Rich Baker Blog on Monsters

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

It cannot be a trick of memory. I damn well know I ran a campaign in the winter of 1999/2000 (that's 8 months prior to the release) with AC going up rather than down, no THAC0, and three saves instead of five. And I am pretty damn sure I wasn't one of the playtesters.

there were various suggestion in this sense
there were the various Player's option/DM option previous the release of 3rd edition that introduced a lot of possible variation
between them I think there were rising AC, less savings...., there were also many house rule in that direction

so it's not impossible for a few groups to have hit rising AC and lesser saves (there were also an high level save mechanics based on the difference between attacker level, defender level... don't remeber the book or the edition but should be 2nd ed, I have very few books of 3.x