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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 4540211" data-attributes="member: 7635">I can't address UA as 1.5, but I can talk a little about Player's Options as "2.5".The Player's Option Line (Combat & Tactics, Skills & Powers, Spells & Magic) have some large overlap. S&P assumes your using C&T's unarmed combat system and weapon mastery; S&M has a section on using character points. However, even with all the massive changes (many of which show the direction 3e would develop in) only one other product ever assumed the PO rules would be used, the module Gates of Firestorm Peak. All other TSR books and supplements still defaulted to the the Core Rules + PHBR/DMGR series. (There was heavy support for PO in Dragon at the time, as well as support from the Core Rules 2.0 CD and a few references in DM Options: High Level Campaigns which was developed at the same time). The sole exception to this was Psionics. The revised psionic system (which included the famously bad idea of Mental Armor Class and Mental Thac0) was used in the revised Dark Sun book (the Will & the Way) as well as the revised Ravenloft book (Domains of Dread). Since Psionics was never core (and very red-headed in 2e) such references to the revised system was easy to include or ignore.Additionally, all the rules were presented "buffet" style; it was quite easy to use elements of the PO line (character points, spell points, weapon mastery, etc) without using the rest of the PO line. While there was some crossover, it was generally very easy to ignore. I knew DMs who used character point creation but not C&Ts wonky initiative system, for example. On the whole, the PO line is hard to call "2.5". If you used all the optional rules presented (Phase-based initiative, weapon mastery, sub-ability scores, character points, spell points, and the critical hit charts) you were playing a VERY different game than if you stayed with the PHB and Complete X Handbook line. However, the game never really used these options or even assumed them. Because of this, I think the 2.5 title is a little too disingenuous; unlike 3.5 (which revised the core and formed a baseline for future supplements) PO only added a bunch of radical options (and thus, was closer to 3.5's Unearthed Arcana than the v 3.5 rulebooks).EDIT: There was a fleeting reference to it in World-Builders Guidebook (specifically, the revised weapons/armor by historic age charts) but it was pretty self-explanitory in the WBG and easy to figure out without the PO books.</blockquote>

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