When did you enjoy 3.x?

[Pinotage]

I still enjoy it. It was a marked improvement on previous editions, and had a strong underlying mechanical system. At this point I'm still going to keep playing 3.5e and Pathfinder RPG as my main games, though I might dabble in 4e. Having seen so much of 4e and trying to like it, it's just not the game system for me.

Pinotage

 

[N0Man]

The truth is, 3E was a pretty big improvement over 2E, it's just that it was designed in such a way that a lot of flawed mechanics really began to shine through with time, and in certain circumstances.

They made skills matter more, instead of just being proficient or non-proficient, which was a nice step. However, the skill system could really get out of hand and create situations where difficulty levels would always be set up so that someone who didn't specialize in a skill had absolutely no chance of succeeding in something, or it was trivial to the person who did specialize. Saving throws were similar to skills in that regard (though I don't think that really changed a lot from 2E).

Wizards got an improvement in 3E, in the form of extra Level 0 spells, and allowing wizards equal ground with their Int bonus as clerics got with their Wisdom Bonus. However, when a Cleric runs out of spells, they still can wear Plate Armor, and they can still be more effective with a weapon. The wizard quickly became useless. Though to 3E's credit, they did give Wizard the option of crafting wands and scrolls so that they could still be useful (at the cost of XP), however since all classes leveled at the same rate, it wasn't like it was any worse than 2E's higher XP requirements for Wizards.

The former long-standing philosophy of D&D design was that Wizards should be very vulnerable to make up for their great power later. 4th Edition is the first edition to re-evaluate that and realize that the problem is that it makes being a caster at lower levels to be frustrating, and being anything other than a spellcaster at higher levels disappointing.

My biggest worry about 4E is that they may have taken the former versatility from the Magic User away. However, I have to remind myself how little anyone else had. Perhaps I must concede that it's for the best for everyone's fun to spread around abilities to the entire party.

 

[Pickles JG]

First to tenth level (ish).

& I still do

 

[Engilbrand]

I enjoyed it at the very beginning, but my enthusiasm waned as time went on. These last few years, though, I really started to like a lot of the new stuff. The Tome of Magic, Tome of Battle, Magic of Incarnum. Those are some of my favorite books. They also happen to include a lot of the ideas that were tested for 4th edition. In 3.5, the only spellcasters that I would play were spontaneous, and usually only Warmages. When I found out that these recent books were a preview to 4th edition, I knew that it was the edition for me.

 

[Arivendel]

I love the mid-high level games (10+) and i love the gestalt variant, however this is only fun if all the campaign players maintain a fun attitude towards the game, the moment a single one of them decides to power game the game losses a lot of its fun.

Same goes for anyone playing a caster, if they can solo the dungeon without the help of the rest(other than having hp buffers) then its no longer fun.

 

[muffin_of_chaos]

3.x was so horribly broken that I enjoyed it for a game or two before being really put off by it. As a powergamer of some dignity I don't like feeling like I'm being pigeonholed into playing a Cleric because it's obviously the best class until Druid hits its majority. I want everything to have some sort of coherent balance. Prestige classes and extra other classes and all sorts of random-arse stuff they put in there just hurt my brain.
After a game or two I sticked to White Wolf and home-generated systems.
4E looks like it was designed with the purpose of sensical mechanics, so I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Wormwood]

3e was fun to play for about 5 years.

It was fun to DM for about 5 minutes.

 

[OchreJelly]

I still like 3E but am very much excited about switching over to 4E:

As a player: I began to dislike the various lack of balance between the classes. Some classes really outshine others (you know who you are). Lets put it this way: the last character I tried was a monk. It turned into an exercise of frustration. Also the power creep and the utter lack of balance after level 10 or so was also disheartening.

As a DM: The prep time. I spent a lot of time crafting NPCs in some of the better earlier games. Occasionally that effort would pay off but more often it wouldn't. Over time as I have gained more responsibilities in real life, I have less time or energy to devout to the game. Anything that will save me time, especially on busy work, will be a relief.

 

[Kzach]

So, for you folks switching to 4E, what did you enjoy when you first started playing 3.x?

The excitement of a new edition that would finally give me what was missing in 2e.

It failed.

 

[Fifth Element]

I've seen very few posts that say "3.X sucks and 4E is going to fix everything". But I am someone who is most likely going to switch to 4E, after I try it out..

I enjoy 3.X because the system is much, much more coherent and flexible than 1e or 2e. DMing it is a pain, though.