Whatcha think of 3.5?

[Hussar]

Well, being as I'm pretty behind the times, I finally got my 3.5 PHB this morning. So far I'm pretty happy. From reviews and other things I knew what to expect but, as I flip through the pages, I notice LOTS of things they've changed. The bard, ranger, druid and monk all got major reworkings and I don't just mean in class rules. Their spells got remade pretty well too.

Take the bard, since that's what I noticed. Tasha's Hideous Laughter is now a 1st level bard spell (was second) and now lasts for 1 round per level instead of 3 rounds. It is actually a pretty nasty spell now, particularly at low or mid levels where the baddies don't have very good will saves. Think about it, a 5th level bard smacks a CR 5 critter with this spell and the critter loses all attacks and falls prone for 5 rounds. More than long enough for the party to whack it. Not bad for a 1st level spell.

[ShonenSenshiDave]

Personally, I'm still a bit insulted by the whole 3.5 thing. Half the Feats were taken from the Class Handbooks, the Gnomes were messed up again, the Ranger has changes I don't really like, spontaneous casting for Druids, etc etc etc. There's just a whole lot there that I don't think merits $80. Especially when I have to choose between 3.5 and L5R/OA stuff!

[Cyberpaladin85]

I think that 3.5 is a scam to get me to waste more money into RPG's ( ).

[AtlanteanAscendant]

yes and no. the goal of ANY business is to get more money of their customers. then again, if its the quality of the material youre griping about hell, palladium is still in business, so i can see the problem...

seriously though, im as annoyed about 3.5 as some others, it IS a definite upgrade to the DnD3E system. Cleans up a lot of stupid mistakes and balances some classes out (the ranger is perhaps the BEST example, no longer being the top heavy and near useless class is once was).

IMO, the DMG has been made more accesible and reads a lot better. the Monster Manual has the best upgrade, artwork, stat blocks and monsters in general. is 3.5 a grab to get more money, YUP. is it worth it? honestly, yes. unless you like printing out endless reams of errata on the damned game for 3.0.

[Jinxter]

3,5 was a much needed upgrade, but they should have done more play-testing, since there are still things that should be adressed. But overall, I like it.

The class updates were very good. They should have adressed the Cleric some since it's a bit overpowered, but no big deal.

The new PrCs were bad. Mystic Theurge is overpowered. Eldritch Knight is useless. I don't recall the Hierophant, but I think I didn't like it either.

The spellupdates were good, but I didn't like that they changed the names of some spells.. I mean.. what was the point of doing that? Annoy people cause they couldn't find their spells? The buff-spell-updates were great though. Glad they got rid of the random ability bonuses and that they shortened the duration.

The changes to skills were good, even thought the Perform-change wrecked havoc on my bard's skillpoints.

The new feats were silly. Most of them were just basic +2/+2 to skill feats, not very creative at all. But I liked that they finally fixed Weapon Finesse to how it should have been in the first place.

I didn't like how they changed combat into making it more miniaturish. Changed movement and everything to be less logical, but suit miniatur-fights better. Not a big deal though.

[cryptangel]

Well, as my DM says, U should take what U like, and we are seeing the changes, holding what we think work best or sound nice and throwing the rest right out the window. After all it's our game, and we decide how to play it. It's said in the rules, right?

[Hussar]

Yeah, I just noticed that to about the major changes in duration for most of the buff spells. No more of this one hour per level stuff for buffs. Makes sense. Now the players actually have to plan instead of simply casting a raft of buffs when they roll out of bed in the morning. I like it a lot.

Why do you think the cleric is overpowered? They didn't really do anything to the cleric that I saw. He's basically exactly the same as in 3.0. And clerics weren't overpowered there.

[nodwyck]

I use the 3.5 rules.
they just make more sense to me. the changes to most classes are GOOD, especially those monk, paladin and ranger changes.
skill changes are great. just look at the jump skill. no exclusive skills (it was pretty stupid rule to boot). ok so the armor check penalty of swimming is kinda trivial now, but that's about the only thing I'm keeping from the old books.
monster changes make sense, with the 'standard' feat progression and all. most of the CR changes are pretty good too, just check out hill giants and ettins. damage reduction and energy resistances work nicely now (you might want to invest in a silvered weapon now).

so what if the core books cost another 80€ (or 112.5€ if you pay the list price here)? it's around the price of a night spent boozing.