just getting into 3rd edtion

[Brace Cormaeril]

I don't know about P, but p is given above. Dandu, your statement above RE: drawings of Mialee and their effect on genitalia is wrong. Math proves this.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

In some of the later books, they tried rather hard to make Mialee look attractive, with mixed results. In the PHB, she definitely looks like some humanoid bug alien.

EDIT: For example, the pic of her using prismatic bow spell isn't that hard on the eyes:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/compmage_gallery/100504.jpg

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

been away from gaming for years never played this edition what skills,feats, rules or anything else generaly broken things would you as a dm exclude and why?

I think the worst thing you could do is to start with everything.

I'd start small with just pure core - PHB, DMG, and MM. Play with that until you feel comfortable with the rules, classes, and changes that have taken place. Expand what you allow slowly and let your players know what and why you are doing what you are doing. The core 3 books can make very flexible characters and you'll get a lot of mileage out of them.

If you want a bit more, I'd let every player pick one book to become a community book for all. For example, I might pick spell compendium while another player might pick Complete Warrior. Both of those books would now be available for everyone to take resources from. This method allows a player to play a class/race/feat/whatever they'd really like to play without opening the full 3.5 flood gates.

Personally, I tend to ban Book of the Nine Swords for many reasons. Anything banned beyond that is discussed and I make the call based on player input and the feel of the game we are running.

 

[Eridanis]

first one shot went pretty well not as big a problem as i had aticipated definatly like skill system vrs proficencies feats still a little shaky but not bad the players helped alot lol

Excellent. Keep us posted; it's always fun to hear stories from new players and old players returning to the game!

 

[Dandu]

Personally, I tend to ban Book of the Nine Swords for many reasons.

Oh, while we're on the subject, I am going to state that ToB and XPH are some of the better books in 3.5, and certainly more balanced than, say, the PHB.

 

[Brace Cormaeril]

Oh, while we're on the subject, I am going to state that ToB and XPH are some of the better books in 3.5, and certainly more balanced than, say, the PHB.

...Because nothing screams balance like an infinite action loop, lmao. While we're on the subject, White Mountain Apache v. The United States was a balanced ruling, but the US Constitution? Totally broken.

 

[Dandu]

...Because nothing screams balance like an infinite action loop, lmao..

Hold on. That only occurs if you read White Raven Tactics a certain way. More to the point, that is only one example of a broken ability; to extrapolate that the entire book must be broken because there is one broken ability in it is an illogical over-generalization.

I see your infinite actions and raise you the ability to Planar Bind Nightmares so that you get Astral Projection at CL 20 as an at-will ability of your minion, allowing you to enable various infinite wealth loops, item duping, and assailing your enemies with virtually no risk to yourself, as the only core item capable of severing your Astral Projection is a Gith sword.

Plane Shift. Great when combined with Astral Projection. Go to a plane where time flows slowly and regain all your spells while six seconds pass on the Prime Material.

You'll no doubt raise Iron Heart Surge after reading about Plane Shift. Again, that is only broken if you read it a certain way. But let's play along. I'll raise you one further.

Shapechange. Turn into a Solar and get 20th level cleric spellcasting as a natural ability. Make a Mystic Theurge cry. On second thought, make all of them cry.

But why stop at Shapechange?

Gate. You can gate in some really powerful things. Like Solars.

But that's all rather plebian, really. Let's do something fun.

Escher Materials + Major Creation = Antimatter. Win.

But Solo, you Ubermenschian paragon, you are no doubt asking, does antimatter exist in DnD? I refer you to the SRD description of the Material Plane, which states that: "The Material Plane tends to be the most Earthlike of all planes and operates under the same set of natural laws that our own real world does."(Emphasis mine)

Hold on, you clever fiend you, you are no doubt prepared to say, doesn't antimatter cost a lot?

True, but you only need "a tiny piece of matter of the same sort of item you plan to create with minor creation" so you could just use Eschew Materials to substitute for a minuscule amount of antimatter worth less than 1 gp.

When your ToB character has the ability to Astrally Project himself onto the Prime Material, sell everything he owns for money, repeat the process as often as he wants, then stop time, lay out an indecent amount of antimatter, plane shift to another dimension in order to regain spells in six seconds, and repeat the devastation of the Prime Material while under the cover of another Time Stop, come see me.

 

[rgard]

Never mind.

Circvs Maximvs

And thank you, Dandu. I need to get me a squirrel nuke.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I see your infinite actions and raise you the ability to Planar Bind Nightmares so that you get Astral Projection at CL 20 as an at-will ability of your minion, allowing you to enable various infinite wealth loops, item duping, and assailing your enemies with virtually no risk to yourself, as the only core item capable of severing your Astral Projection is a Gith sword.

Shapechange. Turn into a Solar and get 20th level cleric spellcasting as a natural ability. Make a Mystic Theurge cry. On second thought, make all of them cry.

But why stop at Shapechange?

Gate. You can gate in some really powerful things. Like Solars.

All of these are level 9 spells, or in the first case, require CL 20. That doesn't excuse their brokeness. But it's a little disingenuous to compare abilities gained at level 5 (IH Surge and WR Tactics) to ones gained at level 17+!

But that's all rather plebian, really. Let's do something fun.

Escher Materials + Major Creation = Antimatter. Win.

But Solo, you Ubermenschian paragon, you are no doubt asking, does antimatter exist in DnD? I refer you to the SRD description of the Material Plane, which states that: "The Material Plane tends to be the most Earthlike of all planes and operates under the same set of natural laws that our own real world does."(Emphasis mine)

Hold on, you clever fiend you, you are no doubt prepared to say, doesn't antimatter cost a lot?

True, but you only need "a tiny piece of matter of the same sort of item you plan to create with minor creation" so you could just use Eschew Materials to substitute for a minuscule amount of antimatter worth less than 1 gp.

Did you take the feats that grant unnaturally long reach, Dandu? Because that's some impressive stretching. Your whole anti-matter argument rests on a single line of generic text saying that the material plane is basically earth? Last time I checked, the DM decides the little details like is there antimatter, what's out in space, or "is this world round or flat?" But hey, let's go along with your argument. In order for it to pass muster, the material plane must be exactly identical to earth, otherwise you're basically just cherrypicking the goodies of real life physics to suit your purposes (which is what you're doing, but I'm pretending to be ignorant of that. Anyway...). Please tell me of a single D&D game you've been in where every aspect of real world physics has been incorporated into the game, and how much fun it was to do calculus equations to determine your falling speed. Or to take chaos theory into account. Or if when you cast Earthquake, it caused a more major plate tectonic shift resulting in a massive tsunami or volcanic eruption many miles away, killing scores of innocent people.

In any case, even the most miniscule amount of antimatter would not be inexpensive. And would probably either be wildly unsafe to have on your person, or otherwise would quickly cease to exist as it came into contact with mattter.

When your ToB character has the ability to Astrally Project himself onto the Prime Material, sell everything he owns for money, repeat the process as often as he wants, then stop time, lay out an indecent amount of antimatter, plane shift to another dimension in order to regain spells in six seconds, and repeat the devastation of the Prime Material while under the cover of another Time Stop, come see me.

When your DM actually allows you to get away with all of this in an actual game, come see me. So I know to avoid that DM's games.

 

[Greg K]

Good non-core supplements are the XPH (material from which can be found on the SRD), Tome of Magic, Magic of Incarnum, and the Tome of Battle.

Personally, I can't stand any of them and would rather use some third party material in place of XPH and ToB. I also ignore MoI and most of ToM. The same for the groups I know. Still, I would say for him to check them out and see if it is for him.