The thing is, you could always do that stuff. You just had to use your own imagination instead of having your possibilities laid out for you in the rules. As a
DM, I gave out XP bonuses for particularly spectacular descriptions of actions taken by
PCs... but anyway.
I play 3.5. Partly because I don't really care for the 4e rules from having read them, and partly because I see no reason to not use the large amounts of books I have purchased for that edition.