Compiled 3.5 Revisions

[Celtavian]

Re

Thanks for compiling the list Olgar. Great info. Only a little over two weeks for these books to hit the shelves. I can barely wait.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

From p.22 of the WotC '3.5 Q&A unanswered questions' thread:

8) From the DMG: "Ammunition fired from a projectile weapon with an enhancement bonus of +1 or higher is treated as a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction."

edit: Isn't this new to 3.5e?

Yes, it's new (see about 6-8 posts above yours, or the Combat section on the first page).

I'm rather surprised by that change, as it undercuts both the Arcane Archer class, and the reason to have magic ammunition in the game -- cheaper to buy a +5 bow and use normal arrows since you no longer need the arrows to penetrate DR. OTOH, you can put all the special qualities (flaming, shocking, etc) on one weapon and just use the +x on the other, which is cheaper.

Still, it kind of hurts the AA, as a regular archer achieves the equivalent of the AA's primary special ability with just a magic bow (of course, we don't know how the AA's changed, either).

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Re: Re

Thanks for compiling the list Olgar. Great info. Only a little over two weeks for these books to hit the shelves. I can barely wait.

Me too. It'll cut down on my daily compulsve scanning of messageboards for scoops.

 

[Delemental]

With regard to the templates and terrain features they're printing in the DMG; has anyone heard if WotC plans to have those available in a downloadable version, so we don't have to cut up our books to use the templates?

 

[Grayhawk]

About normal arrows from magic bows overcomming DR:

Yes, it's new (see about 6-8 posts above yours, or the Combat section on the first page).

Oops! Sorry about repeating it then! (I checked the first page for this under 'Equipment' which is why I didn't see that you already had it up.)

I too am surprised by this change. Even if you can't apply logic to magic, it seems odd (and somewhat computergame-ish) to let a magic bow change mundane arrows into magical ones.

 

[Deadguy]

From the new images posted by GamingReport.com:

Armour (and I suspect Weapon) special abilties are divided into two categories. Those that cost an additional 'bonus', just as now (e.g. Ghost Touch +3 bonus). But others are costed at a flat price (e.g. Improved Fire Resistance +42,000gp).

I'd guessed as much from Dragon #309 where there are a couple of new special abilities for weapons that cost flat amounts. But to have a hybrid between wither flat costs and bonus costs seems a little... weird. I think I can fathom the reason - some effects are more valuable the more powerful the weapon (like the aforementioned Ghost Touch power) - but to have a halfway house seem to me untidy.

Ah well, we have to see how it's all put together in the pages they haven't scanned.

 

[Deadguy]

And I also refer you to heirodule's thread where he has a copy of the rules for the new Boccob's Blessed Book. It is 1000 pages long and specifically says it allows the owner to scribe spells without the normal scribing costs. It costs 12500gp these days.

as heirodule also notes, it's another new erratum: the scribing costs are desribed as 25 gp per page rather than 100 gp per page.

All told a VERY nice magic item now (too nice, I suspect).

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I'd guessed as much from Dragon #309 where there are a couple of new special abilities for weapons that cost flat amounts. But to have a hybrid between wither flat costs and bonus costs seems a little... weird. I think I can fathom the reason - some effects are more valuable the more powerful the weapon (like the aforementioned Ghost Touch power) - but to have a halfway house seem to me untidy.

OA uses the same thing with some abilities costing flat gold amounts and others as +x enchantments. I see this as a way to increase the cost of certain enchantments that had the flat +x and were probably worth more. Hmm...looks like I'll see more +5 weapons in my games now.

 

[Shade]

Based on the MM2 conversion guide pic from Gaming Report, it looks like the wounding property now does Constitution damage instead of ongoing hit point loss...bummer.

The greater wounding property does 2 points of Constitution damage, so I'm guessing that wounding does 1 point.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Good scoops! Here's more:

kk. Whirlwind Attack now stipulates that when you use it, you forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats or abilities (such as the Cleave feat or the haste spell). That includes TWF. On the plus side, WA now allows you to attack each creature within reach (rather than just within 5 ft.), making it useful to big critters and to characters with polearms.

(Pro: No more bag o' rats. Con: No more Whirlwind Trips with Improved Trip followups.)

Dragonhide Plate: 3,300 gp for Fullplate that Druids can wear.

Monk's unarmed strike is treated as both manufactured weapon and natural weapon for purposes of spells or effects that improve them. (e.g., Magic Weapon or Magic Fang)

·A barbarian who gains a level in another class automatically becomes literate.

·The ranger no longer has to be evil to select his own race as a favored enemy.

l. You can coup de grace a creature with total concealment, but doing so takes two full-round actions.

m. When “squeezing” into a space smaller than their size – “Difficult terrain” (example: Ogre (large) moves into 5’ wide corridor) – movement cost is doubled; ie, each square moved counts as 2 squares (5’ counts as 10’). Diagonal movement would be 3 squares. You can always make just a 5’ step, even with penalties to movement.

n. “Tall” creatures have an extra 5’ of reach where “long” creatures do not (eg: Ogre (Large, tall) has 10’ reach; horse (Large, long) has 5’ reach).

You can use a weapon 2-sizes smaller or large with a –4 penalty (provided it isn't two-handed to begin with).

v. Monster ability arrays are clarified: standard (all 10s and 11s), elite (15,14,13,12,10,8), and nonelite (13,12,11,10,9,8) before adding racial modifications.

Lots of monster & spell changes listed in the conversion guide (too numerous to list here).