3rd Edition Gripes?

Just curious, but is anyone here have any minor or major gripes on the 3rd Edition system for D&D? I do like some of the new things they have for 3rd Edition but there are some things I think are stupid like in 3rd edition you have to roll a natural 20 just to threaten to critical and you gotta roll another 20 to do the critical damage (already hard enough to do one on the first try).

That’s just one thing for me, how bout you guys though? Anything from the 3rd Edition rules you don’t really care much for?

About the 20-rule… my friend modified it slightly.
If you roll a 20, roll again:
Miss: Normal Damage
Hit: Critical Damage
20: Roll a third time:
Miss: Critical Damage
Hit: Deathblow (pending situation)
20: Guaranteed deathblow

(This is only with weapons with a 20-critical, with weapons with a critical range (18-20) any number in the range is considered a 20 on the above list)

Anyway, once I was using some burning straw as a weapon. (I’m a Wizard :P) and I threw it in desperation. I rolled a 20. So I rolled again. Another 20. I rolled a third time and… 20! Eat burning hay bitch!

HeH, never knew you could do that with burning ha:p . Anywayz I stick with the natural 20 rule my friends followed; get a natural 20, do double damage, 19 does damage and a half. To give the PCs a break I probably won’t use the critical chart my friends used before, that thing was absolutely wicked. When ya rolled a natural 20, it didn’t just do damage; it was either double or triple damage, loss of depth perception, cleave an appendage, some other thing that will permanently hinder your character or the dreadful instant kill. But hey, it was all good:cool:

btw Flintedge, did you ever used to play with the AD&D 2nd Edition Core Rules?

Yeah, I’ve been using 2nd for almost five years, just started 3rd edition a few months ago.

So what do you think of 3rd edition thus far? I’m still to used to 2nd edition but I’m starting to get the swing of 3rd edition. One other thing I don’t like about 3rd edition is the fact that you can’t specialize in certain weapons so you can get multiple attacks and whatsuch >bleh<

I’ve only really played a Wizard so far, and they don’t seem to have changed much for the Mage of second edition, so I haven’t experienced the differences much yet. I do like the whole “higher is always better” system with the d20 though.

true, the “higher is better” idea does sorta make it easier to comprehend, especially for people starting out. One thing I’ll say is that it’s very user friendly when it comes to new players

Actually in 3rd Ed, you have to roll a natural 20 (or lower with a weapon with an expaanded threat such as a sword, or certain feats (Improved Critical) and <i>keen weapon</i>. The second roll simply has to be a hit, although a variant allows for another natural 20 then a third roll wich must hit to score a deathblow.

But a deathblow with burning hay? That’s a bit siilly. I wouldn’t have allowed it in that case.