D&D General Nerfing Wizards the Old Fashioned Way: Magic User in 1e

[nevin]

I’m not quite sure if the logic train here. I don’t understand how changes to the MU from 1st to 3rd are related to Clerics/Druids?

Also, I disagree with what wgat I think I read as indication that D&D went from something “balanced” at 1st level to unbalanced in 3rd?

I don’t think 1e, 2e or anything flavor of 3e were ever “balanced”.

4E may very well have shown what a highly “balanced” rule set would be, but it was about as interesting as unseasoned gruel.
I have no idea about 5E, but it’s clearly a popular ruleset.

In 1e cleric memorized 1st thru 5thspells from prayer books. 6th thru 8 were directly granted from intermediaries of their God and 9thlevel spells came directly from your God.

I saw a few games where intermediaries or thegod wanted to know why a certain spell was being asked for. I even saw a cleric lose everything but healing spells for abusing his religions tenants

 

[DND_Reborn]

In 1e cleric memorized 1st thru 5thspells from prayer books. 6th thru 8 were directly granted from intermediaries of their God and 9thlevel spells came directly from your God.

Actually in 1E cleric spells only went to level 7. IIRC...

1-2 where through prayer
3-5 where through a functionary of your god
6-7 where from your god directly

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

The biggest risk with blast wands is that if you do fail a save vs AoE, those wands suddenly become potential bombs. (the lowest hit point total I've ever seen a character reach - and yes, dammit, it was one of my own PCs - came when a wand of lightning broke and released all remaining charges in a very confined space. What a mess.)

I can top that. Large adult blue dragon breathes at a group of PC's in the doorway to a tower. Everyone fails saves. One character is wearing a necklace of missiles - none of the missiles on it have been used yet. A character standing next to him is carrying a 100 charge keg of smoke powder for a +1 arquebus he's been carrying for like a full game year but never used. Zot, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, KABLAMMO! Everybody dies (including the dragon), most of our equipment burned or melted around our scattered and charred skeletal remains, and the tower was no longer there. It was almost worth the dying to have been a part of it.

 

[nevin]

With the requirements for Paladins, how many do you expect to be walking around? Especially high level ones...?

A lot more used by the DM for problematic wizards. Wizards that keep destroying things eventually get sideways with society then churches send paladins after them.

 

[nevin]

Actually in 1E cleric spells only went to level 7. IIRC...

1-2 where through prayer
3-5 where through a functionary of your god
6-7 where from your god directly

I had forgotten that

 

[Sacrosanct]

Actually in 1E cleric spells only went to level 7. IIRC...

1-2 where through prayer
3-5 where through a functionary of your god
6-7 where from your god directly

Another thing a lot of people forget is that in 1e, if you as a cleric didn't follow your deity's wishes, you could have spells fail completely.

 

[Helldritch]

Another thing a lot of people forget is that in 1e, if you as a cleric didn't follow your deity's wishes, you could have spells fail completely.

If your god gave you spells at all. You could be srtipped of all casting power if you were not in accordance with your god. They were a bit more demanding that in 5ed...

 

[Alzrius]

You forgot that paladins were the ultimate against mages. 50%magic resistance vs mage of their level adjust up or down 5% per level difference. And that was a flat 50% chance it worked or not

I'm pretty sure that was only if they were wielding a holy avenger sword.

 

[Sacrosanct]

You forgot that paladins were the ultimate against mages. 50%magic resistance vs mage of their level adjust up or down 5% per level difference. And that was a flat 50% chance it worked or not

Is that 2e? In 1e, if they had a holy avenger, it simply dispelled all magic within a 10' radius if the spell level was lower than paladin level. No % involved.

 

[Helldritch]

You forgot that paladins were the ultimate against mages. 50%magic resistance vs mage of their level adjust up or down 5% per level difference. And that was a flat 50% chance it worked or not

Only if you had a holy sword. Which was not a sure thing. And with their prerequisites they were pretty rare to start with...