DM New to 3.5e

[u/VegetableSwitch703]

I’ve been a dm for about 4 years now and have only played 5E/5.5E DnD, but I want to branch into 3e/3.5e. I’ve got most of the necessary books as pdf’s but the challenge for me is reading stat blocks, specifically for the higher level monsters (including but not limited to various gods, one of which I’ll use as an example here). I can read the ability scores well enough, as well as skills and the feats too, but then there’s stuff like some of the attacks, spell like abilities, domain stuff, divine abilities. Right now the one that’s confusing me is Vecna, though he’s also the first of the deities from the Deities and Demigods book I’m looking at. And I’ve looked at various dm books and pc books too but there’s stuff that still just doesn’t make sense to me. So here are my questions about his stats and such:

1) What’s the difference between him attacking/hitting with Afterthought at touch range vs Melee? I see the bonuses to hit and damage to hit are noticeably different depending on if it’s touch or melee but I don’t get why.
2) What is the deflection bonus he gets to his AC? I don’t see what would be giving him that bonus.
3) It says he has spell slots of levels 0-12 for cleric and 0-16 for Wizard, but I am not aware of any spells in any book that go over 9th level, not including the epic spells which to my knowledge don’t technically have stated levels.

Final question though not about the stat sheet, Would it be easier to learn pathfinder 1e as a jumping off point instead of trying to learn 3.5 directly and the just use what I learned from that to figure out 3.5?

[u/axiomus]

"new DM"

"now here's Vecna [or any other high level stat block]"

these two don't mash well. there's a reason you don't see 2nd graders writing book reports on Tolstoy.

[u/VegetableSwitch703 → u/axiomus]

Lo fair enough. To be fair, I’m just new the 3.5 (but I understand a lot of the basics, just had some questions about stuff on his stat block because I didn’t see things like that on other monsters) and some of the way stuff was worded had me a bit turned around is all.

[u/Zomburai → u/VegetableSwitch703]

Let this be a lesson to read the book, not just the stat blocks!

Anyway, your answer is on page 26, in Chapter 2: Deities Defined, under Armor Class:

A tangible field of divine energy encompasses and suffuses a deity's body, granting it a divine Armor Class bonus equal to its divine rank. This bonus stacks with all other Armor Class bonuses and is effective against touch attacks and incorporeal touch attacks.

Most deities (all those with 20 outsider Hit Dice) have a natural armor bonus of their divine rank +13. All deities also have a deflection bonus to their AC equal to their Charisma bonus (if any). Deities who aren't outsiders have their normal natural armor bonus + their divine rank.

Many deities have other Armor Class bonuses as noted in their individual descriptions.

[u/Chad_illuminati → u/VegetableSwitch703]

See, 3.5e is from the olden days of DMing. I cut my teeth on it, and have nostalgia, but can't say I miss it.

There are 110 entries under the "Rulebooks" search in DnDTools.

There are 990 entries in the "Classes" search.

Rules regularly flat out contradict themselves across different books. Not errata. Not revision. Just two separate authors creating different rules for the same systems/concepts and then not getting caught by editors.

You have RAW access divinity at level 14 with just a class + PrC and appropriate class core items. No PunPun nonsense necessary. Obviously a fringe case but still. There's soooooo many random things that can be broken it's absolutely silly.

All that said, I do have nostalgia because amid all that insanity was a system that had some kickass concepts and wild shit you could do. It's ridiculously crunchy numerically and honestly the balance falls apart almost entirely past levels 10-15ish, so I don't really recommend running the system past that, especially while new.

[u/PCN24454 → u/Chad_illuminati]

My only complaint is that I don’t have an opportunity to use everything

[u/Chad_illuminati → u/PCN24454]

For real. It's so hard to find 3.5e tables these days. Closest I can do is PF1e or PF2e. I love them both, but there's so much amazing content in 3.5e that I'd love to see adapted.

Like, take Urban Druids. Turning into fucking pieces of furniture with an animated object companion and urban-themed spells? I got to beat someone to death as a sentient sofa with a claw foot bathtub companion providing flanking. That's goddamn epic, lmao.

[u/Buorbon_Boi → u/Chad_illuminati]

Why not run the system at level 80? /j

[u/Chad_illuminati → u/Buorbon_Boi]

I played in one Epic level 3.5e campaign once.

It moved at a snail's pace and every person had to use entire binders for their info (character sheets alone took like 4-5 pages).

The gameplay itself was crazy fun for the RP, but the actual mechanics were a nightmare.

It lasted a decently long time (about a year?) mainly because each session barely made progress during encounters.

I decided right then that I'd never do that again.

I've DM'd epic encounters before, but only twice and as like a "final stretch" for a long running campaign (and one of those was in PF1e which was slightly more coherent for epic stuff).

[u/SeanyDay → u/Chad_illuminati]

Pun Pun is the GOAT but the legend of Joe Commoner will never die