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Yep. Bathwater and the baby too. I've never found multiclassing mechanics very satisfactory in ANY edition. If you want a new class - make a new class. Stop trying to Frankenstein them together, like crashing two trains into each other hoping that the resulting catastrophe will actually...

gro·gnard | \ (ˌ)grō¦nyär \ plural -s Definition of grognard 1: an old soldier 2 often capitalized : a soldier of the original imperial guard that was created by Napoleon I in 1804 and that made the final French charge at Waterloo So, yeah technically it's more like GROWN-yar. I say we get to...

NO edition of D&D has an expiration date. Doesn't matter why they might want old Grognards to drink the koolaid - they just don't have to buy into 5E if they don't want to. Nobody does. Everyone can play any past edition to their hearts content until they die. The problem the old guard might...

The question is tagged as dealing with 1E so my answer was framed accordingly. I also SAID there would be exceptions (even in 1E), and yes, in 3E quickened spells do make for one of those exceptions. Haste, however, does not make one of those exceptions in 3E and in fact SPECIFICALLY says in...

Only rarely. If the DM wants to win - they win. Being "down" in the first place, with an enemy actually in a position to "hasten their death", almost always means the PC is very likely to die anyway. Even if the player had it coming because of dumb decisions or whatever, the PC just dying...

Are you nuts? D&D XP is EXACTLY the name they should have chosen. And yeah, this really sniffs of never having been focus-grouped. I can't even conceive of actual players who would respond to the name with, "Yes! This is awesome! Go with that!"

As with the original rules, if simply closing neither side gets melee attacks. It would be appropriate to have longer reach break initiative ties though. I may do that. Outside of that it really needs to fall back again to ABSTRACTION - which is what the system was SUPPOSEDLY based on given...

All of an individuals attacks are resolved on their turn at the same time, but multiple melee attack routines get an initiative bonus: 2 routines = -1; 3 routines = -2, etc. Obviously, if an opponent CAN be prevented from getting within their weapon's length, then an opposing combatant has...

I have no need or desire to commit to a clone when 1E has not reached its expiration. :)

My own 20/20 hindsight kind of view of it is that it NEVER was a system that Gygax himself used or even wanted. From what I understand it was one of a number of things put into 1E because other people asked for it. Again IIUC, he personally always used something far simpler, and maybe even...

I play alignment the same way I have since DECADES before 5E.

Custom Initiative - Don't play 1E without it. I sure won't and only tried ONCE. Custom crit tables - Used to be in a group that was really big on this and I kept making new and different charts for us. I don't use them at all anymore for my own games. No armor adjustment by weapon - Tried a...

One. Only one. This is a consistent thing across every edition of D&D. Weapon attacks can increase and decrease wildly, but casters ONLY ever get one spell per round to cast. With possible exceptions - because AD&D loves exceptions to every damn thing. It's possible that a DM borrows...

For the VERY same reason that the players don't get to see all of my rolls as DM, I do not typically enforce what is otherwise my right as DM to see absolutely every one of theirs. They need to trust me. I need to trust them. Do players abuse that trust? Absolutely. It really annoys me that...

Increasingly toxic fans are ultimately the ones who will destroy everything actually appealing regarding any significant IP. I've watched it happen in multiple genres and multiple types of media - TV, film, novels, comics, SF, fantasy...

If they ever published a "sourcebook" or expansion book for a particular nation or region within the Realms, then that nation or region really can be (and probably should be) considered a setting unto itself. I mean, if you have to hand DM's a whole 'nother book and say, "The original...

Just a note to add - it's a bit misleading to call OSRIC an "early pillar". It was the FIRST retroclone and there were no others to compare to it or compete with it. OSRIC isn't one pillar out of many rising from some other foundational movement - it's really the whole foundation. Unless you...

Don't even need books - the SRD is still available and free.

One of the bigger elements about E6 that appealed to me was minimal need for any house rules. I loved the idea of handing players a PH and just 4 pages of E6-related rules (and my minimal house rule changes/additions), and never intending or foreseeing anything more. Any remaining issues I've...

I have never really had problems with railroading as a player or as DM - except when it was being done by published adventures. First time I can remember it becoming an issue is with A3-4 in the Slaver's series. PC's are all ko'd and captured. No saves. No other possible outcome. No...