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A Compilation of all the Race Changes in Monsters of the Multiverse
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<blockquote data-quote="Mordhau" data-source="post: 8530321" data-attributes="member: 7032137"><p>I don't understand how the fact that AD&D had ability scores minimums is relevant to the fact that basic D&D had them.</p><p></p><p>Clearly they serve some kind of logic. Dwarves would get a Con bonus in AD&D but in Basic D&D they have a minimum. So the average would <em>not</em> be the same as no characters with Cons below 9 (not that unusual in Basic) would be Dwarves.</p><p></p><p>But we need to consider how the whole package works. First halflings in basic are basically fighters, which is an outlier in the history of the game. AD&D pushed them into rogues and every edition since has basically followed suit.</p><p></p><p>If you roll 18 Str do you go human (Fighter) or Halfling? Well unless you also have a Dex of 13 you're encouraged to go human Fighter because the XP bonus is better. You are also limited to armour your size and smaller weapons (explicitly) which is a real impediment in Basic. In addition you get a +1 bonus to missile weapons which encourages a play style where you go more for ranged attacks.</p><p></p><p>All of this means that in my experience, once again, due to the way the system works as a whole, the strongest characters in B/X are almost always going to be human fighters. </p><p></p><p>Again. What we need to consider here is not the theoretical scale in isolation but how the pieces work together to create a result.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mordhau, post: 8530321, member: 7032137"] I don't understand how the fact that AD&D had ability scores minimums is relevant to the fact that basic D&D had them. Clearly they serve some kind of logic. Dwarves would get a Con bonus in AD&D but in Basic D&D they have a minimum. So the average would [I]not[/I] be the same as no characters with Cons below 9 (not that unusual in Basic) would be Dwarves. But we need to consider how the whole package works. First halflings in basic are basically fighters, which is an outlier in the history of the game. AD&D pushed them into rogues and every edition since has basically followed suit. If you roll 18 Str do you go human (Fighter) or Halfling? Well unless you also have a Dex of 13 you're encouraged to go human Fighter because the XP bonus is better. You are also limited to armour your size and smaller weapons (explicitly) which is a real impediment in Basic. In addition you get a +1 bonus to missile weapons which encourages a play style where you go more for ranged attacks. All of this means that in my experience, once again, due to the way the system works as a whole, the strongest characters in B/X are almost always going to be human fighters. Again. What we need to consider here is not the theoretical scale in isolation but how the pieces work together to create a result. [/QUOTE]
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A Compilation of all the Race Changes in Monsters of the Multiverse
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