AD&D 2nd Edition Players & Fans Unite!

[Nagol]

My approach with specialty priests, even in settings I created, is to offer the player the chance of picking one of the options in the books I have, if there's one with powers that fit. If nothing pleases the player, then I'll try my hand in building a homemade specialty priest for that specific campaign.

Saying you need to create each specialty priest of the pantheons in your game to offer as an option to players is like saying that you need to create the prestige class of every organization in your world, so players can make informed decisions while leveling up. Not necessary, or even desired, in my opinion.

I did that too. I preferred the original purpose of prestige classes -- class choices that were a bit more narrow than the base classes tied into the world organisations and lore -- more than what they evolved into.

 

[DM Howard]

For me, what I enjoy about 2nd Edition is the tone of the books. I don't know any way to really explain, but I still enjoy reading them to this day.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I was running a 1E campaign when 2E arrived. We converted happily. The rules were more streamlined and intuitive.

One change I fondly remember was the "seventh stat" Comeliness. I made all of my players roll in front of everyone, and they all rolled poorly. The entire group was ugly. I got a lot of comedic miles out of that over the next couple years.

And the settings were great. We played a lot of Dark Sun and Planescape games and everyone really enjoyed the atmosphere.

 

[Talath]

I cut my teeth on 2nd edition when I was in Jr. High and High School. I read those books a lot of the time because I liked the flavor they brought and the ideas they generated. I may have started with B/X, but 2e was the game that I played the most as a kid.

 

[Elf Witch]

There are many things I enjoyed about 2E as others have mentioned i was a huge fan of the Specialty Priests. They gave such flavor and contrast. In 3E priests are all cookie cut from the same mold the domains don't do much to change that.

I was also a huge fan of the Bladesinger class. I enjoy playing and running games set in the Realms ala second edition. There is a lot of things as well like the DM having more freedom there was less rules to get in the way of story. I don't miss THACO or the whole divide between what the races could do.

I still enjoy 3E and Pathfinder but every now and then I like to play in 2E it has a different feel to it.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I was running a 1E campaign when 2E arrived. We converted happily. The rules were more streamlined and intuitive.

One change I fondly remember was the "seventh stat" Comeliness. I made all of my players roll in front of everyone, and they all rolled poorly. The entire group was ugly. I got a lot of comedic miles out of that over the next couple years.

And the settings were great. We played a lot of Dark Sun and Planescape games and everyone really enjoyed the atmosphere.

Comeliness in 2e? Didn't this appear in 1e's Unearthed Arcana and only there? There was a Half-Orc fighter in my 1e Temple of Elemental Evil campaign who actually had a negative Comeliness.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm not a huge fan, but 2e brought us Dark Sun, for which I'm forever thankful.

Like so many others I see the 2e specialty priests as pinnacle of priest development in D&D. The 3e domains were a huge let-down.

I have the exact opposite opinion. I don't like "chaos" in game design. Being able to create your own class (since no two specialty priests were alike) meant being able to create bad classes, with unclear roles. You could easily create a specialty cleric who was incredibly wimpy for an adventurer... but had cool flavor. Or a priest who couldn't heal. Or a priest who could only heal (that last one is only a slight exaggeration).

And then TSR went ahead and designed loads of really poorly-functioning specialty priests.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Comeliness in 2e? Didn't this appear in 1e's Unearthed Arcana and only there? There was a Half-Orc fighter in my 1e Temple of Elemental Evil campaign who actually had a negative Comeliness.

My longterm campaign had a long break somewhere near the end. When the break was over, we converted to 2E. That's when we added Comeliness. So if it came out prior to 2E I didn't implement it then.

My memory is fuzzy of actual dates and new rules.

 

[havard]

One of the best things about 2nd Ed was the vast number of high quality exciting settings published for it.

-Havard

 

[Bedrockgames]

For me, Ravenloft is the highlight of 2E. But there is a lot to like outside that.

My two cents: http://thebedrockblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/brief-defense-of-2nd-edition-ad.html