Comments To The New 3.5 Edition

[Ariadne]

Now after the new 3.5 version is released, I'm wondering what the comments of the BR-community are...


My personal opinion:

positive:
- the bard (6+ int-mod of skill points, several new abilities)
- the paladin (more smite evil per day)
- the ranger (several new abilities)
- less different skills
- the druids animal companion (abilities like a familiar)
- the bard's and sorcerer's new ability to change known spells
- new spells
- the cleric's and wizard's more class skills

indifferent:
- simply renamed skills (not really nesessary)
- changed attack system (better for miniatures, maybe not this good for tabletop)
- the paladin (now 3 levels below a cleric to turn undead, there is room for discussion, if that's good)
- the ranger (same room for discussion about his average HD, IMO he is no real warrior any more)
- some feats are not really this great

negative:
- the crippled magic system
- I would have liked, that the sorcerer is a bit more changed
- the spell focus feat is a horror now


General: Very good changes, if you stop playing a spellcaster...

[Azrai]

WoC officially stated that one of the goal of the new edition was to weaken the spellcaster-abilities.

This is reflected by drastic modification of spells (~10%) and by weakening of e.g. spell focus.

Spellcaster players of course won't like it. I'am not shure so far if the modifications support the game-balance.


I like

- the new Ranger
- the clarifications
- the new druid


I'am disappointed

- with the new Bard


I hate

- the focus on miniature game rules. The reason for this lies clearly in the new upcoming miniature product lines and in the hope to take over some table-top player.
- the typeset and logical errors. Enworld publicated already a list of errors, several more are out. This is awful for a new edition, don't want to download 50 pages of errata sheets. This holds especially for the new Monster Handbook (this is the 3! 3. Edition).

[Green Knight]

on:



1. The changes are numerous and big enough to warrant publishing new

books. I disagree with those that think the changes are too great - if

there were no changes, only erratas and clarifications, there would be

no point in buying the book.



2. The changes are not in any way big enough to call it an entirely new

edition. Which is good, as it lets me use my other DnD stuff with very

little trouble.



3. The books are cheap. The last books were $90 for three years of fun.

If the same holds true for this edition, its one of the cheapes hobbies

there is!



4. In general, all the changes are cool (save the summoning warhorse

ability of paladins).



If there are some things I don`t like it is:



1. There are just too many stupid little errors! Take the tanle with

Difficulty Class Examples. This example about the maxed ranger has DC 43

in both editions, even if a 3.g ranger that is maxed out as 5 more

points to work out. Maybe a lame example, but this is not the only one.



B

[kgauck]

bby remains inexpensive even with an additional 90$US

thrown in is not a good argument for the addition of the $90. I purchase

one 20-30 $ book a month, and this will set me back 3 months for every

single subseqent purchase I make. I`d rather buy new materials than

reworked versions of the old every couple of years.



Kenneth Gauck

kgauck@mchsi.com

[Cirdan]

I play a Ranger most of the time and I love the changes.

[Gab]

Remember all 3.5 changes are in the SRD, so you can get them all free; no need to pay for the books.

[Osprey]

Remember all 3.5 changes are in the SRD, so you can get them all free; no need to pay for the books.

What, exactly, is SRD? And where do I go to get free updates of the changes?

Osprey

[Green Knight]

Standard Reference Document - It contains (almost) every important rule

from DnD.



Go to URL:



http://www.wizards.com/D20/article.asp?x=srd35



No paying 90 bucks for the books if you don`t need that special

hard-cover feeling when you`re playing ;-)



Bjørn



-----Original Message-----

From: Birthright Roleplaying Game Discussion

[mailto:BIRTHRIGHT-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM] On Behalf Of Osprey

Sent: 11. august 2003 22:16

To: BIRTHRIGHT-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM

Subject: Re: Comments To The New 3.5 Edition [2#1822]



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Osprey wrote:


Remember all 3.5 changes are in the SRD, so you can get them

all free; no need to pay for the books.



What, exactly, is SRD? And where do I go to get free updates of the

changes?



Osprey



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[irdeggman]

Originally posted by Gab@Aug 11 2003, 11:35 AM
Remember all 3.5 changes are in the SRD, so you can get them all free; no need to pay for the books.
Actually they only contain a summary of the changes at the big ticket level not all of the specific changes. And not the specifics of the changes.

[Birthright-L]

SRD? And where do I go to get free updates of the changes?



The System Reference Documents are basically the three core rule books with all the flavour text cut out. If you want the rules only it is a much easier document to use. As WotC say themselves:



Q: What`s missing from the SRD compared to the core D&D rulebooks?

A: Mostly the "flavor" elements. There are no named gods, none of the spells have significant NPC names, there`s no mention of Greyhawk, etc. You`ll also note that there are no rules for character creation, for advancing characters in level, calculating experience, or anything else related to the topics forbidden by the Usage Guide.



You can dowload it at:

http://www.wizards.com/D20/article.asp?x=srd35



The best part is:

Q: Could I publish the whole thing?

A: Sure. If you think someone would be willing to pay for it, you`re more than welcome to try.

:-D



Another good one is the documents that contain what is changed between v3.0 and v3.5. They cover the three core books, and the 5 other hardcover books. Download it at:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20030718a



Cheers,

Even

[DanMcSorley]

irdeggman wrote:

> Actually they only contain a summary of the changes at the big ticket

> level not all of the specific changes. And not the specifics of the

> changes.



The summary book, yes, you`re right. The 3.5 SRD, though, contains all

the mechanics, specifics and all.

--

Daniel McSorley

[Raesene Andu]

Some times the flavour text can be useful in explaining just why a class or race gets a certain ability. If you don't have it, changes to some of the abilities just look like they've been tacked on to boost the power of a particular class or race (which is exactly what has been done, but with a little flavour text you can disguise this fact).

Oh, and I won't be buying the 3.5 books, I think I'll wait for 4th edition, but I have downloaded the 3.5 SRD and will refer to that for any 3.5 stuff I'm working on. In my home campaign though I won't be using 3.5, I think I'll stick with 3.0. Most of the guys I'm playing with are only new to D&D anyway (with the exception of 2 old timers who are playing 3rd edition for the first time).

[Ariadne]

Originally posted by Cirdan@Aug 8 2003, 07:05 PM
I play a Ranger most of the time and I love the changes.
Yes, Rangers have really advantages now, same as paladins and bards. Sorcerers could have been changed a bit more (I didn't think they were this good in the 3.0 Edition) and it makes absolutely no fun anymore to play a wizard. Because they changed him??? No, not at all, but they changed the spells he can cast.

Some spells have useful changes, example: Disintegrate (if you are reduced to 0 or less hit points, you are disintegrated [if you have saved successfully or not]) and there are many new mass affecting spells now. But there are horrible negative examples: All animal boost spells are only useful to be included in magical items, heal is hardly reduced (well, I was for giving this spell a save, but that's all) as well as Fly, Flame Arrow and Endure Elements are competely useless now, I don't want to mention alter self and polymorph and, and, and...

[Azrai]

Take a look at

http://www.theothergamecompany.com

There is a cool text layout version of the SRD 3.5 available. It is a German website, and there was a vehement discussion if this is legal. But it's all ok for now.

[irdeggman]

Originally posted by DanMcSorley@Aug 11 2003, 04:48 PM
irdeggman wrote:

> Actually they only contain a summary of the changes at the big ticket

> level not all of the specific changes. And not the specifics of the

> changes.



The summary book, yes, you`re right. The 3.5 SRD, though, contains all

the mechanics, specifics and all.

--

Daniel McSorley













Thanks Dan, I missed that one.