Am I the only 3.0 grognard left?

[Chainsaw Mage]

I personally HATE 3.5e (or 3.$e) with a passion. The release of 3.5e nearly killed D&D for me all together.

What troubles me most about 3.$ is it reveals the utter cynicism that WotC has for its customers. They released a brand-new revision to the game--nice, shiny new books making the previous ones "obsolete" (love those metaphors!)--a mere THREE YEARS after the first game was released. And they didn't even worry that it MIGHT turn their fan base off. Guess what? They were right not to worry! The WotC drones obediently went out and bought 3.$.

IF they released 4th edition next year, I guarantee you that most people who now own 3.5 would obediently run out and buy it.

Suckers.

 

[Desdichado]

Am I the only one who loves 3.0? Who prefers it, even? Seems there are more AD&D 1/2e die hards than 3.0...

3.5 was completely unnecessary, and as many bad changes as good went into it. I have no use for it, other than the much improved Monster Manual. I have no plans to update my books.

 

[Desdichado]

I converted. In my opinion the differences were so minimal that it can hardly even be called a 'conversion'. I'm curious as to what it is exactly the 3e folks like better about 3.0 than 3.5. The additional cost is inconvenient, but you could always just use the 3.5 updates that were posted with your 3.0 books.

If the differences were so minimal, why convert at all?

How do you handle new material? I'm not aware of any companies producing 3.0 specific material. Do you just play the new stuff 'as is', do you simply convert the most obvious differences, or do you simply not use any newer products?

There's not as much new material coming out that I'm interested in as there is old material that I already own. Besides, as you said, the differences are pretty minimal. 3.5 stuff is 99% usable as is in a 3e game.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I don't know a lot of people who still play 3.0, but I do know a bunch who play 3.25... Taking the rules they like from 3 and sticking them in 3.5 or the rules they like from 3.5 and sticking them in 3.0 depending on how you like to look at it.

The Auld Grump, For me I think it is 3.45... almost, but not quite 3.5.

 

[Zweischneid]

I use 3.0.

Besides not being worth the investment, I consider practically all the changes of 3.5 to be for the worse.

Weapon size and Summoned Paladin Mounts alone are no-go's as far as I am concerned. I also despise Miníatures.

There are also a few 3.0 Ranger Variants out there (Monte Cook for one) that I prefer greatly over the 3.5 Ranger.

 

[Numion]

I use 3.0e too. For me it wasn't about reluctance to move onwards or being a proud grodnard. Some of tha chances were welcome, some weren't in 3.5e. The bottom line was that even though 3.5e is better than 3.0e, the improvement is so small that it doesn't warrant spending 100 euros.

OTOH I really don't understand what people keep babbling about converting adventures and such from 3.5 -> 3.0, because I've never felt the need to do so. I just use 3.5 adventures in 3.0 straight. It works like a charm. Maybe the stat blocks have wrong amount of skill points or wrong feats, but what does that matter? It doesn't to me, and my players haven't complained. Rekognize!

 

[Khairn]

3E here as well.

3.5 had a number of good changes (ranger, bard to name but 2) but seemed to be more a collection of untested House Rules, rather than the improved revision it was toted to be.

Weapon sizes, buff duration, Gnomish Bards , square monsters, and the ever popular DR changes resulting in the golf bag o weapons were just a few of the things that irritated me and the gamers I play with.

3.25 is our system of choice right now

 

[Allanon]

I use 3.25 combined with some home-tweaking to suit my style.
I've only bought the 3.5 PH and MM via eBay for 28 euros (including shipping) cause I can't say no to a good deal and in hindsight the 3.5 MM is a lot better than the 3.0 one was, except for the idiotic "place the templates all through the book" approach WotC used. The 3.5 PH is handy because I use most of the cleaned up combat rules.

But my players still use the 3.0 PH and the 3.0 spells, except we changed (even before 3.5 due to a certain player using extended spells) the buff durations to 10min/lev.

One thing to in response to both Chainsaw Mage and Shadow's comment on 3.5 (using $ doesn't help, make you cooler, or adds weight to you're statements so please refrain from using 1337 speak if you're trying to have a normal discussion/conversation).
Wizards made the SRD's free for download and provided a conversion document. Sure they're not as good as the real thing and printing them out and reading them is a hassle but if you'd have taken the time to look up the profound changes, see if you wanted them and then print out the relevant pages for your players you wouldn't be forced to spend money and could use the 'updated' rules for free, making the use of newer 3.5 product problem free.

 

[Orius]

I don't think the differences are as severe as some people are saying. I haven't bought the new books because I too don't have the $90 just to plunk down to replace books I'm already happy with. I've noticed 3.5 also added some stuff from the splatbooks/supplements; again that's not a huge problem, because I have some of the splatbooks/supplements and were I don't there's the SRD. From reading over parts of the SRD, some of the changes look good, and the clarifications are helpful, but why buy the books when I can just edit the files and print out the changes for reference?

 

[RuminDange]

Count me as another that sticks to 3.0E, however, more like 3.25 counting all the house rule tweaks to classes and stuff. I much prefer clerics being different depending on deity more than the domains give them. I customize Rangers and Paladins as well depending on the deity they follow. (Rangers follow deities IMC, and Druids follow the nature goddess).
I did borrow some of the changes from the SRD for 3.$ to help customize rangers, paladins, and others. Weapon sizes were already being used to a degree and I'm working out my own DR changes.

I doubt I'll move to 4E if and when it comes out. But if they keep putting out the SRD, who knows what may be borrowed.

As far as new books, I get the ones that interest me or have something I like, and anything that is 3.$ gets changed if I use it to suit my campaign.

RD