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The problem with old-school wizards is that they are only cool in the context of old-school games. When you have only one class that can use sleep or fireball, then the class has a real identity. For some players, the initial weakness of the class can be both a challenge and part of the PC's...

Nice summary! A couple of comments: Also stolen from Vance in AD&D : one version of the Binding spell (minimus containment), Imprisonment and its reverse (=the Forlorn Encystment, a much classier name from Vance), and of course Clone. I feel like in one of the original Mazarin stories he...

Fellow Rhode Islander here. Mass has deep pockets so there's probably not much RI can do about it. Sad! Cheers

One of my favorite Tim Powers novels is The Drawing of the Dark. It's got a tight plot and nicely self-contained mythology.

The last AD&D game I ran had a metric ton of house rules. The next one I will try to run closer to the book, and being very selective about UA inclusions. Likely house rules (not simply ignored optional rules): Single-classed MUs can declare a themed list of spells (1 per level) representing...

Yeah, it's gone from something very rare to simply "untyped magic damage". Maybe any creature with magic resistance should be resistant to force damage?

I don't think every monster archetype needs a watered down PC version. I would make a list that is more slanted to mortals. The mundanes, 99% of the population : -Human (versatile) -Dwarf (magic resistant) -Halfling (stealthy) -Orc (strong) -Lizardfolk The fey (not true fey, but mortal...

Hackmaster included this race if I remember correctly and called them gnomlings.

How about Nidhogg? https://www.google.fr/books/edition/The_Encyclopedia_of_Epic_Myths_and_Legen/_QfzEAAAQBAJ?hl=fr&gbpv=1&dq=nidhogg&pg=PA227&printsec=frontcover

Seeing all these portraits together makes me appreciate the diversity effort even more! I also noticed some characters who are more mature-looking, which is nice. We can't all be ageless elves.

This has already probably been pointed out, but all mythology is intrinsically biased by its culture of origin. And nearly all of it is sexist/racist/[X]ist by today's standards. I'm more bothered by the codification of "succubus" and "hag" as monsters than I am by the inclusion of Tiamat.

Pre-industrial, human-dominated worlds are a nearly universal canvas for storytelling. As a DM you can draw on a multicultural canon of both real and mythic history as you create your own setting, while the players can find archetypes and tropes to latch onto making it easier for them to imagine...

The bindinga on my PH and DMG are still in oerfect shape 40+ years later.

There are some good spells in there that sadly never made it into AD&D! I like the concept of the Dreams spell, although it should probably not be permanent until dispelled.

If I squint I can imagine Hunter's Mark as a mumdane class ability, since it's always prepared and diesn't use spell slots the first X times

Even with +4 to save, giant centipede poison is pretty often fatal! Unless you're short. Hobbits, gnomes and dwarves probably use it as seasoning.

As a DM I run things closer to the Frank end of the spectrum. Illusions are a unique form of magic that blends aspects of conjuration, enchantment, and pure sensory experience. Illusionists have a connection to sources of conjurable energy/substance that aren't fully understood. Chromatic orb...

Dex and magic armor help on a lot of these saves, but yeah thieves got the short end again.

AD&D illusionists were definitelt conjuration-adjacent (shadow monsters, prismatic X...)