Core concept or rule that just bugs you beyond your ability to put up with it?

[Virel]

Cyclical inititaive system - it's total lack of elegance IMO.

It's melee every bad guy waits while every good guy/gal takes their action & vice-versa. It should be easier to interleave action and disrupt accordingly. Then there is once the pattern is set it's locked in place. Inititaive should flip back and forth that is part of the random nature of combat.

Should I ever DM 3e, there may only be one house rule for the whole game but the round robin/cyclical inititaive system will be gone.

 

[Testament]

There are two solutions to that quandry: (1) make it easier to create magic items, or (2) make magical treasure less common. Actually, there is a third option: (3) explain why difficult-to-create magic items are so common in local ruins.

But with option 3 you're setting yourself up to fall into that hideous hideous trope of "Golden age long since past that we can only ever hope to faintly emulate". FRealms is the biggest offender there I think, with the Elven Kingdoms like Myth Drannor, and frickin' Netheril.

 

[FireLance]

Actually, there is a third option: (3) explain why difficult-to-create magic items are so common in local ruins.

It is a little-known fact that the Magic Item Bunny, devoted servant of the dreaded Deusex Machination, is responsible for placing magical treasure for parties of adventurers to find. His colleague and opposite number, the Disenchanting Rust Monster Filcher of Doom, makes sure that magic items disappear once they outlive their usefulness, since they cannot be bought and sold. Ever. Or belief will be unsuspended, the flavor of the setting will be lost, the fabric of the universe will unravel, or something.

 

[shilsen]

It is a little-known fact that the Magic Item Bunny, devoted servant of the dreaded Deusex Machination, is responsible for placing magical treasure for parties of adventurers to find. His colleague and opposite number, the Disenchanting Rust Monster Filcher of Doom, makes sure that magic items disappear once they outlive their usefulness, since they cannot be bought and sold. Ever. Or belief will be unsuspended, the flavor of the setting will be lost, the fabric of the universe will unravel, or something.

 

[Testament]

It is a little-known fact that the Magic Item Bunny, devoted servant of the dreaded Deusex Machination, is responsible for placing magical treasure for parties of adventurers to find. His colleague and opposite number, the Disenchanting Rust Monster Filcher of Doom, makes sure that magic items disappear once they outlive their usefulness, since they cannot be bought and sold. Ever. Or belief will be unsuspended, the flavor of the setting will be lost, the fabric of the universe will unravel, or something.

You left out the Spellgaunt from MMII.

Greatest grudge monster ever created, worse than Rust Monsters and Jovocs even.

OK, maybe not Jovocs...

 

[Kashell]

The low-light vision/darkvision item does not bother me simply because I MAKE my enemies use things to ignore vision.

Darkness spells, invisibility. As for the purpose of encounters, I tend to use listen checks more, though spot checks I use for wilderness areas.

Vision to me is purely descriptive in nature. Whoever has the further vision sees "A" first.

 

[Droogie]

Exactly. Why is it that "Magic items are supposed to be priceless and rare", but you can go into any local dungeon (there always seems to be at least one near every small town, and probably a big one near every major city) and beat up a few lowly orcs and skeletons and come away with a some +1 weapons and a small wagon-load of treasure.

D&D before 3e always had the dichotomy that making magic items was supposed to be insanely hard, permanently draining to your Constitution, very time consuming, and could only be performed by at least 11th level casters (except for scrolls and potions, which could do it just a few levels earlier), in a system where 11th level was a lot harder to achieve. So Magic Items are supposed to be rare and powerful?

Then why were they absolutely everywhere? Why were the treasure rules so stacked that 1st level PC's had a fair chance of getting magic weapons, armor, and a good supply of miscellaneous items and scrolls and potions by 4th or 5th level. Published modules always seemed to be swimming with magical loot, and I've seen PC groups have to literally take wagonloads of treasure (mostly coins, but a fair amount of magic items in there) away.

Also, the inherently ad hoc nature of 1e/2e item creation was so easily broken. To make a potion or scroll you just needed rare items from monsters or the like, which smart PC's almost always found a way to "farm" them, then they could have all the items they want. A standard gold & XP cost on creating items at least ensures that making items always costs PC's something. If you want the flavor, replace the gold cost with items they have to buy or adventure to get, but make the items have appropriate value to the GP cost.

The game always presumed you would have magic items, after all, most high level monsters required plenty of "+'s" to hit, and if you didn't have magic weapons as a high level fighter, it would get ugly since they could ignore 1,000,000 points of "normal" damage.

3.x's Magic Item system puts them all on a level playing field. If you want a Mighty Doodad of Smiting, it will cost you "X" amount of gold and "Y" amount of XP to make. The GM can scale it up if he wants a lower magic game, but there is a uniform base for campaigns to build on to establish how hard magic items are supposed to be to make.

Agree totally.

I don't understand why people think that the acquisition of magic lewt is out of control in 3e when I clearly remember the truckloads of magic items our characters collected in the old days. Flipping through 3rd edition modules and Dungeon articles, it seems to me that it's nowhere near as ludicrous.

Bucketloads of magic is a truism of the D&D world, unfortunately. Those who don't like it just house-rule it anyway. If you want a more official low-magic D&D game, I think there might be copies of Wheel of Time lying around.

I don't really get why creating your own sword +2 is any less fantastical than finding it in the treasure hoard of a local monster.

As for buying and selling magic lewt: I suppose it does take away a bit of the fun, but logically speaking, if there is enough of it lying around, a market will open up for it SOMEHOW. There is a thread about this elsewhere, so I'll end it here; sorry for the hijack.

 

[Rudar Dimble]

Cyclical inititaive system - it's total lack of elegance IMO.

It's melee every bad guy waits while every good guy/gal takes their action & vice-versa. It should be easier to interleave action and disrupt accordingly. Then there is once the pattern is set it's locked in place. Inititaive should flip back and forth that is part of the random nature of combat.

Should I ever DM 3e, there may only be one house rule for the whole game but the round robin/cyclical inititaive system will be gone.

Just roll up new initiatives every round, so players can't plan too much ahead. Makes the combat feel more chaotic.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Cyclical inititaive system - it's total lack of elegance IMO.

It's melee every bad guy waits while every good guy/gal takes their action & vice-versa. It should be easier to interleave action and disrupt accordingly. Then there is once the pattern is set it's locked in place. Inititaive should flip back and forth that is part of the random nature of combat.

Should I ever DM 3e, there may only be one house rule for the whole game but the round robin/cyclical inititaive system will be gone.

Funny that was one of the improvements to D&D imo. And I do DM. A lot (too much to be healthy really )

Anyway what don't I like about 3E? Hmmm. I'm surprised at the hatred of special vision for the demi-human races as that has been around for ages. Never really gave it a passing thought. Ditto for favoured class - also been around for a long while in a slightly different form. I guess it would be the difficulty of increasing AC without heavy duty magic. I've been toying with the idea of adding the Defense Bonus from Star Wars d20. Oh also the tiny amount of skill points each class gets per level. It should be increased by 2 across the board. Skills are fun and every class should be able to get a wider selection of them. Also Profession should be a class skill for Fighters. No question and is house ruled in my game.

 

[Narfellus]

Exactly. Why is it that "Magic items are supposed to be priceless and rare", but you can go into any local dungeon (there always seems to be at least one near every small town, and probably a big one near every major city) and beat up a few lowly orcs and skeletons and come away with a some +1 weapons and a small wagon-load of treasure.

D&D before 3e always had the dichotomy that making magic items was supposed to be insanely hard, permanently draining to your Constitution, very time consuming, and could only be performed by at least 11th level casters (except for scrolls and potions, which could do it just a few levels earlier), in a system where 11th level was a lot harder to achieve. So Magic Items are supposed to be rare and powerful?

Then why were they absolutely everywhere? Why were the treasure rules so stacked that 1st level PC's had a fair chance of getting magic weapons, armor, and a good supply of miscellaneous items and scrolls and potions by 4th or 5th level. Published modules always seemed to be swimming with magical loot, and I've seen PC groups have to literally take wagonloads of treasure (mostly coins, but a fair amount of magic items in there) away.

Well, i did add the caveat that that was how i ran MY games, and not that everyone should do it my way. I ran FR for years and got tired of the magic overhaul. Midnight is my system of choice now with it's delicately sprinkled magic items, no gold, barter system, outlawed wizards, and the best thing i've seen in years, POWER NEXUSES! In my campaigns you cannot just waltz into a dungeon and kill skeletons and orcs can waltz back out with +1 swords and gold. Nothing wrong with that style of play, i enjoyed it myself for a long time, but I like grittier stories now. And in my grittier stories wands don't grow on trees and potions don't fall out your arse.