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Wizards Releases 3.5 Edition System Reference
Randar the Lava Liza writes "Wizards of the Coast have released the 3.5 Edition System Reference Document. Essentially it's the three core rulebooks in RTF format. This includes the 3.5 Edition Player's Handbook, 3.5 Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and 3.5 Edition Monster Manual. All of these are released under their Open Gaming License. You can also read a very interesting review of 3.5 Edition by Monte Cook, one of the original creators of 3rd Edition D&D. He goes into detail on a number of the changes in this new edition."
Yeah, I agree with harm and most of the class tweaks. I think the bard looks pretty good now, and overall, fixing the front-loading of classes was a great idea.
;)
But because I had an issue with the 3.0 ranger I have no issue with the d8 hd in 3.5, in light of all the other stuff they get. In fact, I'm playing my first 3.x ranger in our first 3.5 campaign. I almost fear that they're too powerful in 3.5, but it's hard to judge without playing one. Thus my "sacrifice" for the campaign...
I must be angsty this month, but I also have issues with the half elf getting +2 diplomacy and gather info. It forces half elves into a role that isn't right for all half elves. We're fixing this with a house rule that gives them a choice from a number of "quasi-feats" to replace the dip/gather info bonus. These being:
Acrobatic (+2 jump and tumble)
Athletic (+2 climb and swim)
Deceitful (+2 disguise and forgery)
Diligent (+2 appraise and decipher script)
Friendly (+2 diplomacy and gather info) (yeah, I made the name up.)
Magical Aptitude (+2 spellcraft and use magical device)
Negotiator (+2 diplomacy and sense motive)
Self Sufficiant (+2 heal and survival)
"Elven" Weapon Proficiency (choose long/short bow, rapier, or LS)
This list is designed to point half-elves towards a trait that fits in well with whatever human elements they have grown up with, but also represents their elven heritedge. It also purposely filters out a lot of feats which could be really be munched to overpower the race.
I think they made a stride towards a better half elf, but something like this really rounds it out.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
I really like where rangers are now - they really fit in well between rogues and fighters. Before they were too much like poor fighters without enough skill pts for the skills they needed. Now they are skillful hunters - what I view rangers to be.
They aren't tanks - that's left for the fighters. They really have their own place now, and I like that. I think it's a stride forward towards making the class more of a core class, and less of a "we've got a fighter and a rogue, what else can I play?" sort of class.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
I agree with your rogue complaints myself, at least I did during first and second edition as far as HP is concerned but the number of skills and abilities that they now have in 3rd/3.5 more than makes up for it.
The medium leveled rogue will take no damage from powerful AOE attacks if they can pass a simple reflex save (which they likely will) where as the fighters and clerics are going to see a large chunk of their HP knocked off in a heart beat. Also the reworking of sneak attacks makes them ideal snipers/back stabbers. These abilities can let them eaisly out pace fighters in straight damage but of course you need to be careful and creative. If you have a "Final fantasy" DM (that is one that pictures combat as all the combatants just standing in a line and exchanging blows without any sort of strategy) your going to have a boring night.
THe best way to get that tankable thief is to dual class. A few levels of fighter can give you an extra bunch of HP, better attack rolls and a few extra combat feats. These combined with your hiding and sneak attacks makes you a force to be reckoned with.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
The Rogue Way is to let the foolish Paladins keep the monsters busy, while you sneak off and help yourself to the best gems in the treasure horde. They might resent your "cowardice," but what are they going to do about it? Kick you out of the trap-filled dungeon for not joining the fight?
Insist that you are a pacifist by nature, and can't stand the sight of blood. They might not know about that noble Duke you once stabbed between the ribs in order to liberate the deeds to his properties in the East, which you later sold for a tidy sum.
If you really want to help the party, buy items with your ill-gotten gains that enhance your sneakiness, such as a ring of invisibility. Then you can silently slip around to the enemies flank, use magic items to confound them from a hidden alcove, and finally emerge to backstab the poor bastard at just the right moment.
If that kind of play does not appeal to you, then maybe you should play a fighter... or a rogue on EverQuest.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
These games are never going to be like Monopoly- buy the box once and play. You will ALWAYS be needing to get the next version in order to keep up. If you can't handle that, get out of the hobby or try and find people who still play 3.0 (though I suspect you may soon have an easier time finding people who still play 1st edition!)
On the GW side. Unpainted and unassembled plastic is the whole point! Warhammer is just as much about building and painting your troops as it is about playing. If you are too lazy and uncreative, play Mage Knight or Heroclix. Some people really enjoy building models. Furthermore, the average cost for a regiment from GW is $25-$30. Thats a few weeks worth of assembling and painting if you have a regular 40 hr week job and a wife. Cheaper than a movie in dollars-per-hour of entertainment; and you get to be creative and use your brain. (not to mention inhale all that glue!)
Honestly. Nobody is forcing anyone to buy the stuff. If you are still clinging desperately to the last edition (I still love 1st ed AD&D) use eBay and look for other people who aren't so easily wooed by each new and shiny release from WotC.
matamatic sez:
:)
> with more automation this time...
Amen. I've playing with XML and XSLT right now. Ideally I'd generate HTML and PDFs from the same XML source.
Yesterday and today I converted a dozen skills to XML, with cross-references. I'm tweaking a style sheet to generate the HTML.
There's a ton of material to convert, but marking up an individual skill or feat doesn't take very long. If a dozen people contributed 1 marked-up XML spell or skill or feat every day, the conversion would be complete within a month or two.
First things first, I want to see if there is interest before I spend too much time. It's fun now, I'm learning about XML and XSLT, but there will be a lot of grunt work to do after I've stopped learning
Anyone willing to help mark up (and clean up) some D20 reference docs?
I also want to finalize a schema before soliciting contributions.
I believe you can open the .rtf with Word and then you can use a wizard to create a table of contents and an index.
.rtf in an app and generate indexes, etc...
Does openoffice have functions like that? Are there any open source auto-indexers out there? It would be cool to be able to feed those
Yuioup
http://meta.ath0.com/d20/
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak