Favorite Discontinued/Outdated D&D Material?

[PangolinPie]

D&D has gone through countless updates, revisions and a good many new editions over the years and while many changes were made for the better, there have been plenty of changes that got rid of certain things that we have always loved in the past but were now longer viable in new editions. It could be an outdated class feature, spell, unique stat bonus or item.

Mine was a really obscure third level spell called "Blood Funnel" I found in my GM's hard copy of the 3.0 Encyclopedia Magika that he was allowing for use in a 3.5 game he ran a good decade back. Don't bother trying to find info of it online; I tried and I only found a brief mention of it in the spell list of an NPC evil wizard from a 3.0 game scenario with no details on it therein: http://www.devinlc.com/scenariotasteofhoney.htm (plus every search is tainted by hits based on a Magic the Gathering card of the same name)

Just picture a tornado of acidic blood filled with screaming skulls...I'll repeat that as it bears repeating....a tornado of acidic blood filled with screaming skulls...a vertical column with a decent horizontal radius of AOE that does acid damage to any caught within the funnel and the sound of the tortured screams of the damned causes a fear effect.....all that in a third level spell.

It was the living embodiment of every 80's heavy metal album cover in a single spell...truly glorious and perfect for the Rage Mage I was playing at the time who was all about fear and intimidation.

So whats some nostalgic stuff that you miss?

[Venger]

there was some obscure 3.0 psionic power called "steelsteal" (or maybe stealsteel) that let you jam your life force into a sword or other weapon and just hang out there. if you wanted to move or kill people, you had to use telekinesis or similar. as you may surmise, it saw little legitimate use and was mostly reserved for weird tricks. I used to be able to find it on the archive, but it now eludes me.

[sleepyphoenixx]

I kinda miss the old AD&D style Stoneskin. For those not in the know, it blocked a certain number of attacks entirely (1d4 +1/2 CL iirc) instead of the DR it gives now.


there was some obscure 3.0 psionic power called "steelsteal" (or maybe stealsteel) that let you jam your life force into a sword or other weapon and just hang out there. if you wanted to move or kill people, you had to use telekinesis or similar. as you may surmise, it saw little legitimate use and was mostly reserved for weird tricks. I used to be able to find it on the archive, but it now eludes me.

It's in the Mind's Eye archives. One of the articles about Sardinor or whatever that psionic dragon god is called. Don't know the exact article, but that should narrow it down.

[Troacctid]

I miss a lot of stuff. Incarnum is pretty cool. Psionics. Prestige classes. Marking enemies. Also just having lots of options to choose from—options are definitely thinner nowadays.

[Venger]

I kinda miss the old AD&D style Stoneskin. For those not in the know, it blocked a certain number of attacks entirely (1d4 +1/2 CL iirc) instead of the DR it gives now.



It's in the Mind's Eye archives. One of the articles about Sardinor or whatever that psionic dragon god is called. Don't know the exact article, but that should narrow it down.

That's interesting. I didn't know stoneskin used to do that.

Sardior. Searching for him didn't yield what I wanted.

It turns out it's actually a different, unrelated psionic dragon god

steelsteal (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/wn/20030618a) for interested parties.

thanks for the help this was driving me nuts.

[Telok]

Spelljammer.

Star Trek/Star Wars + D&D = nerdgasm.

The AD&D complete spelljammer splat includes the line "In space weirder is better."

[daremetoidareyo]

Listen Berk, every cutter knows that planescape is the best thing dnd has done

[MHCD]

I kinda miss the old AD&D style Stoneskin. For those not in the know, it blocked a certain number of attacks entirely (1d4 +1/2 CL iirc) instead of the DR it gives now.


I have mixed feelings about this one. I was definitely disappointed when after seeing how cool so much of the new 3E rules looked, I saw the entry for one of my favorite fighter/mage spells. Then again, the gish archetype (and relevant rules) changes from generation to generation. In any case, it was also sometimes annoying enough in 2E to have to deal with (as a player or DM), that I don't think I would want to see it in 3E. But then again, it could result in an increase in volley archers, TWF'ers, and force missile mages, which might be kind of cool. Eh.


I miss a lot of stuff. Incarnum is pretty cool. Psionics. Prestige classes. Marking enemies. Also just having lots of options to choose from—options are definitely thinner nowadays.

This is one of the main reasons I loved 2E and keep coming back to 3.x. Whether finding the crunch for a particular character concept, designing a setting, or trying a creative new idea to solve an encounter, or whatever, there are so many options even before touching homebrew - and 3.x is marvelously custom variants / homebrew / DM improv - friendly anyway. 4E was a totally different game, and 5E still feels too restrictive, at least as far as my very limited experience goes.


Spelljammer.

Star Trek/Star Wars + D&D = nerdgasm.

The AD&D complete spelljammer splat includes the line "In space weirder is better."

It's also easier to run / play in a game that's less about aggressively leveling up and reequipping murderhobos when you have an entire crazy universe to explore or hide in or conquer, all while telling a long-term story with deep character development. Granted, any game can be in any setting, but still, space!

On a related note, Planescape, and more Planescape.


Listen Berk, every cutter knows that planescape is the best thing dnd has done

And as cool as Eberron might be, that whole, "you can find anything here" thing was already taken. Case in point: Planescape and Spelljammer go together to make anything else ever published only a part of that "best thing dnd has done".

2E's class kits were fun. Some of that is duplicated in 3E with the myriad of alternative class features and some with prestige classes as well, though Pathfinder's archetypes may be a better representation. It's still not the same as "Oh, you want to play an elf ranger? Well here's this little book of 37 elf ranger kits, 7 chapters on unique gear (from mundane to deific), and another 14 on the fluff of several elf ranger clans and histories." Of course no one says you have to use every option in every splatbook (or to check literally every possibility for balance), but again, options are nice.

[Particle_Man]

I miss the 1st edition illusionist, with spells that only they knew and others that were at different levels from the magic-user. These days, any wizard can learn any spell that an illusionist can. If I have one 1st ed regret it is that I will very likely never get to try the "deep cover" assassin/illusionist dual-classed character in the back of my head.

I miss the 3.0 soul knife prestige class, and kinda miss the "powered by Con" psion (one of the six, I forget which one) from 3.0. Oodles of hp!

I miss Magic of Incarnum, especially the Sapphire Hierarch. I miss Tome of Battle, especially the Ruby Knight Vindicator. I heartily wish for proper official errata for those two books (yeah, I know, and a pony).

I miss Create Astral Construct, which hasn't been reproduced in later editions yet. I just think it more ethical/aesthetically pleasing than to Summon a sentient being and force it to obey your commands (seems unethical) or to raise up an undead, even a mindless one, to do the same (seems icky). I miss my beloved solid holograms.

I miss the 3.5 Warlock for its utter simplicity. Later editions have Warlocks, but they are designed differently, which is fine, but I miss the streamlined, no paperwork, point and shoot Warlock of 3.5.

[Agent 451]

Spelljammer.

Star Trek/Star Wars + D&D = nerdgasm.

The AD&D complete spelljammer splat includes the line "In space weirder is better."

We may get some resurgent Spelljammer awesomeness*. There are at least three "space"finder campaign settings for Pathfinder that are either recently out, or soon to be: Starjammer, Aethera, and Starfinder.

*Okay, fine, we probably won't get anything as quirky/amazing, but you have to have hope.

[Venger]

I miss the 1st edition illusionist, with spells that only they knew and others that were at different levels from the magic-user. These days, any wizard can learn any spell that an illusionist can. If I have one 1st ed regret it is that I will very likely never get to try the "deep cover" assassin/illusionist dual-classed character in the back of my head.

I miss the 3.0 soul knife prestige class, and kinda miss the "powered by Con" psion (one of the six, I forget which one) from 3.0. Oodles of hp!

good list.

those were egoists, who specialized in psychometabolism. I never had the chance to play 3.0 psionics. was it as difficult as it sounds having all your powers rely on different stats?

[EvulOne]

2.0 class kits. I loved those. I played a Thief with an Adventurer kit class and a Fighter who had a Myrmidon class kit. Both were very fun.

[Agent 451]

Don't bother trying to find info of it online...

I think I found it. It's also in Green Ronin's Pocket Grimoire: Arcane. I'm looking at my copy right now, seems to have all the relevant points that you mentioned, including acid, but minus flying skulls.

edit: It's also in Sword and Sorcery Relics and Rituals as "Bloodstorm".

[Big Fau]

there was some obscure 3.0 psionic power called "steelsteal" (or maybe stealsteel) that let you jam your life force into a sword or other weapon and just hang out there. if you wanted to move or kill people, you had to use telekinesis or similar. as you may surmise, it saw little legitimate use and was mostly reserved for weird tricks. I used to be able to find it on the archive, but it now eludes me.


I kinda miss the old AD&D style Stoneskin. For those not in the know, it blocked a certain number of attacks entirely (1d4 +1/2 CL iirc) instead of the DR it gives now.



It's in the Mind's Eye archives. One of the articles about Sardinor or whatever that psionic dragon god is called. Don't know the exact article, but that should narrow it down.


That's interesting. I didn't know stoneskin used to do that.

Sardior. Searching for him didn't yield what I wanted.

It turns out it's actually a different, unrelated psionic dragon god

steelsteal (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/wn/20030618a) for interested parties.

thanks for the help this was driving me nuts.

For what its worth, the power's effects were more or less rolled into Metamorphosis. Greater Metamorphosis allows you to manifest powers normally while acting like an object.

[Particle_Man]

good list.

those were egoists, who specialized in psychometabolism. I never had the chance to play 3.0 psionics. was it as difficult as it sounds having all your powers rely on different stats?

It was the mystic theurge before there were mystic theurges! ;)

Seriously, I think at low levels it wasn't as big a deal, as you probably had a few good general stats. At high levels it was different as you would likely push that one really good stat. Con at least gave you hp too. And metacognition was on either their list or the str list (maybe the str one?) so you could have your idiot savant.

Oh, and speaking of psionics, I think that Blues (the goblin subrace) were LA +0.

And now I am absolutely amazed that this goblin subrace did not get a racial class substitution write-up in Magic of Incarnum, lover of all shades of blue. ;)

[Venger]

For what its worth, the power's effects were more or less rolled into Metamorphosis. Greater Metamorphosis allows you to manifest powers normally while acting like an object.

while that's true, steelsteal's primary use is making yourself impossible to kill by arranging for your body to be hidden while you're out doing weird stuff.

[BrowncoatJayson]

Al Quadim. I loved the setting, blending 1001 Arabian Nights into the Forgotten Realms. Plus, the Sh'air was the best fluffed spellcasting class ever.

[Dagroth]

I actually miss 2nd edition's Multiclassing (that Humans weren't allowed to do!) I almost always played a Half-Elf Ranger-Cleric and one of my fellow players was always the "something-something-thief". While we're at it, I miss that the class was called thief!

I miss when they decided to add more ways to earn XP... Wizards got 100xp per level of spell they cast. Clerics got 50xp per level of spell they cast & Rogues got 1 XP per gold piece value of loot they stole!

I miss how Monks in 1st edition really were kinda balanced compared to Fighters, Rangers & Paladins. I miss how the Bard class was, essentially, the very first "Prestige Class".

[Krobar]

I miss a few things from 2nd Edition, particularly Spelljammer. I also miss the spell Wraithform. It saved the lives of several characters of mine, time and again. Just too handy.

[MHCD]

It was either written for the Baldur's Gate games, or I just never saw it playing p&p, but 2nd edition's Protection from Magical Weapon's spell was a nice addition - a nice game-changer, but especially when combined with the other layers of protection spells high-level mages liked to throw on. Then while your party's mage is trying to get rid of the spells layer by layer, it's up to the party's martials to heroically lay the smack down with normal weapons.

[Particle_Man]

I kinda miss the dragon doing breath weapon damage equal to its hp in 1st edition. It made it suitably terrifying if they could open up on you first.

[thorr-kan]

Al Quadim. I loved the setting, blending 1001 Arabian Nights into the Forgotten Realms. Plus, the Sh'air was the best fluffed spellcasting class ever.
Preach it, brother!

I miss supplements and product lines with Al-Qadim's production values.

[Buufreak]

Well, since I didn't see a tag or anything in the OP about edition, I'll throw out the unpopular opinion of 4e supplements. I loved the fluff so much that it hurts sometimes knowing how much it was hated overall.

[Particle_Man]

From 4e I liked the Feywild. It seems to be overdue - D&D needs a better "home" for its fey creatures than "somewhere in the deep, deep woods".

[Dagroth]

Well, since I didn't see a tag or anything in the OP about edition, I'll throw out the unpopular opinion of 4e supplements. I loved the fluff so much that it hurts sometimes knowing how much it was hated overall.

Great fluff... utter crap mechanics. That was 4e in a nutshell.

[MHCD]

Great fluff... utter crap mechanics. That was 4e in a nutshell.

Oh yeah, gotta love the fluff of those pewpew priests (https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Laser_Cleric)...

But seriously, a lot of the fluff there was great, particularly the aforementioned Feywild, as well as Heroes of Shadow. And there were definitely some mechanics that were nice - at least nice enough for people to adapt/backport them to 3.5 houserules - but I agree, the crunch was gross overall.

[Calthropstu]

There used to be a spell, it was featured in Elminster in Myth Drannor that absorbed all the attacks dealt to you for several rounds. During that time you couldn't die. Then you touched your opponent and sent all the attacks back at him.

[Thurbane]

I'm always annoyed and disappointed at the lack of support Greyhawk got from 3.0 onward...

[Hexblade]

There used to be a spell, it was featured in Elminster in Myth Drannor that absorbed all the attacks dealt to you for several rounds. During that time you couldn't die. Then you touched your opponent and sent all the attacks back at him.

That... seems incredibly overpowered. I love it!

[Calthropstu]

That... seems incredibly overpowered. I love it!

All I remember was that it was a 6th level 2nd edition spell. It was ridiculously overpowered.

[LordOfCain]

I'm also going to have to vote for Spelljammer. That stuff was AWESOME!

[Psyren]

Well, since I didn't see a tag or anything in the OP about edition, I'll throw out the unpopular opinion of 4e supplements. I loved the fluff so much that it hurts sometimes knowing how much it was hated overall.


Great fluff... utter crap mechanics. That was 4e in a nutshell.

4e had perhaps the best psionics fluff I'd ever seen before or since. I love a number of the races too and have backported many of them to PF.

[Buufreak]

4e had perhaps the best psionics fluff I'd ever seen before or since. I love a number of the races too and have backported many of them to PF.

Oh, absolutely agreed. I loved the connection to the far realm, and all the chaos that came from it. I especially loved the shardminds, the idea behind them was so fascinating.

But then you got to the crunch, where they were simply the psionic versions of tank, blaster, healer, etc. That really was where everything fell flat for me in 4e. You got a role and power source, and half-assed extrapolated a class from that.

[Psyren]

I occasionally poke my head into the 4e subforum to look around. It seems like a nice community in there, though the threads tend to get cobwebs more quickly.

[atemu1234]

I personally miss most of the Ravenloft stuff; I feel like a lot of the 3e/3.5e updates leave a lot to be desired.


D&D has gone through countless updates, revisions and a good many new editions over the years and while many changes were made for the better, there have been plenty of changes that got rid of certain things that we have always loved in the past but were now longer viable in new editions. It could be an outdated class feature, spell, unique stat bonus or item.

Mine was a really obscure third level spell called "Blood Funnel" I found in my GM's hard copy of the 3.0 Encyclopedia Magika that he was allowing for use in a 3.5 game he ran a good decade back. Don't bother trying to find info of it online; I tried and I only found a brief mention of it in the spell list of an NPC evil wizard from a 3.0 game scenario with no details on it therein: http://www.devinlc.com/scenariotasteofhoney.htm (plus every search is tainted by hits based on a Magic the Gathering card of the same name)

Just picture a tornado of acidic blood filled with screaming skulls...I'll repeat that as it bears repeating....a tornado of acidic blood filled with screaming skulls...a vertical column with a decent horizontal radius of AOE that does acid damage to any caught within the funnel and the sound of the tortured screams of the damned causes a fear effect.....all that in a third level spell.

It was the living embodiment of every 80's heavy metal album cover in a single spell...truly glorious and perfect for the Rage Mage I was playing at the time who was all about fear and intimidation.

So whats some nostalgic stuff that you miss?

Where do people find these websites? That thing hasn't been updated since like 2009!


Preach it, brother!

I miss supplements and product lines with Al-Qadim's production values.

I miss Al-Quadim too. Good setting. Deserved better.

[Someone Else DM]

I miss bribing the City Guard of Ravens Bluff at every Living City game at every RPGA Con...:smalltongue:

[thompur]

I liked the 1st ed. spell Glassteel. It made anything made of glass as strong as steel, permanently.

[Rerednaw]

I kind of like everything. 1st through 4th. Admittedly there are portions of each system I thought needed fixing.

1st ed. No dice caps. Suffering through till Fireball made it worthwhile. Temple of Elemental Evil! Tomb of Horror! Barrier Peaks...still have them.
2nd ed, liked the alternate settings like Al Qadim.
3rd ed...actually like the modules Sunless Citadel, etc...OGL hurt them financially but I liked it. Decision to not have pdfs though made me grumble as my back gave out hauling the book cart :)
3.5 fixed 3.0, broke more. But by far the most crunch. And before Hasbro started throwing their weight, lots of player support. And there were the attempts to totally add new system mechanics like Incarnum, ToB, etc...
4E really liked the fluff....and My Realm adventure design. Lair Assault events were interesting. System needed fixing though.
5E...did not like the beta. Feedback about broken combos was not used and they ended up in release. Story has promise.