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Thanks for posting those links. I was aware that many of the 3E guys were not involved with 4E, but wasn't aware of what overlap there was. I'm sure my perspective is skewed. When I think of the 3E designers, I think first of SKR and Monte Cook, because they had active websites with cool...

AC 2 at first level is quite possible. AC didn't improve as fast as it does in 3E, so a fighter would often have the same AC at 4th level. The first Ring of Protection +1 you found probably went to the party wizard, and the first Shield +1 you found probably went to the cleric. As far as how...

I'd put the BD&D transition from "everyman" to "action hero" at about level 4 (I think that's the point at which the B/X fighter gets improved attack rolls and saving throws). At this point, with an average of 20 HP or so, the fighter can survive several rounds of attacks from a horde of...

A question on this -- how often does a new edition feature a new design team? How often is a new edition due to a new team coming in and saying "Well, if we were designing D&D, we would have done things very differently, so let's make our edition what we think D&D should have been all along."...

What you describe is certainly not the BD&D game I played, neither the actual game experience nor the game described in the Moldvay and Mentzer books.

But wasn't that a smart move on the part of a genius-level magic-using enemy? Should you have to dumb down the bad guys so the players can not be inconvenienced? If magic is going to remain capable of incapacitating opponents -- whether through paralysis, petrification, domination, possession...

At the same time, it was quite possible that an NPC "Normal Man" had better stats overall, but didn't choose the adventuring life. Or, it was possible that a PC could get by on luck, guile, and planning and survive to high level even if they weren't all that outstanding. The point is, the...

McClane. John McCain is a presidential candidate and former P.O.W. He's also not a very recent invention. Rolling 3d6 in order, then choosing your class, "felt" to me like the system was saying, "Okay, you're just some guy in the world, and now you're deciding to be an adventurer." You...

Imagine, if you will, that we created a variant fighter, inspired by medieval religious-military orders. Suppose we gave him a smaller HD, inferior weapons, and no way to improve his Str on character creation. Then we gave him a Turn Undead ability and a small selection of defensive and...

3E and 3.5 did create the idea that a) PCs have a right to expect a certain GP value in magic items at each level, and b) more importantly, they have the right to determine what those items are, because of the expectation of magic shops and the ease of crafting. 3E and 3.5 also saw a lot more...

Did 1E have the repeating 20's on the to-hit tables? If so, that made THAC0 a bit different than the tables. Demons and devils were not just re-named but also removed from the "core" monsters. They didn't show up until MC8, a couple of years after 2E came out.

If that is the policy for the core magic items, WotC needs to really hold the line on the supplements that follow. If there are no core items that boost saving throws, but saving throws remain important, you can bet that players will WANT an item that boosts saving throws.

Players just like to look at stuff, whether it's a mini, a hand-drawn sketch, the MM picture or whatever. As good as I am at describing an environment, a picture is worth a thousand words. Players also seem to be less patient than they were when I was first playing D&D. Some start rolling...

Even more, they're going after the fraction of RPG gamers who didn't like D&D at all -- including those who turned away long before 3E. The shift away from Vancian spellcasting is HUGE, as that was always one of the most significant differences between D&D and every other game on the market...

As far as Sam resisting the lure of the ring, YES, that's an "ordinary" feat. In fact, he can only do it because he's so ordinary. He's just a country gardener. He resists the lure of the ring not because he's got a +25 Will save, but because he is just a humble guy who doesn't want power at...

They changed a lot -- they took out things. In the intial 2E transition, TSR removed half-orcs (for whom the most likely origin was rape), assassins, demons, devils, and MM nudity. See a pattern here?

I think that 3E pulled off a masterful sleight of hand. I went from BECM to 2E to 3E. 3E removed many of the AD&D rules that I, as a BD&D player never liked (exceptional strength, weapon vs. enemy size, segments), and made the ability score charts resemble those of BD&D. In at least some ways...

I didn't see anything at all insulting in Dristram's post. For anybody just joining the hobby now, 4E is most clearly NOT "the cool D&D game they heard about from the 80's." It's a very different game, and it is no insult to point that out. Whether or not 4E is a cool game in its own right...

I didn't say it was a bad thing, but it certainly is different. It places the PCs further beyond the "ordinary people" than they had been before. BD&D: Fighter has about 1d8+1 hp; "Normal Man" has 1d4 IIRC 2E: Fighter has about 1d10+1; "0-level human" depends on profession but usually about 1d6...

The triple maximum HP at first level are leaning this way. It really depends on how they handle monster HP. A 1st-level fighter with 14 Con will have 32 HP; if nothing changes, that's more than an ogre. He can be shot with five heavy crossbow bolts and keep fighting. He can fall 60' and...