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A Trip Down Memory Lane

"3.5 is the best edition of D&D" - Various 3.5 Fanboys

While pretty much all of my DnD experience has been with 4E, I am now ready to take the leap into 3.5 (as a player of course).  It's not that I had issues with editions (I don't, I just understand 4E best and wouldn't want to try and learn more rules), I just never got the chance to play.

For Free RPG Day 2012, I bought a couple old modules from 2nd Edition, just because they looked cool, and I want a variety of things from all walks of DnD.  Indeed, opening the books and reading through the adventures, I felt an "old school" feel to DnD, something that the DnD Next Playtest had a lot of.  The whole thing gives me a different perspective of how the game can be run, and how things back in the day were done.

My good friend Peachey (who plays Gregg, and used to play Pog), has long been a fan of 3.5 (though he's played all editions, I believe).  He has most of the books, and knows it well enough to DM it.  When P@, (who plays Niz), goes back to school in the fall, we decided we want to put the game on hold and start something new.  This will give me a break at DMing, and allow us to try something new.  So, 3.5 it is.

I really like how the Pathfinder game has taken the 3.5 rules and continued to build on them.  Peachey says that other companies did it to, so there is a real wealth of knowledge out there if you know where to look.  I, browsing through amazon.com and google, found a Pathfinder book that I knew I had to buy: Goblins of Golarion.

The book is basically a 3.5 take on goblins, with a TON of crunch and fluff to help with world building and inspiration (the kind of stuff I love).  So today, I'm sitting, leafing through the 3.5 Player's Handbook, trying to figure out how I'm going to re-build Kov Nitikki and get him ready for his next round of adventuring.

Here's a couple of things I've noticed about 3.5
  • Magic users are weaker.  They cast spells and then forget them.  My 4E Artificer build of Kov used weapon powers, meaning he would get to swing his weapon to attack.  I don't think a 3.5 Artificer build would work for Kov.  It just doesn't seem like him.  
  • Kov has always been more of an Alchemist than an Artificer, so maybe I can buy items and what not to supplement that.  3.5 has a huge skills list, so maybe I can train something to help.
  • Goblins get a huge Dex bonus (+4), so I think maybe something like a Rogue would favor them.
  • I get to roll for abilities scores.  Holy cow, this could be really good, or really bad.
  • I feel like characters have a lot lower starting HP (they do).  
This whole concept is brand new to me, but I think this is why I'm so excited to do it.  It just seems super fun and new.

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