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Turning Undead is still powerful. And at first level Clerics are just as good as Fighters in combat, with the sole exception of having a D6 HD instead of a D8. All weapons do a D6, Clerics have full armor use and shields. They can't use edged weapons, but that only starts to matter once magic...

5 Torches Deep includes this rule, and the players in my three year campaign used it frequently. I agree that it's a nice rule, although I think it's important to balance the costs to make it affordable without letting them have an excessive supply. One advantage of 5TD in this regard, is...

Finished this over lunch today. The copy I have is the 2024 reissue, and am pleased to report that the ten years after 35 page Afterword chapter that's been added is better in this regard. Seems like Ewalt's either gotten over his issues or gotten better at writing so as not to put them on...

Yeah, Climb Walls seems at first glance to be the one thing they're actually competent at, but once you look at the full rules in the DMG this "most abused function" is definitely less reliable. He tells us that the average dungeon wall is climbed at 9' per round, that it doubles your failure...

Can you quote him? We're talking about the same Gary who did voiceover work for D&D Online, right? Beyond that... A) Thieves are simply bad and could use help in TSR editions regardless of any comparison to other versions. If you have a 10% to 50% chance of performing a key character...

Some folks really like playing on hard mode. Your Mileage May Vary as always. :) Individual tastes always vary. Though whether TSR-era Thieves are bad in combat and have terrible chances of using most of their skills is simple to see if you just read the text and look at the numbers. I've...

I'm always wary when people bring this up because there's a categorical difference between this and the legal system. People have a right to counsel before the government kills them or locks them up or takes their stuff. No one's got a right to make people buy their products or listen to them...

Ewalt's might not be as bad as Barrowcliffe's, but this book is absolutely ran through with shame and self-consciousness over gamer geekery. That Taskerland review aptly skewers it.

Sure. I get the rationale. I'm a bit concerned that it's kind of a trap option, or just a design which ostensibly addresses the issue while actually not fixing the problem. Which is that Thieves are, in the TSR editions, just bad. Incompetent at their role and also terrible at combat. Like...

Yes, as might be obvious from me citing each edition and mentioning a page number, I both know the rules and looked before posting. I know about the repeating 20s. By "no extra weight" I'm not talking about THAC0, I'm comparing to the attack tables. A nat 20 in 1E gives you exactly what the...

Depends on over how long a period we're talking. Potentially years of play. A given DM might easily have a "Tree of Strength" or "Fountain of Wisdom" which specifically increases a given ability score, and which the players might be able to hear rumors of and quest for, or otherwise be a...

Nice work! I read DMG page 66 as saying that weapon length applies when closing to melee whether charging or not. So longer weapon always strikes first in the first round of melee in either event. (Which accords with my IRL fencing and LARP experience). Looks like your read is that it only...

I think this is highly variable from table to table. Given the DMG example of such a pool, and the one from B1, it's highly likely that a fair number of people's campaigns featured at least semi-regular instances of weird magic which could raise ability scores. OTOH you'd also have DMs like...

Untrue. As Bill pointed out, the vast majority of the rules cited in ADDICT are straight out of the DMG. I think your characterization is unfair and inaccurate. The only place a Dragon article gets cited for rules (as opposed to just references to the names, levels, or equipment of characters...

The other possibility is that they are able to continue on the basis that most of their fans are not nearly as connected to this story and don't value Goodman's promise not to work with Bledsaw as much as we do. That most DCC fans either are blissfully unaware of the controversy, or don't want...

Pretty close. It's a bit weirder than Conan, what with the flat world and all. But definitely emphasizing Howard, Lovecraft, Leiber and Moorcock in the worldbuilding, and pretty much eliminating Tolkien. Which is in its own way in keeping with Gary's preferences. Yes, totally agree on...

Right now I'm in the middle of David Ewalt's Of Dice and Men. It's a bit better than I had heard; readable but not amazing. Though I think the Taskerland review makes some excellent points about the unfortunate shallowness of Ewalt's delve, and it's difficult to argue with any of it. From the...

Hey, we're lazy too! :) I don't know why it's never caught on here, while the latter two are endemic.

OD&D: No extra weight, critical hits and fumbles were house rules, third party supplements like Arduin might have them. AD&D: Same. Although the Saving Throw rules mention that a nat 1 always fails regardless of modifiers, which can very much matter at high levels with magic items. B/X: First...