D&D 3.5

[pakman]

I think it all depends on the GM. If I had an 8th level character that did 200+ damage, he would have us be fighting Great Wyrm Red Dragons. He would kill us all because we don't deserve to be doing that much damage, besides, he would never let our group get that powerful.

I can't day anything about 1.0 and 2.0 because I only started playing a year ago. I thought the idea of D&D was character specialization...customize your character how you have invisioned it in your head. That's how I have played. An example of how our GM works:

I decided to track some goons we were after. I led them to a bridge which happened to be guarded trolls and ogres. The troll wanted a toll (sound familiar? ;)). Our group debated it and the stupid barabrian :P decided he wanted to fight and attacked the troll. As the ranger, I immediately stole away to the woods and shot from cover, only to be accosted by ogres. I downed them and reconcentrated on the troll. However, the fighter in the group, trying to save the stupid barbarian, promptly lost both arms because of the troll attacks. The cleric had one round to save him, and rolled lucky. The druid promptly died, and the paladin had one round to save him.

Our GM was fair, we were not supposed to fight that group. We are in no way overpowered.

I can see where you are coming from with years of experience. If I fall for them, then I'm doing it wholeheartedly. I would like to improve my character by the ways I listed in a previous post.

Oh, well...at least we can agree it's still a fun game :)