Old D&D? AD&D? OSRIC? Anyone?

[Tony Misfeldt]

I have a 32 year legacy of world building. That comes before any rule set. Anyone so shallow that they will not play my game because it is "old", I don't really want them.

Amen to that, brother.

Those are, for the most part, fairly minor quibles in my opinion. If you don't like certain class/race/alignment combo's don't use them. Cleric spells aren't divided into schools of magic, they just happen to say what school they are from (i believe they did this in 2e as well), i like the "Domain Spells" idea myself.
If you something to complain about, i personally miss Thac0, i don't like power creep, i liked uneaven level progression and some more of the randomness of the early editions. But i'm currently running my third 3e game since it came out and i'm planning my second D20 game. I like the versitility of the current game. I like the fact that the rules allow me to do all the things i used to have to house rule in 1e/2e.

Pease out, Severion

Unless things were changed for the divine classes in 3.5 (my Players Handbook is 3.0), they eliminated Spheres of Influence completely. Yes, they did assign schools to priest spelld in 2nd edition. However this was done for reference purposes only, in case a DM needed to know about spell resistance (like elves' immunity to Charm spells for example). THAC0? I didn't mind it but I can live without it. And there are several other changes that they made that I agree with, that make the game more playable and that make more sense than the old 2e rules did. Things like skill points, difficulty checks, the new saving throw system, rolling for hit points and getting CON bonuses past 9th or 10th level, the new armor class system, wizards getting bonus spells for high INT scores, challenge ratings for calculating XP, these are all good changes that I agree with. I just happen to think they should have stopped there. Everything beyond this is just change for the sake of change, not change to fix what's broken.

[Tony Misfeldt]

I try to adopt rules from all D&D systems. I take what works and throw away the rest. I have not fully converted to 3.X because I find many of the new rules undesirable. Not necessarily unplayable, but undesirable. Here are the rules that I play under, and their sources.

1st Edition

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Monks are now a standard playable PC class. The new monk class is a combination of the 1e and 3.Xe versions of the class.

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Half-Orc is now a standard playable PC race. Stats on half-orc PCs are found in The Complete Book Of Humanoids.

SOURCE: Unearthed Arcana
RULE: Barbarians are a standard playable PC class. The new barbarian class is a combination of the typical barbarian fighter listed in The Complete Barbarian's Handbook and the barbarian kit listed in The Complete Fighter's Handbook.

SOURCE: Unearthed Arcana
RULE: The additional ability score of comeliness, which determines your character's level of physical beauty. This stat is used exactly as written in Unearthed Arcana.

2nd Edition

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Ability scores work exactly as written with the following exception, wizards get bonus spells for high INT scores. The chart for bonus spells for priests with high WIS scores is used to determine number and level of spells.

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Racial limitations regarding class are closely observed to an extent (some "forbidden classes" are available to some races). Most notably, ONLY HUMANS CAN BECOME PALADINS. Racial limitations regarding levels are ignored.

SOURCE: Players Handbook
RULE: THAC0 is still being used.

SOURCE: Players Handbook
RULE: Still using old Saving throw system.

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Cleric spells are categorized by Spheres Of Influence.

SOURCE: The Entire Character Handbook Series
RULE: Kits from virtually any available handbook are available with DM's approval.

SOURCE: The Complete Fighter's Handbook
RULE: Players can become proficient in weapon groups (Tight Group Bows, Broad Group Blades, Tight Group Crossbows, etc).

SOURCE: Skills & Powers
RULE: Character Points are used to develope weapon and nonweapon proficiencies. This works in a fashion very similar to Skill Points in 3.Xe.

SOURCE: Skills & Powers
RULE: You can gain extra Character Points by choosing minor Disadvantages or spend them on Character Traits.

SOURCE: Skills & Powers
RULE: Characters can spend extra character points to become proficient in a weapon normally forbidden to his class (Example: a wizard can spend 5 character points to become proficient in longsword).

SOURCE: Combat & Tactics
RULE: Critical hits are made on rolls of a natural 18-20, but only if you hit your opponent by at least 5 points (so if you need to roll an 18 just to hit, then a natural 20 isn't a critical).

SOURCE: Combat & Tactics
RULE: Characters hit with a critical must roll a Save vs Death. If they make it they only take double damage. If they fail they suffer a critical effect. This could be anything from a minor inconvenience (blood getting in your eyes from a scalp wound) to lethal (decapitation).

SOURCE: Combat & Tactics
RULE: Levels of proficiency for weapons. There's non-proficient (same as in Players Handbook); Familiar (weapon is similar to one character is proficient in, thus providing less of a penalty); Proficient (same as in Players Handbook); Expertise (available to classes not normally allowed to take weapon specialization, improved number of attacks/ROF as specialization, but with no hit or damage bonuses); Specialized (same as in Players Handbook, except that missile weapons get a +1 to hit bonus on all ranges not just Point Blank); Mastery (only available at 5th level or higher, bonus to hit & damage improves to +3 respectively, missile weapons get an additional +1 to hit bonus at short to long range for a total of +2); High Mastery (only available at 9th level or higher, critical hits are on rolls of natural 16 or better if hits by at least 5 points, missile weapons have a 5th range category "extreme range", which is 50% farther than long range and made at a -10 penalty); and Grand Mastery (only available at 13th level or higher, one additional attack per round, weapon does damage with the next largest dice, example a great sword will do 1d12;3d8 in the hands of a grand master).

SOURCE: Combat & Tactics
RULE: Classes other than fighters can take weapon specialization. They must first take weapon expertise, then upgrade after using the weapon at that level of proficiency for at least one level.

SOURCE: Spells & Magic
RULE: Magic Points. Spellcasting is very physically taxing on a character. Casting spells uses up spell points, and if too many spell points are used the spellcaster becomes fatigued or even exhausted from overexertion (kind of like Willow in seasons 5 through 7 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer).

3rd Edition

SOURCE: The Player's Handbook
RULE: Barbarians and monks are now available as PC classes (see 1st edition entry above for more details).

SOURCE: The Players Handbook
RULE: Sorcerers are now available as a PC class. They get the same THAC0 and saving throws as wizards, but they get the same number of character points to spend on weapon proficiencies at first level as rogues and priests. They also have a better selection of weapon proficiencies to choose from than wizards do. Their number of spells and spell progression is the same as in 3.X.

SOURCE: The Player's Handbook
RULE: All classes get extra attacks per round at higher levels. Priests and rogues get 3 attacks/2 rounds at 8th to 14th level, and 2 attacks/round from 15th level up. Wizards get 3 attacks/2 rounds from 12th level up. This of course changes if they get weapon expertise.

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Half-orcs are now available as a PC race. See 1st edition entry for more details.

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Wizards get bonus spells for high INT, and sorcerers get bonus spells for high CHA. Use the Bonus spell chart for clerics with high WIS scores to determine the number and level of spells.

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Rangers can be of ANY NONEVIL ALIGNMENT (rather than any alignment like in 3e or only good alignments like in 2e). Druids can be of ANY NONEVIL PARTIALLY NEUTRAL ALIGNMENT (LN, N, CH, or NG ONLY).

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Saving throws vs spells are more difficult when the spells are cast by higher level wizards. Characters suffer a -1 penalty to their saving throws for every 3 levels the caster is above the minimum level he has to be in order to cast that spell (thus a Charm Person spell cast by an 18th level wizard would have a -6 penalty to it's save).

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Priest's Cure Wounds spells (Cure Light Wounds, Cure Moderate Wounds, etc) use the 3.Xe descriptions and levels rather than the 2e versions. These are the only priest spells being transferred from 3.X at this time.

SOURCE: The Slayer's Guide To Amazons by Mongoose Publishing
RULE: Amazons are now an available PC race. Their society is a mixture of that described in The Slayer's Guide To Amazons as well as those suggested in The Complete Fighter's Handbook.

SOURCE: My Imagination
RULE: All spellcasters casting spells with vocal components must actually speak those vocal components OR THE SPELL WON'T WORK.

When I get the 3.X DMG and Monsters Manual, I'll eventually switch from the THAC0 combat system to the d20 system. I'll also change saving throws to WILL, REFLEX, and FORT, adopt the Challenge Rating system for combat XP, and the Difficulty Check system for Non Weapon Proficienvies/Skills. But those will be all the additional changes I'm willing to make. I won't be using feats, prestigie classes, or the new system for clerics.