cyranoVR's Journal: So I Bought the Core Rule Books 3.5 Edition...

Last month I discovered Order of the Stick. After reading the whole series and buying Neverwinter Nights Diamond I decided to buy the Core Rulebook set.

What's interesting, is that a lot of the content is the same as first edition, but revised. So the Monster Manual has a lot of the same monsters as the original, such as devils and demons, unlike the Second Edition.

It's also clear that as much as D&D has been a influence on PC games, PC games have had an influence on D&D. Characters now increase their attributes every four levels, have skill "ranks," etc. And all characters are above average - when creating a character, you now are supposed to roll four dice and throw out the lowest number.

It's also clear that the designers of the 3rd edition have re-oriented the game towards fun. Any character is allowed to multi-class, no matter what their race. What to have a gnome barbarian-sorcerer? No problem! In fact, make that a half-gnoll fighter-cleric - the Monster Manual includes content on playing various humanoid races as Player Characters.

Another thing that's interesting is that Halflings are now more like Kender than Hobbits. At least, their description of the race is more Weiss/Hickman than Tolkien, and Halflings are all slim in their illustrations with no mention of being barefoot.

3.5

[Stargoat]

3.5 is a crapload of fun. The pure customization that you can do to the characters makes it a blast. I think there's even a prestige class in Complete Mage or something like that for your barbarian sorceror gnome, where its rage makes it cast in a different manner. Enjoy.