D&D 1E Favorite Obscure Rules from TSR-era D&D

[TwoSix]

They definitely had abuse potential, but in practice, it really depended on who you were playing with.

In one group, I was one of two players running PO clerics. The other player made a powerful unarmored arcane & divine caster who also used martial arts in melee.

Mine had a better weapon, but armor topped at chain mail, and a broad but not deep arsenal of arcane & divine spells- most of his access to spheres & domains was Minor. And nearly all of his spells were buffs for allies.

PO clerics were the best because they were so customizable. I did a game where everyone played PO clerics, and it worked great.

 

[TwoSix]

My AD&D DM really likes the rules for what spells you can get from a deity- he likes to point out that if one believes strongly enough, you can get 1st and 2nd levels spells from a rock!

Not The Rock, mind you, a rock.

Can you spell what the Rock is casting?!

 

[Maxperson]

I remember getting it, and it led to a few fun weekends of massed battles!

But then getting back to the regular sessions. The lesson, I think, is that while it was an enjoyable diversion, people preferred the individualistic nature of D&D. It was kind of like the whole evolution from wargaming to D&D sped up.


This is also why I am always skeptical of the need for mass combat rules. It's not that you never need them, it's more that D&D as a game evolved because people wanted the D&D experience instead of mass combat. It's interesting to me that D&D evolved because people didn't want to use mass combat rules, but then people are always looking to put them back in?

Anyway, I really liked Battlesystem, but it never took root in the larger AD&D ecosystem.

Over the last 40 years I can count on one hand the number of times we needed a mass combat system. The PCs had been put in charge of armies, or were kings going to war, etc. During those times a mass combat system would have been invaluable. The problem is that the other 99.9% of the time we didn't need it and it would just be wasted space in the book.

 

[Maxperson]

Dredging up an old rule-

in AD&D, picking the right god for your cleric mattered.

The 1e PHB ties in the spells that the Cleric receives to the worship of the deity. On page 40, it states that while 1st - 4th level spells are granted by the lesser servants of the cleric's deity, 5th level spells and higher are granted by the deity itself. It goes so far as to state that the cleric must supplicate the deity for the granting of these high level spells and can be judged accordingly.

Deities & Demigods further expands on that as follows:
The delineation of spells become more clear;
Clerics gain 1st and 2nd level spells on their own (knowledge and faith).
Then it changes up a little, depending on the "ranking" of the god. All other spells are gained through prayer.
Demigods: Grant 3rd-5th level spells directly, and the cleric cannot get higher level spells.
Lesser Gods: Grant 3rd-5th level spells through minions, grants 6th level spells directly, and cannot grant 7th level spells.
Great Gods: Grant 3rd-5th level spells through minions, and 6th and 7th level spells directly.

That's right- if you're a cleric of a demigod, you can't get higher than a 5th level spell. If you're a cleric of a lesser god, you can't get 7th level spells.

Yep! I always made sure that my clerics followed greater gods. Not that it ever mattered.

Me: "My cleric finally made 5th level!"

DM: "The wraith hits you."

Me: "..."

Undead really, really sucked in 1e and 2e. I was happy to see the energy drains allow saves in 3e, though I think the DCs were a bit low on those, and probably shouldn't have allowed two saves in order to permanently lose the level. It went from too hard to avoid losing levels to too easy to avoid losing levels.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Can you spell what the Rock is casting?!

Wordplay is the highest form of humor!
-Me, in fifth grade, probably. Me, now, definitely.

 

[Maxperson]

Personally, I always enjoyed the idea that a cleric is requesting their spells for the day, rather than simply picking them. Done right, that's supposed to be indicative of your god looking out for you; if you're requesting all sorts of anti-undead spells, and the DM knows that you're going to be facing several demons who're behind the recent spate of undead attacks, you might find yourself with a bunch of anti-demon spells instead. Then the party takes that into account and voila, an in-character means of giving the party a hint about what's going on!

Of course, I suspect that most people didn't see it that way, and either viewed it as the DM playing nanny over their character (and resented it), or DMs simply found it too cumbersome to look over the cleric's spell selection each day and potentially cross some stuff out in favor of other stuff.

Likewise for the issue of weaker gods not offering the best spells. Part of the idea there (as I saw it) was that weaker gods had fewer followers, which meant that as you gained levels you became more and more important in the overall religious hierarchy. A greater god might have a lot of 18th level clerics spread all over the continent/world/planes, but you might be the only 18th level cleric a demigod had, and while he couldn't grant you spells above 5th level you bet your ass that when you called out to him, he listened!

That all played into the idea that if you weren't the cleric of a greater god, you were out there proselytizing and winning over converts in an effort to earn your god enough worshipers that they'd become a greater deity. There were no rules for this, in terms of how many worshipers were needed, but it still dovetailed with why a cleric would suddenly build a temple at 9th level.

When I DM'd the gods usually gave clerics what they asked for, but sometimes not for reason you spelled out. I also occasionally denied spells that were opposed to what the cleric's god represented. As a made up example, if a cleric of the good of forests and plant preservation requested the deforestation spell............................denied!!!

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Yep! I always made sure that my clerics followed greater gods. Not that it ever mattered.

Me: "My cleric finally made 5th level!"

DM: "The wraith hits you."

Me: "..."

Undead really, really sucked in 1e and 2e. I was happy to see the energy drains allow saves in 3e, though I think the DCs were a bit low on those, and probably shouldn't have allowed two saves in order to permanently lose the level. It went from too hard to avoid losing levels to too easy to avoid losing levels.

Weird true fact.

Gygax is on the record (too lazy now to research the reference) as saying that one of his regrets with D&D is allowing turning undead for clerics.

In his opinion, it made undead too easy. Which made him create magic items that undead could use that would make them impervious to turning.

GYGAX!!!!!!

 

[James Gasik]

Weird true fact.

Gygax is on the record (too lazy now to research the reference) as saying that one of his regrets with D&D is allowing turning undead for clerics.

In his opinion, it made undead too easy. Which made him create magic items that undead could use that would make them impervious to turning.

GYGAX!!!!!!

Oh yeah, when I ran the 5e version of Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, the players were so confused by the magic items that existed specifically to prevent undead from being turned. "What are these? Why are these? How are these? And what are we supposed to do with them?"

My reply was "if you're Good? Probably pitch them into a volcano. Oh hey, White Plume Mountain is next!"

 

[James Gasik]

To be fair, a large part of this is that AD&D saw a lot of different designers over the years (particularly in the 2E era) who disagreed with earlier strictures and worked to break them down, introducing exceptions where previously there had been none. Which isn't to say that they were deliberately trying to break from convention, or had any sort of bone to pick with established prohibitions (or even understood why they were there), but the end result was the same: more and more exceptions could be found if you knew where to look.

The "leatherette" books were particularly notable for this, as they had a lot of exceptions to the demihuman class restrictions that up until that point had been (fairly) inviolable.

Well, unless you believe Unearthed Arcana is real, since as I mentioned, it had some wackiness:

Half-Orc: C/F, C/T, C/A, F/T, F/A

Halfling: C/F, C/T, D/F, D/T, F/T

Dwarf, Gray: C/F, C/T, C/A, F/T, F/A

Dwarf, Hill or Mountain: C/F, F/T

Gnome, Deep: C/F, C/I, C/T, C/A, F/I, F/T, F/A, I/T, I/A

Gnome, Surface: C/F, C/I, C/T, F/I, F/T, I/T

Elf, Wild: F/T

Elf, Dark: C/F, C/R, C/M, C/T, C/A, F/M , F/T, F/A, R/M, M/T, M/A, C/F/M, C/F/T, C/M/T, F/M/T

Elf, Others: C/F, C/R, C/M, C/T, C/A, D/F, D/R, D/M, D/T, F/M, F/T, F/A, R/M, M/T, M/A, C/F/M, C/F/T, C/M/T, F/M/T

Allowing Multiclass Bards was about the weirdest thing in the leatherettes I remember, and something I always wanted to do but never got around to. Bard/Mage? Sharing Wizard spells in your spellbook with yourself? Sounds wild.

But some limitations were apparently so inviolate, so core to the D&D experience that you got things like the Compete Book of Dwarves which had to make a Fighter/Cleric Kit just to say "Of course Dwarves can't be Paladins! But uh, here's a bunch of Paladin abilities for your LG Fighter/Cleric..."

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Oh yeah, when I ran the 5e version of Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, the players were so confused by the magic items that existed specifically to prevent undead from being turned. "What are these? Why are these? How are these? And what are we supposed to do with them?"

It makes me think that Gygax was sad that he never got around to creating his "Amulet of Imperviousness to Extra Damage from Rangers" that was only useable by humanoids.