I do agree that if they've gone to the trouble of writing that text for healing word, they could have saved some trouble and written in the amount healed instead.
Those are some of the books i found at my mum's, I already had the campaign book with me that I crack into from time to time. They're good books and I'm not sure there was a huge amount of changes from 2e so lore is mostly compatible with 2e lore.
I meant the bonus spell slots for being a specialist. They're great when low level but I always found them less impactful once you reached 5th/6th level since you had a decent amount of spell slots at that point. Still good to have, but I'd rather be a generalist mage for full spell access.
That's cool that you can be any class. Back in the day we still followed class restrictions but we didn't bother with level limits. Mind you, I don't think the level limits would have even been an issue since they were quite generous in 2e and I don't think we would have ever hit them.
Wasn't...
Recently picked up all of my 2e and 3e books from my mum's place where they've been stored for a couple of decades. It's been pretty cool reading through the 3e core books, I'm tempted to run it, but then I'm also tempted to run so many other games.
With a 19 Int, I think I'd be fine with the penalty, 80% chance to know a spell is still very good. Is your gnome allowed to be a mage instead of an illusionist?
Is it just the core books you're able to use? One of the things I loved about spells and magic was spell specialisation.
Fair enough if it's off-putting. In all honesty we never bothered with the chance to learn spells so neither bonus nor penalty impacted us when we played. We also ignored the max spells/spell level optional rule.
2e specialists do have some good benefits to help outweigh the loss of a couple schools of magic.
1 extra spell slot is nice
Automatic spell each time you reach a new spell level.
The bonus to learn spells of your school really helps if your intelligence isn't maxed out.
Inflicting a save...
Thri-Kreen changes are quite interesting. They went from looking more but like to more humanoid. Not sure I ever really noticed the change, I've seen the 4e and 5e artwork but the old look has stuck in my mind.
Optimus Prime "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings"
He's selflessly good (opposite of neutral evil which is selfishly evil), protecting others even at the cost of his own life.