What changes from 3.0 to 3.5 should *not* have been made?

[dead]

Yikes! Bards as the favoured class for gnomes?

This news knocked me off my seat, but I'm not suprised WotC did it.

In fact, this is what I call the Culture of Balance and it is prevalent in 3E (and off-the-scale in 3.5 by the sounds of it). In other words, WotC would rather serve the "balance of the game" rather than honour tradition.

Since time immemorial, gnomes have supposed to be quite handy at Illusion magic. Thus, it made perfect sense to make the Illusionist the gnome's favoured class. Sure, this is quiet a specific favoured class but so what? . . . think of the D&D flavour!

Now, out-of-the-blue, gnomes the Oerth over are talanted troubadours, bountiful bards, and trusty tenors!

Is there no respect for tradition anymore? Or is it just balance, balance, balance all the way and the *flavour* that D&D is built upon is warped and twisted on a whim?

 

[Zweischneid]

In any case, that's like saying all paladins should fly because the archangel Michael could. After all, he's a bastion of light, holiness, and military prowess!

I think you got it the wrong way.
Archangel Michael would likely be statted with a few Paladin Levels, simply because this class D&D Mechanic likely approximates his abilities most closely. As should be done with Gandalf.

Rule mechanics serve to tell the story, not the other way around!
RPG-Rules ain't more than simple tools for taskresolution in those 5% of the Session when just telling the story doesn't cut it or an agreement in the sense of the story cannot be achieved without randomness.

 

[Zweischneid]

Since time immemorial, gnomes have supposed to be quite handy at Illusion magic. Thus, it made perfect sense to make the Illusionist the gnome's favoured class. Sure, this is quiet a specific favoured class but so what? . . . think of the D&D flavour!

If you like gnome illusionists, there shouldn't be a problem in either playing the old editions or houseruling the current one.

Retaing rules based on outdated material that you want to replace seems to be pretty foolish. Why revise the thing in the first place, if you want to keep it like it has been before?

 

[Incenjucar]

DR is fine as is in 3.5. Makes much more sense this way. If anything, they should make weapons that penetrate multiple forms of DR. Me, I just go for the feat in the Draconomicon that lets you bypass five points of DR to begin with. Works really nice if you have a non-power-attacking warrior type.

 

[Zweischneid]

Me, I just go for the feat in the Draconomicon that lets you bypass five points of DR to begin with. Works really nice if you have a non-power-attacking warrior type.

If it needed fixing in some obscure sourcebook it couldn't be that great in the Core Rules in the first place don't you think?

 

[shilsen]

Is there no respect for tradition anymore? Or is it just balance, balance, balance all the way and the *flavour* that D&D is built upon is warped and twisted on a whim?

To answer your first question, and speaking purely for myself - absolutely not. I'm playing the game to enjoy myself, not to worship at the altar of editions past. If something in 3.xe is interesting, I like it, irrespective of whether it fits earlier editions or not. If the MM had a creative and interesting explanation for why a red dragon was affected by fire, immune to acid, and had a 'breath' weapon which consisted of puffs of stinking cloud from its ass, I'd say "cool" and use it. Gnome bards are an interesting concept that I can use, so I do. No reason you have to. As for your second question - yes, I like to have a lot of balance, balance, balance.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go torch some religious sites and stand on one toe on a seesaw.

*brought to you, courtesy of an equal opportunity iconoclast*

 

[Vocenoctum]

Is there no respect for tradition anymore? Or is it just balance, balance, balance all the way and the *flavour* that D&D is built upon is warped and twisted on a whim?

There are plenty of Sacred Cows that they retain simply because "it's D&D man".
I can understand the idea behind gnome bards. The archetypal gnome is a rogue-illusionist, and the bard is quite close to a rogue-illusionist.

You know what's more like a rogue illusionist though? A ROGUE-ILLUSIONIST!
By the New Gnome, you have to keep rogue & illusionist levels balanced or face multiclass penalties. WHich means next to know caster level. Arcane Trickster is already pretty high level, adding another level of rogue for the very race that IMO best represents just rubs me wrong.
(That said, the Divine Prankster IS very neat.)

I wanted to make a fighter-illusionist, but it's just too many lost levels for a gnome.

(and, for those that say "house rule" it, there are quite a few DM's that won't change a rule like that or Paladin multiclass restriction, because they assume it's there for some game balance reason.)

So, I agree there are some things needed to be changed, but also think some of the rules are Change for the Sake of Change. Gnomes & Dwarves didn't need changing, half-elves and half-orcs did, IMO.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Does anyone want to explain how you know what DR a 3.0 creature had without metagaming?

It's pretty easy to say you need silver to kill a werewolf, but who can really say "you need a class III weapon to kill a balor?"

The same way you know you need silver--someone fought one and found out, and told other people. Duh.

Is it really so hard to think of these things, people?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The same way you know you need silver--someone fought one and found out, and told other people. Duh.

Is it really so hard to think of these things, people?

Oh that's funny. The bard comes to the tavern and sings a song about the paladin Lord Ovulous and his class III sword.

You can tell it's a class III sword because all +3 weapons come with such a clear label (eg "This Weapon Cuts III"). Duh.

 

[Incenjucar]

If it needed fixing in some obscure sourcebook it couldn't be that great in the Core Rules in the first place don't you think?

That is some seriously twisted logic.

That's like saying Dodge is proof that AC should start at 11 instead of 10.

It's a very nice -option-. I grab it because my characters tends to be style-heavy, and, glassteel rapiers don't pierce many DRs. It's a feat for those who don't want to go the power-attacking route, or who can't.