D&D 3E/3.5 Best 3.5 rules?

[Angrydad]

This is directed at StreamoftheSky a bit. I too was greatly thrilled by a uniform level advancement system. No more, "The thief is now level 15! Wizard, you're only level 10". I never really liked or understood why one class required more experience to gain levels than another. It made wizards, who have always been squishy at low levels, stay squishier longer than other classes, which just decreased their appeal for my players.

Also, I never thought about readying an action to just step out of the way of a charge. Next time my players try it on some monster I'll be ready. They're going to hate me. Well, the frenzied berserker, who is most likely to make a charge early on, is going to hate me, but then utterly rape a few baddies and then go bananas on the party. All in all, I'd say it sounds like D&D to me.

 

[Creamsteak]

Even with all its faults, I loved the multiclassing. It had some mechanical flaws (multiclassing spellcasters), but the good outweighed the bad in my experience.

Skills, as mentioned above, were very customizable. In certain games simpler systems are better, but I still think the full-blown skills pallette was a useful set of rules.

Uniform resolution mechanic (the d20 roll + modifiers). Lots of other games have also had it, but it's still something worth mentioning.

 

[blargney the second]

Uniform resolution mechanic (the d20 roll + modifiers). Lots of other games have also had it, but it's still something worth mentioning.

That's a good point. You kind of take these things for granted after a while.

I actually used to hate the d20 system. It took some time for me to understand and appreciate the elegance and simplicity of it. Namely, time behind the DM screen.
-blarg

 

[roguerouge]

Remember how in second edition, thieves had nothing to gain after tenth level other than a few hit points? Their skills were pretty much maxed out by that point and it took several levels for your attack to get marginally better. So, making sure that every level for every class made your character a bit better is the best rule of the third edition for me.

 

[krupintupple]

a modular multiclassing mechanic.

i love being able to stack differing classes together to get different results. i find it more realistic than the "Congratulations, you've graduated Fighter College. Have fun being a Fighter for the rest of your whole life."

also, it was far superior to "that other" edition that had dual-classing, which was just an excuse to see how far you could ruin the game; and a horrid multi-classing mechanic, which basically said that a 9th Mage/9th Warrior was just about the same XP as a 10th Warrior, but it sure didn't pan out this way:

"Ha! I'm a 10th Warrior. Fear my gargantuan hit points and my triple longsword specialization!"

"Yawn. I'm going to polymorph into an ogre and cast giant's strength, shield and fly on myself, and then attack him from above with my sword.....using MY triple longsword specialization!"

"...oh...crap."

 

[GlassEye]

Fortitude, Reflex, & Will saves.

Low-light vision & darkvision (instead of infravision).

 

[Derro]

a modular multiclassing mechanic

While it was one of the greatest innovations of 3e it is also one of its deadliest loopholes. Combined with Favored Class, which was meant to curtail abuse, some of the most ridiculous rules-ravishing I have ever seen resulted from multi-classing.

Don't get me wrong, I luvs me some good multi-classing, but sometimes the sheer open-ended-ness of 3e multi-classing got ugly.

I always liked the way WFRPG did it with career entrances and exits. That game had it own violent problems though.

 

[green slime]

Specifically 3.5? I'm hard pressed, to be honest. I can't quite remember all the miniscule changes between 3.0, and 3.5, except those I didn't like.

Looking at 3.5 specifically (as opposed to the generic 3.x or 3.0):

The further improved Psionics for 3.5 was once again a step ahead, by far the best psionics implementation in DnD. Not without faults, but still the best psionic rule set for DnD yet.

IIRC, there were some minor changes to Barbarians, Monks and Bards, that I appreciated.

Craft (Alchemy)

The removal of Scry (although it needed to grow on me, that one)

The Mystic Theurge PrC was a fantastic boon.
​

Looking at 3.0 specifically:

Spell cones actually increasing with level (vs 3.5)
Wizard Specialisation costing a single school, rather than two. (vs 3.5)
Paladin's turning undead at 3rd level. (vs 3.5)
The rules for cover and concealment (vs 3.5)
Bows and arrows stacking for damage (vs 3.5)
​

Looking at 3.x genericly:

d20 mechanic
three tier system for attack bonus
two tier system for saves
three save categories
Skills
Single XP-level table
sneak attack
AoO
Multiclassing (except for monks and paladins)
Lifting of racial restrictions
Magic item creation
​

IMO, 3.5 created just as many problems as it attempted to solve.

 

[Kylas]

Sorry if this seems like a edition comparison. I can't really judge other editions as I never really played any others except for CRPGS like BG1, BG2, Icewind Dale etc.

WOW I cannot belive no when mentioned the switch from THACO to 'higher is better'. Yeah I know it's not that hard to understand THACO once your used to it. Bbut being baptized into the Temple of DnD, during the 3.0 reformation I never had to mentally calculate THACO. And every year or so my 2.0 buddies gotta remind me how to do it again.

-That the rules, and the fact there are so many for various things, reduces DM fiat to the lowest level of any edition IMO. And I think that's nice both for the players and the DM. I know when I'm DMing, I hate having to make up rules and DCs on the spot. Mostly because I worry too much if I'm being fair when I do so.

I have to completely agree here. My group splits campaign time between me and another DM. He has his own 2.0 inspired house rules mixed in. I used to cringe whenever our groups rouge would fail sneak attack because of facing. It wasn't until I read a 2.0 PHB that I began to understand. Almost every rule has a variation of the phrase "remeber to use Rule 0 as needed" inserted somewhere or another.

-As I mentioned earlier flanking, flat footed and bacstab.

Specifically 3.5? I'm hard pressed, to be honest. I can't quite remember all the miniscule changes between 3.0, and 3.5, except those I didn't like.

Looking at 3.0 specifically:

Spell cones actually increasing with level (vs 3.5)
Wizard Specialisation costing a single school, rather than two. (vs 3.5)
Paladin's turning undead at 3rd level. (vs 3.5)
The rules for cover and concealment (vs 3.5)
Bows and arrows stacking for damage (vs 3.5)
​

I do like the specialization and cover and concealment. Though I wish those were standardized in a way that was easier to remember without looking it up.

Uh oh...Magic from bows and arrows stopped stacking in 3.5??? Where is that rule. Looks like I got some 'splainin' to do.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I love the following:

High is good and the d20+modifiers resolution - So much simpler now than in 2E. "Wait, I have a negative AC and that's good? WTF? "

Simplified saves - I can't even remember all the previous categories but if there was a logic to how they were split up I couldn't see it. Fortitude, Reflex and Will is a lot simpler and more logical.

Divine Feats - Gives Clerics something to use those Turn Undead uses on when not fighting undead.

Reserve Feats - Stops the 5 minute adventuring day and gives casters something else to do besides bringing out the crossbow. It also creates an interesting decision for thae player as to whether to use a high-level spell now or save it so you can continue to use the Reserve Feat.

Skills - A big improvement again over the Non-Weapon Proficiency rules of 2E. I like the granularity of them as it can differentiate 2 PC's of the same level and class. I haven't seen 4E but I would be disappointed if they have scaled this back too much.

Feats - Another nice improvement to the Proficiencies concept.

Metamagic Feats - Sometimes these can be encounter killers, "Sudden Maximised Empowered X anyone?" but overall I think they are an interesting addition to the rules.

Multiclassing - I like the less restrictive multiclassing rules in 3.xE. They can be abused by some players to create broken characters but overall I like the fact that your race doesn't automatically limit your multiclassing abilities like it did in previous editions.

Olaf the Stout