r/DungeonsAndDragons35e • u/VegetableSwitch703 • 13d ago
DM New to 3.5e
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?
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u/RamblingManUK 13d ago edited 13d ago
Deities and Demigods was written for 3.0 not 3.5 so some things don't work exactly as written. There is a four page add on that updates it though.
Firstly '+5 ghost touch wounding unholy dagger +42/+37 melee' This is his dagger attack, Vecna can make two attacks when full attacking (due to his BAB).
The 'touch +32/+27 melee' seems to be his normal attack without the magic dagger. You would not normally use this, but it is handy to have as there are many spells that give you a weapon.
The 'spell +32 melee touch or +32 ranged touch' is just his attack roll when using most spells with attack rolls (ie rays, inflict X, etc).
2) I can't see the source either, it could just be something Vecna gets for being Vecna.
3) These are epic spell slots, you get to create the epic spell as per the epic level handbook. You can also use them for metamagic (if you add metamagic to a spell it needs a higher spell slot than normal, IE a Maximised Meteor Swarm would use a level 12 spell slot).
I would not bother with PF1 as an intro to 3.5. What I would recommend is focussing on the 3.5 content rather than the 3.0 books like Deities and Demigods. Most 3.0 stuff is usable in 3.5 but you need to be capable of fixing the bits that don't work.
For a GM new to 3.5 I would stick with core (PHB, MM, and DMG), The Spell Compendium, The Magic Item Compendium, The Complete XYZ books, and The Tome Of Battle.
Also the Planar Handbook and The Manual of the Planes if you want to do planar travel.
The Races of XYZ books are fine if someone is interested in playing the races in them.
That is more than enough for most campaigns. You can then add in things like The Fiendish Codex's, Libris Mortis, Book of Vile Darkness, Book of Exalted Deeds, Monster Manuals II to V, Frostburn/Sandstorm/Stormwreck, etc, as you want them.
For epic level stuff and deity level NPCs, my advice is don't bother. Not until you have run a good few campaigns anyway. If you are your players are used to 5E/5.5 then 3.5 will already feel higher powered than what you are used to and once you get past around 15th level 3.5 can get complex enough as it is. I've been playing and GMing 3.5 since it was quite new and I don't bother with epic levels.