D&D 3E/3.5 What will we miss from 3.5E?

[Waylander]

The many options available with all the spaltbooks. Moving to 4e will mean the game becomes much smaller, for a while. Ofc that may turn out to be a good thing.

I suppose another other aspect of that is that 3.xE is relatively "complete" in terms of having rulebooks for virtually all occasions - when 4E launches with just the three core rulebooks will that be limiting?

Also, will 4E go through a phase of real-life play and then be augmented by either new core features in subsequent books (e.g. swift and immediate actions) or be formally updated as 4.5E? Possible the news that additional core rulebooks will be published each year may be WotC way of dealing with this?

 

[thundershot]

Honestly? The ability to take pretty much any humanoid creature and turn it into a PC without too much fuss.

Specifically?

Giff - I waited for YEARS to finally have Giff stats, and now I'll probably have to wait all over again... *sniff*

3.5 Shaman - That class stood out as being extremely unique among the other hodgepodge classes. Hopefully early on in development, we see a 4E version of this class.

The thing I'll probably miss the most is my 20 year campaign.

 

[Woas]

I'll miss grappling people. And attacking them when their guard is down (AoO)... breaking their weapons... and having fun in general

 

[howandwhy99]

What will we miss from 3.5E?

The $$$$ spent on it.

 

[Shade]

Based on Rich Baker's latest blog:

Demons, devils, and the Great Wheel as we've known them for 30+ years.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I'll not miss anything. I hope 4E is a sufficiently different game that I can enjoy it that way. A rehash of D&D Basic, AD&D, or 3E would just be silly--especially since those are perfectly fine games that I still own in one form or another, and can play them any time I want.

I'm excited about the changes to Vancian magic, because I think this might be the key to preserving Vancian magic in D&D. They could drop it entirely, via popular demand, and go with the spell slot stuff that every other game does. Instead, it sounds to me as if they are taking Vancian magic back to its roots: A wizard has a few big, scary spells that he can (and must) unleash strategically. After that, he has to rely on other powers. That's actually the way magicians primarily work in the Dying Earth, Cugel the Clever, and Rhialto the Marvelous. Any story/game comparision has to be hedged a bit, but the 4E system sounds a lot closer to the source material than 3E is.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Honestly? The ability to take pretty much any humanoid creature and turn it into a PC without too much fuss.

Same here. I've liked almost everything else I've heard about 4e, but this is a huge, huge issue for me. I probably won't outright switch systems until this issue is addressed to my satisfaction. Admittedly, in my case it's something I'll miss from 'generic d20 running under the Saga rulesset' rather than 'Dungeons and Dragons 3.5.'

Specifically?

Giff - I waited for YEARS to finally have Giff stats, and now I'll probably have to wait all over again... *sniff*

If you're referring to the Races of Spelljammer article in Dragon, I wrote that and have already queried the DI Dragon about revamping it at the first opportunity. With any luck, it will get picked up and Giff stats will be available within a few weeks of the PHB's release! And no crippling LA to keep them reasonably consistent with their oddly statted 2e origins, either.