Why the Modern D&D variants will not attract new players

[MerricB]

Ah, really? What power bump would that be? I have to admit don't remember anything of the kind.

Depends. If you went from AD&D to 2E and missed Unearthed Arcana, the first thing you'd notice was weapon specialisation.

However, soon after 2E came out, there were a bunch of Complete * books, which occasionally had some delightfully broken combinations.

When I went from AD&D + UA to core 2E, I admittedly didn't see a big power bonus. But the bonus that UA or basic 2E gave to fighters was a major power-up. (An additional +1 to hit, +2 to damage and +1/2 attack per round? Scary!)

Cheers!

 

[Jhaelen]

Depends. If you went from AD&D to 2E and missed Unearthed Arcana, the first thing you'd notice was weapon specialisation.

However, soon after 2E came out, there were a bunch of Complete * books, which occasionally had some delightfully broken combinations.

Ah, alright. We had been using UA before we started with 2e.

I imagine some of the class kits from the Complete * books would result in a noticable power-up.

 

[Lanefan]

Depends. If you went from AD&D to 2E and missed Unearthed Arcana, the first thing you'd notice was weapon specialisation.

And a bunch of spells far more powerful for their level than you'd seen before - UA gave us those too.

However, soon after 2E came out, there were a bunch of Complete * books, which occasionally had some delightfully broken combinations.

When I went from AD&D + UA to core 2E, I admittedly didn't see a big power bonus. But the bonus that UA or basic 2E gave to fighters was a major power-up. (An additional +1 to hit, +2 to damage and +1/2 attack per round? Scary!)

We had to tone down a lot of UA to avoid it completely breaking our 1e game - for all that, I'm still toning it down today: I recently got done fixing Chromatic Orb, something I'd been meaning to do for 20+ years.

As for the various 2e splatbooks; yes, some of those got a bit out of hand by the end. Best ignored all round, if you ask me.

Lan-"splat"-efan