3.5 vs. 3e?

[Uller]

Okay...I've been gone from the boards for a few months and I come back to find that there is a 3.5 in the works. So the last few days I've been poking around Morrus' 3.5 page and reading 3.5 related threads (the holy wars have already started! ).

Now...I've a question for the D&D community:

Do you plan on shifting over to 3.5? How do you plan on doing it (from a technical standpoint...not from a role-play stand point)? Are you going to go out and buy all three new books and toss your 3e ones? Will the new rules work their way into the SRD? What about common community tools like PCGen?

Also...what if I decide to pluck down the $90 for the new books but my players don't? Will they be incompatable or will my players just not have certain new options available?

My group doesn't seem real interested in buying new rule books at this point. I think our consensus is that if the new rules are put into the SRD, then we'll try to integrate them (at least the ones we like). Otherwise, we'll just keep right on playing 3e...

 

[EricNoah]

It's going to be a tricky transition for me, if it happens at all. I'm now in 4 groups (DMing one, playing in 3). It's going to get real weird real fast if some groups want to change and others don't. A lot will depend on the level of computer support available on release and afterwards. Fortunately I've got so much material now that I could go another couple of years and then pick up 3.5 sometime down the road if I have the urge.

 

[reezel]

I know I'm about ready to have my books next month. I'm totally excited for 3.5. And, well, I think I'm pretty much getting everyone else in my group in a anticiaption for it. I think we'll all probably take a trip to our local gaming store the day they're out to pick up our reserve copies.

 

[reiella]

I don't know. Depending on how much funds I have available, honestly.

I'll probably make a shift for new campaigns, but beyond that, I don't know.

So I'll wait and see I guess .

 

[Dinkeldog]

I'll probably make the change close to immediately. As it is, I anticipate very little change in things that would make it difficult to switch over. It'll probably be more like accepting a set of common houserules.

 

[Li Shenron]

Do you plan on shifting over to 3.5? How do you plan on doing it (from a technical standpoint...not from a role-play stand point)? Are you going to go out and buy all three new books and toss your 3e ones? Will the new rules work their way into the SRD?

For the first weeks after the news about 3.5e came out, I have been thinking that the revision would have been much less critical than expected by most of the people in this board. Many people started threads about "what would you like to have in the revised core rulebooks?" and everone, including me , had fun with a long long long list of what basically is already his own set of house rules about what we don't like in 3e, even if way too often we have never really tried as it is in the official rule.

Seeing so many "tweaks" suggested or wished by everyone, I was expecting common disappointment at the time the revised books will be published, because I was quite confident that the revision was exactly a revision, that is mainly a layout-redesign and better explanations or wording of everything (or at least most) that has created doubts and misunderstanding in the past. I was sure that, except some balance changes to few spells and maybe skills and monsters, nothing important was going to be changed, since the much proclaimed 100% compatibility of the revision with everything else before published.

Neverthless, in the meantime many little scoops have been flowing from WotC to our board about changes that involve things that were perfectly working (like DR, or core classes), although not necessarily perfect; as long as I strongly believe there can never be a "perfect" design which satisfies all DMs and players, on the overall I am preparing myself for fiery debates on this board next summer, and I am quite sure that the more gets changed from 3e, the more "personal" mixes between 3e and 3,5e will be played around the community. After all, isn't it what every DM does? He takes the rules and settings and changes them according to what he likes better: publishing a revision which basically gives alternatives which are not necessarily improvements is not IMHO in the spirit of 3e, which encourages DMs to write variants by themselves.

Personally, I can't tell you yet what I will do: I have always been supporting official rules over house rules (including mine), and therefore I'll prefer to stick either to 3e or 3.5e, not mix the two if any change is very relevant, such as if core classes get changed. In any way, I won't move to 3.5 at all if it makes my collection of accessory books obsolete.

 

[Psion]

Do you plan on shifting over to 3.5? How do you plan on doing it (from a technical standpoint...not from a role-play stand point)? Are you going to go out and buy all three new books and toss your 3e ones?

I'll take what I want and leave the rest. the revisions for class skills that have been airing over the last few days sound very promising/sensible and sound like things I'll adopt immediately. However, the DR thing promises to be a compatability nightmare and I find the "everything's square" convention stupid; if I am going to use mini's, their representation/shape on the board is going to mean something!

 

[Sagan Darkside]

Salutations,

I will have to wait and see all the changes. Making a decision now is a bit pointless.

If they add some high level combat feats, then the odds are pretty good I will be getting them.

SD

 

[Tzarevitch]

Assuming what I have heard is true, I will almost certainly change my game over ASAP. I'd change earlier if I could get some positive confirmation about what the changes definately will be. Many of the changes I have heard about are ones I have been begging for since 3e came out. I house-ruled haste, heal, harm and teleport (among others) some time ago and I have nothing but high hopes for the proposed non-hierarchical DR system.

Tzarevitch

 

[DonAdam]

My group and I will go through the books.

We'll keep what we like, change what we like.

We'll probably take a bunch of stuff in the new rules as inspiration for our own house rules (we have quite a few).