Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
Or else it was a fact of life for us.This whole meme that AD&D was this impossibly hard game where every PC had the half life of a mayfly is just so much nostalgia glasses.
Save or die poison started at 1st level and was incredibly common to encounter. Neutralize poison could help 1 person if you had a cleric AND the cleric lived to 7th level(poison and energy drain usually prevented that). Slow poison was worthless because it wore off before you could memorize it again and you were almost always too far from town to get cured.
Energy drain monsters were fairly common place starting at 4th level or so, but that didn't matter since you couldn't do anything about it and got no save. So you lost a level or three, if you lived. And you generally never got it back, because no one in the group could restore the level and you were too far from anyone who could cast it to get there on time. Even if you got lucky and did, you still lost all the xp you had gained towards your next level.
Random encounters with things way over your head were common.
If you found AD&D to be easier and more survivable than 3e-5e then you had a DM who was wearing soft gloves and giving you a huge break. You never played 1e as it was intended to be played.