D&D 3E/3.5 Are You Still Playing D&D 3.0?

[teitan]

I am going to say a blasphemous thing but... while they look the same and have similar rules... 3.5 and 3e are not the same. The whole philosophy changed in those few short years from the original design to the release of 3.5. You can follow that change in how WOTC wanted us to play D&D in Dragon Magazine, often times straight up ignoring rules for multi-classing, talking about builds and such. Also watching the WOTC forums at the time you could see a sea change occurring in how people played as players and the gradual removal of the DM's hand from running the game that did start with 3e. Looking at 3.5's core book it's not so apparent but the change to the multi-class rules on an official level and then the release of ALL THOSE SPLATS! Within the year it didn't resemble classic D&D at all so 3.5 & Pathfinder aren't the same as 3.0 and older D&D. Still D&D but very much a D&D driven by the Ivory Tower/SYstem Mastery reward mindset rather than "my character is so cool" and instead "I can defeat Elminster because my ECL is 10 levels higher even though I am technically 16th level and can do more damage with one hit than he has hit points".

 

[Mecheon]

Why in nine hells would I suffer that "#$% if I can play 3.5/PF1?

Neverwinter Nights still runs off 3.0

Once you get me a D&D game that could pull off the wonders that toolset could, that's when i can actually remove 3.0 from my brain entirely. But, that doesn't seem likely to happen

 

[Voadam]

I am going to say a blasphemous thing but... while they look the same and have similar rules... 3.5 and 3e are not the same. The whole philosophy changed in those few short years from the original design to the release of 3.5. You can follow that change in how WOTC wanted us to play D&D in Dragon Magazine, often times straight up ignoring rules for multi-classing, talking about builds and such. Also watching the WOTC forums at the time you could see a sea change occurring in how people played as players and the gradual removal of the DM's hand from running the game that did start with 3e. Looking at 3.5's core book it's not so apparent but the change to the multi-class rules on an official level and then the release of ALL THOSE SPLATS! Within the year it didn't resemble classic D&D at all so 3.5 & Pathfinder aren't the same as 3.0 and older D&D. Still D&D but very much a D&D driven by the Ivory Tower/SYstem Mastery reward mindset rather than "my character is so cool" and instead "I can defeat Elminster because my ECL is 10 levels higher even though I am technically 16th level and can do more damage with one hit than he has hit points".

What changes to multiclassing?

 

[Samloyal23]

I miss 3.5, it had just the right amount of crunch and granularity for me. The advantage/disadvantage rule in 5E feels wishy-washy. If D&D had just stopped at either 3.0 or 3.5, I would have been a happy camper. Feat chains were great for customizing a character, they just gave you so many possible options. The meager list in 5E just does not cut it.

 

[oreofox]

I have thought about going back to original 3e. I've thought about going back to 2e as well. I love 5e and thankfully haven't had much in the way of terrible experiences. If I had the free time and the motivation, I have been tossing around the idea of cobbling together a mix of 2e, 3e, PF and 5e into a horrible monstrosity, that could possibly be fun.

I miss original 3e. While I kinda liked some of the changes to 3.5, it did lose a little something. I found somewhere online where someone went through the 3 core books (I don't know if they did the supplemental books or not) and documented everything that changed. And apparently, a hell of a lot of stuff was changed. I do think PF1e improved greatly on the 3rd edition system, it was based off 3.5.

Would I join a 3e game if I had the chance? I don't know. I'd have to really think on it. Would I run one myself? I'd be changing a lot of stuff so I don't know if I'd be able to call it a 3e game.

 

[DeadlyUematsu]

I will. Given that I'm a person who actually run games, my next D&D game will be 3.0e with a strictly enforced AD&D play style.

 

[Orius]

Wow... I admitted I was wrong AND it livened up an inactive thread?! Quick, someone check the temperature in Hell...TWICE!

 

[Orius]

Why in nine hells would I suffer that "#$% if I can play 3.5/PF1?

Some of us are still a bit salty over how soon 3.5 was released and how much it necessitated buying material all over again. And I'm with the people who feel 3.0 has better compatibility with AD&D, not just in mechanics but also in feel. Particularly the feel.

And if 3.0 was so bad as WotC wanted us to believe, why'd they reprint so much stuff early in 3.5? And if the stuff was as compatible as they'd have us believe, then why would they have needed to reprint it anyway?

But overall, it IS a commercially dead edition. This means as a DM, I can take whatever bits of 3.0 and 3.5 I want and use them as I see fit. Since it's unlikely new stuff will be published, I can make it my own without new stuff interfering just as fans of OD&D, 1e, 2e, B/X, BECMI, and RC do.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Some of us are still a bit salty over how soon 3.5 was released and how much it necessitated buying material all over again. And I'm with the people who feel 3.0 has better compatibility with AD&D, not just in mechanics but also in feel. Particularly the feel.

I have to admit that I don't quite remember all the differences between 3.0 and 3.5.

 

[teitan]

Voadamn: What changes to multiclassing?

They created favored class rules when before you had to have all your classes that weren’t prestige classes within 1 level of each other or face steeper XP penalties. So waiting until 5th level as a Fighter to take a level of Wizard was a steep XP penalty. Level dipping wasn’t a thing because you couldn’t just take a level or two and call it quits... RAW. So taking 1 level of ranger for 2W fighting was not by the book.

In 3.5 they introduced the favored class by race rules where each race had their own favored class like Gnome was Bard, and you didn’t take any XP penalties for favored class level disparities. a player could designate his favored class if they played a human.

I also recall but could be wrong that they lessened the XP impact of multiclassing but I’ve not looked at a 3.5 book in over a decade.