What's Wrong With 3.5
What's wrong with D&D 3.5? There is a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is that it is far too complicated. From top to bottom, there are too many rules and too many special cases. The rules for feats and skills and combats are the ones that bother me the most, but each is deserving of it's own post.
The special cases are what drives me insane. It seems that every section in the combat chapter states a rule, how it works, exactly what it entails, provides an example and then lists a feat(s) that modify how that rule works. This reminds me of the old game system/setting Earthdawn, where characters would acquire powers, very similar to feats, as they increased in experience. It makes life for a Game Master difficult on two levels. First, it increases adventure design time exponentially, especially at higher levels when you must assign massive numbers of skill points and select a dozen feats for each NPC. If you earn your living writing modules for pay, no problem. However, this is far too much paperwork for a hobby! I'm lucky to have any time left over for character motivations or plot hooks and twists.
Second, all of the special cases make combat slow down to a crawl, between players trying to plot out their character's movement without incurring an attack of opportunity, or choosing from their laundry list of skills, or scanning through their player's handbook trying to figure out how x feat will react when combined with skill y against class ability z! It's a pure nightmare! Especially when everyone pauses from the action to look up a particular rule or feat! It's a focus killer, par excellence!
The special cases are what drives me insane. It seems that every section in the combat chapter states a rule, how it works, exactly what it entails, provides an example and then lists a feat(s) that modify how that rule works. This reminds me of the old game system/setting Earthdawn, where characters would acquire powers, very similar to feats, as they increased in experience. It makes life for a Game Master difficult on two levels. First, it increases adventure design time exponentially, especially at higher levels when you must assign massive numbers of skill points and select a dozen feats for each NPC. If you earn your living writing modules for pay, no problem. However, this is far too much paperwork for a hobby! I'm lucky to have any time left over for character motivations or plot hooks and twists.
Second, all of the special cases make combat slow down to a crawl, between players trying to plot out their character's movement without incurring an attack of opportunity, or choosing from their laundry list of skills, or scanning through their player's handbook trying to figure out how x feat will react when combined with skill y against class ability z! It's a pure nightmare! Especially when everyone pauses from the action to look up a particular rule or feat! It's a focus killer, par excellence!
posted by Joshua D. Haney at 7:40 AM
6 Comments:
What I found brilliant at the beginning of the new edition, the third, was the principle of the d20. One of the great defects of the preceding editions was a certain complexification of the rules.
Sometimes, it was necessary to roll a d100, another time to obtain a high roll, or a low roll, on a d20, another time to roll a d6 and obtain a result of 1 or 2, etc.
With the d20 system, you just use one dice for all skills and abilities. It's a good idea.
BUT ... the introduction of feats and tactical combat blow it all!!! Three books with 250 pages of rules destroy the game I love since the beginning.
That's the reason I switch to Castles & Crusades ...
I totally agree with your opinion about the feats modifying the rules. It's impossible to remember all the modifications ..and then it starts to be a contest between a GM and the players: "who remembers the most of the details". I am looking forward to the new RQ though it looks very amateurish. What a pity that their budget didnt include any professional art directors.
The thing about d20 D&D is that the term is misleading... you don't really use a d20 all the time. There's still d8s, d4s, dETCs to roll, and you generate characters with 3 or 4d6 :).
Instead of waiting for a 4th edition, I'll give a chance to Green Ronin's True20 RPG, which many claim it's a d20 game "done right" (and it actually uses only one d20 :)
It has great reviews at RPG.net
and here
I avoid DM-ing D&D 3.5e as much as possible, got tired of all its draconian rules.All I can say about Wizards is that they print very slick-looking game books :)
I've found that Troll Lord Games' Castles & Crusades is the perfect substitute for D&D for me. It has the feel of the older editions and without all the excessive rules. It's a rules lawyers worst nightmare, as it pares it down to the bare minimum and leaves it to the GM and players to roleplay and wing a lot of it!
--J. Haney
THere is nothing wrong with 3.5. As an avid player, and DM for 20 years It just takes a bit of getting used to. Also being prepared and knowing what your players can and can't do goes a long way to being able to have good fast fun.
Being a DM means that you can allow or disallow any skill or feat that you don't want in your game. Just because the rule is there does not mean that you need to allow it or use it!
I am tired of Wizards stripping D&D down to something more basic. I grew up with that and looking back... it was easy... but D20 is WAY better.
If you guys can't hack 3.5 then you should play monopoly or go fish. (GRIN)
Marc-- It's not that we can't hack a 3.5 game, currently I'm playing in a 3.5 game. I've been gaming for about 16 years myself, and I just happen to prefer a less complex game. I would rather play a game where I don't need a rule for every action my character might attempt. I hate the way 3.5 kills the creativity of players and GM's alike.
When we sat around playing 2nd Edition we would constantly come up with actions which there were no rules for. The GM would come up with a way to resolve it and give us a chance to do it. With 3.5 they sit there and scan their list of feats and skills and see what they can do.
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