Best 3.5 Variants?

[Saruman]

Do you use Variants? And if you do, which ones and how long have you been doing it?
Which ones are the best to implement?

[3.5]

[eggynack]

You mean like UA variants? Fractional saves and BAB are pretty popular.

[Feralventas]

I'm afraid it's PF instead of 3.5, but I'm running
-Armor as DR
-Class Defense Bonus
-Different xp progression according to spell levels
-Magic Armor bonus =+2 to DR value.
-Magic weapon bonus= 1:1 armor penetration (DR mitigation)

Seems to be working alright so far, though it's been a little rough getting everyone on board with it; lots of little details to remember when you're used to normal 3.p

[Maginomicon]

I use a crap-ton of variants (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304652), some of which of my own design, and add more on as house-rules when I see a need. It's almost like my campaign setting is a complete 3.5 rewrite in some ways.

The Bell Curve Rolls (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/bellCurveRolls.htm) and Save Points (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306961) variants in particular are a massive help to balancing the utter mess that is D&D 3.5.

[Darrin]

Mystic Ranger (Dragon #336) FTW.

[Legendxp]

Martial Monk is pretty good.

[Zombulian]

I'm afraid it's PF instead of 3.5, but I'm running
-Armor as DR
-Class Defense Bonus
-Different xp progression according to spell levels
-Magic Armor bonus =+2 to DR value.
-Magic weapon bonus= 1:1 armor penetration (DR mitigation)

Seems to be working alright so far, though it's been a little rough getting everyone on board with it; lots of little details to remember when you're used to normal 3.p

So how does that work? Does everyone just hit all the time?

[Spuddles]

Does Pathfinder count as a variant? Cause my group likes that.

[cakellene]

Martial Monk is pretty good.

Where is that from?

[Craft (Cheese)]

Where is that from?

Dragon 310, IIRC. Let's you select fighter bonus feats instead of bonus feats from the monk list. While it's very good either way, some people take the fact that you don't need to meet the prerequisites of monk bonus feats to mean that you can use martial monk to get epic feats at level 1.

[GameSpawn]

So how does [armor as DR] work? Does everyone just hit all the time?

For 3.5, the variant is explained here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/armorAsDamageReduction.htm) (and also in Unearthed Arcana, which has a lot of very nice variants). Essentially, the armor bonus from armor is reduced, but you gain some DR as well.

The giant has created a diplomacy variant (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9606632&postcount=2) that a lot of people seem to like.

[Ansem]

Wild Monk and Totem Druid for me, both capable of OP ****.

[Pluto!]

Our games have turned into a blend of D&D, Pathfinder, Arcana Evolved, copius homebrew/houserules and a big heap of other d20 games and splatbooks from a dozen or so different publishers, so it's kind of hard to characterize it as any particular variant.

One of the most fun variants for the most minor effort came from Trailblazer (actually, that's a really enjoyable book if you're just looking for a big pile of variants along with discussion about why they may or may not be good ideas):
-Every character gets an additional AoO per iterative attack, based on BA.
-A round's AoO attempts can alternatively be used to Aid Another outside a character's turn.

Combining the two is a pretty minor change that honestly doesn't do much about balance, but that makes sure that just about every character has a reason to pay attention and be involved in other characters' turns and added motivation to work cooperatively as a group. I think it was one of the fastest and easiest boosts to the quality of play of any rule we've tried.