Let me give you a little conversation that took place on another message board on another website.
"VinceLethal,
One thing I don't like is how WoTC turned D&D into Diablo. What I mean is that in Diablo, the fighters can learn spells and the magic users can wear armor and use any weapon. So do rogues. Whats the point of having different classes besides looking different? And with racial restrictions gone and everyone multi-classing characters have become even more bland. Gone is party balance, every character can eventually go it alone. You won't need to play with a group of friends anymore. This is a game of Xena's and X-men. Not heroes.
Again and again I'm awed by the balance Mr. Gygax built into 1st ed. For every benefit a character had there was a disadvantage. The people who say some classes were too powerful make their ignorance obvious. One only has to READ THE DAMN BOOK and look at the experience point advancement tables. Those classes pay for their power, they earn it. They get the special abilities at the price of slow advancement.
What really infuriates me about 3e is that there was no reason for it other than for the new owners to wring some money out of the game by selling YET ANOTHER set of rulebooks. Do I exaggerate? No. This greed becomes even more pronounced when you look at the Ravens Bluff game. WoTC decided to convert it from 2e to 3e. So players were expected to cough up money to buy 3e players handbooks, as the RPGA would no longer support 2e in any form. As if that wasn't bad enough, WoTC decides to license (rent/lease/prostitute) the Ravens Bluff setting to a group called Organised Play. OP now says in order to play any character with more than one level, you have to ante up and pay them a fee.
In the good old days people used to have Real class. They respected the players enough to put out new ideas in a form compatible with the existing game, like Unearthed Arcana. But its been a long time since original material was between the new covers they put out."
In reply...
"Gary
"One thing I don't like is how WoTC turned D&D into Diablo."
Succinctly put!
The new D&D game is different in more than one way from AD&D. The latter were team games where group play was the objective. 3E focuses on the individual PC, how powerful one can become my multi-classing and all.
Definately a combat-oriented H&S game to promote player advancement over group play and roleplay too.
Such is life.
Now go pick up a copy of the LA game and enjoy the difference (^_^)
Cheerio,
Gary "
The first poster VinceLethal is a member of my gaming group as well as a DM. I'll give you 3 guesses who "Gary" is and the first 2 don't count. That's the father of D&D himself speaking GARY GYGAX...he should know where he is speaking from don't you think? Yes?.
If you question the validity of this post head on over to
www.gygax.com and check out the geust book under RPG-Discussion.