Argh.

[pyrephox]

Look people. D&D 3.5 is crunchy. It has classes, it has levels, it uses abstract hit points rather than the ever-so-popular 'damage track'. There is a fair amount you can critique it on. But please stop making things up to complain about when they're not accurate.

I can't make a stealthy, lightly-armored fighter!

Yeah you can. Pretty damned easy, and without using anything not found on the SRD online. Will your lightly-armored fighter be /as/ stealthy as a stealth-oriented rogue? No. But on the other hand, your stealthy rogue cannot switch out his leather armor for chain mail and shield and proceed to kick ass in the daylight, either.

Just about any character concept for a high-fantasy type character can be made in D&D 3.5, as long as you take into account that 1st level characters are not going to be terribly experienced and invicible. If you want to make a disgraced general as a character? Lobby your GM to start the game at 7th or 8th level instead.

And stop complaining about the damned alignment system already. Thank you.

Comments

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

*pats* D&D does certain things very well, and I do not hold that against it. Doesn't always do what I want seamlessly, but then, a GM running a D&D game probably doesn't want the same sort of character they'd want in a GURPS game anyway. I consider system choice one more bit of commentary on what sorts of characters a GM wants in the game, same as starting points/level and the like.

(Besides, I think the alignment system is fairly keen. Doesn't fit into every setting, but it's a nice way of doing opposing viewpoints without skewing everything into a singular good-to-evil progression.)

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

It's not seamless, that's true. If I were to make a major change in the system, I'd likely give more 'play' in class skills, to allow better reflection of character backgrounds. But for the most part, D&D does high fantasy very, very well.

I like alignments, too. :D

[usekh.livejournal.com]

The thing I liked most about 3.0 and up is that at last you could make a lightly armoured dexterous fighter and have them be effective, unlike earlier editions

Meh.

[multiplexer.livejournal.com]

I actually like D&D 3.0 and up. It has its grungy bits that don't work out so well, but for what it does, it does it well. There's times when I want something else out of a game or out of a system, but honestly, for going around in a big fat fantasy setting and stabbing big old nasties and casting magic missile at the darkness, there is a reason why it is the #1 selling game in the universe.

And sure, you can make a lightly armored dexterous fighter! That's what Feats and Skills are for! And hell, why NOT take your first level as Rogue to get all the bonus skill points and then multi-class into Fighter?

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

Honestly, if I were going that route, I likely would multi-class Rogue and Fighter, 1 Rogue level to every 2 Fighter levels. Make them human for extra skill and feat goodness. :D

[cpip.livejournal.com]

But OMG ALIGMENT IS TEH AWFUL AND IT STRAITJACKETS MY CHARACTER CONCEPT OMG OMG OMG. And classes are bad because they have restrictions and real people don't have restrictions and a skill system is the only option that calculates exactly how many picoseconds you've spent in training and practice and let's have a hit location with extensive and elaborate critical hits except no because combat is old-fashioned and any RPG that involves actual combat is purely to cater to vicious hack-and-slashers who can't roleplay REAL characters anyway.

Have I covered all the normal objections? Did I miss anything? I'm sure I did.

[(Anonymous)]

3.X is my preferred system right now. It's not perfect, but it's deep and there's enough material out there to allow just about any game you want to play.

I'm a big fan of the house rule, personally. If a group decides that they hate something then why not just rule it out? We've got about a dozen house rules that we play with to make the game fit our style a little better.

[dreadmouse.livejournal.com]

That was me, by the way.