D&D General How has D&D changed over the decades?

[Remathilis]

Spoiler: 2e player's handbook pg141

Character Death
When a character reaches 0 hit points, that character is slain. The character is immediately dead and unable to do anything unless some specialized magical effect takes precedence.

the negative 10 was a 3.x or possibly player options/UA/dragon addon to 2e if it was in 2e. I remember 2e characters being significantly more hardy

You're partially right. The rule was optional and in the DMG.

Spoiler: Hovering on Death's Door (Optional Rule)

You might find that your campaign has become particularly deadly. Too many player characters are dying. If this happens, you may want to allow characters to survive for short periods of time even after their hit points reach or drop below 0.
When this rule is in use, a character can remain alive until his hit points reach -10. However, as soon as the character reaches 0 hit points, he falls to the ground unconscious. Thereafter, he automatically loses one hit point each round. His survival from this point on depends on the quick thinking of his companions. If they reach the character before his hit points reach -10 and spend at least one round tending to his wounds-- stanching the flow of blood, etc., the character does not die immediately.
If the only action is to bind his wounds, the injured character no longer loses one hit point each round, but neither does he gain any. He remains unconscious and vulnerable to damage from further attacks.
If a cure spell of some type is cast upon him, the character is immediately restored to 1 hit point--no more. Further cures do the character no good until he has had at least one day of rest. Until such time, he is weak and feeble, unable to fight and barely able to move. He must stop and rest often, can't cast spells (the shock of near death has wiped them from his mind), and is generally confused and feverish. He is able to move and can hold somewhat disjointed conversations, but that's it.
If a heal spell is cast on the character, has hit points are restored as per the spell, and he
has full vitality and wits. Any spells he may have known are still wiped from his memory. (Even this powerful spell does not negate the shock of the experience.)

That said, much like Max HP at first level, this rule was so ubiquitous that most people assume it was the default in the PHB.

 

[Hussar]

1E Modules Maps are blue to protect against photocopiers. 5E. Maps are FULL COLOUR but good luck reading the grid lines.
1E 10 foot squares. 5E 5 foot squares.
1E battlemap could be a hex or square you adjusted or did not worry about half squares. 5E USE SQUARES or will call you a square. I trolled one by players by using a hex battle map.
1E. Plastic dice. 5E Plastic, plastic, different plastic, Metal dice, different metal dice, $300 + dice sets.
1E this lead mini was $5 and nearly looks like my PC. And this Frost giant is 1 square by 2 squares.
5E Minis will EXACTLY match the monster get a freaking microscope and find out. We have $5 plastic minis. We have random mini box pulls. For $40 you design the mini. Hey he has $300 do we have dragon mini for you.,

I would sell one of my chlldren for one of those Mammoth Ivory dice sets. That would be freaking cool.

 

[Hussar]

On intitial release I'm not at all sure 2e characters were any great degree more powerful than those in 1e, other than 2e allowed for higher levels out of the gate.

Once the splatbooks started piling up then yes, 2e characters became considerably more powerful than their 1e or even earlier-era 2e counterparts.

Let's see:

Fighters: Multiple attacks at 1st level with +1 to hit and +2 to damage.
Rangers: Two attacks per round at 1st level.
Casters - about two to three times more spells to choose from.
Thieves - choose where you spend your skill points to boost thief skills.
Bards - playable at 1st level.

And that's just at first level out of the box. 2e characters were considerably more powerful than 1e characters. Then you start adding splats and two weapon fighting proficiencies and it just took off from there. I remember running 1e modules in 2e and having to use modules that were two or three levels higher than the party level - a 4th level 2e party could handle their own in a 1e module for level 6, for example.

 

[Hussar]

Spoiler: 2e player's handbook pg141

Character Death
When a character reaches 0 hit points, that character is slain. The character is immediately dead and unable to do anything unless some specialized magical effect takes precedence.

the negative 10 was a 3.x or possibly player options/UA/dragon addon to 2e if it was in 2e. I remember 2e characters being significantly more hardy

Note, the Death's Door rule was in the 2e DMG and, IME, was pretty widely used.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Spoiler: 2e player's handbook pg141

Character Death
When a character reaches 0 hit points, that character is slain. The character is immediately dead and unable to do anything unless some specialized magical effect takes precedence.

I remember seeing it prior to 3e, so it must have predated it in some forms.

the negative 10 was a 3.x or possibly player options/UA/dragon addon to 2e if it was in 2e. I remember 2e characters being significantly more hardy

edit: Others have noted the rule was in the dmg, I couldn't remember what the rule was & didn't think to check that when I went back to look. Going to leave this here since they kinda go together

Not something I'm going to blame someone for missing.

 

[Thomas Shey]

That said, much like Max HP at first level, this rule was so ubiquitous that most people assume it was the default in the PHB.

I was only peripherally involved with D&D between OD&D and 3e so I wouldn't have known the origin, I just remember seeing references to it in D&D online discussion a lot.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Thieves - choose where you spend your skill points to boost thief skills.
Bards - playable at 1st level.

Both these were true in OD&D (though admittedly the OD&D bard was a Strategic Review class back then; I know in AD&D it turned into some sort of weird quasi-Prestige Class thing).

 

[Lanefan]

You're partially right. The rule was optional and in the DMG.

We used death-at-minus-10 from very early on in 1e, I suspect the idea came from a Dragon article.

That said, much like Max HP at first level, this rule was so ubiquitous that most people assume it was the default in the PHB.

Max h.p. at 1st level is something I had honestly never even heard of until 3e brought it in as its default.

 

[Hussar]

Wasn't the Death's Door thing in the 1e DMG as well? I know we used it. It was one of the bigger shifts when we went from Basic/Expert to AD&D. But, OTOH, Max Hp at 1st level was standard at our tables very early on. Different strokes I guess.

 

[AnotherGuy]

The alternative is to assume WOTC doesn't know their own market and just change things for the hell of it.

WotC has not made errors in the past regarding its own market?