D&D 3E/3.5 In 3.5 All Monsters Are Square?

[TheAuldGrump]

I just picked up the latest Dragon at my FLGS and took a look at the dragon counters provided on the poster insert, where it stated that in 3.5 all monsters have a square base rather than some being square and others being long.

This is the first rule that I've encountered for the new edition where I decided instantly to toss it out. Among other things it makes maseed cavalry charges sort of pointless. Not to mention having to rebase a lot of figures.

Just wanted to see what others thought about the new sizes...

 

[jaldaen]

Well... since 3rd edition does not assume front/back facing it makes sense (as the facing is meant to represent an approximation of where a creature *could* be during the combat round), but if you do use front/back facing then it makes no sense and the old facing should be rules...

This is just a case where the 3rd edition rules for facing i.e. no "front, back, left, or right" were not actually implimented by the facings presented in the core books... which with their "long" facings essentially ignored the above rule by presenting the creature with a definate front, back, and side.

My 2 cents,
Joseph

 

[Crothian]

Heuy Lewis sayed it best "It's Hip to be Square"

 

[jodyjohnson]

Using less than your square?

The poster also mentioned something about including rules to cover instances where you don't use your full area.

A welcome addition in my book.

That purple worm coming down the 10' hallway,
2 warriors fighting back to back in the same square,
A line of tightly packed spearmen,
Mounted knights charging in a tight formation...

"The 3.5 revision will include rules for creatures moving and fighting in spaces smaller than their normal fighting space."
Dragon 308, D&D 3.5 Dragon sizes poster.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I want a massed cavalry formation of those crazy gelatinous cube riders from Arms and Equipment Guide...

-Hyp.

 

[thundershot]

Yeah, I'm still not comfortable with the square facings. It seems like it'll make it even harder to judge who can step where. Also, it still doesn't help that we don't have actual dimensions for creatures... I hope they explain it thoroughly in the 3.5 PHB...



Chris

 

[dcollins]

I agree that this seems like a not-thoroughly-considered idea (a 2nd-Edition-kind-of-change, if you will). I bet it will create more problems than it solves, likely to be retracted in the next edition. Cavalry charges are certainly the first to come to mind; the fact that the facing contradicts the actual size of quadruped miniatures is another.

 

[Anubis]

Why would squares mess up anything? Cavalry charges still work perfectly, the charges just get a bit bigger.

 

[Someone]

I use self-made cardboard counters and I adopted inmediately the change.

 

[dcollins]

Why would squares mess up anything? Cavalry charges still work perfectly, the charges just get a bit bigger.

Half as many attackers against a particular target force = half the damage.