3.5 ruleset, DDO and You

[fatherpirate]

I am starting this thread to talk about ways to bring DDO closer to the 3.5 rule set.
Subjects to include:

missing weapon types
missing spells (that would fit into DDO, some would not)
Where DDO broke with 3.5 rules (good and bad)
game play elements from 3.5 rules that would be a benefit to DDO
and more.

Today's subject - Enhancement trees.

Let us point out the elephant in the room, 3.5 rules do not have them.
They should not exist.
They were basically added to make advancement 'more exciting' and
to give the player some feeling of improvement between levels.
The cost of this 'good feeling' ? Runaway power creep.

You may ask why a 1/4 HD Kobold can end up with hundreds of HP
and spam lightning bolts at you? You can blame the Enhancement trees.
With enhancement trees in play, standard D&D monsters became effortless
trash mobs so they made them more powerful, then the players more powerful again,
then the monsters, then the players, then add champion super powered
monsters, then make players more powerful, then add Reapers....etc.
This is actually very bad, the developers spend most of their time feeding
power creep instead of making new and interesting adventures.

Can we change that? Without a whole new specialty server, no.
So why mention it? To pre-explain why I will not be talking about improving
the enhancement trees ... they should not exist.

next time will talk about 3.5 weapons ... missing ones and
which ones would be a good fit for DDO.

PEACE

[A-O]

Coming to you: Threads that were relevant 13 years ago

[Memnir]

DDO used 3.5 as a basis for it's homebrew ruleset. As the game has evolved, it has incorporated some elements of 4th edition, and they are sneaking in some 5th now too.

This game will never be a pure representation of 3.5, because it never was. Even when 3.5 was the most current ruleset of tabletop D&D. 3.5 was a solid foundation - but the house has put on a lot of new wings, ala the Winchester Mansion, that are wholly it's own.

[Dark_Lord_Mary]

DDO was originally created based on the 3.5 ruleset that coincided with its release - as was the Eberron setting - however the implimentation of the 3.5 rules was a homebrew thanks to it being an MMO and live action, not turn based, video game. It too was modified with the release of the 4.0 ruleset things - and now with the extremely popular 5e things.

3.5 while liked and utilized are nowhere near as popular as 5e - with the latter being the most popular rules ever -

And so DDO is its own thing now - echoing the heritage of Gygax and the original rules, the later rules - but like we see in modern Dungeons and Dragons games - completely unique.

The 5e rules are fantastic - and it would be a good thing to utilize some of it, as is being done.

Very specifically our DDO implementation of Drow is 3.5 and level adjusted - this is very outdated - and it needs to be changed. Drow is presently the WORST race to play in DDO - literally - and this is troubling because Drow is still one of the most popular D&D races.

What we need is a revisiting of Drow, removal of the level-adjustment that keeps them a 28 point build despite the account's progress or reincarnations - and we need a Drow Iconic - Sorcerer I am thinking, since we don't have an iconic sorcerer yet.

The Drow racial feats need to be brought in line with the Deep Gnome - there are great things in the Drow racials but some of it is outdated and should be updated. And when you consider tieflings, dragonborn, deep gnomes, and the coming shifter race - or even human, gnome, dwarf its very clear that the only people who play drow are playing flavor for the other races make for much more powerful builds.

[Xgya]

You may ask why a 1/4 HD Kobold can end up with hundreds of HP
and spam lightning bolts at you? You can blame the Enhancement trees.

You're thinking Class Levels here.
Monsters in 3.5 could and very often had to have class levels.

That Kobold isn't a Kobold. It's a Kobold Shaman. A kobold with levels in a spellcasting class.

That very same Kobold Shaman sees a perfectly normal Human enter the place, and wonders why a 1/2 HD Human can conjure divine magic and heal the wounds he's been so busy inflicting.
Thing is, just like that Kobold most obviously took levels in Sorcerer (their favored class), that Human took levels in Cleric.

Neither the Kobold's Lightning Bolt nor the Cleric's Cure Moderate wounds came from enhancement trees.

[fatherpirate]

but we digress....lol
sometime next week will be going over weapon type suggestions.

I will be lumping them into 2 categories.

Weapons that are static themselves 'like a spear'
and
weapons that would require separate animation themselves
'like a whip'

but that is for later.

[Captain_Wizbang]

but we digress....lol
sometime next week will be going over .......
but that is for later.

Thanks for the heads up. Now I know what threads not to read.

We need a tinfoil hat conspiracy while wait for U47.