3.5 conversion

[LarryMac]

I'm sure this is an easy one. I never really played much with 3.0 and have only been at it with 3.5 for a few months (I went on a long hiatus during 2.0). I just received a bunch of back issues of Dungeon that I want to work into my campaign but I can't always spot the differences between 3.0 and 3.5. Can anyone tell me at what point (which issue) do the adventures become 3.5?

Thanks

[Oliver von Spreckelsen]

They tried to incorporate the changes into the first adventures of the Shackled City Adventure Path (#97, #98), but the "official" switch to 3.5e came with issue #100, I think, though I am running this by memory not atcual magazines.

[Zherog]

There's a few things you can look for in stat blocks that quickly tell you if it's 3.0 or 3.5:

Damage Reduction There's several differences. 3.0 used +1, +2, etc to denote DR; 3.5 uses magic. So, for example, if you see "DR 15/+2" anywhere in a stat block, it's for 3.0. Similarly, Cold Iron and (I believe) adamantine didn't exist as DR materials at all in 3.0, so if you see those, you're probably looking at a 3.5 adventure.

Skills There were several changes in skills. In some cases, the name just changed: Wilderness Lore (3.0) -> Survival (3.5); Pick Pockets (3.0) -> Sleight of Hand (3.5). Those are good indicators. 3.0 also had some skills that got folded into other skills or removed entirely: Read Lips, Scry, Innuendo, Intuit Direction. If you see any of those skills, you're looking at a 3.0 adventure.

Spell Focus feat If you're willing to "reverse engineer" a spell caster's DC, and that caster has Spell Focus, you can tell if it's 3.0 or 3.5. In 3.0, Spell Focus granted a +2 bonus; in 3.5, it grants a +1.

There's a few others (some racial differences, different class abilities, etc), but those are probably the easiest.

[christian mazel]

Zherog wrote:

There's a few things you can look for in stat blocks that quickly tell you if it's 3.0 or 3.5:

Damage Reduction There's several differences. 3.0 used +1, +2, etc to denote DR; 3.5 uses magic. So, for example, if you see "DR 15/+2" anywhere in a stat block, it's for 3.0. Similarly, Cold Iron and (I believe) adamantine didn't exist as DR materials at all in 3.0, so if you see those, you're probably looking at a 3.5 adventure.

Skills There were several changes in skills. In some cases, the name just changed: Wilderness Lore (3.0) -> Survival (3.5); Pick Pockets (3.0) -> Sleight of Hand (3.5). Those are good indicators. 3.0 also had some skills that got folded into other skills or removed entirely: Read Lips, Scry, Innuendo, Intuit Direction. If you see any of those skills, you're looking at a 3.0 adventure.

Spell Focus feat If you're willing to "reverse engineer" a spell caster's DC, and that caster has Spell Focus, you can tell if it's 3.0 or 3.5. In 3.0, Spell Focus granted a +2 bonus; in 3.5, it grants a +1.

There's a few others (some racial differences, different class abilities, etc), but those are probably the easiest.

All good points, for Dungeon issues it's around 99 or 100 that the changes were made.

[Arazyr]

Grab the "D&D v.3.5 Accessory Update Booklet" from Wizards.com: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20030718a

That will show you what changed in the Core books and some of the "closer-to-core" accessories, and should give you a good idea of what to look for in the magazines...

[LarryMac]

Cool, thanks for the info