Hot answers tagged dnd-3e
64
It's a relic of earlier systems.
From the "Dungeonomicon:"
Material Components: A Joke Gone Way Out of Hand
Material components are a joke. I'm not saying that they are metaphorically a joke in that they don't act as a consistent or adequate limiting factor to spellcasting, I mean that they are actually a joke. Material components are supposed to ...
39
My first encounter with a D&D sorcerer class was 3E. The 3E PHB says on p51:
Sorcerers create magic the way a poet creates poems, with inborn talent honed by practice. They have no books, no mentors, no theories -- just raw power that they direct at will.
In religious studies, "charisma" sometimes refers to the inner personal power in an ...
37
For a quick glance turn to page 2 in the book, usually a brown orange colour with all the designers names etc. Look near the bottom of the page.
It will start" "Based on the original Dungeons and Dragons rules..., and Peter Atkinson."
Under this, if it is a 3.5 book, it will say:" This product uses updated material from the v.3.5 revision."
If not, it ...
24
The question is: Is darkness an important element of the adventure? If yes, then torches may be a rare resource and it can be important to keep track of them. A sunrod could destroy some of the atmosphere and take some danger from the dungeon.
If the focus lies on slaying monsters and grabbbing treasure, bookkeeping of torches and their duration may be a ...
20
Make It Harder
This is definitely something I've had happen. I wrote a whole blog post about the exact same thing - while GMing a fourth level Pathfinder party, I found that I had to make bosses eighth level to challenge the PCs. So you're probably going to need to up your CR/EL expectations. Pathfinder PCs have higher damage output therefore old 3.5e ...
20
A properly optimized character can break the speed of light.
The build "Chuck E. Cheese" asserts that it can break C:u
Round 1: Activate Belt of Battle to cast Footsteps of the
Divine(Fharlaghn) as a Swift Action, expending 7 Turn Undead attempts
to Persist the spell via Divine Metamagic and then Extending it via
Lesser Metamagic Rod of Extend. ...
18
Mostly fluff. In metagame terms, a spell component pouch has two main purposes:
If a wizard's spell component pouch is taken away, he can't cast spells. This is important when taking away the party's weapons, as in an imprisonment scenario, or when grappling.
Ingredients for the spell pouch can serve as RP hooks. If the wizard requires a particular ...
18
There are no ways that I'm aware of to improve cantrips (granted, my Pathfinder skills are not that good). However, as you included 3E solutions, I might point out 3.5's introduction of Reserve Feats. Basically, if you're willing to hold onto your higher level spells, you are granted at wills that aren't amazing, but are much better than a crossbow! Lots of ...
17
[The following is based on my experiences in 3.5e, but from what I know about Pathfinder it should be trivially adapted. Also, I apologize in advance for what I'm certain will be a post filled with incorrect terminology -- I've been playing 4e for quite some time now, and it's been even longer since I last sat down with 3.5e.]
If you think Diplomacy is ...
17
No, they do not.
Skill ranks refer only to the number of well, ranks that you've put into the skill.
I can't find an exact reference to back that up, but they make a big deal when referring to ranks vs bonuses:
Each level, your character gains a
number of skill ranks dependent upon
your class plus your Intelligence
modifier. Investing a rank in ...
17
I wouldn't tie the two together. D&D has a fairly small number of basic stats (like Constitution and Charisma), so it's interesting to see what different combinations of high and low scores mean.
Someone with low constitution might not be able to run for long, or they might be rather frail, or they might just get sick a lot. Someone with high charisma ...
17
To quote the 3.5 rulebook:
Because a whip can wrap around an enemy's leg or other limb, you can make a trip attack with it. If you are tripped during your own trip attempt, you can drop the whip to avoid being tripped.
When using a whip, you get a +2 bonus on opposed attack rolls made to disarm an opponent (including the roll to keep from being ...
16
You can certainly use 3.0e and 3.5e books together. There were many changes between 3.0e and 3.5e, mainly focusing around balance issues. Unfortunately no intentional balancing was done in 3.0, and as such one CR 11 monster would be easy, and another CR 11 monster might be a lethal encounter.
The biggest individual changes are.
Ranger changes to make ...
16
No. You get an extra attack from the off hand, but it is not an exception time-wise to the general rule:
Multiple Attacks
A character who can make more than one attack per round must use the
full-attack action (see Full-Round Actions) in order to get more than
one attack.
16
I can only tell you how we handle such things in our PnP Group.
In our group, the rule of thumb is: If you forget a critical fact and suffer for it, it sucks to be you, but we will not roll back. This has, however, only happened once to date, because the GM always had the decency to give hints in his explanations.
In your example: Don't say "You are ...
15
D&D3.5 was first published in July, 2003. Anything published by Wizards of the Coast after that date will almost certainly be for 3.5. Anything published before that date will certainly be for 3.0.
Another source of information is vendors like Amazon.com. The edition will often be in the product description, as it is here:
...
15
NPC Classes are used for NPCs that don't play a major role in the story
The idea behind NPC classes are that they are not as powerful as PCs, and that they should be used for minor characters in the story. For example, in Pathfinder, the Adept class will be what most "priests" in a given church would be. They have some minor powers, and can cure wounds, but ...
15
The Assumptions Behind Challenge Rating
I don't have my 3.x DMG handy for a page reference, but somewhere in there it states that D&D 3.x operates on the assumption that players have multiple encounters in a day.
Very few encounters with a challenge rating in the same ballpark as the average party are going to be likely to kill the party on their own. ...
14
I have been running a Pathfinder campaign for two years and have used plenty of 3e and 3.5e adventures in it as well as native Pathfinder ones. (I've used multiple adventures from the Atlas Games Penumbra series, Green Ronin Freeport series, Goodman Games Wicked Fantasy Factory series, and older Paizo 3.5e APs and Pathfinder Modules.)
The short form is ...
14
The answer dates back to the early days of the hobby. Sherman, set the wayback machine for 1975...
In the original D&D game, with only 3 classes (Fighter, Mage, and Cleric), the idea was that only heroes and villains had classes. (It wasn't until later that thieves as "heroes" was added.) NPC's who were not one of the PC classes, including the vast ...
13
As a matter of fact, Spider Climb does not allow to traverse frictionless surface automatically, much as the spiders can't traverse glass, for example. All it does is granting climb speed to its subject, and that doesn't even mean automatic climb success:
A creature with a climb speed has a +8 racial bonus on all Climb checks. The creature must make a ...
13
There are two different varieties of D&D 3 Psionics.
The 3.0 Psionics Handbook gave Psions a different key ability score based on their specialisation. Nomads used Dex and Telepaths used Charisma for instance.
In the 3.5 update to Psionics, this was changed so that all Psions used Int as their manifesting statistic.
13
Dwarves aren't defined as Small size in AD&D 1st or 2nd edition – they just happen to be. The thing is that creature sizes work differently in AD&D than in D&D 3.x.
Size By Simulation
In AD&D, your size class isn't attached to your race, it's attached to your actual height and weight. In AD&D, a medium creature is defined as ...
12
Yes, the half-elf is underpowered. According to D&D design staff Mike Mearls and Jesse Decker, as well as a Wizards of the Coast web poll, the half-elf is the weakest core race in D&D 3.5:
Mike Mearls
The half-elf is the least powerful race, because it is an elf with the weapon proficiency, secret door detection abilities, and racial ability ...
12
Class Restrictions:
2E: has restrictions based upon race, alignment and stats.
3E: has only restrictions based upon alignment and stats.
Core Rules Classes:
2E: has no NPC classes in core rules; normal people are 0-level. Fighter, Ranger, Paladin, Thief, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Magic User, Specialist Mage. Prestige classes do not exist.
3E: Fighter, Ranger, ...
12
There is absolutely no reason to take exactly 3 levels of Fighter.
Strictly Superior Alternatives
Assuming you go by non-fractional saves/BAB – which I refuse to do personally, but it is the base rule – the level gives you ~5.5 HP, +1 BAB, +1 Ref, +1 Will, and 2+Int skill points.
Taking Barbarian 1 at that point instead would get you ~6.5 HP, ...
11
Yes,
distilled from d20srd.org
To counterspell you must:
Ready an action to counterspell a specific target
Make a spellcraft check of DC15 + spell level as a free action to identify the spell
Cast the identical spell to counter it
Metamagic effects are not considered (you can counter an enlarged fireball with a normal fireball)
Some spells are ...
11
On p42 and pp95-96 of the 3e DMG there are rules and guidelines for creating new spells. The rules in a nutshell:
Access to a library, just as if the character were researching to learn a spell.
1,000gp expenditure per week
1 week per spell level
Spellcraft check of 10 + level of spell means the character was successful.
The text notes that creating ...
11
I developed a quickie "mass" combat system for my Pathfinder campaign because the PCs kept having groups of pirates or whatnot on their side. I read some of the existing mass combat rules in various D&D books (mostly third party) but they were always either too complicated for what I wanted or they integrated very poorly with character level action.
...
11
According to most scenarios, he wouldn't bother
(Edited commentary): A nature of the D&D game is that illusion and detection spells are in an arms race to reduce the prevalance of scry & die tactics. From a tactical point of view, the resources spent hiding a fortification are either better spent hiding something smaller but more secret or ...
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