laudablepuss wrote:

godamit wrote:

laudablepuss wrote:

The second edition of (what was then) AD&D did something simillar when they came out with a revised version that fixed some errata and rearranged the books a bit. This is a little different, though, in that some of the rules were tweaked.

Oh ho ho! Not just tweaked. Some of the rules were just totally changed. For example, try switching your 3E ranger to 3.5E ranger -- they're totally different! If you're 12th level and your used to fighting demons and golems and assorted badguys, you will be in for a shock when you encounter the 3.5E versions, because in many cases: the monsters have basically been totally changed 100% (wow it used to be 3HD and DR 10/+1 and 3 attacks and now it's 6HD and DR 5/cold-iron and has 2 attacks and lacks improved grab ..?) And that reminds me, damage reduction was TOTALLY CHANGED. I think it's a lot cooler now in 3.5E, but it means you have to just totally change how you play the game (you used to just buy a sword and then have the party wizard cast GMW when you needed it, now you have to carry around 12 swords: one made out of silver, another that's "lawful", etc to affect all the new DR guys).

Some of the PrCs are too insane: mystic theurge? Before multiclassing wizard+cleric was hard to pull off right, now it's too powerful. Hmm, a 10th level mystic theurge can cast a metric shitload of 4th level wizard spells *AND* a metric shitload of 4th level cleric spells. Why would I want to be a wizard again, so I can cast 2 extra 5th level spells per day?

Which I dunno is fine, but parts of it aren't like upgrading your word processor from 3.0 to 3.5, it's more like making the dive into linux or BSD after years of using windows. maybe more like switching to NT after using 95 for a while, .. whatever..

But then there are some other minor rules changes that are really cool, like:

* Standing up from being prone provokes an AoO. Now tripping someone is actually USEFUL
* Auto-kill spells like blindness, paralysis, sleep, and so on let you make a saving throw _every_round_. There is nothing shittier than failing your Will save in the 1st round of combat and being out of the game for the next 1.5 hours
* Haste is not the must-have spell it used to be (some of the other "too good" spells were minorly tweaked)
* Power attack is actually useful for people who deal a lot of damage (i.e., people with high Str who it's intended for)
* At least the books come with more than 4 prestige classes, even if some of them are lame and some of them got fucked up

So... I dunno. If I were starting an entirely new game maybe I'd use the rules, but if I were already playing a game I'd just keep my old books and cherry pick a few of the rules out of 3.5E that I liked.

Yeah, I noticed the Ranger was different. I liked the change, but then again, I don't really have any Ranger characters. I also saw that they brought back the concept of cold iron for demons and silver for devils. Which reminds me: there's an organizational change that I dislike in the Monster Manual. Instead of looking under Celestial to find stats on an Astral Deva, you have to look under Angel. And if you want to know what a Hound Archon is like, you have to look under Archon. And if you want to find info on a Gheale (or however it's spelled), you need to look under Eladrin. Why Wizards of the Coast? Why?

I haven't gotten as far as the new DR rules. Sounds like you're further along in the books than I am. I noticed some differences in the way magic items are handled, too. I may have to refund some XP to my Cleric guy who created some Celestial Armor a while back.