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Personally, I think the revised edition of D&D is going to further divide the d20 community. People will be more open to alternatives like Monte Cooke's AU. I think he will have a more receptive audience than he might have previously.
Over the last few days I am becoming somewhat disenchanted with D&D 3.5. Certain things don't gel well.
1. Damage Reduction: The #/Magic is going to be defeatable by any magic weapon. I really don't understand why they didn't incorporate their original mechanic into the knew system. A higher + magic sword to hit creatures would have fit well into the new damage reduction system.
I don't like seeing damage reduction types like #/lawful as I see on the Titan. Why is a titan struck by a Lawful weapon? Why does that matter? It doesn't sit well conceptually IMO. If a titan has thick skin, then it should be struck by a powerful magic weapon. I guess they are turning Titans into forces of Chaos. Whatever.
Golems from what I understand are only going to be struck by Adamantine? or at least Iron Golems are this way. Why? Objects have the DR of their material, why shouldn't golems also have the DR of their material? this change just doesn't make sense IMO.
I am beginning to become less pleased with the changes to the DR system now that they have released a few examples. It is starting to seem too cumbersome.
2. The power attack change seems bad. It may not be so bad when a person is facing a creature with an extreme armor class, but by god are the yard trash monsters going to be dying like flies to a power attacking, great cleaving fighter type.
3. Casters were seriously weakened IMO. I don't know what game the designers play, but casters had a hard enough time dealing with SR, energy immunities, enemy spell casters with erected defenses, outsiders and dragons with all favorable saves and huge hit points, general spell immunities, and a spell system that only scales well if you take into account having huge stat enhancing items.
Even I'll admit that a few spells such as Haste and Harm needed to be changed, but did they have to lower Spell Focus and change hold spells? I just hope they didn't lower Spell Penetration. I didn't see the need, then again I always have clerics, NPC and PC, memorize spells like Remove Paralysis and other types of counters.
I don't know about most people who play D&D, but I like to play in games that closely mirror what I see in Fantasy novels. When I play FR, I read the novels and try to adjust the powers of certain abilities to fit the novel versions of that ability. I don't want to play watered down D&D where the designers are concerned with game balance over story.
It is difficult to make an absolute decision until the books are out. At the moment, I am becoming more and more interested in seeing what other folks can do to make more interesting rules. I know am going to pick up Monte Cook's AU, if only to see how far you can outside the standard D&D core rules when using the OGL.
