Blast From The Past: D&D 3.5

If you haven't played D&D, are you a real roleplayer?

This joke never gets old for me

Like many people in my generation, I started playing Dungeons and Dragons in the mid 1990's. Back then, it was Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 2^nd edition. Or, 2^nd Edition AD&D. Or much more simply, 2^nd Ed. Second Edition is very different then the modern incarnations (at the time of this writing, D&D is on its fifth edition). It was... Clunky. It was a bit unbalanced and didn't have much for rules outside of combat. However, it was amazing to my young self. As I grew older, and discovered other games and systems, I started to like D&D less and less. While fun, especially with my old friends (who were once part of this blog), it just didn't work for me anymore.

Then, Wizards of the Coast dropped Dungeons and Dragons 3^rd Edition, having bought the rights from TSR sometime before.

And it was good. For a while.

Don't get me wrong, 3^rd Edition was amazing and almost revolutionary. But, it had flaws. Some minor, some major. Wizards realized this and launched 3.5 in a timely manner.

And it was very good.

From a mechanics perspective, 3.5 did a lot of things right. They simplified things down to a single d20 roll. Both combat and skills were a simple check. These checks required meeting or beating a Difficulty Class (DC). Which was the same as hitting someone, you would meet or beat their Armor Class (AC). This easy and streamlined system made D&D much more accessible to new players, as all you had to do was roll a d20, add some numbers, and see if you hit or not. Goodbye, THAC0, we don't miss you here.

This ease of play also got added to the DM's side of the table. The DMG contained a new mechanic called Challenge Rating (CR) for monsters and traps. A CR of 5, for example, was a solid threat for an average party of four 5 level characters. Now, you didn't have to worry about killing the whole party because what you thought was an easy monster was actually a real threat to them. It also gave you tables for how much treasure each encounter should contain, based on the level of the party. The tables also included totals of gold for characters beyond 1^st level, as well as a great tool for creating magical weapons.

City of the Spider Queen is one of the best adventures ever

There was also new, quality rules for character classes and leveling. Instead of what we had in 2^nd edition, in which different classes had different experience points (XP) for different levels, every class now needed the same amount of XP to reach the next level. This was one of the best changes they made, in my opinion. Having played more than one 2^nd edition games in which everyone started out at level one, we would end up with a level 7 fighter, a level 6 thief, and the cleric and wizard at level 5, even though we had received the same amount of XP. This new system made it easier to keep everyone on a level playing field (pun mildly intended). Of course, different classes had different hit dice, different skill points and all that good stuff, it still kept everyone equal to a degree.

Another change was Prestige Classes. While multiclassing was in the core book, and looked to be handled very well, the addition of Prestige Classes allowed you to create characters that could start at the same point (two wizards, for example) and end up in totally different places. Of course, some of these classes were clearly better than others, they did add a lot of flavor to the game. Many of the supplements added new Prestige Classes, making some books must-haves.

With Feats, skills, and these new rules for multiclassing, as well as Prestige Classes, made for a greater degree of customization when creating your characters, from level one all the way to 20 and beyond. This, I firmly believe, is one of the best things about 3/3.5. It allowed you to make a different character each time, even if you played the same class every game you played.

The game also expanded the core classes. In 2^nd edition, you had Warriors (Fighter, Paladin, Ranger), Wizards (Mage, Illusionist), Priests (Cleric, Druid), and Rogues (Thief, Bard). In 3.5, you got all of these plus Sorcerers, Barbarians, Monks, and renamed the Thief to Rogue. Well, the illusionist went away and became a specialization for Wizards.

Truth

While the combat system was excellent, the roleplaying systems were bare bones. Which I suppose makes sense for D&D. As much as we remember our characters and the hilarious in-jokes (“It's not Thursday yet!”), D&D wasn't really about roleplaying. The joke is that it's all about Roll-Playing. You kick in the door, kill the monster, and check for loot. I have played such games, and can find them enjoyable, it's also great to have games that are about the characters and the world they live in.

Which brings me to my next point. In the core books, the setting presented is the Greyhawk campaign setting. Many of the supplements were based around this setting. From what I remember, Wizards did a contest for the setting of this edition. While Greyhawk won, many people wanted Forgotten Realms (which is my personal favorite), some wanted Dragonlance, and others wanted Dark Sun. Eberron, which later became a very successful setting and a fan favorite, was in the running but didn't win. They did go on to release supplements of the various settings, including Oriental Adventures (which was based on Legend of the Five Rings, that also got its own supplements and I do plan on covering the OA campaign settings in the future), it was Greyhawk in the beginning.

God damn Halflings!

D&D 3^rd and 3.5 created the core of the new “open source” system of the “D20 System” that was free to use and publish. This caused a deluge of unbalanced and weird books released by third parties. These supplements included books on monster races, explored in detail. And in very different directions than we saw in the core books. However, this did allow for Drangonlance to finally get updated to 3.5.

Because of the popularity of 3.5, many companies who had properties using unique systems went on to release D20 versions of their games (Deadlands, looking at you right now). This may have caused not only the collapse of 3.5, but some of these companies as well. I think that some of them were so busy chasing these new “D20 kids” that they made some of their older fans feeling neglected and forgotten.

These factors may have caused the downfall of 3.5 as a system. Since they had let their system out there to be used by anyone, they lost control of what was other there. They had to update the Open Game License because the infamous Book of Carnal Knowledge finally got an “official” release. In fact, there are several games with very heavy sexual and disgusting natures out there that use the OGL. Since Wizards had been acquired by Hasbro, they needed to keep a much cleaner image for their new parent company. Having games that involved “Shit Armor” (no, I'm not joking) be attached to their name wasn't going to help them with that. And don't forget that there are still people out there in the world who still believe the Satanic Panic propaganda. 

When you get down to it, D&D 3.5 is a classic. It's still played by a lot of people, myself included. Is it perfect? No, not at all. But it is fun and, aside from some parts, very easy to learn and play.

One final point I'd like to address. Many people I knew weren't very impressed by 4^th edition. I never played it, so I can't say much about it. I didn't play it for one major reason: Investment. I've sunk a lot of money into 3.5, both official releases and third party, so I couldn't afford to pick up yet another new system. Given how many books Wizards had printed for 3.5, I knew that it would be even more so with 4^th. Do I hate 4^th edition? Not really. I don't like it, but I don't hate it. From what I've been told, it was a very bland system. Which is a shame.

I've heard good things about 5^th edition and may end up trying a game in it, but it'll be like how I played 2^nd edition back in the day; I'll by the PHB and leave it at that.