OD&D On the Origins of Classes (1e, OD&D)

[HarbingerX]

You say that now, but there's always someone (ALWAYS SOMEONE, BRAD!) who comes on and is all like, "AK-SHU-ALL-Y, I'm not a cheater! There was that time I totally rolled all 18s, and played a Paladin. I mean, sure, maybe I got a little lucky when I stubbed my toe on a holy avenger at 2nd level, but those are the breaks, right? It's a terrible burden to bear, but someone in the party has to be awesome, so ... "

Funny thing is... I just added a player to my 10-year old son's group and he showed up with a Paladin. And suspiciously high stats for 4d6 drop lowest.

Because he's 10 I'm going to let him have it this time. But know I now to watch him...

 

[HarbingerX]

As for the Assassin, I have no information. I do remember hearing the same thing that the Assassin came out of Arneson's campaign. There was probably one player who played it the one time.

Sometime I dream of having players who invent new spells and classes. The current system has so much in it that it's hard to exhaust what it offers.

 

[Panda-s1]

Funny thing is... I just added a player to my 10-year old son's group and he showed up with a Paladin. And suspiciously high stats for 4d6 drop lowest.

Because he's 10 I'm going to let him have it this time. But know I now to watch him...

man I hate to be That DM™ but this why you get all your players to roll for scores in front of you. doesn't matter the age either, unless you're playing with friends you've known for a long time you might get Brad or his cousin PWAMR18EC in your game.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Back in a two player evil Dark Sun campaign, the other player rolled 00 to have psionics and rolled 18/98 Strength. His character was also wealthy.

All rolled in front of the DM.

My wimpy thief character made his character carry everything--except coins, gems, and magic items, of course.

 

[HarbingerX]

man I hate to be That DM™ but this why you get all your players to roll for scores in front of you. doesn't matter the age either, unless you're playing with friends you've known for a long time you might get Brad or his cousin PWAMR18EC in your game.

Yeah, I had planned to have him roll at the table, but hadn't told him before he showed up.

And a second funny thing is one of the players who did roll in front of me roll 4 1s. I let him reroll this time. Once they get into roleplaying a bit more they'll understand the wonderful opportunity of having a 3 stat.

 

[HarbingerX]

Back in a two player evil Dark Sun campaign, the other player rolled 00 to have psionics and rolled 18/98 Strength. His character was also wealthy.

That's very cool. Psionics are even rare than Paladins.

I wonder if anyone ever had a psychic Paladin.



... gnome.

 

[GreyLord]

In regards to the Cleric...

I wasn't there, but when reading OD&D it seemed to me that the Cleric was actually a creation to be the original Fighting Man/Magic-user class.

You had the Fighter, you had the Magic-User, and then you had the class that was a combination of both (with it's own spell list of course). It wasn't quite as good at fighting as a Fighting Man but was better than the Magic-User, and it's spells weren't as useful in combat in destroying or injuring as the Magic-user, but obviously a LOT more powerful than the Fighting Man.

To me it seemed that they wanted the two opposing sides (combat vs. Magic) and the Cleric was the one that was the mesh of the two.

 

[Coroc]

Anyone who showed up at your table as a Paladin was a cheater. That is their original sin for which they must atone.

Divinity = the original sin

 

[Sacrosanct]

A class to add: The artificer. While it first became a stand alone class in 3e, it's roots go back all the way to the beginning. In 2e, it was a wizard specialist. But way back in 1976, Jim Ward created the artificer race. Remember, races were classes in OD&D, so essentially it was the actual first artificer class as well even though it was designed as an NPC instead of player class (like pretty much all classes that appeared in Dragon throughout the years) and didn't have an official class structure.

It appears in Dragon #1, under the Magic and Science article.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*