Options Overload? Maybe, but I love it! (Statistical Exercise)

[DungeonmasterCal]

It goes even higher if you're like me and add in AE, IK, the various FR books, DL, Star Wars, and so forth into the mix. The amount of options is staggering. At least I know the days of every fighter looking and playing the same are long gone! To me, that's a VERY good thing!

Kane

Y'know...I was talking to a guy I know who absolutely refuses to play 3.x BECAUSE of the options. His group only play 1e because "it doesn't have all those confusing feats." And I've discovered that, at least around here, that seems to be a fairly prevalent view.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Y'know...I was talking to a guy I know who absolutely refuses to play 3.x BECAUSE of the options. His group only play 1e because "it doesn't have all those confusing feats." And I've discovered that, at least around here, that seems to be a fairly prevalent view.

Confusing feats? Wow. I just don't see that, but each to their own. For me, 3.5 gives me a rules set that supports exactly the kind of play that I've always wanted from D&D, but would have to shoehorn with the old rules. It's so easy to modify monsters, add options, and build a world that is as close to what fills my imagination with 3.5, that I could never go back to an older rule set.

Kane

 

[Belen]

So, next time you start to roll 4d6 6 times and arrange as desired, or engage in 32-point point buy, remember that you have quite a few options for those six ability scores...

You have not even commented on feats, PrCs, skills, spells, or items. I'll bet that feats and skills at first level alone would push that number so high as to cause apopletic fits.

The designers mantra for 3e was "options, not restrictions," yet that only applied to the rules. Instead, they shifted the responsibility onto the shoulders of the GM. They know very well that including everything would be insane, so they leave it up to the GM to be the bad guy who tells the players "no." Then they made sure to imply that saying no was wrong.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Confusing feats? Wow. I just don't see that, but each to their own. For me, 3.5 gives me a rules set that supports exactly the kind of play that I've always wanted from D&D, but would have to shoehorn with the old rules. It's so easy to modify monsters, add options, and build a world that is as close to what fills my imagination with 3.5, that I could never go back to an older rule set.

Kane

I completely agree. Sure, my personal preference would be a completely skills and powers sort of design for character creation and customization, but until that day rolls around, I'm more than happy with the current edition and all its options.

 

[Kanegrundar]

They know very well that including everything would be insane, so they leave it up to the GM to be the bad guy who tells the players "no." Then they made sure to imply that saying no was wrong.

I don't see that at all. I don't allow everything. Many PrC's are banned from my games. I don't use bloodlines or paragon classes. There are all sorts of things that I don't allow (although I do allow a lot more than I don't) and Rule 0 in the DMG supports me in that. Could you show us where the designers imply that not allowing all the various array of options is wrong?

Kane

 

[DaveMage]

You have not even commented on feats, PrCs, skills, spells, or items. I'll bet that feats and skills at first level alone would push that number so high as to cause apopletic fits.

I only had Sunday morning to do the math, so I limited it to races/classes.

Certainly to include *all* options would bring the number of options close to infinity (or, at least higher than any number that I know the name for).

I love the options, but I wish it didn't take so much time to use them all.

 

[MonsterMash]

Actually, my final tally was 124 playable races and 49 classes, for a total of 6,076 options. So, if I duplicated a class or race, you may adjust accordingly.

It just amazes me that this kind of choice exists within the rules.

And there are still people saying 'oh, I don't have enough options with just .....'
is what really amazes me (and makes me think: 'do you mean that it doesn't allow you to min-max to your hearts content'), one of the reasons why I restrict class and race choices in my game (though there are some extra options from the Wilderlands setting in the Players Guide to the Wilderlands).

 

[Gez]

Duplicated classes include the Shugenja (Oriental Adventure+Complete Divine), the Warmage (Miniatures Handbook+Complete Arcane), the Favored Soul (Miniatures Handbook+Complete Divine), and the Wu Jen (Oriental Adventures+Complete Arcane).

There are two different Samurais.

But I see you haven't included Oriental Adventures (5 new races, including the Hengeyokai with 13 variants, and the Spirit Folk with3 variants, so you could say it's 19 new races; and 5 new classes: samurai, shaman, shugenja, sohei, wu jen). Two of these new classes, samurai and shugenja, are available in 7 variants, one for each of the L5R clan. So that's 19 races and 17 classes just with the new options of OA.

There's a new LA 0 "monster as character" race in Deities & Demigods, the Faun.

There's a few dozen new playable races in each FR book (for a grand total of 153 new elven subraces in about a dozen of sourcebooks).

There's the Artificer class in Eberron.

And if you include Unearthed Arcana, you have the option of Gestalt. Gestalt games give you "c × (c -1) × r" options, where c is the number of classes and r the number of races.

Of course, you may have troubles convincing your DM to let you play a Faun Artificer/Sohei, but them's the break. Even if you cut the number of combo by a factor of 10, on the principle that only about 10% of them makes sense, that still leaves you more than can be played in a lifetime.

 

[DaveMage]

I only included 3.5 books, so OA, Manual of the Planes, Deities and Demigods, Arms & Equipment Guide, and the softcover splats were not included in the analysis.

But you are right - if you include those other sources, it's just amazing what's available. Throw in a few quality d20 products and the options skyrocket.

Anyone who says they don't have enough options is, IMNSHO, insane.