To anyone who started with 4E...

[Endarire]

What influenced you to learn or play 3.x? What were your experiences and expectations?

I'm just curious. Let's keep this civil.

[Elrihm]

rawr, not my beloved casters!

lol

[Geigan]

Well I kind of started on my own with 4E. Me and my friends were "geeks" but none of us had played before so we got together an tried it. I liked it but I had to be the DM and being new with no advice I wasn't great(though no big disasters thanks to 4E's easy newb friendly structure.). I had fun and so did my friends but I didn't really have the time to keep up with the DM duties and I really wanted a chance to play. So one of my friends introduced me to another friend who played d&d, but 3.5. So I went over found that I liked the 3.5 system better and never really looked back.

I'll admit 3.5 is harder to use as a system but it's something that I actually enjoyed the complexity more than I felt it hindered me. I also like the difference of structure in 3.5 as opposed to what I found in 4.0. I like the many different systems of 3.5. Spellcasting, basic melee, incarnum, maneuvers, etc. They all have a unique feel and playstyle for me which I love. 4.0 as it was(and I don't know about it now) felt like a bunch of various classes that all worked off he same structure. I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, heck 4.0 is more balanced because of it, but I really don't get the same thrill when my invoker and wizard only feel different because one does 4d8 force damage as opposed to fire damage. Sure fluff makes them different and that's great and all, but it doesn't change the fact that they feel too much the same mechanically. Those are my tastes though and I don't expect anyone to adhere to them. To each his own. I just prefer more diversity in my mechanics and am willing to trade balance to get it.

[[CLASSIFIED]]

I started out writing a couple of adventures for some friends that played 4e and enjoyed it. Then my friends actually began incorporating elements of 3.x into their 4e campaign to add more variety and allow for a bit more optimization. Eventually the whole campaign sort of morphed into 3.x, which everyone preferred because it allows for so much more customization of characters.