3.0 -> 3.5

[huttj509]

So, I was looking through my books recently, for dming a 3.5 game. I mistakenly thought I only had a 3.0 DMG, but I'm good on that. However, that got me thinking...

I played 3.0...and I've played 3.5...I don't remember the differences between them. For example, had my DMG been 3.0, would the magic items have generally been fine?

Anyone remember the changes between them (in general) and willing to list?

[Tavar]

There's a document on wizards that should let you use 3.0 books to play 3.5: it lists the changes.

Otherwise, lets see...
Dr/+X became Dr/Magic
Haste doesn't give extra action now
Rangers went from d10 to d8, but gained more skills. Also, animal companion now 1/2 druid level instead of -3
Druid animal companion now stronger....

[Optimystik]

www.d20srd.org

Everything there is open content and 3.5. Enjoy!

[AslanCross]

Off the top of my head:

-Feat name changes (Expertise -> Combat Expertise is one that comes to mind)
-Critical range increase stacking was removed.
-Some skills (Scrying, Innuendo, Intuit Direction, etc) were folded into other skills.
-The "Beast" creature type was folded into "Animal."
-Numerous prestige classes were modified. One that comes to mind is Incantatrix. (Compare: Magic of Faerun Incantatrix with 3.5 Player's Guide to Faerun Incantatrix.)

I'm sure there are other changes, but none come to mind at the moment.

[Dimers]

Animal companions don't come from a spell anymore; now they're a class feature, and they're considerably improved over normal animals, too. Several monk and ranger class abilities changed. Psionics got revamped -- there are a lot of minor changes. Weapon size compared to wielder size is slightly different, though for typical PCs who aren't trying to be ridiculous using RAW, it's just a difference of terminology. The spell darkness isn't absolute in 3.5 as it was in 3rd-ed, just very gloomy. Retain Consciousness feat morphed into the much-easier-to-get Diehard. Gnome favored class changed from illusionist to bard. The bard got more skill points per level and the ability to cast in armor. And apparently, dwarves gained "stability", though I didn't actually remember that one myself.

[MCerberus]

Ambidexterity was folded in to the initial two-weapon fighting feat.

[yilduz]

As far as the actual DMG goes, a lot of magical items changed in power and price. The first difference that I remember noticing when going from 3E to 3.5 was that my rogue had to pay an extra 500 gold (I think it was 500) for each of the cloak and boots of elvenkind - and they only had +5 instead of +10. Poopy.

[Douglas]

The two big ones I remember are Haste not granting an extra action any more, and Heal and Harm doing 10 healing/damage per level instead of full heal/reduce to 1d4.

[Myrmex]

Magic items:
A bunch of weapon & armor enhancements were re-priced. Crappy ones like "Slick" or "Glammered" have a flat GP cost, as opposed to adding to the total enhancement bonus.

I think wands were reduced in price, and the metamagic rods from Tome & Blood were added to the DMG and greatly discounted in price (by like 50%).

The formula for skill boosting items was changed to bonus squared times 100, so +30 items cost a lot more, though +5 items are relatively unchanged.

[Saintheart]

Magic items: they nerfed Boots of Striding and Springing from doubling your movement rate down to +10 feet per round.

I'm still upset about that.

[T.G. Oskar]

Off the top of my head:

-Some skills (Scrying, Innuendo, Intuit Direction, etc) were folded into other skills.

Basically, about 5 or 6 skills were erased, either to blend into new ones or added into spells.

IIRC:
Wilderness Lore was turned into Survival, and the ability of Intuit Direction was absorbed into it. I recall WL was also the Diplomacy equivalent for animals and beasts; that was turned into Wild Empathy.
Read Lips was absorbed into Spot.
Innuendo was absorbed into Bluff.
Scry was exterminated altogether. The Scrying spell and any spells with the [scrying] descriptor have the scry check integrated.

Also, some stuff changed. Jump and Swim come to mind; the mechanics are a bit different. Jump was, IIRC, nerfed a little, and the armor check penalty for Swim is no longer -1 per 5 pounds, but rather 2x the armor check penalty.

But still, Haste is the one change pretty much everyone remembers, since partial actions were scrapped into defined "move", "standard" and other actions. The second would be the exclusivity between Improved Critical and the Keen weapon property (and spells, feats, items and magic item effects that base themselves from these two), although the rules regarding changes between 3.0 and 3.5 don't cover Disciple of Dispater (since that turned into a specific vs. general rule, and wasn't errata'ed as far as I can recall).

And mostly, the main rule: if it wasn't updated for 3.5 in an official source, it can be used as-is, given the differences (removed and folded skills, DR changes, etc.)

Oh, and...Monks don't have a weird BAB progression anymore. Helps much less the fledging Monk, whom most definitely needs a hug.

[Matthew]

Power Attack was modified in such a way that it completely changed the dynamics of the weapon types.

[SpikeFightwicky]

Also, Bracers of Archery are a LOT more expensive, split into 2 power levels (lesser and greater bracers of archery) and no longer give the insane bonuses they use to right off the bat for a mere 5100gp.

[ken-do-nim]

The ability score buffing spells went down from 1 hour/level duration to 1 minute/level duration.

[Oslecamo]

In 3.5, alter self, polymorph, shapechange and friends were buffed to hell and back, in particular granting ex and on shapechange's case, su abilities.

And as a consequence, so was wildshape.

Really, transforming into beasts isn't so sexy when you don't get all the juicy special attacks and defenses.

[IthilanorStPete]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20030718a
^ Conversion documents for the core books.

[sonofzeal]

Rangers got a hitdice drop, but in return they actually get class features now.

Dwarves got a whole bunch of goodies.

Defined Swift/Immediate actions have been added (Quicken is a Swift, Featherfall is an Immediate, etc).

[IthilanorStPete]

Swift/immediates weren't added at the start of 3.5. I think they were introduced in Complete Arcane.

[Lycanthromancer]

Dr/+X became Dr/Magic

What about Dr/Mario, or Dr/House?

Dr/Frankenstein? (That's "frahnk-ehn-SCHTEEN" to you!)

Dr/Doogie Houser?

Dr/Swordopolis?

Dr/McCoy?

Also, psionics was completely revamped. STAY AWAY FROM 3.0 PSIONICS AT ALL COSTS. 3.5 psionics, however, is awesome.