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So this is a genuinely honest question, one that many people will ask.  Right now I see most of the mechanics being extremely similar to 3.5, the classes themselves are nearly identical.  

The only reason I can offer is if you're a wizard then you get at-wills? 

Right now I play mostly 4e and enjoy it, though do some 3.5.  From the current state of the playtest (which I know will grow radically and I understand this is designed to be a simplistic core) I'm not seeing much different from 3.5, especially to warrant the dropping of all existing 3.5 resources and rebuying books etc.  Does anyone else see any other big gains over 3.5 (I probably missed many little details, which is the purpose of this thread)?

Completely understood, though I still think it's a valid question.  Based off of these core rules vs the 3.5 core rules what gain is there in this new edition?

The equation may completely change when more details come and I'm open to that, but in being genuine in our testing and feedback I think we have to ask that question consistently (much like we might ask why someone would move from 4e or earlier editions before 3.5)... even if the answer right now is "I see no big reason to change as it currently stands"... I'm also just curious if I missed some other big gain in this core ruleset over 3.5.

im not convinced that this is easy to dm personally, but i am spoiled with 4e

May 24, 2012 -- 3:24PM, Majoru_Oakheart wrote:

The reason appears to be that you can run combats in 15-20 minutes instead of over an hour.  The math is way more balanced(though the math is the most subject to change, but I already see it's much better then 3.5e).  It is much less complicated and therefore easier for new players to understand.  It encourages role playing by moving most of your abilities off of your character sheet and encourages you to just "do what your character would do" by making nearly everything that isn't an attack a DM arbitrated ability check.

From what I understand of the rest of the system, even at character creation it will encourage players to think of their characters in terms of characters and not "builds" in that you choose Backgrounds and Themes which give you a package of abilities related to your background and character concept instead of allowed you to pick and choose individual skills and feats(though, it will offer an optional feature to pick and choose those for the people who really like that).

Basically, much easier to DM and play is the real reason behind it.  With more balance.

As intersting as I find that, where and what is actually giving you these impressions from the playtest?  The spells seem very similar to 3.5, attack rols seems very similar, maybe I missed something in the math that you mentioned but I'm not seeing the difference.

Attack rolls have worked basically the same in every edition.  (Sure, THACO vs hit chart vs additive, but it's all the same basic thing.  You roll a d20, add your mods, and ask the DM if you hit.)

The spells are actually extremely different from 3.5.  In 3.5, 99% of spells scale with caster level.  The same is not true here.  The only spell I've seen scale with caster level is Magic Missile, though I've only skimmed it, most of them certainly do not.  The fact that casters in 3.X gain more spell slots per level, AND each slot becomes more powerful, is the reason that they have quadratic scaling.  That's being taken out here, they just get more slots, so it's linear scaling.  Which is a good thing for the game.



It's certainly going to look similar to 3.5 on its face, especially at this point, where we can't really see anything but the most core of core.  But characters are designed completely differently, built differently, get their abilities in different ways, and so on.  Monsters work differently.  It really only shares the basic d20 resolution mechanic and ability scores with 3.5.  Other than that, the things that look similar are really just skin deep.