Help Me Exorcise My Demons

[Melkor]

In fighting my own inner 3.0 vs. 3.5 demons, I had almost convinced myself to stay with 3.0 and just pull a couple of things out of 3.5. I'm banging myself over the head about this when I should probably concentrate more on working on my campaign and less on being anal about the rules version. That's just the way I am.

I really liked the idea of being able to carry around all of my 3.0 books and not have to worry about converting anything. If one of my players wants to run an Oriental Adventures Samurai in my Forgotten Realms game, BAM! I drop it in with no headache. If I want to run Necromancer Games Necropolis, BAM! I run it with no conversions....No headache. Then again, I might run into some headaches with balance issues, spell issues, character class issues, etc.....which have been worked out pretty well in 3.5.

I am asking for the EN World Forum Consensus on the following: If I decide to go with the 3.5 Core Books, and carry around some of my 3.0 books - which category do the following books fall into:

Category:
1) Pain in the arse to convert to 3.5.
2) Will require moderate conversion to work with 3.5.
3) Will work with 3.5 with minor conversion.
4) Not worth converting because it is invalidated by 3.5.
5) Other (Please Explain)

3.0 Book in Question:
Monster Manual II
Fiend Folio
Savage Species
Epic Level Handbook
Book of Vile Darkness
Dieties & Demigods
Psionics Handbook
Manual of the Planes
Oriental Adventures
Arms & Equipment Guide
Book of Challenges
Stronghold Builder's Guidebook
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting

I'll start with my take.
Monster Manual II 3 (This is in the Conversion PDF)
Fiend Folio 3 (In the Conversion PDF)
Savage Species 3 (Written with 3.5 'in mind')
Epic Level Handbook 1 (Just a guess - haven't read it)
Book of Vile Darkness 2 (Gut feeling/No Conversion PDF)
Dieties & Demigods 2 (Gut feeling based on power level)
Psionics Handbook 4 (Getting it's own 3.5 treatment)
Manual of the Planes 5 (I have no idea)
Oriental Adventures 1 (Heck, I don't want to try converting)
Arms & Equipment Guide 4 (Too many face/weapon size changes)
Book of Challenges 5 (I have no idea)
Stronghold Builder's Guidebook 5 (I have no idea)
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2 (Gut feeling)

Thanks for the help in weighing my options.

 

[Darkness]

Exercise your demons?

Okay, can do.

Listen up, demons! First of all, call me 'sir' or you'll get to do extra exercises. You worthless sons of female canines will do 300 push-ups each - after running for 12 miles.

And that's just the beginning.

- Drill instructor Darkness

 

[alsih2o]

man! darkness beat me to it, i was gonna suggest jazzercise!

 

[Melkor]

Now I'm going to have to have help exorcising the smart asses that have crept in with the demons.

 

[LGodamus]

your demons need pilates....

 

[Darkness]

Now I'm going to have to have help exercising the smart asses that have crept in with the demons.

Hey! I currently do regular exercise, about 2 hours a day, 5 days a week.

1) Pain in the arse to convert to 3.5.
2) Will require moderate conversion to work with 3.5.
3) Will work with 3.5 with minor conversion.
4) Not worth converting because it is invalidated by 3.5.
5) Other (Please Explain)

Rating: 3 (Minor work)
Monster Manual II (in booklet; some CRs might be off)
Fiend Folio (written with 3.5 in mind; in booklet; some CRs might be off)
Manual of the Planes (some stuff in there is now in the DMG, and there's also the conversion booklet)

Rating: 2
Savage Species (some monsters changed significantly)
Epic Level Handbook (the stuff in the DMG and the conversion booklet are a good start)
Book of Vile Darkness (lots of spells that might not be very easy to convert, but the other stuff should)
Arms & Equipment Guide (just convert what you like and leave the rest for later)

Rating: 1
Oriental Adventures
Dieties & Demigods (assuming you want to convert the deities' stats - 'cause a regular pit fiend now outclasses most demideities in all but their most important stat; otherwise, it's a 2)

Rating: 4
Psionics Handbook 4 (Getting it's own 3.5 treatment)
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (FR PHB early next year will probably invalidate the stats in there)

Rating: 5
Book of Challenges 5 (I have no idea)
Stronghold Builder's Guidebook 5 (I have no idea)

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

*Ahem* : Ex"O"rcise !

Category:
1) Pain in the arse to convert to 3.5.
2) Will require moderate conversion to work with 3.5.
3) Will work with 3.5 with minor conversion.
4) Not worth converting because it is invalidated by 3.5.
5) Other (Please Explain)

Monster Manual II -3- Most monsters don't NEED to be coverted...
Fiend Folio -3-
Savage Species -5- ECL's all wrong as written anway
Epic Level Handbook -1-
Book of Vile Darkness -2-
Dieties & Demigods -3- unless for some reason you actually USE the avatar/god stats
Psionics Handbook -4-
Manual of the Planes -3- mostly fluff - some revisited in 3.5 DMG
Oriental Adventures -1-
Arms & Equipment Guide -3- relatively easy to compare similar items from PHB
Book of Challenges -3-
Stronghold Builder's Guidebook -3- Most rules not affected
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting -2/1-

Good idea for a thread. I'd eventually like to see this list/discussion expand to other prevalent 3rd party books too...

 

[Melkor]

Edited original posts for spelling errors.

Thanks for the replies.....Feel free to add any 3rd party and/or WoTC books that I missed to the list.

 

[Melkor]

I'll throw out the Forgotten Realms City of the Spider Queen module and Necromancer Games' Necropolis. I would say:
1) Pain in the arse - because of the sheer number of monsters an NPCs.
(For both of them)

 

[Olive]

Arms & Equipment Guide 4 (Too many face/weapon size changes)

I don't have this book, so I can't really comment, but how many weapons changed between 3 and 3.5? I can think of spiked chains and composite bows. The face/reach changes don't effect most weapons, if any.