Favorite Change in any D&D edition

[Matrix Sorcica]

Higher numbers are always better.

This.

 

[wedgeski]

Hmm. As a DM I would have to say the difference in monster design from 3E -> 4E was the change that got my heart most aflutter.

As a player, the Leader role in 4E. I suddenly had more options that fit perfectly with the way I like to play PC's than I knew what to do with.

 

[ferratus]

The conditions system and the way saving throws work in 4e. It is basically extending the simplification of THAC0 to other aspects of spells and combat.

Being able to have the mechanical feel of weakening the character without changing ability scores for example, is a godsend.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

All numbers get bigger as they get better.

4e monster design.

 

[Harlander]

As so many have said, the change from the weird "roll low for this, roll high for that" to the unified roll-high mechanic was pretty great.

That aside, the introduction of rituals in 4E is probably my favourite change.

 

[avin]

There's a lot of cheaters in this topic choosing more than one change! Cheaters!!!

 

[NewJeffCT]

My favorite was when they announced that for 3E, demons & devils would again be called demons & devils. That kind of signaled to me that it was going to be a serious update to the rules.

That, and the OGL as well as the initial version of OD&D that brought the game into the world.

 

[Set]

The change to different priests having different access to Spheres of spells, in 2nd edition, and the many different modularized 'specialty priests' that soon followed.

That was pretty cool, and while I vastly prefer 3rd edition rules to 2nd edition rules, I kinda miss priests that had a bigger difference than Domain choices.

 

[Greg K]

Unfortunately, I can't choose just one.

2e: Specialty Priests
2e Player's Options: The critical hit system from Combat and Tactics
3e: There is not one. There are at least ten and, probably, about twenty (not including Unearthed Arcana)
4e: Again, I can't give just one, but the choices are much narrower than 3e. It comes down to removing level drain, removing XP costs, heroic tier multiclassing, or making the classes balanced across all levels.

 

[Greg K]

The change to different priests having different access to Spheres of spells, in 2nd edition, and the many different modularized 'specialty priests' that soon followed.

That was pretty cool, and while I vastly prefer 3rd edition rules to 2nd edition rules, I kinda miss priests that had a bigger difference than Domain choices.

I completely agree that it would have been for the default to cover it, but the DMG (the 3.0 for certain) did cover tailored spell lists. There was a section in the DMG on creating variant spell lists to tailor them to clerics by deity, specialist wizards, variant paladins by deity, variant bards, etc. So, it was there in a sense, but left the DM to do the work rather than organize the spells by sphere.