Is there any difference between the 3.0 and the 3.5 DMG?

[dreaded_beast]

I'm starting a new campaign using the 3.5 PHB, but only have access to the 3.0 DMG.

Are there any major differences between the 3.0 and 3.5 DMG?

 

[Dark Psion]

I'm starting a new campaign using the 3.5 PHB, but only have access to the 3.0 DMG.

Are there any major differences between the 3.0 and 3.5 DMG?

You might say there is a "Miniature" difference

Just go to WoC site and get the SRD for the DM's Guide Here

 

[Silveras]

I'm starting a new campaign using the 3.5 PHB, but only have access to the 3.0 DMG.

Are there any major differences between the 3.0 and 3.5 DMG?

Of the three books, the DMG got the most new material added.

The 3.5 DMG has material from the Epic Level Handbook and Manual of the Planes. Essentially, the most primary rules from those two books made it into the core.

Other new material includes the expanded treatments of terrain types, more Prestige Classes, and expanded treatment of the item creation rules.

Most of this is in the SRD, however, so you should be able to do nicely with the 3.0 DMG and the SRD.

 

[Eldren]

Yeah, you could say there are just a few differences. The 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide is bigger (a whole hell of a lot bigger; it's a big-ass book!), and contains a lot more material. Of course it's been updated for 3.5, but it also incorporates material from the Manual of the Planes, the Epic Level Handbook, and took a few prestige classes from supplemental 3.0 rulebooks and made them official Core prestige classes, like the Hierophant, the Red Wizard, the Dragon Disciple and the Archmage (although the Archmage underwent some changes in their ability to jack up the save DCs against their spells... *grumble*).

It's a worthwhile purchase.

 

[MerricB]

With regard to the changes in rules between 3.0E and 3.5E, there's not much changed in the DMG: you can quite easily use the old 3.0E DMG.

However, the additional material and re-organisation of the 3.5E DMG makes it far superior to the old, IMO. There are a couple of areas I prefer in the 3.0E DMG, but they're generally to do with the essays on how to run the game, not the rules portions.

There's a big change in how the sample NPCs for every level are described, but after using the new ones for a while, I much prefer the 3.5E system as it's easier to customise.

Cheers!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

The new 3.5 DMG layout is a bit more user-friendly for learning to DM, in my opinion (though they did remove the excellent "example of play" from the 3.0 version).

That said, I can't really see going to buy a second DMG if you already have one, unless you really want the 3.5 update. There are a lot of minor changes (to magic items, mostly) in addition to the new rule material, but you can certainly make do without.

 

[Salad_Shooter]

And if you have the money burning a hole in your pocket, ya can buy a 3.5 DMG so you don't have that 3.0 DMG looking so out of place on your bookshelf between the PHB and MM.

 

[Kichwas]

The 3.5 DMG is almost twice the size of the 3.0 DMG. You figure that one out.

 

[Trickstergod]

Notably, though, it is missing two things:

1) The line stating that Prestige Classes don't cause XP penalties for multi-classing. This was a typo, and may have been corrected in later copies, but the 3.5 DMG initially fails to mention that a Prestige Class won't cause XP penalties due to level disparity.

2) It lacks the apprentice-level multi-classed characters. Personally, I rather liked those, and have used them at least once, and had my players use them here and there as well.

Nothing too big, but worth noting.

 

[Olive]

No one's mentioned the dfferent XP rules, including for cohorts, and the fairly different magic item prices...