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Did magic-users use weapons more often in older editions?
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<blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 5284401" data-attributes="member: 32740"><p>My own experience has been that wizards in 1E/2E actually used weapons less often than their 3E counterparts. lack of a proper ranged weapon and razor-thin survivability meant their use of weapons was more-often limited quite strictly to self-defense. After casting all their spells they would seek to do anything EXCEPT use a weapon. Possible exception would be at 1st or 2nd level with a Sleep spell, after which casting they might pull a dagger and cut as many sleeping throats as they could reach without exposing themselves to melee. After rising a few levels they might start to use a few scrolls, magic items or the like but otherwise would still continue to keep out of melee.</p><p> </p><p>3E on the other hand gave wizards a useful missile weapon - crossbow. Something with RANGE where they could shoot, miss a lot, and not actually draw unwanted attention from an enemy who might need to move too far to get at them and thus continue to attack the fighters and others who present a more immediate and powerful threat. Wizards were thus given better tactical opportunity to resort to a weapon. Obviously they still weren't much more survivable in melee than they were in older editions so being able to stand off a good distance and shoot becomes a more viable option than throwing darts or daggers within a mere 30' or so. Even though they had more spells to cast at low levels, having that crossbow made a big difference IME.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Man in the Funny Hat, post: 5284401, member: 32740"] My own experience has been that wizards in 1E/2E actually used weapons less often than their 3E counterparts. lack of a proper ranged weapon and razor-thin survivability meant their use of weapons was more-often limited quite strictly to self-defense. After casting all their spells they would seek to do anything EXCEPT use a weapon. Possible exception would be at 1st or 2nd level with a Sleep spell, after which casting they might pull a dagger and cut as many sleeping throats as they could reach without exposing themselves to melee. After rising a few levels they might start to use a few scrolls, magic items or the like but otherwise would still continue to keep out of melee. 3E on the other hand gave wizards a useful missile weapon - crossbow. Something with RANGE where they could shoot, miss a lot, and not actually draw unwanted attention from an enemy who might need to move too far to get at them and thus continue to attack the fighters and others who present a more immediate and powerful threat. Wizards were thus given better tactical opportunity to resort to a weapon. Obviously they still weren't much more survivable in melee than they were in older editions so being able to stand off a good distance and shoot becomes a more viable option than throwing darts or daggers within a mere 30' or so. Even though they had more spells to cast at low levels, having that crossbow made a big difference IME. [/QUOTE]
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Did magic-users use weapons more often in older editions?
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