Can someone summarize the changes in STYLE OF GAMEPLAY between 3.0 and 3.5?

[Obryn]

Maybe it was due to the supplements, but I found the biggest difference was tone between 3.0 and 3.5.

3.0 "felt" lower-powered, overall. Most creatures were kind of "low-balled" or whatever, to accommodate characters with somewhat average stats, like the 25-point buy. 3.5 more or less acknowledged that everyone would have a higher power level, and upped the creatures as a result.

Like I said, this may have been related to splatbooks, but there you have it.

-O

 

[Psion]

In 3.5, DR changed to a variety of triggers. Suddenly, the type of weapon, the material it was made out of, and whether or not it was magical or aligned all mattered. Thus, it was nigh-impossible to have a single "one sword kills all" weapon, you needed a bludegoning weapon, a good weapon, a silver weapon, an adamantine weapon, etc TWO HANDED POWER ATTACK.

Fixed it for you.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Maybe it was due to the supplements, but I found the biggest difference was tone between 3.0 and 3.5.

3.0 "felt" lower-powered, overall. Most creatures were kind of "low-balled" or whatever, to accommodate characters with somewhat average stats, like the 25-point buy. 3.5 more or less acknowledged that everyone would have a higher power level, and upped the creatures as a result.

Like I said, this may have been related to splatbooks, but there you have it.

-O

Well, I am not sure about the splat book influence. Maybe for spellcasters, but most of the "martial" stuff wasn't exactly empowering. Power Attack and Improved Trip were Core, and you didn't really need more (though there were a few neat feats that made Tripping even more useful, like that feat that allowed you to trip an enemy that missed you and you had assigned Dodge against. But I think this was just adding insult to injury)

Maybe it were the new monster stats, or it were the adventures created at that time (particularly the adventure path from Dungeon), but at some point, we just gave up our strict 25 point-buy policy (and we used to look down on the lazy type of powergamers using 32 point buy or worse). The game became far to deadly, and you always ended up with similar looking, highly optimized characters. I hated never feeling able to make something like a fighter or barbarian with some charisma.

Fixed it for you.

You're right. Of course, at higher levels Holy Weapons and Undead and Evil Outsider Bane weapons also made DR meaningless.

I think the changes to the Bane weapons changed a lot. I don't think we ever used the 3.0 version, but the 3.5 one was pretty useful.

 

[Remathilis]

Fixed it for you.

Apparently, you didn't finish reading my post, or else you would have seen the two SIDE EFFECT bars directly underneath the part you quoted. The first one deals with power attack.

Reading the whole post before replying, what a concept!

 

[Psion]

Apparently, you didn't finish reading my post,

You failed your clairvoyance and/or mindreading roll.

or else you would have seen the two SIDE EFFECT bars directly underneath the part you quoted. The first one deals with power attack.

Yeah, I read and understand. The (perhaps somewhat whimsically made) point I was trying to achieve by more direct juxtaposition (subtle concept, I know) was that one "cure all DR solution" was replaced with another.

 

[billd91]

I didn't see too many style of play differences, mostly just different emphasis in build and gear to make use of the changes to the rules.

The biggest difference that gets into the issue of style was the nerfing of durations, particularly of invisibility. Once that was in place, it was a lot harder for a character with that spell to fill in for a scout for anything longer than a few minutes. The style difference was that there was actually less interchangeability between classes and the parts they play in an adventuring company.