Will anyone play test 3.5 "as is"?

[orbitalfreak]

I plan on house-ruling a few things right off, like a Ranger's Combat Path feats. Instead of being (as I've heard): "Choose a path, and you have these feats at these levels," I intend to change it to "You get bonus feats, like a fighter. Choose from the Combat Path list." I also don't use multiclass restrictions (paladin, monk, etc.)

Other changes, I will or will not make, depending on what I like. If I see something that doesn't sit well with me, I change it on the spot, usually without play-testing; I just change it into what "feels right."

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

We'll be playing 3.5e by the rules, with one exception: no 5-10-5 movement on diagonals. I hate that FAQ ruling. Does anyone know if it made it into 3.5e?

AFAIK, yes. If it didn't then the spell templates in the new DMG are completely wrong (as compared to the slightly wrong they are now).

 

[Psion]

What fenes2 said.

 

[Aitch Eye]

Our games also deviate vastly from the assumed norms of D&D, and go on for years and years. Also, we're not really that focused on playing D&D as...well, a game. D&D gives us a framework for the parts of the adventures we find entertaining, but at this point in our lives, very few people in the group really have the time or the interest to take pleasure in their knowledge and manipulation of the rules the way they might have in the past. So whether the changes are balanced for an aggressively min/maxing combat oriented group of four people at the same level of experience with wealth doled by DMG guidelines or not, a lot of them are just going to whiz right by us.

For example, we've been using the critical hit tables from some old ICE products for 15 years, and we're not about to stop now. This sends shockwaves through the whole carefully balanced system, but they're fun, so we don't care. No one would really find optimizing a fighter to take advantage of the current system all that rewarding anyway. I could bore you with other examples, but that should illustrate why there's really no particular point for us to give all the new rules a chance.