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<blockquote data-quote="PapersAndPaychecks" data-source="post: 3338968" data-attributes="member: 28854">In my opinion 3.x is not a major improvement and I imagine you will see little benefit in making the switch.&nbsp; If your group is enjoying 2e, play that.3.x is a massive paradigm shift.&nbsp; In some ways it's closer to 1e than 2e was (e.g. with the focus on dungeons), but in other ways it's a game entirely on its own.The design principles of 3.x were to try to maximise balance between the player character classes and flexibility in character design.&nbsp; On the flexibility, I think they succeeded well; on the balance, perhaps not so much.&nbsp; But a key thing to understand is that these changes were for the benefit of players, and I think they had two real costs:1.&nbsp; Relative to 2e, 3.x disempowers the GM; and2.&nbsp; Character creation is a more complex and elaborate process.In fact, I think character creation and optimisation is almost a separate sub-game within the 3.x paradigm.&nbsp; People who're good at it, and understand how to optimise their feat combinations, create much more effective characters than people who don't worry so much about optimisation.&nbsp; This is in itself a balance issue replacing the issues that 3.x resolved (in the sense that character classes are balanced against each other, but an understanding of the character creation subgame will unbalance the process in favour of those who can do it well).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="PapersAndPaychecks, post: 3338968, member: 28854"] [b]In my opinion[/b] 3.x is not a major improvement and I imagine you will see little benefit in making the switch. If your group is enjoying 2e, play that. 3.x is a massive paradigm shift. In some ways it's closer to 1e than 2e was (e.g. with the focus on dungeons), but in other ways it's a game entirely on its own. The design principles of 3.x were to try to maximise balance between the player character classes and flexibility in character design. On the flexibility, I think they succeeded well; on the balance, perhaps not so much. But a key thing to understand is that these changes were for the benefit of [b]players[/b], and I think they had two real costs: 1. Relative to 2e, 3.x disempowers the GM; and 2. Character creation is a more complex and elaborate process. In fact, I think character creation and optimisation is almost a separate sub-game within the 3.x paradigm. People who're good at it, and understand how to optimise their feat combinations, create much more effective characters than people who don't worry so much about optimisation. This is in itself a balance issue replacing the issues that 3.x resolved (in the sense that character classes are balanced against each other, but an understanding of the character creation subgame will unbalance the process in favour of those who can do it well). [/QUOTE]

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