Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition refers to an edition of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game rules released by Wizards of the Coast between 2000 and 2008. It is commonly abbreviated D&D 3e, or simply 3e.

D&D third edition received a major revision in 2003, known officially as "Dungeons & Dragons v.3.5". The original third edition was retroactively termed "D&D 3.0" by the D&D community, although that term was not commonly used in an official context. Despite numerous small changes between 3.0 and 3.5, the two editions are largely compatible.

D&D 3e is the successor to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition, removing the term "Advanced" to avoid confusing new players, and as Wizards no longer maintained the separate introductory "Basic" product line. It was in turn succeeded by Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition in 2008.

Features

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition primarily draws from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition, with much rules text showing clear influence. However, 3rd edition makes some of the most radical design changes of any edition up to that point.

Core mechanic

D&D 3e centralizes most rolls around a core mechanic using the twenty sided die. In most cases, success or failure at a task is determined by rolling a d20, adding a modifier, and comparing the result to a required target number. This contrasts with AD&D, where in some cases a lower roll is better, or different dice are used (e.g. initiative rolls). THAC0 and descending armor class are no longer used in 3e; a higher armor class is now better.

Bonuses may be granted from various sources, and are generally pre-calculated on the player's character sheet. Sources of bonuses may include ability scores, class bonuses, magic items, spells, innate abilities from race, circumstance bonuses, and so on. Most bonuses now have a named type, with the effect that two bonuses of the same type do not stack.

Other dice are still used for things such as weapon damage, spell damage, spell effects, character generation, and turn undead.

Ability scores

Ability scores are now officially ordered as such: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma. This places the physical stats first and the mental stats second. All ability scores now have an associated modifier, equal to the ability score minus ten, divided by two. This modifier is applied to all relevant rolls; e.g. Strength modifier to melee attack rolls.

In many cases, this is a significant simplification over AD&D, where it was often necessary to consult a table to determine the effect of a given ability score. For example, in AD&D 2e revised, 16 Dexterity granted +1 to missile attacks but a -2 defensive adjustment. In D&D 3e, 16 Dexerity simply grants +3 to every relevant roll. The modifier calculation now makes high starting statistics very valuable, especially as ability scores can more readily increase above 18, such as by gaining one point to any ability score every four levels, and by the use of magic items like the belt of giant's strength.

Exceptional strength is no longer used.

Race and class

See also: List of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition character classes, List of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition prestige classes

The Player's Handbook features seven races: humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-elves, half-orcs, and halflings. Half-orcs had previously appeared in AD&D 1e, but omitted from AD&D 2e. Most races now grant +2 to one ability score and -2 to one other.

The book features ten classes: barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, and wizard. Sorcerer is a new class similar to the wizard, but with the ability to cast spells spontaneously; i.e. without Vancian spell preparation. The rogue was known as the thief in earlier editions. Classes in 3e no longer have ability score requirements. Additionally, four less-powerful NPC classes were added to represent non-adventuring characters: adept, aristocrat, commoner, expert, and warrior.

All classes now raise at the same number of experience points. Multiclassing is possible for all characters simply by taking levels in different classes. D&D 3e no longer has AD&D's class/race restrictions or level limits; instead, each race has a favored class, which can be taken without incurring a penalty for raising class levels unevenly.

Prestige classes are a new addition to third edition. These are special character classes which have prerequisites that are normally met by first taking levels in one or more existing character classes. Subsequent sourcebooks would

Skills and feats

All characters now gain a variety of useful skills, similar to nonweapon proficiencies in AD&D 2e. A character's skill points per level depend on character class, with a maximum of 3 plus level in any skill that is on their class list, and half that for cross-class skills. Skills are rolled using the d20 mechanic, aiming to hit a DC.

Characters also gain feats, starting with one at first level and gaining one more at every third character level. Feats grant a variety of benefits such as bonuses to certain rolls, unlocking new combat abilities, magic item creation feats, or metamagic feats which modify spells.

Combat and magic

Combat is still turn-based as in earlier editions. A combat round is now canonically six seconds long. Rolling for initiative uses a d20 which adds the character's Dexterity modifier, and individual initiative is used for each combatant. Small and Medium-size creatures, such as halflings and humans respectively, take up a full five-foot square in combat, an adaption which aids the optional use of miniatures at a scale of five feet to one inch. Characters may take both a standard action (such as an attack or spell) and a move or move-equivalent action (moving their base speed) in any order.

Unlike earlier editions, combats do not use facing, initiative rerolling, combat phases, or weapon speed modifiers. Weapons deal the same damage regardless of monster size. A death's door rule allows downed characters to survive until they reach -10 hit points, at which point they are dead. Poison tends to deal ability score damage, rather than instant death as in earlier editions.

There are only three saving throw types: Fortitude, Reflex, and Will, which add the modifiers for Constitution, Dexterity, and Wisdom, respectively.

Spells of up to 9th level are available for all primary spellcaster classes, including cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard. Spellcasters also have access to 0th-level spells, although these are generally weak and still have a limited number of uses per day.

Nearly all magic items now have a listed purchase price and item crafting prerequisites. Characters with the requisite item crafting feats can craft them for half the price in gold and 1/25 the price in XP. Items are standardly sold for half the buy price.

Monsters

See also: List of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition monsters

The Monster Manual (3.0) (2000) includes a large number of iconic D&D creatures. Each monster has a "type", which determines various traits including hit die type, saving throw bonuses, and attack bonuses per hit die. Monsters have a "challenge rating" which determines their approximate difficulty and XP value. They can be made stronger by raising their hit dice, with commensurate increases to statistics.

Monsters also have ability scores, skills, and feats like player characters do. This orthogonality ensures that game mechanics affect player characters and monsters the same way.

Other features

D&D 3e uses the same two-axis nine-alignment system as AD&D. "Unaligned" had not yet been added, and most such creatures were instead treated as True Neutral.

Development

Initial concept

Around 1994, staff at TSR were already talking internally about the possibility of a "third edition", a successor to 1989's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition. When a revised and updated version of the 2nd edition core rulebooks was released, a foreword to the Player's Handbook (2e revised) (1995), dated February 6, 1995, reassured readers that "This is not AD&D 3rd Edition!" Development on third edition would not begin until 1997, after TSR's bankruptcy and acquisition by Wizards of the Coast.

Monte Cook would recall that the decision to begin work on third edition began a few months adter Wizards relocated TSR staff to Renton, Washington.

Planning stage

Around Christmas 1997, Wizards of the Coast's roleplaying game R&D director Bill Slavicsek selected a team to develop third edition. That team initially consisted of AD&D rules "Sage" Skip Williams; Rich Baker, who had worked with Skip on the AD&D Player's Option rulebooks; and Monte Cook, selected for his writing talent, knowledge of the wider industry, and more radical design approach expected to contrast with Skip's more traditional ideas. The intent was that each designer would take responsibility for one of the three core rulebooks, although all three would necessarily be collaborative works.

Early meetings were held with this design team, D&D Creative Director Thomas Reid, and Wizards of the Coast CEO Peter Adkison. Cook was surprised to find that many of his radical ideas for change were accepted. It was initially intended that third edition would be a relatively small revision to make the rules more consistent and easier to learn, but it quickly began to take the shape of a more radical overhaul.

The design team reported directly to Adkison, who gave them a lot of leeway. However, early on, the group settled on a set of "sacred cows", D&D traditions which were considered critical to the game's character. These included the use of the d20 to make attack rolls, the six ability scores, and magic missile always hitting.

The spells wish, fireball, and cure light wounds were also on a list of iconic spells which had to be in the game. Well-known spells like these were included out of tradition. The Vancian magic system was actually considered for removal, but ultimately kept, partly since spell points were considered poorly-adapted to D&D.

Early development

Over the following year, lengthy design meetings discussed major topics of the D&D game and performed mathematical analysis on various character options. During this time, Rich Baker was promoted to management position and replaced with Jonathan Tweet, designer of the fantasy RPG Ars Magica.

Skills were one of the earliest additions to the rules. These were then divided into three categories: A-skills, which were useful in adventuring; B-skills, which were things like cooking; and C-skills, which became Heroic Feats, later named Feats. The Jump skill distances were originally too low, but were increased when Sean K Reynolds demonstrated his ability to make a standing jump of six feet. Likewise, the round length of six seconds was based on practical tests where Jonathan Tweet mimed specific actions while timed with a stopwatch.

At one point in design, it was noticed that the twelve-sided die was no longer used for any purpose in the game. This was a major inspiration for upgrading the barbarian class d12 hit dice, and using it for the greataxe damage.

By August 1998, the game was still being referred to as "AD&D". The "Advanced" would later be removed to avoid confusing new players.

Standard equipment packs were being tested to aid character creation; characters would begin with a standard armor and weapon selection for their class, one of four Adventuring Packs, and 3d6 gold pieces. Characters would also have to pay upkeep for living expenses, a rule which was removed as most DMs seemed to ignore it in practice.

The rules by this point featured alternating usage of male and female pronouns. AD&D 1st edition had used exclusively "he", as Gary Gygax assumed most players would be male; AD&D 2nd edition often used "he or she", which the third edition designers found lexically cumbersome. The iconic characters did not yet appear, and so the decision to refer to characters based on the gender of their iconic had not yet been made.

The weapon table in the August 1998 draft was similar to the finished release, with notable differences. Some weapons dealt damage with a bonus; e.g. the heavy mace dealt 1d6+1 base damage, instead of 1d8. Weapons were not yet divided into simple, martial, and exotic. Weapons dealt higher base damage on a critical, instead of a multiplier; this was changed to a multiplier to keep criticals meaningful at high level when base damage dice are less important. Critical hits occurred automatically on a natural 20 (19-20 for a few weapons); no need to confirm a critical. Certain weapons dealt higher damage if held two-handed; interestingly, this rule would re-appear in D&D 5th edition.

A few weapons appearing in the August draft were later deleted, due to similarity to existing weapons. For example, the knife was deemed too similar to the dagger, and the broad sword too similar to the longsword. Other ultimately deleted weapons included the dirk, scourge, horseman's flail, and various polearms. The designers developed a table which sorted the weapons approximately in order of size and damage, in order to allow them to judge the relative strength of each weapon; this proved so useful that this approach was used the actual finished book.

The sorcerer class and the spell component pouch already appeared by August 1998. However, the rogue was still known by its AD&D 2nd edition name, the "thief". "Thief" would later be re-named "rogue" to discourage players from using the class description as a motive to rob fellow party members.

Following the standardization of ability score modifiers, the ability scores themselves were not required for play. At one point, Monte Cook suggested removing the ability scores entirely and leaving the modifiers. They were ultimately left in the game as a part of tradition, and because effects such as magic might increase or decrease an ability score.

Monte Cook opposed the inclusion of gnomes, partly due to their reputation as annoying tricksters. TSR writer Harold Johnson—who infamously once slammed down an early print of the rules while yelling "This is hubris!"—insisted on the gnomes' inclusion, and they were ultimately left in, partly to avoid alienating long-time players by leaving out traditional options.

Later development

By a year and a half into the project, the team had written most of a Player's Handbook and part of a Dungeon Master's Guide, although most of this draft would eventually be thrown out. Concepts developed by this point included feats, originally termed "Heroic Feats"; as well as the spontaneous casting sorcerer class.

Sean K Reynolds worked on analysis of low-level spells and some monsters, including the displacer beast and goblin.

By February 1999, weapon size rules distinguished between light, one-handed, and two-handed. Halflings and gnomes suffered a -2 penalty unless using scaled-down weapons, which reduce the damage by one die type. The final D&D 3.0 would revert to the August 1998 approach, where weapons have a size class and its handedness depended on the wielder's size; however, D&D 3.5 would switch to to the February 1999 version, requiring special halfling-sized weapons. By February 1999, all weapons were changed to flat die types without bonuses, although critical damage dice was still listed for each weapon. Notably, the game was still internally referred to as AD&D at this point.

In early 1999, Jonathan Tweet began writing the final text of the Player's Handbook (3.0) (2000), while also taking part in the design meetings. The game was still changing at this point, and elements added around this time included 8th and 9th level cleric spells, good druid spells, and familiars scaling with level.

At this point, around two years into the process, Monte Cook took to writing the Dungeon Master's Guide (3.0) (2000), a role which he would describe as the highlight of his career. His primary inspiration was the original Dungeon Masters Guide (1e) (1979), a book of advice and guidelines for DMs which did not speak down to DMs but treated them as equals and explained why rules worked as they did behind the scenes. Writing the book was hindered by the fact that the core rules of the Player's Handbook were still in flux, necessitating constant changes to those rules' counterparts in the Dungeon Master's Guide.

While Cook was the primary author of the Dungeon Master's Guide, numerous other made contributions. Jonathan Tweet wrote must of the book's monster encounter tables, and David Noonan the treasure tables. Various staff wrote the NPC stat tables. Julia Martin, John Rateliff, and Kim Mohan were instrumental as editors. Some content, particularly magic items, ultimately had to be cut for space, but many appeared in later sourcebooks.

The last book to begin development was the Monster Manual (3.0) (2000), written primarily by Skip Williams.

The Player's Handbook was largely finalized by May 2000.

Playtesting

Third edition underwent a great deal of playtesting. The game was tested at various character levels, although this involved creating characters at high level, since running a full playtest campaign would have taken too long. Playtesting also found problems with the grappling rules, but these were not solved before release.

Over 1,000 people took part in playtesting for D&D 3rd edition. The playtesters included both complete newbies and veterans, as well as members of the RPGA. The playtests took place for more than a year and a half. At the time, the event was the largest playtest ever done for a tabletop RPG.

In playtesting, the rules went through a period which strongly encouraged the use of miniatures, including specific rules for facing. The final rules would scale back requirement of miniatures, although miniature support was still strong. Another change made during the playtest period was to rename Heroic Feats to just "Feats", a suggestion by Jonathan Tweet. The spell magic missile was changed from allowing a save for half damage, after monks were able to use Evasion to ignore damage.

Design principles

The game's design was shaped heavily by playtest feedback and by competing factions within the company, with many opposed viewpoints. According to Chris Pramas, who worked on third edition, the resulting game was built of compromise rather than the vision of single designer. Numerous small rules additions, each of which individually made sense, gave third edition unnecessary complexity which particularly hindered things like enemy design and high-level play.

Focus groups of players, including RPGA members, frequently reported strong opposition to a new edition of the game. Paradoxically, they also had long lists of recommendations for changes to the rules. The solution was to ensure that rules changes were "demonstrably better" than the equivalent AD&D 2nd edition rule.

Ryan Dancey intended third edition to offer a unified game experience, especially regarding the balance of combat versus roleplaying. The core game rules were intended to be well-organized and cohesive to reduce necessity for house ruling.

The team took some inspiration from Wizards of the Coast's flagship card game Magic: The Gathering. One such item was "templating", the idea that rules elements like spells or monsters can have keywords which define how they interact, preventing contradictory rulings for the same thing in different sourcebooks. Another was the idea that some player options to be underpowered so that players feel satisfaction at knowledge mastery of the good options; Monte Cook later expressed regret at this approach, which he felt was exclusionary to inexperienced players.

In general, rules "mastery" was considered a positive trait of the game, meaning the idea that players should feel confident in their knowledge in the rules, and that the rules work consistently and orthogonally. They designers also believed that changes to earlier rules should be made very clear, since subtle changes may lead to confusion.

The designers intended to include a mass combat system, which would have been written by Skip Williams. However, Wizards of the Coast rejected the idea to avoid competing with their upcoming Chainmail miniature skirmish game. In 2003, Cook and Williams published their third edition compatible mass combat rules, under the title Cry Havoc.

Internal discussions at Wizards of the Coast suggested a product strategy of selling more copies of fewer books; TSR had released massive numbers of sourcebooks in the mid-1990s prior to their bankruptcy. Wizards of the Coast decided to produce character option sourcebooks, which would sell to a broader audience that adventure modules that only appealed to DMs. D&D 3e's inclusion of character customization options as a core rule aided this product approach, with around one thousand prestige classes across various sourcebooks.

Announcement and release

The promotional web domain 3rdedition.com was registered on June 16, 1999.

D&D 3rd edition was officially announced at the 1999 Gen Con Game Fair, which took place from August 5 to 8. Over 200 players had the opportunity to play in early 3rd edition games at the convention. Two upcoming video games were announced using the new rules: Pools of Radiance II: The Ruins of Myth Drannor, and Neverwinter Nights.

It was also announced in Dragon #263 (Sep 1999). Subsequent issues included Countdown to Third Edition, a series of articles previewing the rules, which ran from Dragon #264 (Oct 1999) to Dragon #273 (Jul 2000).

An advance copy of the Player's Handbook was on display at the Origins Game Fair 2000, which took place in Columbus, Ohio from July 13 to 16. Jonathan Tweet carried the book to the convention in a briefcase dramatically handcuffed to his wrist. At the convention, it was placed in a secure plexiglass box, with attendees able to browse the book.

The core rulebooks received a staggered release, one per month. The Player's Handbook (3.0) (2000) was released in August 2000 for $19.95. In the same month, the introductory D&D Adventure Game was released for $9.95, and the Player Character Record Sheets were released for $9.95. The second core rulebook, the Dungeon Master's Guide (3.0) (2000), was released in September 2000 for $19.95, as well as a Dungeon Master's Screen (3e) (2000) product for $9.95. The Monster Manual (3.0) (2000) was released in October 2000.

Reception and influence

Contemporary reaction

Gary Gygax, author of the original Dungeon Masters Guide (1e) (1979), emailed Monte Cook to express his joy at its third edition counterpart, which taught him a few things about being a Dungeon Master.

Justin Alexander, a self-described outspoken critic of AD&D, praised Dungeons & Dragons third edition the for its realism and improvements over AD&D:

Wizards of the Coast had assembled three incredibly talented game designers – Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams – to rework the system, and they had succeeded brilliantly. They stayed true to the roots of the game and captured the best parts of it, while shedding decades of detritus and poor design. There were still a few quibbles here and there, but they had taken advantage of the largest and most expensive design cycle for an RPG ever conceived and used it to deliver an incredibly robust, flexible, and powerful system.

Later analysis

In his 2020 video The History of D&D, Part VII: Third Edition (2000), Matt Colville analyzed the original release of D&D third edition, praising its unified ability score design in particular:

You can't overstate how important this was. It was fun. We loved it. I was running several different games: I had a home game, I had two different games I was running at work, I had friends in LA that I would run D&D for at the same time.

It was the most robust version of the game, but that robustness came with a price. They did kind of go overboard. They made it, I think, too robust. There's too much detail, and a lot of the stuff in here didn't seem noodly and weird at the time, but it would come to be seen as restrictive and kind of over the top.

In 2024, oldschool D&D blog Grognardia praised third edition for its freshness, respect for older editions, well-structured rules, focus on dungeon adventuring, relative ease of converting older material, and for laying the groundwork for the Old-School Renaissance. He criticized its focus on "system mastery", overwhelming focus on feats and prestige classes, the large number of accessories, and the books' art style.

In 2024, Monte Cook and Jonathan Tweet suggested that third edition should have had more work done on class balance, particularly high-level spellcasters. Cook regretted the complexity added by allowing ability scores to change in combat, which disproportionately hurts the DM.