I switched to 3e as soon as it came out, and I was not disappointed. The internal consistency and freedom was a big improvement over the previous editions. Early on, the edition really built on stuff that came before, and provided a lot of options for DM world building. For the player, there was a nice selection of material as well.
If there is one problem I have with 3e, it is 3.5.
I didn't like when it came out, and felt it was little more than a cash grab. Everything I've read about the release of 3.5 since has only really strengthened my view as such. The initial rules really needed errata in places, but 3.5 went far beyond errata and introduced more problems along the way. Honestly, I strongly feel that the biggest impetus behind 3.5 was to change just enough and add enough new stuff so people would feel the need to buy new books all over again, sooner than it should have been and to undercut the third party competition. The worst part is some of the little things changed here and there are actual improvements, so one can't just ignore 3.5. That and the majority of the 3e fanbase seems to like 3.5.
I want to run it again, but there are some things I'd need to address first. First, I'd need to keep a pretty tight grip on magic. Magic always has the potential to unbalance the hell out of everything in any edition of D&D, and nowhere is that more evident than in 3e. Access to spells would need some strong restrictions, and I'd need to put some controls on magic item creation, particularly access to specific items. I'm strongly considering requiring the acquisition of formulas somewhat like 5e does things. Second, material from splats would need to be sharply controlled too. I'd probably slow XP gain a bit and sort of reduce campaigning after level 10, or at least look to how classic D&D handled high levels with domains and have less dungeon adventuring. Another thing to do would be to reduce bonuses to keep the math properly tamed.
