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That is actually an inaccurate statement. In B/X, the rules for Giving out Experience are on page B22: Note the award is for 1 gp value of non-magical treasure the characters recover. The reward gold would not grant experience. I posit two scenarios 1. A barmaid was abducted by goblins. Her...

You presented a lot to unpack. So I'll take them in order. I apologize for the LONG post. There are very few situations where a spell caster in B/X can blink the party home in an instant. You are thinking spells like teleport (which are both high level and also somewhat risky… it is possible...

I have an opportunity to play in a game soon (as opposed to DM'ing). With all these threads going on about how much fighter suck. I'm going to roll up a fighter and I'm going to try to be awesome. Maybe I'll report my experiences. Maybe y'all are right and fighters do suck... or maybe y'all...

I'd expect a wizard to take a couple attacks in an encounter of 20 rounds. But yes it happens.

Double post

These spells run out and eventually they are subjected to attacks against their natural AC. I mean if we are assuming that a wizard does not spend spell slots on ANYTHING else during the entirety of the adventure, how many can they cast? 4? (you can't cast these spells with higher level slots)...

Fair enough. There may be a disconnect here. I am most well versed in B/X. I played AD&D when I was young. We mostly played AD&D as B/X but with the cool classes and sometimes weapon vs AC and speed factor added in. If there were elements of AD&D that you personally experienced that I didn't...

If they are throwing fireball and firebolt every round, then that means they aren't casting other spells that are defensive in nature. How much damage are they taking? How likely are they to avoid attacks when they aren't using their spells for purposes other than direct damage? There are...

Nope. I can explain if you would like. I am talking about tangible, objective and procedural elements to the exploration game.

I'd say this is incorrect. The first edition to provide the experience you describe is probably OD&D or Basic / Expert. It achieved this state well before 4E came out. It does so by way of its extremely detailed exploration procedures. These procedures put a lot of agency in the hands of the...

Thanks for sharing. It is always interesting hearing how other people got into the hobby. I briefly left the hobby due to work ( a job that literally consumbed all of my free time) but got back into it shortly after. My most important moments in D&D: 1. Getting the Red Box as a birthday...

Despite that there are plenty of consequences for spell casting. Specifically for Thunderwave, the noise it makes and needing to be close to the action are significant. Generally, there are probably better uses for those slots... the entire spell vocabulary of the spell caster is in...

Thunderwave is a first level spell, which means 1. The wizard has to have it prepared 2. They can only do it a limited number of times per day. 3. There may be better uses of their 1st level spell slots. 4. Thunderwave makes a very loud noise within 300', which will likely alert monsters...

Good point. I think we are definitely in agreement here. You are right that I did change the terminology in this case and 'play-by-play' adjustment of the game experience would be undesirable. But if I were to keep the term of "curation", I would consider the idea of curation on a...

There are quite a few interesting maneuvers in the Attack Options section DMG that can help in this situation. Shove / Knock prone - I had a fighter in one of my games used a shove action to push a golem off a cliff. Overrun - barrel through the front line to get to the leader / spell caster...

It is 100% possible to have a "Challenge Based Gaming" experience in a game that features heavy DM adjudication. "Challenge Based Gaming" was the hallmark of Classic D&D (OD&D, B/X, etc) before the game became more formalized with precise rules. The DM doesn't have to enforce only just the...

This is the major difference. Skills, improvisational actions and maneuvers that can be done at will are compared to what are supposed to be limited use clear precise mechanics (spells). This is a sensical approach as long as it is balanced correctly. If casters are using spells as often as...

I was going to make a comment similar to this. I have had this experience. I learned to play by myself, with the Mentzer Red Box in 83. I was 10 years old at the time. I joined with other kids who also learned it the same way in the school yard in elementary school. We moved on to AD&D, but...

@Campbell I agree with your assessment. Combat in the classic games was only a part of the game experience, it wasn't even really the primary focus. Those who criticize older editions for being boring in combat are missing the point. For those games, most of the mechanical weight is expressed in...

100% yes. Fighters are much more interesting to play in Basic than magic users, to me. As a magic user you have an extremely limited number of set magical spells you can cast. But you only have a few uses, you have to have the correct spell prepared, and you are vulnerable to losing the spell...