IME, 3e is far more deadly. I didn't play much 2e but played a lot of 1e, albeit with the same group for the most part.
The main reason I think 3e is more deadly is that HP are about the same but damage is greater. In 1e, you needed 16 Str just to get +1 to damage (and +0 to hit). Orcs and other humanoids had standard weapon damage with little in the way of Str modifiers; in 3e, orcs carry greataxes or falchions and have a racial bonus to their Strength scores. Sneak attack is easier to do and does more damage at higher levels than the X4 or so that you got from backstabbing, and more humanoid races can have classes and therefore have sneak attack.
Iconic monsters like dragons and giants are much more powerful. Yes, 1e had save-or-die events, but it also had a saving throw chart that eventually made things like poison inconsequential at high levels.
We also played without miniatures, so there were no AoO to deter party spellcasters.
My recollection of a typical 1e encounter is that the melee types would wade into the fray, and, if they took significant damage (which usually took a good number of rounds), they waded out and got a heal from the cleric. In 3e, there's a greater chance you'll take serious damage in a given round, so losing just about any HP is not trivial and reason enough to get healed up immediately.
3e rules also just seem to provide for challenging encounters where you may get into a situation that's hard to get out of; it may not be "save or die", but once things start going south, they go south real fast. In 1e, it always seemed that the rules didn't empower the DM enough and he had to bend them (or create new ones) in order to challenge the party. Party's might walk into a tough situation, but it wasn't that tough to walk right back out of it and regroup.
Anyway, that may reflect more of how we played 1e than it does the general 1e experience, but that's the difference I've seen.
--Axe
The main reason I think 3e is more deadly is that HP are about the same but damage is greater. In 1e, you needed 16 Str just to get +1 to damage (and +0 to hit). Orcs and other humanoids had standard weapon damage with little in the way of Str modifiers; in 3e, orcs carry greataxes or falchions and have a racial bonus to their Strength scores. Sneak attack is easier to do and does more damage at higher levels than the X4 or so that you got from backstabbing, and more humanoid races can have classes and therefore have sneak attack.
Iconic monsters like dragons and giants are much more powerful. Yes, 1e had save-or-die events, but it also had a saving throw chart that eventually made things like poison inconsequential at high levels.
We also played without miniatures, so there were no AoO to deter party spellcasters.
My recollection of a typical 1e encounter is that the melee types would wade into the fray, and, if they took significant damage (which usually took a good number of rounds), they waded out and got a heal from the cleric. In 3e, there's a greater chance you'll take serious damage in a given round, so losing just about any HP is not trivial and reason enough to get healed up immediately.
3e rules also just seem to provide for challenging encounters where you may get into a situation that's hard to get out of; it may not be "save or die", but once things start going south, they go south real fast. In 1e, it always seemed that the rules didn't empower the DM enough and he had to bend them (or create new ones) in order to challenge the party. Party's might walk into a tough situation, but it wasn't that tough to walk right back out of it and regroup.
Anyway, that may reflect more of how we played 1e than it does the general 1e experience, but that's the difference I've seen.
--Axe