I started playing D&D in 1981 and played 1E more than all other combined. It was true, the designers have said it was true and they purposely intended for the fighter to be the main hero in the game. Gygax purposely made the other characters less powerful
The fighter was intended to be the hero or knight in shining armor and the others were intended to be sidekicks. There is even a video online from one of the designers about an argument with Gygax over making magic missile an automatic hit because Gygax wanted to make sure the wizard was inferior to the fighter and Gygax thought an automatic 3 points of damage would put it too close to the fighter who had to swing to make 8 average per round when not counting strength (which would later be bumped to 16 by Gygax when he wrote unearthed arcana).
Automatic 3? At 3rd level it was 2d4+2 and hit automatically. By 9th level it was 5d4+5 for a 1st level spell. That's a lot better than 8. The 16 doesn't apply, because the UA was a book of optional rules only, most of which I never saw allowed by any DM.
In any case, since we're talking level 1 or 2 as shown by the 3 damage, while the fighter was MAYBE hitting one Orc for maybe 8 damage, the Wizard was putting the other 4d4 of them to sleep with a single spell that had no save.
Then you had the spell Chaos, which would not allow a save ..... UNLESS THE TARGET WAS A FIGHTER and then he could save.
Okay.
Look at spells like the cleric's spiritual hammer, a 2nd level spell that does a lot less damage than a 1st level fighter can do. At 13th level a wizard can throw up mordankainans sword with a 14 THACO that does an average of 12 points of damage. A 13th-level fighter with a 9 strength and a TH Sword has an 8 THACO and can do 19 a turn. Add in the magic and strength bonuses common at that level and he is easily doing 3 times as much damage considering he is hitting a lot more.
Clerics need not apply. In 1e they were pretty much heal bots and that was about it. As for second level spells, Stinking Cloud rocked harder than any Fighter ever could at low levels.
And thanks for the chuckle. A 13th level Wizard who was using Mordenkainen's Sword instead of good spells deserved to lose.
And the vast majorty either had level restrictions, hit point maximums or saving throws that a high-level monster would usually beat. If he had magic resistance, the magic user had to beat that before he even had to save.
Not usually, but in any case you're moving the goal posts here. We're discussing Wizards and Fighters, not monsters with or without magic resistence.
For example, death spell had no save and came at 11th level, but would only affect creatures of 8th-level. A 11th-level fighter will take down an 8th-level foe in 2 rounds, all day long.
Since we're 11th level here, the Wizard puts a Wall of Force dome over the Fighter which there is no save against. Then he casts Transmute Rock to Mud under the now trapped Fighter, again with no save. It works since the magic is targeting the stone under the Fighter and not going through the Wall of Force. Then the Wizard changes it back to stone encasing the now sunken in mud Fighter. Fight over and not one save was allowed.
The only truely good combat spells for a high level 1E magic user are imprisonment and maze.
Honorable mentions:
Meteor Swarm is decent because it gives massive damage, which is still high with a save.
Power Word Stun is decent because there is no save and the hp limit is high, but because the effects are not that bad or debilitating, it is just decent. It can reliably and without fail degrade most enemies of even high level for a few rounds.
You never had a good Wizard it seems. A LOT of spells when used creatively like I did above, become auto death for things, including Fighters.
If they had 3E or 5E saves then some of the spells would be better, but as is they were not reliable when you really wanted to use them. On the other hand the fighter reliably destroyed enemies.
In 3e spells were so reliable that a Fighter had no chance outside of a very generous white room of beating a Wizard. At least not once they got to 5th level or so.
In all the years I've seen the 3e Fighter vs. Wizard comparisons, you are the only person to have the chutzpah to try and tell me that they were balanced. Even the most die hard Fighter lovers just argued about how they got the short end of things.
In 1E Command only lasts one round and you get a saving throw if you have 6 or more hit dice and he only needs an 8 to save. Yes she could do this and prolong the inevitable if he kept rolling below an 8.
This is completely wrong. YOUR command lasts 1 round with a save. Gods have abilities that include a special command ability.
"STANDARD DIVINE ABILITIES
Unless otherwise specified, all gods and demigods have the following special abilities, above and beyond whatever other abilities are listed:
Command: as the spell, but lasting 2 rounds for lesser gods and 3 rounds for greater gods. There is no saving throw vs. this divine ability."
Lolth's lasts 2 rounds as she is a lesser goddess.
Moreover Lolth was a goddess, and this speaks to how powerful fighters are. A low teens level fighter can fight her and have a reasonable chance of winning. A low teens level mage has no chance and even an Archmage is going to be severely pushed due to her magic resistance and low saves.
No chance. He has no save and can do nothing while she rips him a new one.
The reason I used Lolth in my example is I fought her as a player and then later a group fought her with me as a DM in I think it was the Vault of the Drow module. In both of these she was defeated in the first couple rounds by the fighter.
He clearly didn't play her correctly.
