Did magic-users use weapons more often in older editions?

[OnlineDM]

I've pretty much only played 4th Edition, but I did once play a session of a 1st Edition game. In that game, the party's magic user (a human who was 1/8th elf and desperately wanted to be a full elf) indeed spent most of the battles lobbing darts ineffectually at the monsters. Hilarity ensued.

The one time he got to cast Sleep, though (on an ally who was misbehaving), it was brutally effective.

 

[radferth]

In 1st and 2nd ed., I only rarely saw a wizard use any sort of weapon, even though thrown daggers or darts were fairly effective at low levels on the rare occasions I did see them used. I think we all figured "I'm very fragile, and it's my my job to determine when I should cast the sleep spell. Fighting's really not my job." In 3rd, it seem that almost every wizard I see has a crossbow, some are even built around it. I guess there's really no downside to shooting the crossbow if you have nothing better to do.

 

[rgard]

In 1E, as soon as my MU or Illusionist ran out of spells it was time to draw daggers and attack the nearest foe. I remember dropping an ogre in one encounter after running out of spells with the MU and Illusionist at probably 3rd and 4th level respectively.

I don't remember using darts to any successful degree.

Not everybody played that way, but I hated sitting there doing not anything when the spells ran out. Also, the rush from being one good hit away from death kept things interesting.

 

[athos]

Wow, am I the only one that liked to dual class in 1st and 2nd editions? I had a couple dual class human fighter / wizards that were wonderful. I also liked the wizard/thief elf multi class combo using a short sword to backstab.

All of my old wizard characters could fight with some kind of a melee weapon, guess Gandalf and Ingold were my images of a true hero wizard.

In 3.5 there are stalwart sorcerers, abjurant champions, human paragons; all kinds of ways to get your mage to carry a weapon and be decent with it. I guess I can see how people would want to "specialize" there characters into an arch-type, but isn't it just fun to grab a sword and wade into melee sometimes?

 

[Saeviomagy]

I recall playing wizards in every edition before 3rd ed consisted of one of the following

Encounter 1: "I throw a dagger and... miss"

Encounter 2: "I throw a dagger, roll 1 damage and kill the armored fighter in a single hit"

Encounter 3: "I cast sleep, we win."

Encounter 4: "I throw a dagger and... miss"

Encounter 5: "I throw a dagger and... miss"

OR

Encounter 1: "I cast sleep, we win. And go to sleep for 8 hours"

Prior to 3rd everyone (including the monsters) was incredibly squishy at low levels. If you didn't get stabbed to death by a goblin early on, it was luck or DM favouritism that did it, not hanging back being afraid to throw daggers at things. Because it sure wasn't the fighter or good tactics on the behalf of the goblin. The goblin should have been stabbing the wizard every round just in case he decided to cast a spell.

Once 3rd hit, not a lot changed: the low level wizard could cast a couple more sleeps per day, 0th level spells changed almost nothing (because you were better off shooting a crossbow), and you use a crossbow instead of a dagger because they were really quite good.

 

[Lidgar]

While my first reaction was "yeah, all my 1e MU's used weapons more than my 3e Wizards because they ran out of spells sooner"...upon further reflection I think it is about the same.

While my 3e Wiz can cast more spells at lower levels, they can also use better weapons (including longbows if they are elven). I think this led to 3e wizards possibly doing more attack actions in each combat, or at least extending the adventuring day a bit. I remember my 1e MU's doing a lot of tactical "I watch the rear door" actions during combat in contrast...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Wow, am I the only one that liked to dual class in 1st and 2nd editions?

I'm with you- most of my PCs were multiclassed or dual-classed, usually including some form of spellcasting class...a trend that continued into 3.X, and my tastes remain similar in 4Ed.

 

[Ariosto]

My experience with 3e might not be typical, but here goes.

First, almost everybody was a spell-caster, right down to saloon girls and probably that third-level baby in the perambulator. It was like RuneQuest, man.

Second, everyone was spending most of every session waiting for his or her next turn in combat. That might take five or even ten minutes per round. So, one might be inclined to go for what was going to be more mechanically interesting (synergistic feats and skills and attacks of opportunity and fine print exceptions and whatnot). After a while, it could even get boring to "spam" flaming sphere. Also, a quick finish to a fight typically just meant moving on to... yet another fight. They tended to run into one another without much distinction.

Spell-casters (which meant pretty much everybody who was anybody) tended not only to have access to pretty respectable mundane gear, but to be able to make magical stuff in a process that was pretty trivial next to the old way. It was not so trivial they were keen on spreading it around, though, hence another inducement for everyone to go into the business for himself.

Besides "craftily" ornamenting ourselves like Christmas trees, we also found goodies in treasure. Those tended to be just the sort that would come in handy down the line, the way the DM set up things.

So, with magical defensive gadgets and magical weapons, plus feats and skills (and a rules-lawyer on retainer), we were pretty well set up to shoot and stab in between zapping with spells.

I seem to recall spells being mainly for "buffing up" before a fight, and securing advantages in the first few rounds. There would typically be one person who kept on concentrating on spells, but I think the one varied from fight to fight.

 

[thalmin]

In 1E and 2E, when my Magic User (I have always hated that term, we didn't call a fighter a "Weapon User") used up his spell(s), I had to resort to something. Since I was only proficient with one weapon, I usually chose dagger. I could use it to fight defensively, and my DEX gave me a bonus when daggers were thrown. I think only once or twice did I do damage that mattered, but it was better than on my turn saying "I continue to hold the torch."

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I've played in a few 2e games, and my wizard uses darts or a sling or something similar when he ran out of spells at early levels (Not that he ever reached higher levels...). Mostly because you have like one spell at level 1, and saying "I attack and miss" is better then "I do nothing."