Alzrius
The EN World kitten
More random thoughts as I read through this:
- The use of "anti-" as a prefix for enemy (demi)human fighters that the PCs will encounter in dungeons is notable. There will be anti-swordsmen, anti-myrmidons, anti-superheroes, anti-lords etc. Strangely, fighters are the only class listed like this (and we won't see it in the published version); wizards that the party encounters are just "wizards," and the "evil high priest" is still there as-is.
- There's a hand-written (or rather, hand-corrected, apparently for a misspelling) entry for "zitidars" on page 36 of the PDF. Now that's a Baroomism that I wasn't aware had ever been in D&D before! Thoats, yes, but not zitidars!
- The rate for recovering from wounds is 2 points per day. That's a lot faster than what the published OD&D had, where you regain no hit points the first day of rest, and then 1 hit point every other day of resting thereafter! (Of course, hit points seem to be different in this too, if I'm reading it right.)
- In the section on baronies, there are eighteen examples of possible investment listed, compared to fifteen in the published OD&D (at least, according to the version I'm checking). The three that were removed are "Education," "Magical Research," and "Slave Dealing."
- The "Angry Villager Rule" is still here, but it's much more explicit in its heavy-handedness than what we saw in the published version. This one flat-out says that the angry villagers will be faster than the PCs, fight better than them, and have "overwhealming [sic] numbers" to bring the PCs into line.
- Now this is notable: magic-user spells top out at 5th level spells! The entirety of the 6th-level spells found in OD&D (reincarnation, death spell, disintegrate, etc.) simply aren't here. (EDIT: so, it looks like move earth is here, albeit as a 5th level spell.)
- Interestingly, the cleric spell list is mostly the same as it is in the published version...until you get to 4th- and 5th-level spells. Notwithstanding how protection from evil isn't on the 1st-level spell list, everything here is the same as it is in OD&D, except that the 4th-level spells are missing turn sticks to snakes, speak with plants, and create water, whereas the 5th-level spells list doesn't have quest, insect plague, or create food.
- Strangely, this version of charm person is actually less powerful than what's in the published game, as here it only lasts for "a length of time equal to 6 + the level of the Magic_User [sic]" (presumably that means six turns), whereas the published version lasted until it was dispelled (citing dispel magic).
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