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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 2233267" data-attributes="member: 4937">And the above is just a list of the major things that consciously annoyed me, and truth be told, I've thought of a few since then that I'd forgot about - like the rules for familiars.If I actually got out my old 1st edition books, I probably could add a much longer list of minor annoyances - for example that a guy with a spear could be attacked by a guy with a dagger and the spear wielding fighter would have no significant advantage derived from the extra 5' of reach that he had, or the 'prestige' requirements for advancing Druids, Assassins, and Monks.&nbsp;&nbsp; But an even more important list is the things that I didnt' realize at the time were annoyances, but which I did realize were annoying when I saw the 3rd edition rules.&nbsp;&nbsp; You might think of this list as the list of house rules that other good DM's had come up with but which I hadn't even thought of yet.&nbsp; 1) Infravision.&nbsp; Probably no single subject led to more rules lawyering than infravision and time wasted arguing than infravision.&nbsp;&nbsp; Players with characters who had infravision were always trying to argue that because they had the ability to see heat, that they should be allowed to do X.&nbsp; &nbsp; 2) Multi-classing.&nbsp; The rules for picking up a second class in 1st edition were horrible. 3) Damage Resistance.&nbsp; First editions 'all or nothing' DR led to all sorts of problems.There are still a few things that annoy me about 3rd edition and 1st edition.&nbsp;&nbsp; I won't go into these in detail, because I hope to one of these days get my act together and try to publish a few fixes and ideas that I have.&nbsp; &nbsp; I will say for the purposes of example that one of the things that annoyed me about 1st edition was the explosion of subclasses that was necessary because of the fact that all skills had to be class abilities in order to be useful.&nbsp;&nbsp; So, for example, if you wanted a skilled sailor, you had to have a Mariner class.&nbsp;&nbsp; I personally feel that Prestige Classes are one of the worst design decisions of 3rd edition, because they tie the game back to its primitive, inflexible, skillless, stereotyped roots.&nbsp;&nbsp; With a flexible skill and feat system, they just simply shouldn't be needed.&nbsp;&nbsp; I certainly don't mean to.&nbsp; It was every bit as bad as you say and we could probably go on to show that it was probably worse than we've managed to convey so far.The only thing I miss about the old item creation system was needing to know the secret recipe for say 'Potions of Cure Light Wounds'.&nbsp;&nbsp; 'Recipes' had started to play a significant role in the 'fluff' of my games, and one of my favorite sorts of treasures was arcane tomes detailing how to make a 'potion of levitation' or the ink for a scroll of 'detect magic'.&nbsp;&nbsp; I confess that that treasure was rarely used, but my PC M-U's loved collecting this stuff and the flavor involved was wonderful.&nbsp;&nbsp; I mean, I really could get players to go, 'Ohhhhh.... a LIBRARY!!!'.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 2233267, member: 4937"] And the above is just a list of the major things that consciously annoyed me, and truth be told, I've thought of a few since then that I'd forgot about - like the rules for familiars. If I actually got out my old 1st edition books, I probably could add a much longer list of minor annoyances - for example that a guy with a spear could be attacked by a guy with a dagger and the spear wielding fighter would have no significant advantage derived from the extra 5' of reach that he had, or the 'prestige' requirements for advancing Druids, Assassins, and Monks. But an even more important list is the things that I didnt' realize at the time were annoyances, but which I did realize were annoying when I saw the 3rd edition rules. You might think of this list as the list of house rules that other good DM's had come up with but which I hadn't even thought of yet. 1) Infravision. Probably no single subject led to more rules lawyering than infravision and time wasted arguing than infravision. Players with characters who had infravision were always trying to argue that because they had the ability to see heat, that they should be allowed to do X. 2) Multi-classing. The rules for picking up a second class in 1st edition were horrible. 3) Damage Resistance. First editions 'all or nothing' DR led to all sorts of problems. There are still a few things that annoy me about 3rd edition and 1st edition. I won't go into these in detail, because I hope to one of these days get my act together and try to publish a few fixes and ideas that I have. I will say for the purposes of example that one of the things that annoyed me about 1st edition was the explosion of subclasses that was necessary because of the fact that all skills had to be class abilities in order to be useful. So, for example, if you wanted a skilled sailor, you had to have a Mariner class. I personally feel that Prestige Classes are one of the worst design decisions of 3rd edition, because they tie the game back to its primitive, inflexible, skillless, stereotyped roots. With a flexible skill and feat system, they just simply shouldn't be needed. I certainly don't mean to. It was every bit as bad as you say and we could probably go on to show that it was probably worse than we've managed to convey so far. The only thing I miss about the old item creation system was needing to know the secret recipe for say 'Potions of Cure Light Wounds'. 'Recipes' had started to play a significant role in the 'fluff' of my games, and one of my favorite sorts of treasures was arcane tomes detailing how to make a 'potion of levitation' or the ink for a scroll of 'detect magic'. I confess that that treasure was rarely used, but my PC M-U's loved collecting this stuff and the flavor involved was wonderful. I mean, I really could get players to go, 'Ohhhhh.... a LIBRARY!!!'. [/QUOTE]

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