Where 3E and 4E players stand in the great 3E disputes

[Agamon]

1. Psionics:

I've hated psionics since they were introduced in 1E. They always seem to be the square peg hammered into the round hole of D&D, both crunch- and fluff-wise.

2. Tome of Battle:

I bought 1 3.x book in the past 4 years, and that wasn't it, so no comment.

3. Fighter Sux:

Uh, no, I guess. I'm too sure of the context of this, but I've never had a problem with fighters in any edition of the game, though they're probably a little more interesting to play in 4e.

4. Wizard and CoDzilla overpowered to the point of game disruption:

Not really. The only thing that evr disrupted the game with these guys is daily spell selection at high levels.

5. Your 3E games: Rules as written or houseruled into oblivion?

There were a couple houserules, but nothing huge.

6. Does your group optimize, or play more casually?

One group optimizes (weekly beer and pretzels game I play in), the other is more casual (bi-weekly game that I DM).

7. Eberron: Yes or No?

No. Don't need another oddball setting. Not a fan of warforged (see answer to #1) and don't like that I had to fight one in the FR game last week. (I kept making dumb comments like, "So did these come over from Aebir, too?")

8. Do you currently play more 3E, or 4E?

Way more 4e than 3e (being 100% to 0%).

 

[Fifth Element]

1. Psionics: Good or Bad?
I think psionics are overpowered compared to arcane magic, and I'm not keen on psionics in my fantasy setting. I don't use them in my campaign.

2. Tome of Battle: The antichrist or best thing that ever happened?
I suspect there's a bit of room between these two options. I'm pretty "meh" about it.

3. Fighter Sux: Yes or No?
With the new feats added in the later books, the fighter is pretty good. I houseruled a melee damage bonus that increases every other level just to give it another boost.

4. Wizard and CoDzilla overpowered to the point of game disruption: yes or no?
Not quite to the point of game disruption, but it is often noticeable.

5. Your 3E games: Rules as written or houseruled into oblivion?
Not into oblivion, but I use some significant house rules. Added a couple of 4E-esque elements for the current campaign.

6. Does your group optimize, or play more casually?
Pretty much casually.

7. Eberron: Yes or No?
Never tried it, no real interest. I like warforged though.

8. Do you currently play more 3E, or 4E?(this question is to see where each group falls in terms of the previous questions)
My sig answers this. I play 3.5 only right now, but will be giving 4E a try soon.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

1. Psionics: Good or Bad?

I'm ambivalent about psionics. I own EPH and allowed it when I ran 3e, but don't have any special love for it.

2. Tome of Battle: The antichrist or best thing that ever happened?

Own it, allowed it, but again no special love.

3. Fighter Sux: Yes or No?

I've always been a fan of the make-your-own-class class, and never thought that it needed fixing. Certain things about it annoyed me like its limited skill list and the fact that for some reason there were no 16th/20th level Weapon Focus/Spec, but those things are easily fixed with a couple of simple house rules.

4. Wizard and CoDzilla overpowered to the point of game disruption: yes or no?

Yes, and I blame the spells not the casters. I have a standard disclaimer in games that I run: "If you find a way to seriously abuse a rule or character option, I retain the right to mod or ban it mid-game." 3e spells were the most common provoker of my mods and bans, so much so that I actually began replacing every published spell with a set of my own simple, consistent and balanced homebrew spells. To bring druids into line, and into simplicity, I had players use the shapeshift variant from PHBII.

5. Your 3E games: Rules as written or houseruled into oblivion?

I tried to keep my list of house rules to a bare minimum, but I've been told that my list of 3e house rules was way too long for the typical player.

6. Does your group optimize, or play more casually?

I usually had a mix, involving one player that really knew how to crunch numbers and the rest being more or less casual.

7. Eberron: Yes or No?

I'm apathetic. I own the CS, but only ever ran a one-shot Eberron adventure from Dungeon mag. I guess Eberron never really did anything special for me. Warforged always bothered me, because why would a leader want to mass produce a group of soldiers who could think [and desert] for themselves?

8. Do you currently play more 3E, or 4E?(this question is to see where each group falls in terms of the previous questions)

If you haven't picked up on it by now, I run 4e now. I use a total of three house rules, one of which is optional, because I'm much happier with the rule set overall. I do miss alignment though. I would play 3e again, if a friendly DM wanted to run it.

TS

 

[Shroomy]

1. Psionics: Good or Bad?

--I like psionics and have no problem with it in D&D. I look forward to the Psionic power source for 4e.

2. Tome of Battle: The antichrist or best thing that ever happened?

--I bought it and flipped through it, but I never got a chance to use it. I'm pretty open about adding new stuff, so I doubt I'd think this was an anti-christ type product.

3. Fighter Sux: Yes or No?

--We played before the 3.5e PHBII came out and didn't have access to any of the Complete series; without those extra feats and using only the PHB, I would have to say yes, especially when compared with our half-orc barbarian (could dish out and take more punishment) and my druid (with more attacks, especially the free trips my wolf produced, and spells).

4. Wizard and CoDzilla overpowered to the point of game disruption: yes or no?

--We had a sorcerer in our game, not a wizard, so I can only answer in a theoretical way. In theory, the wizard's wide range of powers can lead to being overpowered in relation to other classes. As for CoDzilla, I played a druid and I was dominating combat at 1st and 2nd level with my wolf animal companion.

5. Your 3E games: Rules as written or houseruled into oblivion?

--RAW

6. Does your group optimize, or play more casually?

--We played casually, but we did try to make effective character choices.

7. Eberron: Yes or No?

--Yes, its my favorite setting in 3.5e.

8. Do you currently play more 3E, or 4E?(this question is to see where each group falls in terms of the previous questions)

--I now play 4e exclusively.

 

[Angrydad]

1. Psionics: Good or Bad?
They have their place, but in a nonpsionic setting they quickly become problematic.

2. Tome of Battle: The antichrist or best thing that ever happened?
Initially seemed too powerful (swordsage getting 6x6 skill points is still stupid) but is just not really my cup of tea.

3. Fighter Sux: Yes or No?
No. Fighters who get a good selection of feats and then do some creative tactics kick arse.

4. Wizard and CoDzilla overpowered to the point of game disruption: yes or no?
They're only overpowered for the duration of the spells they're using, and if you play a multi-encounter per day sort of campaign, having a spellcaster try and use these combos the whole time basically means they miss out on some other really sweet options. So no.

5. Your 3E games: Rules as written or houseruled into oblivion?
A few house rules, but basically still the same as 3.5 RAW.

6. Does your group optimize, or play more casually?
Sometimes a player will optimize the hell out of his/her character (Radiant Servant of Pelor, anyone?) but mostly it's all about fun.

7. Eberron: Yes or No?
Yes to many of the ideas, Action Point system, Warforged, Changelings, etc. but not really to the setting.

8. Do you currently play more 3E, or 4E?(this question is to see where each group falls in terms of the previous questions)
It's all about 3.5, baby! Not going to ever DM 4e.

 

[Imban]

1. Psionics: Good or Bad?

Awesome. My games always feature both psionic PCs and psionic foes.

2. Tome of Battle: The antichrist or best thing that ever happened?

One of the best things that ever happened. Introduced plenty of neat moves for fighter-types.

3. Fighter Sux: Yes or No?

3e's Fighter class is the worst incarnation of Fighter in D&D ever, seriously. It's still useful for dips for feats, or for things like Dungeoncrasher, but eww.

4. Wizard and CoDzilla overpowered to the point of game disruption: yes or no?

No. Though, since I play gestalt, almost everyone in my groups ends up being a wizard, cleric, or psion of SOME stripe. (Druids aren't so popular because I pretty much ban shapeshifting and polymorphing due to how WotC couldn't write understandable rules for them, much less working ones.)

5. Your 3E games: Rules as written or houseruled into oblivion?

A combination of both. It's not "houseruled into oblivion" in the sense of "I play E6" or "I play Grim'n'Gritty" or otherwise tore up 90% of the engine, but I do play gestalt and do ban or alter the effects of a wide range of things that make the game less fun.

6. Does your group optimize, or play more casually?

Optimization, hell yeah

7. Eberron: Yes or No?

Eberron's really cool, but I've never really gotten into it - D&D isn't really much about the published settings for me, and the only reason I like the Forgotten Realms is because of the CRPGs.

8. Do you currently play more 3E, or 4E?(this question is to see where each group falls in terms of the previous questions)

All 3e all the time, no 4e any of the time

 

[Jack99]

1. Psionics: Great for my NPC's, never had a player in 3e that wanted to play one.

2. Tome of Battle: Again, great for my NPC's None of my players seemed interested in the classes, when I talked about them.

3. Fighter Sux: Yes.

4. Wizard and CoDzilla overpowered to the point of game disruption: YES

5. Your 3E games: Mostly RAW, some houserules.

6. Does your group optimize, or play more casually? 3e and the internet taught them to optimize ;(

7. Eberron: Awesome for inspiration, one of the best takes on religion. But my players hated the idea of trains and airships, so I never ran a campaign there.

8. Do you currently play more 3E, or 4E? I play 4e exclusively.

 

[Robert Ranting]

1. Psionics: No thanks. I have no problem with psionics in theory, but I would prefer not to have completely separate systems for it and magic. I also dislike the implied flavor of it.

2. Tome of Battle: Mostly Awful. I dislike encounter-based powers and all the methods of recovery. The classes are far too much like spellcasters, and they make the fighter, paladin, and monk even more obsolete.

3. Fighter Sux: Yes, it does. It needs to trade a couple feats for some better-than-a-feat class abilities, and either more long feat trees with more powerful rewards at the end, or feats that scale better with level.

4. Wizard and CoDzilla overpowered to the point of game disruption. Yes. Most of this could be fixed by removing a few spells and the Natural Spell feat from the system.

5. Your 3E games: Rules as written or houseruled into oblivion? Houseruled into Oblivion. In fact, I run Arcana Evolved, and just add back in the things I like from D&D (not Fighter or the spellcasting system obviously).

6. Does your group optimize, or play more casually? I would say it is about half and half, if you count people who try to optimize and fail horribly as optimizers despite their failure.

7. Eberron: Yes or No? I have no problem playing in Eberron games, but I would never run it. I like airships, warforged, the city of Sharn, and the pulp vibe, but most of the rest of the setting is IMHO, crap.

8. Do you currently play more 3E, or 4E?(this question is to see where each group falls in terms of the previous questions) I play 3.5, Arcana Evolved, and Pathfinder RPG. I have tried 4e and absolutely loathe it.

 

[Thasmodious]

1. Psionics: Good or Bad?

Bad. I've disliked psionics since they first came to be, never my flavor for fantasy gaming. 3e did nothing to change that.

2. Tome of Battle: The antichrist or best thing that ever happened?

Mixed bag. I prefer melee characters, always have. My biggest problem was 3e was how much melee characters sucked. That Tome of Battle went a long way to fix it was great. That they resorted to magic and anime effects to handle a lot of it, not so much. That's its good and bad points seemed to have a heavy influence on 4th edition - great. Melee classes are fixed in 4, and playing a fighter is awesome, and the fighter doesn't need to draw the "fire out of the desert wind" for his powers.

3. Fighter Sux: Yes or No?

The 3e fighter sucked hard. No one played a 3e fighter though, the fighter was just a multiclassed source for feats to make your other, better class a bit better.

4. Wizard and CoDzilla overpowered to the point of game disruption: yes or no?

Definitely.

5. Your 3E games: Rules as written or houseruled into oblivion?

House ruled substantially, but still recognizable. Used my own XP system, treasure system, magic item identification, craft, several others.

6. Does your group optimize, or play more casually?

Most of the optimization came from me, as the DM, helping my largely casual players who are allergic to reading rulebooks.

7. Eberron: Yes or No?

Yes. Eberron, I guess, is a lot like a feel about 4e. It manages to be quite different, full of interesting flavor, and still strongly core D&D.

8. Do you currently play more 3E, or 4E?(this question is to see where each group falls in terms of the previous questions)

4e, mostly. Tabletop play is all 4e, playing in one 3.5 OLG, another that might get off the ground, and a couple 4e OLGs.

 

[Corsair]

1. Psionics: Good. I like having more options. From a campaign standpoint though, I like it when it has a "home." (Example: in Eberron, Riedra and Kalashtar, etc)

2. Tome of Battle: Haven't used it in a game, but good in theory. Again, having new ideas helps.

3. Fighter Sux: PBH2 helped a lot in this department. Our group has a pretty beefy fighter in it. The key is having feats that are as good as the class abilities that others get.

4. Wizard and CoDzilla overpowered to the point of game disruption: Not as much if they are in a world that is built to take them. They are certainly the most powerful, but I'd rather see other classes improved to match.

5. Your 3E games: Essentially as written.

6. Does your group optimize, or play more casually? We favor optimizing, because it makes the game a bit more fun from a gamist perspective.

7. Eberron: Yes. (Though our current DM runs a homebrew, I'd like to run an Eberron game if I ever bothered to DM for DnD again)

8. Do you currently play more 3E, or 4E? Exclusively 3.5