D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

[Lanefan]

True, but a Dragon can't just choose to breathe in 1E, he needs to roll a 50 or below on a 1d100, and then he needs to target the Wizard.

A big ol' Gold can get by with targeting anywhere in the Wizard's general neighbourhood, the Wiz is still going down.

That's the biggest danger of some Dragon breath attacks - not the damage they do per se, but that they do that damage to everything in a fairly big area; and in 1e, "breath weapon" is generally the hardest save category. Blues and Blacks are a little nicer in that their breath weapon is a line rather than a cone or cloud and thus doesn't usually hit as many people at once.

 

[Cruentus]

True, but a Dragon can't just choose to breathe in 1E, he needs to roll a 50 or below on a 1d100, and then he needs to target the Wizard.

Where is that rule from? Its not in the MM1 or under the Red Dragon. I know we never played with any rule like that back when we played Ad&d in the early eighties.

 

[Lanefan]

Where is that rule from? Its not in the MM1 or under the Red Dragon. I know we never played with any rule like that back when we played Ad&d in the early eighties.

I don't remember anything about having to roll 50 or under but I'm fairly sure there's a rule that says they can't breathe in consecutive rounds; maybe the 50-or-under idea is someone's houserule variant on that?

 

[pemerton]

I don't remember anything about having to roll 50 or under but I'm fairly sure there's a rule that says they can't breathe in consecutive rounds; maybe the 50-or-under idea is someone's houserule variant on that?

AD&D Monster Manual, p 30:

Dragons con attack by claw/bite or breath weapon. The latter can be used but three times per day, maximum. If a choice is possible roll percentile dice. Any score above 50% indicates the dragon will breathe.​