rule for Sorcerors to change the spells they know is:

1 spell can be changed everytime they get a level. The spell to be changed is one 2 lvls below the maximum spell lvl.

So at 6th lvl Sorcerors can cast 3rd level spells. So he can change one of his 1st lvl known spells. At 4th lvl it starts I think when he can cast 2nd lvl spells and consequently change a ZERO lvl spell.

I agree that its one of the good changes... help the sorceror not feel stupid he got Sleep spell.

 

[reapersaurus]

(neither of us felt that spell casters were overpowered before)

what kind of context are you coming from?
Must be low level.... Cause if you've seen 5th level spells and above being used, I don't see how you could possibly not think magic is overpowering in D&D? (save or die, etc.)

 

[Cedric]

what kind of context are you coming from?
Must be low level.... Cause if you've seen 5th level spells and above being used, I don't see how you could possibly not think magic is overpowering in D&D? (save or die, etc.)

I started out playing 1st edition...a high level spell caster should be able to do these things.

I've never had a problem with save or die spells. I believe that the high level wizard should be unparalleled in terms of handing out destruction....he still has to rely on his companions for many things.

In first edition a misplaced fireball was a thing to be feared. In 3rd edition my 3/3/5 cleric/wizard/mystic theurge cannot possibly kill himself outright with two fireballs.

Spell damage caps in accordance with level...but you just keep rolling hit points, and anyone can get +4 or more per level hit points from con.

I've always felt that spell casters were watered down in 3.0...3.5 just made it worse.

Cedric

 

[Plane Sailing]

The jump skill. Brilliantly simple and usable now.