D&D 4E The WotC designers will be bashing 4e once 5e is announced . . .

[Thurbane]

Haven't you heard of Knightmare Chess?

Sure have...wonder how the sales or player base compare to regular chess?

 

[Geron Raveneye]

No. The spell polymorph other was too strong.

The value provided by buffing up with hour/level spells was too good. 3.0e haste was too good.

After using 3.5e for a while, my players were surprised at how many fights they could handle before needing to rest.

Cheers, -- N

Hmmm, yeah, I can at least see where those Polymorph tactics and Haste problems started popping up when the first didn't include the risk to kill or turn you into the creature mentally, and the latter didn't age the recipient for a year anymore. *ponders*

What did 3.5 do to enable your players to handle more fights before resting (if I infer correctly that the number of fights increased)?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Hmmm, yeah, I can at least see where those Polymorph tactics and Haste problems started popping up when the first didn't include the risk to kill or turn you into the creature mentally, and the latter didn't age the recipient for a year anymore. *ponders*

What did 3.5 do to enable your players to handle more fights before resting (if I infer correctly that the number of fights increased)?

I tend to think it was more a question of perspective of the players - they normally wouldn't fight without Polymorph Other and Haste.
Without 3.0 Haste, spellcasters couldn't blow their spells through as fast they did previously, so their resources lasted longer. They might not even have believed that they could survive without Polymorph. (Which might be true if the DM eventually adapts his encounters, but that's only the result of an arms race that could be dialed back in 3.5)