Just recently found the three 1st ed AD&D core books at a garage sale. I wondered what the 1st ed rules would look like in the 3rd or 4th ed D&D format and came up with this for the combat rules with these assumptions:
rolling a natural 20 on a d20 = critical hit
melee attack = 1d20 + base level attack bonus + strength mod
ranged attack = 1d20 + base level attack bonus + dexterity mod + range penalty
AC = 10 + armor bonus + shield bonus + dexterity mod
With these assumptions, the information in the 1st ed AD&D player and monster attack matrices in the DM guide basically reduces to:
fighters, paladins, rangers, bards and 0 level halflings and humans attack matrix
HTML Code:
level base level bonus to attack
0 -1
1-2 0
3-4 +2
5-6 +4
7-8 +6
9-10 +8
11-12 +10
13-14 +12
15-16 +14
17+ +16
clerics, druids and monks attack matrix
HTML Code:
level base level bonus to attack
1-3 0
4-6 +2
7-9 +4
10-12 +6
13-15 +8
16-18 +10
19+ +11
thieves and assassins attack matrix
HTML Code:
level base level bonus to attack
1-4 -1
5-8 +1
9-12 +4
13-16 +6
17-20 +8
21+ +10
magic users and illusionists attack matrix
HTML Code:
level base level bonus to attack
1-5 -1
6-10 +1
11-15 +4
16-20 +7
21+ +9
monsters attack matrix
HTML Code:
monster hit dice base level bonus to attack
up to 1-1 -1
1-1 0
1 +1
1+ +2
2-3+ +4
4-5+ +5
6-7+ +7
8-9+ +8
10-11+ +10
12-13+ +11
14-15+ +12
16+ +13
The armor listed in the 1st ed player's handbook reduces to:
HTML Code:
(non-magic) armor AC bonus
shield +1
leather
or padded +2
studded leather +3
or ring mail
scale mail +4
chain mail +5
split or +6
banded mail
plate mail +7
The strength and dexterity modifiers in the 1st ed player's handbook look like:
strength
HTML Code:
score attack adjustment bonus damage adjustment bonus
3 -3 -1
4-5 -2 -1
6-7 -1 0
8-9 0 0
10-11 0 0
12-13 0 0
14-15 0 0
16 0 +1
17 +1 +1
18 +1 +2
18/01-50 +1 +3
18/51-75 +2 +3
18/76-90 +2 +4
18/91-99 +2 +5
18/00 +3 +6
dexterity
HTML Code:
score reaction/attack adjustment bonus defense adjustment bonus
3 -3 -4
4 -2 -3
5 -1 -2
6 0 -1
7 0 0
8 0 0
9 0 0
10 0 0
11 0 0
12 0 0
13 0 0
14 0 0
15 0 +1
16 +1 +2
17 +2 +3
18 +3 +4
Has anyone tried creating a "retro clone" which consists of 1st ed AD&D being redone using the d20 style combat of
3E or
4E? I suppose if somebody hasn't done so yet, these combat matrices would be the starting point for such a clone.
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