Hey all the name about sayes it all. I have played D&D for about 14 years now, and was just shown how the 3.x game worked. Now there is no turning back LOL. I even went as far as to take my old 2nd edition books, and trade them for 3.x. So I don't know if this is even in the right place but I just wanted to say something about it.
Later
Well presumably most old timers that are currently playing 3.X converted at some point.
I know I did - I even had a large 2nd Ed. campaign story I'm converting as my players move through the plot. Its often informative to see what material I do a real number on and what is pretty much left with little more then a monster swap. The Dragon of Firetop Mountain has been very informative in this aspect. Originally mostly just smart kobolds and I had wanted to keep it along these lines but the more I learn about 3.5 the more convinced I have become that I'm going to have to have lots of the kobolds be leveled and beef them up in various ways (Kobold Half-Dragons etc.) simply because it seems near impossible to really offer much of a challenge to higher level PCs with basic kobolds in 3.5 no matter how tricky they are. 3.5 Players can just lay down to much hurt to fast.
I was initially slightly annoyed by this but I've changed my mind as I have gotten more excited about making interesting and dynamic Kobolds of various types and thinking up various ways that kobolds with access to some spell casters, shamans and half-dragons as well as the standard swarm of basic kobolds can all work together to make their tricks, traps and ambushes ever more cunning and challenging for my PCs.
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Well presumably most old timers that are currently playing 3.X converted at some point.
I know I did - I even had a large 2nd Ed. campaign story I'm converting as my players move through the plot. Its often informative to see what material I do a real number on and what is pretty much left with little more then a monster swap. The Dragon of Firetop Mountain has been very informative in this aspect. Originally mostly just smart kobolds and I had wanted to keep it along these lines but the more I learn about 3.5 the more convinced I have become that I'm going to have to have lots of the kobolds be leveled and beef them up in various ways (Kobold Half-Dragons etc.) simply because it seems near impossible to really offer much of a challenge to higher level PCs with basic kobolds in 3.5 no matter how tricky they are. 3.5 Players can just lay down to much hurt to fast.
I was initially slightly annoyed by this but I've changed my mind as I have gotten more excited about making interesting and dynamic Kobolds of various types and thinking up various ways that kobolds with access to some spell casters, shamans and half-dragons as well as the standard swarm of basic kobolds can all work together to make their tricks, traps and ambushes ever more cunning and challenging for my PCs.
DMG2 has several cool kobold made traps in it for your use, if you don't already have it and know about it.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Glad to hear the conversion is going well for you! I must say I'm surprised to hear such an emphatic embrace of the 3e system this late in the release. My experience is that 2e people fell into two camps with respect to 3e's arrival. Camp one (my camp) were those who were so sick of 2e and the phonebook of house rules necessary to make it work that they couldn't stomach the idea of running another 2e campaign. Camp two were those who felt that they had "invested" such large sums of money in 2e that they were being ripped off by 3e and swore never to convert.
I'm curious as to what your view was and why it took you so long to convert. Almost all the people that I encounter who still run 2e do it as a source of stubborn pride. The mention of 3e makes them growl the word munchkin and shake their fists at any nearby windmills. I can't imagine one of them actually converting, and they are about the only ones I know who are still running 2e in 2006.
I'm curious as to what your view was and why it took you so long to convert. Almost all the people that I encounter who still run 2e do it as a source of stubborn pride. The mention of 3e makes them growl the word munchkin and shake their fists at any nearby windmills. I can't imagine one of them actually converting, and they are about the only ones I know who are still running 2e in 2006.
I would say that I am a mix of both was tired of 2nd, but couldn't afford 3rd for awhile. Due to the fact that it wasn't untill my kids got into D&D that I started back. So when I did I couldn't afford the new edition(due to health problems).
So I would have to say that I am from both camps.
Thaks for your input. I just wanted to share my new found interest in the game.
DMG2 has several cool kobold made traps in it for your use, if you don't already have it and know about it.
I've not specifically looked at it but I'll take a look. A 1/2 Cr trap is no danger to 10th level PCs but maybe I can combo them with something - either other nasty traps or some kind of an ambush. Anything to keep my players jumping really...that will be the key - they must always ALWAYS feel harrassed - the goal is for them to get partway through the adventure and then have a dramatic change of priorities from win to how the hell do we get out of here alive - and it must be done with kobolds, no sneaking in Grey Guttons or anything. Of course if they do manage to get out alive presumably they will trash the place when they come back better prepared - but thats OK - The players are supposed to win in the end - so long as I drive them off the first time I'll be happy with what I put together.
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We converted our 2E to 3.5 recently. Our group falls into neither "camp". We did have a "phonebook" of house rules & that was fine. You can make the argument that 3.5 leads to power gaming, but its only if the DM allows it to be so. With the excellent feats/skills system, its easy to play an extremely low fantasy-fighter/rogue based game. After the AoW, we going to run a campaign in R E Howard's Hyperborean milieu with almost no magic at all. I'm really enjoying the d20 system (that said, I've not gotten the hang of running a melee efficiently-the finale of 3FoE took at least 90 minutes; also our group has been together 20 plus years & was very role playing oriented-I hope this aspect will return once we've gotten more comfortable with the game mechanics).
I'm really enjoying the d20 system (that said, I've not gotten the hang of running a melee efficiently-the finale of 3FoE took at least 90 minutes; also our group has been together 20 plus years & was very role playing oriented-I hope this aspect will return once we've gotten more comfortable with the game mechanics).
Combats will get faster with practice - but not much faster. One of the things I really noticed about 3.5 was how long combat took - surprising considering that battles are usually no longer then about 5 rounds and almost never more then 10 unless everyone is going invisible.
We started a 2e campaign just two or three years ago (set on Mystara), and as we get higher-level, the bugs within the 2e ruleset get ever more obvious, not to mention translation errors (in the german rulebooks) and contradictions from print to print. But as we are now several real-time years and five campaign years into it, I don´t think anyone wants to make the change, least of all the DM, who has simply no interest in 3e (too much effort in relearning, he claims - he´s probably right). So, playing 2e without houserules just to make it work and customizing it to our tastes is not possible for us, and the houserules get discussed a lot and are getting more and more voluminous with each passing session. As our group is priest-heavy (the campaign got a religious overtone within the last few sessions, and four out of five PCs are now clerics, all but one dual or multiclass - and the last PC is aspiring to paladinhood - we are on a crusade of sorts against Alphaks), priest spells are very important and are in the process of being reviewed, along with turning undead and just about everything about priests... (nd in the long run, probably everything else as well...)
Stefan
One of the things I really noticed about 3.5 was how long combat took - surprising considering that battles are usually no longer then about 5 rounds and almost never more then 10 unless everyone is going invisible.
We noticed this also. Although I really like all the options available to the characters in combat, I just can't stand a 90 minute fight. (Fighting against one big opponent at high-levels is pretty cool, but when your 12th level party encounters sixteen elite bugbears, a goblin shaman, four trolls, an ogre mage, a fire giant and his three hell hounds, the action slows down to a crawl!)
In my opinion, the melees at low-level are more fun, exciting and end in a reasonable lapse of time; Which leaves more time for story-telling and adventuring/exploring.
Ultradan
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I've not specifically looked at it but I'll take a look. A 1/2 Cr trap is no danger to 10th level PCs but maybe I can combo them with something - either other nasty traps or some kind of an ambush. Anything to keep my players jumping really...that will be the key - they must always ALWAYS feel harrassed - the goal is for them to get partway through the adventure and then have a dramatic change of priorities from win to how the hell do we get out of here alive - and it must be done with kobolds, no sneaking in Grey Guttons or anything. Of course if they do manage to get out alive presumably they will trash the place when they come back better prepared - but thats OK - The players are supposed to win in the end - so long as I drive them off the first time I'll be happy with what I put together.
DMG2 has several cool kobold made traps in it for your use, if you don't already have it and know about it.
I will admit that they are pretty basic traps, but most kobolds would use basic traps. They are mostly cr 1/2 booby traps but if you raise the search dc and add some ambushers they can be pretty effective. One trap is a duster, trip the line, fine dust in the face, blindness for 1d3 rounds unless a fort save. Not bad if you raise the DC, sub out fine dust for a contact poison or just add an ambush. An advanced version is a cr 4 dust cloud trap. I think they would add flavor to your kobolds if modified some what. Also just because the party is all 9th level or whatever doesn't mean that the kobolds ONLY made cr8-cr10 traps, sometimes a party comes across lower level traps and creatures (sometimes its fun to just trounce some creatures or easily beat a trap, not everything in the game world is the same level challenge as the party level!)
Have fun, game on!FH