I’ve noticed, however, a certain discomfort for the late 3.5 material.  Core books, Unearthed Arcana, and the ‘Complete’ books I’m fairly comfortable with – as for the rest … not so much.

I think a lot of it has to do with my pre-imagined idea of what the game world is really like.  Our game world is huge and detailed – we’ve been playing in it for more than a decade.  There are dozens of maps, a wiki full of old characters, NPCs, Kings and Villains, and history of old campaigns.  Our world is pretty low-fantasy for D&D – there are wizards and magic swords, but not very many of the ‘exotic’ things that have come to be a part of 3.5 D&D over the years.

In this world, a Ranger or a Wizard is a pretty normal thing – everyone from common folk to a King knows what you are and what you can do … where you fit into society.  I suppose that’s why I can ‘see’ them interacting with the game world.

The exotic races don’t have a home in our game world – if you wanted to play an Aquatic Half-Giant, we’d have to figure out where in the heck you were from.  Most everyone (at least if I were running) would have a reaction to the character – because they’ve never seen anything like it before.

The same goes for the strange classes.  A Rogue or even an Assassin is a thing built into the world – there are Guilds for both in most places – but even something like a Warlock just isn’t built into the fabric of the game world.  Playing something like a Psionic or anything that turns you into a Dragon is going to seem strange at best.

That’s just my reaction, though – I think I see the game world as an unfolding story, with the ‘rules’ of the world loosely drawn from 3.5 ish D&D.  We have old Kings who are Paladins, or Wizards … not a base Bard with dips into five other classes and feats from books nobody has ever heard of.  It’s just the way the game world works.