Rant about (lack of) info in new 3.5 conversion guide

[Painfully]

Profit motive. It's all about selling the new books, and making sure WotC gets your money. At $90 retail for the new books, WotC is trying to give themselves a monetary booster shot until their, "next big thing," comes out.

I'm willing to bet that if this was a true conversion guide with complete info about all the details of all the changes, a lot less people would buy the new books and save themselves a lot of money. I know I would. Here's to hoping the SRD is more complete, although I very much doubt it.

 

[Grazzt]

WOTC orginally said you could. I know you can find info on what was left out on net easily, but it should have been in there and it was not.

I dont remember ever hearing this anywhere. And even if it were possible, I dont think they would actually come out and say it.

"Hey! You can just d-load this for free and convert to 3.5 Nevermind about buying the nice, new, shiny books."



*EDIT* And if you wanna get technical about the bard skill points thing mentioned above (the conversion doc doesnt mention how many they get)...well

The document doesnt come out and say they get 6 per level. However, take a look under the Deities and Demigods section. It states that deities with 20 class levels get...and it lists the changes.

Bards gain 40 skill points. Add this to the 80 that a 20th-level bard from the 3e PHB has (not including bonuses for human or for ability mods)......40 + 80 = 120 total skill points at 20th level.

Now divide by 20 (for bard levels) and you get 6. So, there ya go. Six skill points per level.

 

[Piratecat]

WOTC first said that you can convert characters with just the conversion guide and not have to buy the new books, another lie.

This is really, really starting to annoy me. KenM, you need to either provide specific quotes or stop making this claim on these boards.

Whining about stuff that you're getting for free isn't especially becoming. It's okay if you don't like the fact that 3.5 exists... but I think it's worth pointing out that WotC isn't a faceless, monolithic machine. It's a company made up in part from numerous gamers. You know, people, like us. I may not always agree with them, but in general they do their best. If you're going to insult them and call them liars, the very least you can do is support that claim.

 

[EricNoah]

The whole point of this download is to show you how the new rules work with some of your existing WotC 3.0 books. It does assume you have the 3.5 books (or the SRD) in hand. Otherwise you'd have a document as big as the SRD, and there's no point in reproducing that stuff twice.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

WOTC first said that you can convert characters with just the conversion guide and not have to buy the new books, another lie.

It isn't even a conversion guide - I've seen it referred to as a conversion guide here, but it looks like several people (including me) were wrong about that.

I like the monster info, but a few (spirit of the land) needed more changes.

 

[Datt]

Right. The file that I have doesn't say anyway on there that it is a Conversion Guide. It does say that it is an update booklet, but not a conversion guide. I think this is just meant to give you a feel for 3.5 and to update a few of the accessories out there to 3.5

 

[Zerakon]

Is this the thing that Andy from Wizards said would be up on the 24th? It's all a bit confusing to me as a relatively casual player.

If this is the best information, then I guess my group will be sticking to 3.0, as this product update seems little more than an advertisement for the 3.5 books. Maybe the guys in my group without Players' Handbooks can find some 3.0 ones at discount prices.

Thanks Wizards!

-- Zerakon the Game Mage

 

[Pazu]

The point is it should have been in the conversion guide. WOTC first said that you can convert characters with just the conversion guide and not have to buy the new books, another lie. You can't just pick up the convesion guide and change over with just that. WOTC orginally said you could. I know you can find info on what was left out on net easily, but it should have been in there and it was not.

Can you show me exactly where this document is entitled or described as a "Conversion Guide"? Because it sure looks to me like it's called an "Update". Maybe we got different downloads.

Can you also explain to me why you feel the need to rant both here and on the WoTC boards simultaneously?

-- Pazu

 

[allenw]

Here's to hoping the SRD is more complete, although I very much doubt it.

Are you saying that you don't expect the 3.5 SRD to contain, well, the actual rules??? If so, that seems unnecessarily cynical. It won't specifically say "Bards used to have 4 skill points, now they have 6," but it'll say "Bards have 6 skill points," which is what you need to know.

edited to add:

Zerakon : Nope, what gets released on the 24th is the new version of the SRD, which is a free official on-line resource containing (almost) all the actual D20 rules. You can see the current (3.0) versions at http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/srd.html or http://www.wizards.com/D20/article.asp?x=srd , which is also where the 3.5 version will be available.

 

[Knight Otu]

Is this the thing that Andy from Wizards said would be up on the 24th? It's all a bit confusing to me as a relatively casual player.

No. Far from it. You mean the SRD, which will cotain most of the rules (but almost none of the non-rule stuff).