D&D 5E Sell this 3.5 grognard on 5e

[wingsandsword]

Okay,

I'm a D&D 3.5 grognard. I love my 3e.

I didn't go to 4e because, well. . .edition wars and all that. I stopped paying attention to new anything from WotC when 4e came out. Between 4e, the Spellplague, and discontinuing d20 Modern (and later discontinuing the Star Wars RPG) there was nothing WotC was making that I was interested in buying.

While I love my 3.5 a lot, I'm at least halfway curious about trying or checking out 5e, as I realize it's not the 4e that got me to completely ignore WotC's offerings for a decade and my superficial first-glance impression of 5e when it came out (That it was oversimplified and dumbed-down, but at least closer to D&D's feel and heritage than 4e, may not be entirely representative) .

So, sell me on it. Why should I switch? I'm listening.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's a lot easier to find players.

3.5 is too complex for a lot of casual players.

 

[Olrox17]

Less option bloat.
Less ivory tower design and trap options.
Much less class imbalance.
Less reliance on magic items (third edition PCs without magic items are almost useless, especially non spellcasters; fifth edition PCs work perfectly without magic items).
Save or die and Save or suck are much reduced and rebalanced.
Bounded accuracy is a great idea.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

Okay,

I'm a D&D 3.5 grognard. I love my 3e.

I didn't go to 4e because, well. . .edition wars and all that. I stopped paying attention to new anything from WotC when 4e came out. Between 4e, the Spellplague, and discontinuing d20 Modern (and later discontinuing the Star Wars RPG) there was nothing WotC was making that I was interested in buying.

While I love my 3.5 a lot, I'm at least halfway curious about trying or checking out 5e, as I realize it's not the 4e that got me to completely ignore WotC's offerings for a decade and my superficial first-glance impression of 5e when it came out (That it was oversimplified and dumbed-down, but at least closer to D&D's feel and heritage than 4e, may not be entirely representative) .

So, sell me on it. Why should I switch? I'm listening.

Like you, I love 3.5. In fact I still love it!

But the thing is, the complexity of 3.5 makes the game slow, especially at high level, and can take the attention away from roleplay to rollplay.
5e keeps the good things from 3.5, makes the game simpler and faster, and returns to a 2e feeling. Putting rulings over rules, returns centrality to the DM. Some other problems of 3.5 that are addressed and resolved are caster supremacy, or the abundance of magic items.
Plus, 5e is FULLY RETROCOMPATIBLE with past editions; you can convert on the fly from 3.5, Pathfinder, 2e, BECMI.

 

[Horwath]

As a former 3.5e grognard myself(and I played only 2 4E campaigns) I can say that I am reformed from 3.5e fanatism, hahaha.

5e has most of the 3.5e feel, and some of 3.0e feel(5.0 ranger sucks as much as 3.0 ranger) and it is just more polished and refined version of 3.5

I now play a 3.5e campaign and after a few session when the nostalgia goggles had fallen of, I can only say:

it's like you drive a classic car like '67 Mustang or similar after driving brand new BMW.

Yeah, it's great for an hour or so and then you realise that Mustang is an archaic P.o.S that is just for few minutes of fun now and then.

 

[Doug McCrae]

It's less fiddly and has better class balance.

 

[Fenris-77]

As someone who played a lot of 3.5, and now plays 5e pretty much exclusively, I can recommend giving it a whirl. It's pretty stripped down and elegant compared to 3.5, and I find it still has enough crunch to keep me happy, but it's a more responsive tool. Think of it as driving a sportier car instead of that awesome and reliable, but ponderous, Land Rover you've been driving for years. There are going to be a couple of spots where it probably won't have the detail you're looking for, but it's super easy to hack, and there are a ton of resources available, one of which probably fill the hole you found, whatever that might be.

It is also a much easier sell for new players, if that's something that matters to you. 3.5 can look like graduate level maths to a new player, it's intimidating.

 

[Xenonnonex]

The game flows well. From character creation to combat. Your character does not feel useless. You are not pressured to optimize.
Controversial -> your character is looked at as a personality and not a set of numbers.

 

[J-H]

Instead of 80%+ of the splatbooks, feats, etc. being "trap options" that leave you noticeably unable to contribute vs. an optimized player, 80%+ of the published content is actually viable in play at the table.

DM time required to prep a monster or NPC is less than 1/4th of what it was in 3.5.

It feels OK to make unique or fun magic items again, without having to worry about the Magic Mart and everything being priced for sale like in 3.5.

You no longer have to deal with situations where one PC has an AC of 38 and a to-hit of +10 while the other has an AC of 16 and a to-hit of +22.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

Simplified. Easy-to-manage. Plenty of room to grow, adapt, and tack on more, if you prefer. Perfectly usable to play with just the basics.

More importantly, it is very easy to find new players who aren't entrenched or burdened by previous editions. They can't miss what they never experienced, and everything is new for them. Gives us old-timers a second life with our favorite game... assuming we dare to play with anyone outside our comfort zone (i.e. our front lawn).