A few questions about 3.5 from a new DM

[WiznJimmy]

Hello everyone I'm new to this forum and pretty new to 3.5 edition and I thought I'd pop in and ask a few questions and get some tips on being a good DM.

I've played through some of the 4th edition red box adventure as DM with a few friends and we really enjoyed it. We all thought that the combat went on a bit too long though. The cards made it seem a little bit more like a computer game like World of Warcraft and I felt like it distracted from the adventuring and exploring side of things, which is what attracted me to D&D in the first place.

I read around a bit and it seemed like 3.5 was the way to go so I grabbed the three core books (this was before D&D Next rolled around). I ran a game as DM for my old flatmates and we had a blast. It was a great learning experience for me about how not to write a campaign though. I made it quite linear and had too many NPCs interacting with each other, it was more like a novel lol. I think I could do a much better job this time around.

Now it's been a few years since I last played but I'd like to get a group of willing friends together for a game and see if I can convince them to make it a regular thing maybe once a month or so. They're all new to this so I've been asking what type of characters they'd like to be and explaining the attributes and skills and stuff and I'm making the character sheets up this time around. So far we have a human rogue, elf ranger, dragonkin cleric and a human sorcerer. There's a few things I'm struggling with in 3.5 edition at the minute though, mainly to do with magic and sorcerers in particular.

When compared to 4th edition characters seem pretty weak, is this just to do with the mood of the game or am I calculating the character sheets wrong? For example my friend's rogue has 6 hit points, enough to be killed in a single hit from a particularly lucky goblin attack.

Offensive spells don't seem to do much damage at all. Like an acid splash only deals 1-3 damage and can only be cast a few times per day at short range, a light crossbow does 1-6 as many times as you have bolts and can also crit. Is there something I'm missing here like different types of damage doing different things? It says in the 3.5 edition handbook that sorcerers can be a center of the party's damage dealing but I'm not seeing the potential.

Is there a racial template for dragonkin (I think that's what they're called in 4th)? I thought I'd just use the human template, bonus draconic language and replace the human bonus feat with some kind of fire breath attack with the same effect as a spell and maybe minor fire resistance.

Anyway that's all for now. Thanks for reading and I'll see you on the forums!
Wiz.

[Amphetryon]

Characters in 3.5 are fragile at 1st level, in comparison to 4e. This was a built-in feature that preceded 3.0; in previous editions, rolling for HP at 1st level was common, allowing for things like a Fighter starting the game with 1 HP, so in comparison to editions BEFORE 3.0, 1st level Characters got a survive-ability boost.

If the Rogue has 6 HP, that means he has no CON bonus; is the Character's CON 10 or 11?

Acid Splash is a 0 level spell, so is not intended to be a staple offensive weapon without Metamagic to boost it. Because 3.5 does not divide abilities into Daily, Encounter, and At-Will like 4e, resource management is more important to the game, particularly at the first few levels of play when access to magic items and extradimensional storage is nonexistent or extremely limited. Again, that's intended as a design feature of the system, rather than an accidental bug. The damage Acid Splash, or a Crossbow bolt, does is commensurate with the most basic level magic, or a mundane weapon that doesn't benefit from a high STR score, and both are intended to be balanced against the already noted fragility of low level Characters.

Dragonborn of Bahamut is the go-to 'Draconic Racial Template' option, particularly at 1st level, as it does not add a Level Adjustment. Rules for Dragonborn of Bahamut are in Races of the Dragon.

[Troacctid]

Sorcerers can be the main damage-dealers of a party, but not with 0-level spells. Typically, you'll see them start with 1st level spells like Sleep and Color Spray as pseudo-damage spells that KO or disable low-level enemies in one shot. Once they get 2nd level spells, Scorching Ray is a common blasting spell of choice, as it ignores armor and deals efficient damage. By the time you hit 3rd level spells and up, you start getting to your bigger AoE spells, your Fireballs and Lightning Bolts and whatnot.

Generally, in 3.5, spellcasters are underwhelming at low levels but quickly ramp up to godlike power as they scale into the lategame. It's the classic "Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards" paradigm, and it's quite extreme in this edition; basically, once you get to a certain point, high-level spells are the only thing that really matters. If your game gets up to level 9+ or so, you'll see.

[WiznJimmy]

Ah I see thank you for the replies guys. I'll give my sorcerer some of the more tricksy/utility type spells to start with. I think he'll get a kick out of sleep and grease especially. I like the kind of spells where the caster can find lots of creative ways to use them rather than those that just deal damage myself. I guess a sorcerer does also have a crossbow anyway so he can use that at first.

My rogue just has 10 for constitution at the moment. I've put her stats as str9 dex18 con10 int14 wis12 and cha16. I thought the mental stats might be more useful for sensing lies, getting more skill points and using bluff but maybe I've messed it up a little bit. She said she wanted to be a streetwise catburglar "like Alladin".
Perhaps I should swap out intelligence for constitution and wisdom for strength? Alladin was pretty nieve to trust that creepy old guy after all.

Thanks for reading,
Wiz.

[Dread_Head]

Ah I see thank you for the replies guys. I'll give my sorcerer some of the more tricksy/utility type spells to start with. I think he'll get a kick out of sleep and grease especially. I like the kind of spells where the caster can find lots of creative ways to use them rather than those that just deal damage myself. I guess a sorcerer does also have a crossbow anyway so he can use that at first.

My rogue just has 10 for constitution at the moment. I've put her stats as str9 dex18 con10 int14 wis12 and cha16. I thought the mental stats might be more useful for sensing lies, getting more skill points and using bluff but maybe I've messed it up a little bit. She said she wanted to be a streetwise catburglar "like Alladin".
Perhaps I should swap out intelligence for constitution and wisdom for strength? Alladin was pretty nieve to trust that creepy old guy after all.

Thanks for reading,
Wiz.

Yeh, a Sorcerer might as well plink away with a crossbow rather than bother casting Acid Splash (unless trying to damage objects) at low levels. You can probably cast one 1st level spell per combat then drop back to your crossbow.

For that rogue I would suggest putting your 16 in Con, your 12 in Cha and your 10 in Wis. Social skills are useful but not critical and +2 isn't a huge amount compared to higher hp, maybe switch Int and Cha if you really want the extra +1 to cha skills.

[eggynack]

Ah I see thank you for the replies guys. I'll give my sorcerer some of the more tricksy/utility type spells to start with. I think he'll get a kick out of sleep and grease especially. I like the kind of spells where the caster can find lots of creative ways to use them rather than those that just deal damage myself. I guess a sorcerer does also have a crossbow anyway so he can use that at first.
If that's the kinda thing you like in your spells, then you should check out silent image. It's a first level spell whose impact is largely bound by the user's creativity. Great choice on any sorcerer.

[WiznJimmy]

Thanks I'll make a few adjustments. Rogues still get a good amout of skills even without the intelligence bonus by the look of it so it should be okay. I guess the trick is balancing having these utility skills while still being useful in a combat situation.
Some really good advice so far thanks again guys. :)

This is something that is still confusing me a bit. I get how casters obtain and prepare spells and how many times they can cast and bonus spells etc but how do you actually use them in an encounter? In 4th it's generally an attack made with your intelligence or wisdom modifier but these are mostly "ranged touch attack". Does that mean it's a dex attack but they don't get to add their armour bonus?

[rrwoods]

A ranged touch attack is just an attack that's both ranged and a touch attack. A ranged attack will use dexterity for the attack roll (plus base attack bonus and any other modifiers!). A touch attack is an attack vs touch AC, which doesn't include armor bonus.

So, in short: yes, you have it right :)

[nedz]

Acid Splash has some use for a Rogue/Sorcerer (or similar) in that it's a Range Touch attack to which you can possibly use for a Sneak attack.


This is something that is still confusing me a bit. I get how casters obtain and prepare spells and how many times they can cast and bonus spells etc but how do you actually use them in an encounter? In 4th it's generally an attack made with your intelligence or wisdom modifier but these are mostly "ranged touch attack". Does that mean it's a dex attack but they don't get to add their armour bonus?

It depends upon the class.
Prepared spell-casters (Wizards, Clerics, Druids, etc.) prepare their spells at the beginning of the day and can use each spell exactly once.
Spontaneous casters (Sorcerers, Bards etc.) know a few spells which they can cast a number of times per day.
There are other spellcasting mechanics associated with other classes.
Spells are per day, not per encounter, in any event.

[WiznJimmy]

Cool I think I'm getting it now. :)

Any tips on making my first adventure?
I was thinking of having the players start off in a small town with a ye olde tavern and a small market place. I need some kind of hook to get them to go in a dungeon though. I thought something like rumours of people going in search of treasure in a ruin nearby and going missing might be enough. It's not the most inspired plot but it's a start. I could put a map or mysterious artefact in the loot for later. What do you guys think?

[rrwoods]

Take this with a grain of salt, because I've DM'd about 0.5 sessions.

What you've suggested for your first adventure works pretty well for a first time DM (I think). There's not a ton you can do to make it particularly memorable in terms of setting and plot; it's the very definition of the "default" adventure. But at the same time there's very little you can do to screw it up, letting you focus on making sure the game runs smoothly and the players stay immersed. In fact, whatever you choose as your first session, I would suggest that you focus a good portion of preparation time on ensuring your notes are in order: players' questions should be answered promptly, and when you need to know a stat for an NPC or monster, know where to look. Organize organize organize organize!

Now as easy as the tavern-rumors-loot sequence is to get off the ground, it's also easy for that to mistakenly leave nothing for the players to do in the following sessions. To help mitigate that, you can drop some subtle hints throughout the adventure (including before they leave for the dungeon!) regarding possible future adventures. The killer thing that makes this technique easy on you is that you don't need to know what those hints mean yet! Keep them vague for now, and work to connect your own dots after the first session is over.

All in all, remember this: it's about *having fun*. All the advice on how to "correctly" run or play a game really is advice on how to maximize the probability that everyone enjoys themselves. Don't stress if you guys break a rule, or it takes a couple extra minutes to find a piece of info you lost -- it's not about being right, it's about having fun. With the questions you're asking and your understanding of their answers, I strongly suspect you won't need to work too hard to make your game enjoyable. Relax and have a good time!

[Sagetim]

Hello everyone I'm new to this forum and pretty new to 3.5 edition and I thought I'd pop in and ask a few questions and get some tips on being a good DM.

I've played through some of the 4th edition red box adventure as DM with a few friends and we really enjoyed it. We all thought that the combat went on a bit too long though. The cards made it seem a little bit more like a computer game like World of Warcraft and I felt like it distracted from the adventuring and exploring side of things, which is what attracted me to D&D in the first place.

I read around a bit and it seemed like 3.5 was the way to go so I grabbed the three core books (this was before D&D Next rolled around). I ran a game as DM for my old flatmates and we had a blast. It was a great learning experience for me about how not to write a campaign though. I made it quite linear and had too many NPCs interacting with each other, it was more like a novel lol. I think I could do a much better job this time around.

Now it's been a few years since I last played but I'd like to get a group of willing friends together for a game and see if I can convince them to make it a regular thing maybe once a month or so. They're all new to this so I've been asking what type of characters they'd like to be and explaining the attributes and skills and stuff and I'm making the character sheets up this time around. So far we have a human rogue, elf ranger, dragonkin cleric and a human sorcerer. There's a few things I'm struggling with in 3.5 edition at the minute though, mainly to do with magic and sorcerers in particular.

When compared to 4th edition characters seem pretty weak, is this just to do with the mood of the game or am I calculating the character sheets wrong? For example my friend's rogue has 6 hit points, enough to be killed in a single hit from a particularly lucky goblin attack.

Offensive spells don't seem to do much damage at all. Like an acid splash only deals 1-3 damage and can only be cast a few times per day at short range, a light crossbow does 1-6 as many times as you have bolts and can also crit. Is there something I'm missing here like different types of damage doing different things? It says in the 3.5 edition handbook that sorcerers can be a center of the party's damage dealing but I'm not seeing the potential.

Is there a racial template for dragonkin (I think that's what they're called in 4th)? I thought I'd just use the human template, bonus draconic language and replace the human bonus feat with some kind of fire breath attack with the same effect as a spell and maybe minor fire resistance.

Anyway that's all for now. Thanks for reading and I'll see you on the forums!
Wiz.

To answer, generally, in order:
Yes, characters have less hp than in 4th edition. 1st level sucks and is super deadly in 3.5.

The splatbooks (that is, pretty much every book that came out for 3.5 that wasn't the core rules that you can find on the srd) generally added new spells to arcane spell casters with regularity. There's a metric crap ton of spells for arcane casters in 3.5, and a slightly smaller metric crapton of spells for divine casters (at least I think arcane have more). So when the book says that sorcerers can be the core damage dealers in a party, they're not exactly wrong.

I imagine that line was written with spells like fireball in mind, and fireball hitting clusters of enemies regularly. But to even get to fireball, a sorcerer has to get to level 6. And that is going to be a slow and painful climb, as most spells do (at best) around caster level in d6's of damage. Which means that an arcane caster, with their limited spells per day, are only going to start doing damage comparable to a fighter with a great sword around level 3 (with spells that do 3d6 damage at level 3). At level 3, a fighter will be doing about the same damage as at level 1, just hitting a bit more often. A rogue will have inflated their damage when they can get sneak attacks with the equivalent of adding a great sword (+2d6) per sneak attack. Around level 5 or 6 is when a sorcerer can start doing higher damage than their other party members. Maybe sooner if they have the kind of system mastery that this forum assumes is normal but really really isn't. Especially with new players.

In any case, the most dangerous spells a sorcerer can use aren't the direct damage spells. You'd think that they would be, because they do damage. But some of the most dangerous spells a sorcerer can deploy have very little to do with casting them at targets in combat. At the high level end of the spectrum things like Simulacrum can suddenly get ridiculous if the player uses it in conjunction with a being that can use wish as a spell like ability (which removes the xp cost of the wish spell). And that can get quite silly quite quickly.

At the low level end of the spectrum, prestidigitation can be a world changing spell. If nothing else, the ability to magically clean yourself and your house with a single cantrip a day and maybe a few minutes of staring at things is an incredible leap in hygiene from the norm for a medieval society. Depending on how much realism you're enforcing in the game (like making people make fort saves against diseases for trudging through the sewers, especially with open wounds) getting that cleaned off you can suddenly be super important to not dying from horrible fevers. Even in less realism focused settings, being able to escape prison by crawling through the sewer line and coming out clean on the other side makes for a good story.

If the players are completely new to DnD, and you're willing, I would suggest trying 5th edition as a starting point. It's really nicely built and from what I've seen of it, rather simple to build a character with. 3.5 is not as new player friendly. If you want to stick to 3.5, that's fine...it's just a lot more dangerous at level 1. As you mentioned, a lucky hit by a goblin can one shot a player (not just from full health to negative numbers, but from full health to below -10).

For example, in one game I've heard about there was someone playing a level 1 elven sorceress with 2 hp. Because their constitution was that low. In that same game, there was someone playing a "melee wizard" with 4 hp. This party got in a fight with some orcs. The melee wizard cast shocking grasp on the orc and rolled maximum damage...6. It was not enough to kill the orc. It was not enough to drop the orc to negatives. On the orc's turn, it rolled and confirmed a critical hit. It rolled 8 damage, then doubled that for 16. The "melee wizard" was now dead at -12. I think the 2 hp sorceress tried to jump down from something, failed the jump check, and died to falling damage and bleeding out before anyone with healing could get to her.

When it comes to dragonkin...there are some different options for that in 3.5. The basic one from the first monster manual is called the Half Dragon. It's a template that you apply to a base race, and the resulting character has both the normal traits of the base race, and the traits from the half dragon template. They add together (they don't overlap). The downside to this is that it involves the Effective Character Level system, and that can be very complicated to try and explain and implement to new players. I would skip this option.

There is the Spellscale race from....Dragon Magic? I think? I'm pretty sure that's the supplement that they are from. They are humanoids with some dragony physical features. But they don't have an effective character level, so they're a fine option in my book.

Then there's the Dragonborn. Also from Dragon Magic I think. In 3.5, if I recall correctly, they are people who were super devoted to bahamut and wound up going through a bodily transformation into a race of dragon-people. I think it's got some kind of weird template where you lose most of your normal racial abilities and they get replaced by the ones for that. It's kind of weird and complicated for 3.5 as I recall, which makes it not a stellar choice for new players.

And I just read through some of this thread. I think Dragonborn and Spellscale are in the same book (which someone already mentioned is Races of Dragon). If spellscale isn't there, it's in Dragon Magic. And I'll second rrwoods' statement that the point is to have fun. I would modify the statement to be, "Have fun and be consistent." So if you establish that the wood from the bau bau tree is magical and that a pound of it is worth 20xp when crafting magic items out of wood, don't be surprised if the players start trying to cultivate bau bau trees so they can either benefit from that supply of wood or make a huge profit on it by selling it to wizards or what have you. Or, for example, if you establish that a villain has grown younger because they bathed in the blood of the innocent....well, some players are going to start wondering if they get special powers for bathing in various kinds of blood, while others may decide that being young forever is a great plan and turn towards finding ways to harvest innocent people's blood if they're playing an older character (or even just for a profit so they can sell it to others to bathe in).

[WiznJimmy]

Oh my god even more spells!? Lol this is madness how are you supposed to choose? I'm already like a kid in a candy store!

I think I'll stick with my little custom dragony race at the moment. I'd like to get more books but I'll probably get 5th edition instead of adding to this one if I can get some players interested. I've found 3.5 quite hard to get started compared to 4th. Making new characters takes ages and planning encounters looks a lot more daunting with all the templates you have to work out.

I was having a look at the DM guide this morning and my adventure is almost exactly like the one in the cliché example lol.

I might do it where the party start in a tavern and then a meteorite destroys the nearby temple of Pelor (our clerics chosen god) across the road. Hopefully the PCs will investigate and discover the newly revealed hidden catacombs beneath. I might do an illusion room puzzle, some animated chains that try to strangle them, a few skellybobs and then a vault with a little boss in it like an animated suit of armour which I'll have to stat up. There could be some kind of evil artefact in there for the players to find.
Isn't it a coincidence that a meteorite happens to hit a temple? What's a temple of the good god pelor doing with an eeevil artefact beneath it? Find out next time!

I also had a little roll on the random npc trait thing on page 128 of the DM guide. I rolled a 100. It made me titter. :)

Cheers,
Wiz.

[Sagetim]

Oh my god even more spells!? Lol this is madness how are you supposed to choose? I'm already like a kid in a candy store!

I think I'll stick with my little custom dragony race at the moment. I'd like to get more books but I'll probably get 5th edition instead of adding to this one if I can get some players interested. I've found 3.5 quite hard to get started compared to 4th. Making new characters takes ages and planning encounters looks a lot more daunting with all the templates you have to work out.

I was having a look at the DM guide this morning and my adventure is almost exactly like the one in the cliché example lol.

I might do it where the party start in a tavern and then a meteorite destroys the nearby temple of Pelor (our clerics chosen god) across the road. Hopefully the PCs will investigate and discover the newly revealed hidden catacombs beneath. I might do an illusion room puzzle, some animated chains that try to strangle them, a few skellybobs and then a vault with a little boss in it like an animated suit of armour which I'll have to stat up. There could be some kind of evil artefact in there for the players to find.
Isn't it a coincidence that a meteorite happens to hit a temple? What's a temple of the good god pelor doing with an eeevil artefact beneath it? Find out next time!

I also had a little roll on the random npc trait thing on page 128 of the DM guide. I rolled a 100. It made me titter. :)

Cheers,
Wiz.

That sounds like a great start to a campaign...because you can have the meteorite be an extended mystery if the players even bother to question it, and if not they're probably going to wonder about the backstory of the evil artifact. And even if they don't, they have to decide on what to do with it...which is where an evil party could arrive to try and take said artifact, etc.

And yeah, if you're going to actually buy the books then get 5th edition books. For 3.5, you can use the d20srd.org and get access to most of the information contained in the player's handbook, monster manual, dungeon master's guide, expanded psionics handbook, deities and demigods, epic level handbook, and I think I'm forgetting one or two others. But those books comprise the core of 3.5 (it's why they contained in the srd that wizards released free of charge lo these many years ago).

And yeah, 4th edition was made for ease of play (easy to get into, easy to make characters, easy to run things). And because it was focused on ease of play and mass appeal it got kind of mmo-ey. So going backwards from that is bound to be an odd experience. The advantages that 3.5 has is that it's massive and potentially complicated, which allows for the making of a wide variety of character concepts that don't necessarily mechanically exist in other editions of dnd. I say potentially complicated because it's only as complicated as the DM wants it to be, since they can just say 'these books are valid for this campaign and no others' to limit potential cheese in character builds.

[WiznJimmy]

Oh wow I had no idea it was all freely available like that! Thanks so much that site will really help with looking up spell effects because my players can have that on their tablets.

All this time I've been using the hardback books. It will be so much easier to hyperlink to the pages I need!

[Sagetim]

Oh wow I had no idea it was all freely available like that! Thanks so much that site will really help with looking up spell effects because my players can have that on their tablets.

All this time I've been using the hardback books. It will be so much easier to hyperlink to the pages I need!

The advantage of the srd is that all the information there has had the errata applied (which means the rules are up to date). The disadvantage is that it's not an absolutely complete set of the rules from those books. For example, if you look up leadership on the srd, it just has the leadership feat. It doesn't include the section about cohorts, followers, and so on that comes before the feat in the DMG.

I can't think of any other specific examples though. So it's a very usable and helpful resource. Especially for spells, feats, and monsters.

[nedz]

Oh wow I had no idea it was all freely available like that! Thanks so much that site will really help with looking up spell effects because my players can have that on their tablets.

All this time I've been using the hardback books. It will be so much easier to hyperlink to the pages I need!

There are certain things which are not in the SRD.
Character Generation
How to level up
Various Monsters

beholder
gauth
carrion crawler
displacer beast
githyanki
githzerai
kuo-toa
mind flayer
slaad
umber hulk
yuan-ti

Also it only includes stuff from the following books: Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, Epic Level Handbook, Deities and Demigods and Expanded Psionics Handbook

[WiznJimmy]

I've decided to do a wagon that's been ambushed by kobolds instead of the temple idea. That way my ranger gets to use his tracking skill and my sorcerer can use his illusions to trick the kobolds. The traps kobolds use will be more mundane too so they won't be as jarring to the new players who aren't used to all this fantasy stuff. I might put a puzzle door at the back of the lair that the kobolds couldn't figure out leading to a trap filled vault with undead and more magical stuff but the door should set the tone so they know what to expect in there.

How big should the rooms in my dungeon be? I've got some of the pathfinder wipe mats which are 24x30 squares so I could do it over two levels and maybe have the grass side as the entrance if need be. I've not played with a grid in 3.5 and I need enough room for 4 PCs to fight kobolds.

[fishyfishyfishy]

I've decided to do a wagon that's been ambushed by kobolds instead of the temple idea. That way my ranger gets to use his tracking skill and my sorcerer can use his illusions to trick the kobolds. The traps kobolds use will be more mundane too so they won't be as jarring to the new players who aren't used to all this fantasy stuff. I might put a puzzle door at the back of the lair that the kobolds couldn't figure out leading to a trap filled vault with undead and more magical stuff but the door should set the tone so they know what to expect in there.

How big should the rooms in my dungeon be? I've got some of the pathfinder wipe mats which are 24x30 squares so I could do it over two levels and maybe have the grass side as the entrance if need be. I've not played with a grid in 3.5 and I need enough room for 4 PCs to fight kobolds.

No no, that's not how you design dungeons at all. You only design a building to fit people in a fight if that was the purpose of the room to begin with. Don't sacrifice this particular bit of realism. Part of the frustration of dealing with Kobolds is that they are small enough to take advantage of enclosed and cramped spaces. Learning how to deal with this, and use smart tactics, is an important lesson for new players to learn. Enemies fighting to the death don't do so lightly. They are cunning and use traps, environmental hazards, and choke points to get any advantage they need to win. Don't be afraid to kill a foolish PC here and there.

[WiznJimmy]

Ah I like the sound of that thanks fishy.
So I should design the dungeon around the fuctions of each room?
Like have a kobold kitchen area with a roasting halfling and then maybe when the kobolds start to drop they run off through a narrow gap which could have some sort of trap and then the surviving members of the tribe try to ambush the PCs when they come through.

[Ayrynthyn]

I want to second fishy's comment, and then your take on it... then a quick google of "d&d 3.5 map of the week" turned up a ton of maps to inspire, overwhelm, or straight up pilfer. This one here felt very kobold lair with something to hide...

http://www.dndadventure.com/images/pt_wiz_lich_lair.jpg

[SangoProduction]

Be careful in 3.5. In 3.5, combats can go on insidiously long, and are extremely boring. Unless your party is overly optimized, I recommend cutting most monsters' hp in half to prevent this from happening. As the meme goes: "D&D, the only game where 10 hours of walking takes 10 seconds, and 10 seconds of fighting takes 10 hours."
This applies to most of the editions as well.

Also, you don't die until you're at -10 hp (or -Con, if you want to improve survivability).

[WiznJimmy]

Hmm that's something I'll have to look into. I was hoping 3.5 would run quicker than 4th without all the cards aWouldn'tnd jazz to complicate things. I'll do a practice run solo to see how it goes and if I need to I can either lower the enemy HP, AC or both depending.

That map does look very warren-like with all the twisty tunnels. I'll have to have a look at those others too. Wouldn't be able to use the grid for combat though. Does 3.5 play as well without?

[Amphetryon]

Hmm that's something I'll have to look into. I was hoping 3.5 would run quicker than 4th without all the cards aWouldn'tnd jazz to complicate things. I'll do a practice run solo to see how it goes and if I need to I can either lower the enemy HP, AC or both depending.

That map does look very warren-like with all the twisty tunnels. I'll have to have a look at those others too. Wouldn't be able to use the grid for combat though. Does 3.5 play as well without?

It is possible to play 3.5 without a grid, but most would not recommend it. Flanking bonuses, Range increments, and Reach are three aspects of combat off the top of my head that can get very sticky without a grid to visualize the battle scene; going without the grid can result in a lot of arguments over exact positioning.

[SangoProduction]

Hmm that's something I'll have to look into. I was hoping 3.5 would run quicker than 4th without all the cards aWouldn'tnd jazz to complicate things. I'll do a practice run solo to see how it goes and if I need to I can either lower the enemy HP, AC or both depending.

That map does look very warren-like with all the twisty tunnels. I'll have to have a look at those others too. Wouldn't be able to use the grid for combat though. Does 3.5 play as well without?

For most situations, I never use a grid, in 4e or 3.5. So long as your players are OK with it, then it shouldn't be a problem.

[Ayrynthyn]

Typically i'd have the party's "mapper" sketching out "the corridor continues on for 30 ft, then turns left" on graph or even printer paper. I'd draw on the battle mat rooms as they entered them, and fought in them, erasing them as they moved on... on occasion you'd need to redraw a prior room on the battle mat if they go back for additional investigation or if you want to obfuscate the fact that every room or bridge or hallway you draw has some form of encounter.

... battle can take time, especially if you're not familiar with the rules (or overly familiar with the rules). Dont let that dissuade you. It'll be fun. :) 3 or 4 kobolds in the open or lightly wooded field before they get into the lair, to work through the core mechanics, then... unleash the kobold menance on them with full fury. Sheer numbers and cleverness... TPK!!!

[Grod_The_Giant]

Be careful in 3.5. In 3.5, combats can go on insidiously long, and are extremely boring. Unless your party is overly optimized, I recommend cutting most monsters' hp in half to prevent this from happening. As the meme goes: "D&D, the only game where 10 hours of walking takes 10 seconds, and 10 seconds of fighting takes 10 hours."
This applies to most of the editions as well.
HP has never been an issue in 3.5, at least not in my experience. It's real easy to punch through a character's health in one or two attacks- at most levels, honestly. Your standard d6/level damage spell? Two shots of that will deal 7 damage per level, on average- that's about the same as a d8 hit die and a 14 Con, if you're rolling normally. And that's not touching all the save or lose effects floating around out there.

No, 3.5 takes a long time because of the complexity, not the numbers. Every turn, someone has to pick an ability off a huge list, hope they remember all the pertinent details, stop to look up some weird ability interaction, deal with a rule someone else thinks applies here, get reminded of a (de) buff that changes everything... Martial types are better, if blander, but you still wind up carefully calculating movement to avoid AoOs, trying to remember half a dozen temporary modifiers, rolling multiple attacks at different bonuses... It's the little things, adding up to take a loooong time.

Low level is better in some respects, since there are fewer rolls and effects in play, but it's a lot more lethal too- you'll spend a lot more time on "is there a rule that would save my character" jeopardy.

EDIT: as for advice... The biggest difference between 3.5 and 4e is utility. While some characters (coughmundanescough) don't get much beyond skills, the range of things spells can do is downright staggering. It's probable that somewhere there exists a spell to do exactly what the players need to do in a single standard action - long range teleports, scrying, speak with dead, invisibility, intangiblity... Don't go crazy trying to predict it, but don't expect that the same issues with be a problem at all levels. Otherwise, good adventure design is fairly system neutral,and it sounds like you've got a good handle on it.

[ComaVision]

Grod nailed it really good.

This is a very common scenario for my group:
-BSF attacks "does # hit?"
-DM says "no"
-bard says "did you remember the +10 from my Inspire Courage?"
-cleric says "did you remember that his AC is lower from my Shivering Touch?"
-wizard, polymorphed to hydra says "i'm flanking right now too so that's +2"

Then you do a similar song and dance for the damage roll etc.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I've been trying to think of a way to simplify that all, but it's not easy. D&D is FIDDLY, especially 3.5

[WiznJimmy]

Thanks guys I've been wanting to get a group going for ages so I'm probably over-thinking everything anyway.

I think I'll be okay keeping track of all the modifiers and situational bonuses, I've played a few skirmish games where the modifiers sort of accumulate and interact with each other. Things like rank bonus, plus a little flanking, then a bonus for charging, then there's a champion in your unit, oh and the enemy is under a curse of weakness etc etc. I'll be getting my players to take responsibility of personal buffs to hit and damage and I'll be keeping a lot of paper notes to make it easier. It shouldn't be too hard at first level at least.

Modifiers have a way of accumulating like fine snow. You'll be buried unless you keep a shovel handy!

Cheers,
Wiz.

[rrwoods]

There's a couple nice solutions to the modifier problem. My favorite that works for the whole party is to have a central list of (de)buffs that all the players can see and get used to checking. A whiteboard works best but a piece of paper in the center of the room is just fine. Any time someone brings up a buff just write it down!

Fleeting conditional modifiers (like flanking) are the kind of thing everyone needs to be conscious of.