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| farewell2kings |
 Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 1:16 pm Post subject: Anything good in 4e we can steal for 3.5? |
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Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 14
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Okay, I'm not ANTI-4th edition. Ok, I am, but only because I just converted to 3.5 in 2004 and have dozens of 3.5 books on my shelf and I just started a new 3.5 campaign in Eberron and my players would cut my nuts off (especially my wife, who has easy access)...
But, I will play 4th edition someday, I know. In the meantime, is there anything in 4th edition that is worth stealing as a house rule for 3.5 to get some of the streamlined benefits that WoTc keeps touting?
Thanks in advance! |
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| ephealy |
| Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 1:21 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 215
Location: DuPont, WA
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I plan to pillage the Shadowfell. I'm not sure how much I'll use, but there's got to be some cool stuff in there.
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Ed Healy |
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| Wolfgang |
| Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:58 pm Post subject: |
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Kobold Overlord
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 5008
Location: The Mines
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I'm a fan of the simplified movement (instead of 1-2-1) and of the Feywild.
Not a lot of setting material to swipe yet, honestly.
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Wolfgang Baur
Publisher, Kobold Press |
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| varianor |
| Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:58 pm Post subject: |
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| I think the simplified skill list and the way they now handle them are pretty darn good. Also, the rituals are a cool way to deal with many spells that are otherwise better done out of combat. |
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| farewell2kings |
| Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:55 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 28 Feb 2008
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| Cool, thanks for the feedback so far. |
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| Hal Maclean |
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 4:50 am Post subject: Re: Anything good in 4e we can steal for 3.5? |
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Joined: 09 Jan 2008
Posts: 40
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| farewell2kings wrote: |
Okay, I'm not ANTI-4th edition. Ok, I am, but only because I just converted to 3.5 in 2004 and have dozens of 3.5 books on my shelf and I just started a new 3.5 campaign in Eberron and my players would cut my nuts off (especially my wife, who has easy access)...
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Bobbit, rhymes with hobbit...  |
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| Koldoon |
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:46 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 06 Apr 2008
Posts: 24
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One decent at-will power for spell-casters. I hate early level "crap, we've been in two encounters and I have no spells left" syndrome, and to a large degree, a minor attack fixes that.
Healing spells as minor actions... let the cleric do something other than be a bandaid.
- Ashavan |
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| terraleon |
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:17 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 16 Jan 2008
Posts: 2032
Location: upstate NY
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Done appropriately, I really think skill challenges are worth stealing. Minions, implemented judiciously, can really be a useful tool.
-Ben.
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progressio sine timore aut praejudica - Spectemur agendo |
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| The Gneech |
| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:06 am Post subject: |
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| KnightErrantJR |
| Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 06 Apr 2008
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I love skill challenges, even if the math has to be reworked a bit for 3.5 (then again, apparently it had to be reworked for 4e too . . .  ) |
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| Wolfgang |
| Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:30 am Post subject: |
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Kobold Overlord
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 5008
Location: The Mines
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I was initially a big fan of skill challenges, but I've cooled some. They seem to work best for a very narrow range of encounter types (traps, physical team efforts). They don't seem to do that well in play for stealth or diplomacy.
Or at least, the playtest experience at my table has been that the players have more fun without the challenge framework than with it.
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Wolfgang Baur
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| Armoury99 |
| Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 07 Feb 2008
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Location: Reality (outskirts)
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Skill Challenges - even if the mechanics are ditched entirely, they still get you thinking in the right direction. Same thing goes for expanding the battlefield terrain and "traps as enemies."
Admittedly non of this is actually groundbreaking and a lot of us have been doing it for years, but there are a host of little things my group have wanted for a long time, like experienced characters reacting faster in combat, shield bonus to Ref saving throw, and unaligned algnment (although I think that's an oxymoron).
nd although I howl at the loss of Vancian casting (specifically all those non-combat spells) from earlier editions, I also suspect that ritual magic might actually make magic seem more "magical" in the long run.
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| KnightErrantJR |
| Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Armoury99 wrote: |
Skill Challenges - even if the mechanics are ditched entirely, they still get you thinking in the right direction. Same thing goes for expanding the battlefield terrain and "traps as enemies."
Admittedly non of this is actually groundbreaking and a lot of us have been doing it for years, but there are a host of little things my group have wanted for a long time, like experienced characters reacting faster in combat, shield bonus to Ref saving throw, and unaligned algnment (although I think that's an oxymoron).
nd although I howl at the loss of Vancian casting (specifically all those non-combat spells) from earlier editions, I also suspect that ritual magic might actually make magic seem more "magical" in the long run. |
While I'm not going full bore into 4th edition, and I'm still running my own campaign as a Pathfinder campaign, I've been playing in a 4e group as a player, and I am pretty happy with using Ritual Caster and rituals to represent my eladrin paladin's dabbling with magic, since I'm pretty sure he'll always be more effective using his natural paladin abilities in combat.
I agree that some of these items are certainly present in 3.5, but underutilized. You can easily place a trap in a combat encounter to make things more interesting, but I will also agree that while I like the 3.5 ruleset much better, the encounter building design of the XP budget is much more efficient for this sort of thing. |
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| carolina |
| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 8:10 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 05 Jan 2008
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Location: Granville, IL
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I like the idea of one, reliable at-will power, too. I don't see it as unbalancing, and it brings core 3.5 classes in line with some of the later ones that were developed.
Silly me, though, I think the consolidated skill lists are a move backward. If simplicity is your goal, then simply make all skill checks correspond to your ability and class levels. Say, for a rogue's Hide check, make it Dex Modifier + Cha Level + d20 roll = result.
But I like the variety of skills, and the player's choice to build up proficiency in the one's they select -- even Use Rope. Even though skill checks/target DCs get hinky at higher levels, I like the idea that PCs get to improve, and how they improve is their own choice.
That said I might borrow from 4E the progressively difficult scaling of target DCs. That has some merit, and mirrors what I think many DMs have practiced anyway.
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| Amy Carrier |
| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 7:43 am Post subject: Death and Dying |
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Joined: 31 May 2008
Posts: 591
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I like the way zero-and-lower hit points are handled in 4e, as described in "Death and Dying", Dragon #362 (on-line edition).
I don't actually have any 4th edition books, so I can't say for sure how similar the actual official rules are to the Dragon Magazine preview.
I never like the way versions 1 and 2 handled character death, so I used a method from Judges Guild. Third edition used a method that was pretty close to the Judges Guild method so I was happy with it for a while, but this seems better still. |
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