D&D 3E/3.5 3E+4E rules campaign possible?

[Cringer_luvr]

Has anyone mixed systems yet? taken ideas from the 4E rules and layerd them onto the 3E rules set? maybe even tossed some pathfinder in the mix? I was considering away to mix all 3 systems...IE: take the best bits of all 3 and see what can be made, anyone else got ideas on this how to do this or have already done this? I want to see what you have/come up with please, thanks.

 

[darkadelphia]

Which elements of 3e would you be interested in including?

 

[Nytmare]

I know I wasn't the only person mixing every scrap of fourth ed stuff I could get my hands on into my third ed game circa 7 or 8 months ago.

I'm trying to remember what the first couple of rules we worked in were... We had been doing static saves for a couple years. Maybe minions were the first? Relegating different abilities to at will/encounter/daily?

 

[Pyre_Born]

Mixing it up

Has anyone tried using the 4e paragon paths to supplement 3e classes (instead of prestige classes)?

 

[That One Guy]

Has anyone tried using the 4e paragon paths to supplement 3e classes (instead of prestige classes)?

Sort of. When I was running a 3.x game a few years ago I made up prestige classes for people that were pretty much added bonuses/etc. that they started gaining as soon as they got to level 11. It worked really well. But, I have not tried using the official paragon paths from 4e. I do know that WotC made some Epic Destinies for 3.x

 

[Raven Swords]

I had minions in my 3rd ed game (although they took more than a single blow to kill)

 

[timbannock]

I've used the ideas of monster design for my NPCs and badguys in 3.x: give them a smaller suite of powers (or maybe a couple more, for those low-level monsters that have like 1 or 2 claw and bite attacks and nothing else of interest), give them max hp (plus Con score sometimes), and add a few status conditions into the mix.

I like having the PCs roll the dice (turning saves into defenses), but for some reason my players are resistant to the math, so that never seems to work out well.

I've used minions in my 3.x campaign, and I've also used Action Points that are more aligned with 4e: they have 3 benefits, of which you choose 1 when you spend it:

1. heal half your normal max hp as an immediate action
2. auto-succeed a single die roll
3. take an extra move, standard, or swift action

I give out Action Points at a rate of 1 per session + 1-2 for really good roleplaying.

I find that to be the best way to mix-and-match: 3.x is (to me) a "character" system, in that PCs have tons of options and get to niggle and fiddle to their hearts desire. But 4e had a lot of great streamlining and making the DM's job easier. So, I mixed the two in that way and got an easy-to-prep 3rd edition game where the players have all the options from the metric buttload of 3.x books.

 

[Henry]

I absolutely love the ease of monster and trap creation in DMing 4th edition. By contrasts, most of our group's players are getting along well with 4th edition, but a couple of them are much happier with many of the character options in 3e, as well as the way some of the feats and so forth worked. 3e multiclassing, for all its power problems, is much more beloved by the players.

I've been thinking how to blend the two, and I've been thinking thusly: Use 4e's monster rules, and 3e's rules for the players, but imposing some sort of number caps on certain aspects, such as attack bonuses, skill bonuses, Armor class, etc. Perhaps a cap of no more than 5 plus 1/2 their level for attacks, no more than 20 + 1/2 their level for AC, etc. etc. -- whatever would numerically be attainable within the bounds of 4e's numbers by level. I haven't done any playing with the math, but I'm thinking I should be able to find a point which works 75% of the time across 1st through 20th level for these statistics, which would allow the players the variety they want, but allow me easy game prep for the monsters, skill challenges, traps, etc.

 

[the Jester]

Alcar runs a bastard fusion of 2e, 3e and 4e plus lots of homebrewing. He pretty much only posts to my story hours on ENWorld, though.