Down with the negativity! Tell me what you like about 3E.

[iblis]

Skills - Needed, and they make the whole rpg worth playing IMO.
Feats - As above. And they also make for characters with more and more individuality within the game mechanics.
Every stat really matters - About time, too. Why bother otherwise?
Saving Throws - Finally, they've been streamlined into something plausible and workable.
Multiclassing - It works and makes a whole lot more sense now. Yay...finally!
Level limits? Nah, who needs 'em. - Rampant stupidity once more flees the scene.
'Monsters' with proper stats, skills, feats etc. - Required IMO, and heaps more interesting, to boot.
SRD, OGL and other friendly acronyms - These policies have changed things for the better immeasurably. Simple as that.
More varied combat - Ah...options!

...

Actually, that last word sums up a lot of it for me : OPTIONS, but more specifically ones that work. Also COMMON SENSE. Thank all the deities for that little detail too.

However, there are just too many reasons to list, and besides, most (all?) of them have probably already been posted on this thread.

Overall, a resounding 'me too' from me, too!

 

[JoeGKushner]

NO THAC0! Woo-hoo! What you roll is what you hit (WYRIWYH!)

3rd party products! (I mean, really. Especially to those of us old enough to remember Judges Guild and RoleAids).

I quoted the parts here I liked.

Let me add no more combat Matrix. That was worse than Thaco.

I like one XP table for all the classes.

I like the concept of PrCs and actually the execution of some PrCs.

Feats are neat.

Eberron. I dig it. It hasnt' made me cancel my FR game or anything, but it had added a lot of pilfering material to my campagin.

WoTC willing to change their direction and listen to fans. Expanded Psionics Handbook was much better than the first one. New adventurers are a good thing. Increased core support is a good thing.

Getting rid of % Strength. God, as a GM I hated that. As a player, I hated it even worse.

Getting rid of the limit on bonus hit points for non-fighters.

Lots of other things I'm sure to bem issing but those are up there.

 

[Psion]

Getting rid of % Strength. God, as a GM I hated that. As a player, I hated it even worse.

That was one of the first things I thought of when I saw this thread, but didn't post it because this wasn't a "what do you hate about prior editions" thread. But it's sort of implicit in my statement about unified ability tables.

 

[Desdichado]

The folks who are calling "no THAC0" an "innovation" really need to get out more.

 

[fredramsey]

People who spend their time posting on Role-Playing Game messageboards probably need to get out more too, but to each his own

Before -

DM: What did you roll?
Player: 19
DM: What's your THAC0?
Player: 12
DM: Uh, ok. 19-12=7, you hit -7 or better... er, ok, you hit.
(And -10 was all there was, kiddies. And the gods only had 400 hp)

Now -

DM: What did you roll?
Player: 19
DM: (Sees the monster has an AC of 15) That's a hit! Roll damage.

Ahh, much better.

The folks who are calling "no THAC0" an "innovation" really need to get out more.

 

[Desdichado]

Oh, sure it's better. That's not my point. But it's hardly an innovation, since every roleplaying game other than D&D was already doing it when 3e was released.

 

[Psion]

Oh, sure it's better. That's not my point. But it's hardly an innovation, since every roleplaying game other than D&D was already doing it when 3e was released.

I didn't think this thread was about innovations (looks at titles).

3e has a few things I would call innovative (take 10 and take 20 is something I have yet to see any parallel of), but for the most part, it's not about innovation. It's about well known and well honed techniques.

 

[fredramsey]

But we weren't TALKING about other game systems, we were talking about D&D.

There truly is nothing new under the sun, but we were asked what we liked about 3E. You derided people who pointed out NO THAC0 as something they liked, and rather snidely to boot. I responded.

Oh, sure it's better. That's not my point. But it's hardly an innovation, since every roleplaying game other than D&D was already doing it when 3e was released.

 

[Narfellus]

Has anyone realised how much time you actually must invest into a rpg before you can pick out the mechanics that work and don't work? It's mind boggling really, and very cool, that communities can get together and trade quips and quotes and ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE TO EACH OTHER. Sorry, a little off topic. I'll tie it in:

I like that DnD can be easily taught to newcomers in baby steps, incorporating vast reams of information into relatively few words and expectations. It's a hard game to learn from scratch and to play it WELL, but DnD is modular enough that it can be done. The same system allows for 1st bugstompers to 31st level cosmic deities, all under the same engine (even though the engine does sort of break down at high level. oh well)

 

[Desdichado]

But we weren't TALKING about other game systems, we were talking about D&D.

There truly is nothing new under the sun, but we were asked what we liked about 3E. You derided people who pointed out NO THAC0 as something they liked, and rather snidely to boot. I responded.

Uh, the posts I was responding to said that among "3e's innovations" was "no THAC0." If you never made any such claim, then my post was not directed at you. No need to be so defensive.