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I was going to reply to Mannahnin regarding the Fighter’s book, as it really made fighters shine. Granted, only single class ones. As for some reason the split XP and armor and weapon restrictions wasn’t enough of a trade off to any benefit. It was also weird how the main implied reason for a...

Yeah, the direction in 2E was sort of all over the place. On one hand, you were constantly warned that mediocrity was to be exalted and that a power-up should be rare, or one would risk a “Monte Haul campaign” <shudder>, yet there was all this optional stuff that was sprinkled around that was...

Yeah, when we moved from RC BECMI we also did 3d6 down the line. When you’re 12, you sort of believe what is in the book, which was that bad scores was “part of the fun” and anything that made the game easier was wrong. For the first several campaigns I ran, it was irrelevant if classes were...

It’s more a statement of fact. The decision to make everything except for a narrow range of rules options was done prior to the game’s release and also before it was ever played. I think you can’t really look at rule choices without taking that somewhat holistically. I’ll add that—from what...

Changes are somewhat difficult to assess similar to the 3 to 3.5 move as there doesn’t appear to be much desire by the publisher in either case to make a lot of the changes. While at the same time, it seems it would make sense for the changes to be very front and center as one would suspect...

This was, for whatever reason, a design decision to make single-class fighters supposedly still useful. I’m not completely convinced that this was the case. That said, a single class 2E fighter can definitely bring the pain in ways that multiclass or others in the Warrior group simply can’t...

Weapon specialization, yes, style specialization which was introduced in The Complete Fighter’s Handbook was not limited to only fighters—or in some cases even characters in the 2E “Warriors” group. TWF was open to warriors and thieves. Single-weapon and two-handed weapon to all four groups...

That is some pure, high-grade, Colombian munchkinism. This is the stuff Nancy Reagan was warning about. Just say no. You give this to a 11 or 12 year old kid, next thing you know, they’re bringing their copy of the Complete Book of Elves to the game.

I thought this same thing for a lot of years, basically, RAS’s Mary Sue wagging the dog on the gamerules, even way back then in 1988. I finally got proven wrong on a Reddit post I made regarding it (when I was still on Reddit) as it wasn’t true. RAS based the dual wielding on the 1E UA rules...

I think that there was a time when snap rule adjudication was expected. I think that time is passed.

I give my rangers the option of bow specialization or two-weapon fighting, and so far, I’ve not had anyone turn down the bow. 2E bows can be extremely powerful in a high strength/high dexterity specialist. Especially the “shoot before initiative” on the first round of combat. Most single-class...

Kinda sorta not really. You get a few “decision points” where you can apply proficiency to one or the other ability. That’s about the extent of customization of abilities. Even when a character doesn’t have proficiency, the ability still exists for everyone, the likelihood of success just is...

No, it’s nothing really. It’s just a function of character build. It might as well be the same as hit points or numbers of spells per level. It’s not really a method to distinguish a character the way skill systems have typically been used. Then the skills themselves are poorly developed...

What you’re describing—5E method which is mostly an afterthought of or consequence of a combination of class, species, and background, with a modicum of design in the way of ability score selection seems like it’s simply mechanical. Sure, the method in either AD&D or 3E/3.5/PF is absolutely...

Basically 5E has no skill system. It’s just flavor attributes assigned to ability scores. Which is fine, B/X has no skill system nor even the implied concept of one. B/X is thriving and well. The problem is when you try to over define the 5E system into being an actual skill system. It is...

Makes you miss the old, 1x an unencumbered character’s strength score or whatever it was.

I my experience, 5E is hard to balance the knife edge of challenge/TPK. Fortunately, at least for me, my tables have been fairly happy with having a solely story driven game. So, I’ve not had to really worry about building either challenging or balanced combats. I’ve just erred on the side of...

If you weren’t playing this way, you were effectively making rogues useless anyway.

I think this discussion is missing that bounded accuracy isn’t just applicable to the “skill system” in 5E—a term that I’m putting in quotes, as it’s pretty far from being a skill system in the sense of its use in D&D from AD&D OE where it was introduced through 3E. It is, at best, is a semi...