D&D General On Powerful Classes, 1e, and why the Original Gygaxian Gatekeeping Failed

[mach1.9pants]

Never purchased the Masters Set for this reason. Though I did crib the weapon mastery tables from the books of my best friend's parents.

The poor Thief was so screwed in BECMI, with the skills progression table ridiculously stretched out over 36 levels. To add insult, their XP requirement per name level was higher than all but the MU.

 

[guachi]

Well, it would be silly to call it 'flawed' in any case, lol. It was/is a game and the only flaw it could possibly have would be "this is not fun." Nobody has ever accused D&D of that (well, maybe they have, but you cannot please everyone). It was really a pretty mind-bending concept. Even at age 11 I was a wargamer. I 'got' games, but when I just HEARD THE IDEA of D&D it was like learning that you are really a Martian, nothing I ever assumed about games in my young life could really be applied anymore.

Friend introduced me to D&D at the age of 9 in 1983. I was and still am a wargaming fan but D&D was mindblowing. Nothing in my first game made a lick of sense. It was awesome.

 

[House_Of_Dexter]

Friend introduced me to D&D at the age of 9 in 1983. I was and still am a wargaming fan but D&D was mindblowing. Nothing in my first game made a lick of sense. It was awesome.

You know...I don't know which came first...playing Cordite and Steel or White Box D&D...I was playing both in '77. D&D was pretty mind blowing...met my best friend from bringing the rules to school...

 

[David Howery]

c. XP bonuses. Most classes had a prime requisite ability (for example, Clerics and wisdom). If the character had a certain score (such as 15) or higher, then the character got an additional bonus- 10% additional XP!

overlooked this one earlier. Ya know, I don't think a single DM who ran our games way back in my Ye Olde 1E Days ever did this. I know I certainly never got these extra XPs, and as anyone who ever played 1E could tell you, they were needed. Not sure just why all the DMs I knew decided this was not a rule to be used....

 

[mach1.9pants]

I certainly did add the bonus xp, for single class PCs. Pretty tidy little boost

 

[S'mon]

overlooked this one earlier. Ya know, I don't think a single DM who ran our games way back in my Ye Olde 1E Days ever did this. I know I certainly never got these extra XPs, and as anyone who ever played 1E could tell you, they were needed. Not sure just why all the DMs I knew decided this was not a rule to be used....

10% extra XP doesn't seem enough to make a big difference?

 

[Lanefan]

It is pretty ambiguous, as with most of AD&D... 'Roll 3d6 in order' is NEVER spelled out as a rule or procedure, nor even described. ALL of the 'METHODS' of the DMG are stated to be 'alternatives', but it is never stated what they are alternatives TO.

I always took it to mean they were alternatives to each other, with no one given priority.

 

[S'mon]

Never purchased the Masters Set for this reason. Though I did crib the weapon mastery tables from the books of my best friend's parents.

I ran a Mentzer Classic D&D campaign for several years around 2015-2017. By the time the PCs were nearing 20th level it really felt that they'd achieved everything they wanted to achieve, the game wound down. I think most of the Masters Set material would work fine at Companion level - you can seek the Holy Grail at 18th level as well as 28th. I do think Mentzer Companion Set (15-25) added a lot of great stuff, but Masters never impressed me or felt necessary.

Edit: Running 4e D&D 1-29 (2011-2016), I feel it also lost energy in the Epic (21-30) Tier, despite all the Epic stuff going on. I think 5e got it right going with the 1-20 range used in 2e & 3e.

 

[Charlaquin]

10% extra XP doesn't seem enough to make a big difference?

Someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but a quick google search seems to indicate that a 1e thief needed 110,001 XP to reach name level (9th). 10% would mean shaving 11,000 XP off that (for a total of 99,000 required)! That seems like a pretty respectable difference to me.

 

[S'mon]

Someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but a quick google search seems to indicate that a 1e thief needed 110,001 XP to reach name level (9th). 10% would mean shaving 11,000 XP off that (for a total of 99,000 required)! That seems like a pretty respectable difference to me.

IME with XP needed to level doubling every level, and awards also increasing steeply, the 10% bonus is rarely noticeable.