I like 3E, but I miss...

[Grand_Director]

I miss rolling every round for inititive.

""Oh No! If we don't go first next round, that wizard will launch a fireball and kill us all." Ahhh. Epic struggles.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Since converting over to 3e, I've lost two players who would finish that sentence like this: "When thinking back to 1st or 2nd edition AD&D, I have to admit that I miss how abusable it was."

I curse Skills and Powers to the Ninth Layer of Hell!

I miss the number of good, fluffy books done in 2nd edition. Thankfully, they can still be used, with some modification.

FIRST edition was abusable? They haven't seen a tiefling monk/wizard/incantatrix/archmage yet. Of all editions 3e is by far the most abusable. It's simply a by-product of all the supplements.

 

[RSKennan]

The real demon summoning rituals and *True Power* that were hidden in the rules. The new demons, while more "balanced" when I conjuure them, don't offer the same kinds of off the wall pacts that the old ones did. Orcus just don't seem the same.

I also miss how women would swoon as I juggled polyhedral dice and liltingly recited poetic passages from the 1e PHB or DMG, such as "Dwarven fighters with less than 17 strength are limited to 7th level; those with 17 strength are limited to 8th level." or "As soon as the die roll determines that the party is lost, determine the direction." Those were the glory days.


Seriously though, although I like the smoother mechanincs of 3e/3.5- I have to say i desperately miss not having to use a battlemat. I also miss the time when being a 'rules lawyer' was worse than being in a boy band.

The only redeeming factors for 2e were some of the 'official' worlds, like Dark Sun, Planescape etc, and to a lesser extent the ideas behind some of the complete class guides. 1e had a charm that didn't carry over to 2e for me.

Still, I'm very happy with 3e, and aside from the possibility of a few short returns for nostalgia's sake, I doubt I'll be playing the older ediions again.

 

[Pants]

I miss the newness, but that can apply to any edition. I started playing back in the last run of 2ed, only core books mind you and everything was new.

"How do I level up my Fighter?"
"A Gnoll!? Oh crap, run!"
"What the hell is a 'Stirge?'"
"I charge the Giant Weasel!"

Oh it was great fun, I barely knew the mechanics, but I had great fun nonetheless. Any magic item I got was something to be worshipped with awe and it was all great.
One more thing that I miss is the old 2ed Monstrous Manual. That was a great book, terrible art, but the writing in it was beautiful, the ecologies, the histories, the combat section, the one-monster per page. Beautiful.

 

[Marimmar@Home]

I miss...

...making item saving throws for all my stuff after failing a safe against a fireball.

...the days when creating magic items was an epic task and noone could explain where all the magic stuff came from.

~Marimmar

 

[Psion]

The Player's Option book.

Yeah, you had do very judiciously house rule it, but it provides a greater degree of control over character abilities.

 

[Aristotle]

... Dark Sun.

Yeah! My Dark Sun campaign was the first one I ran where the emphasis wasn't on hack-n-slash gaming, but rathert on an underlying story that I had cooked up.

Oh, and that amazing cloth map that came with the original Dark Sun box. Paper maps would wear through and tear in months. My Dark Sun map was used all the time and is still in perfect condition. Coolest gaming accessory ever...

 

[heimdall]

The assassin as a core class.
Rangers having 2d8 hp at 1st and casting druid and m-u spells.
The illusionist as a core class and not a specialist wizard.

 

[woodelf]

"As much as I like 3E, when thinking back to 1st or 2nd edition AD&D, I have to admit that I miss _____________."

Priests/clerics whose abilities were tailored for their god.

Rangers who were commandos instead of nature boys (1e only).

Opposition schools for magic.

Bards who were performers and diplomats, rather than jack-of-all-trades (1e only).

The Complete Psionics Handbook. [Damn! the powers in the new psionics handbook are cool. But they don't feel at all like "psychic" powers to me.]

Simple combat rules.

 

[johnsemlak]

--Greyhawk


...seriously

I'm not saying I want the following things back. IT's just that some 1e things seemed cool at the time.

• Exceptional strengh. It seemed to allow for a much more Conanesque strength.
• Level Titles--very cool, but certainly unnecessary.
• 1e multiclassing. I still have a soft spot for the elf fighter/magic-user (I know, some people dumped 1e because of them). It gave elves a little more flavor, them being the only ones that could cast spells in armor (except gnomes).
• Some race/class restrictions. Again I know many players got tired of the same old combinations, and many 1e restrictions were stupid (no elf bards or whatever), but the complete lack of them is a bit much for me. I sometimes think in 3e some players try to be too original with their race class combinations (half-ogre paladin/wizards or whatever) and don't try to do original roleplaying with their characters. I'm of a mind that you can be very original playing a standard cliche character (particularly with all the wonderful options that 3e provides)