Esteemed Colonel,
In
another discussion, a question has arisen regarding certain "game-changing" 5th-level spells that typically become available at 9th level.
Those "game-changing" spells (1) allow you to travel vast distances (teleport), (2) allow you to thwart death (raise dead), and (3) allow you to tap the knowledge of the gods to get information (commune).
The question is, did you deliberately design (original) D&D so that these "game-changing" spells would become available precisely at 9th level? In other words, precisely when the PCs reach Name Level, they get access to "game-changing" spells -- was this intentional, or a fortuitous accident?