OD&D A request for advice

[Mannahnin]

A couple of more observations:

There is multiclassing, but it's very challenging and time-consuming (playing RAW). It is the Polymath Immortal Path, which the character pursues by getting to a certain level in the four human classes. After achieving that, all four classes unlock for the character. "I am Murdoch, the 'Cleric/Fighter/Magic-User/Thief', and I'm awesome."

Don't you have to literally max out a class (36th level) and THEN start another class from 1st? I don't think that really resembles "multiclass" as it has ever existed in D&D in any practical sense. Much as the epic, far-off (if not entirely theoretical) prospect was tantalizing to me as a teenager when I first got the Immortals set.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Don't you have to literally max out a class (36th level) and THEN start another class from 1st? I don't think that really resembles "multiclass" as it has ever existed in D&D in any practical sense. Much as the epic, far-off (if not entirely theoretical) prospect was tantalizing to me as a teenager when I first got the Immortals set.

If anything that's more like the AD&D dual class rules that only humans had, except with a limitation that you had to play forever instead of the annoying rules dual classing had.

 

[Mannahnin]

If anything that's more like the AD&D dual class rules that only humans had, except with a limitation that you had to play forever instead of the annoying rules dual classing had.

True, though in practice dual-classing could actually work, at least once your party had a few levels under their belts. Due to the quasi-geometric XP progression, it wouldn't actually take all that many sessions for a dual-classing PC to nearly catch up in level with their companions, and gain the full benefits of both classes.

 

[Bacon Bits]

True, though in practice dual-classing could actually work, at least once your party had a few levels under their belts. Due to the quasi-geometric XP progression, it wouldn't actually take all that many sessions for a dual-classing PC to nearly catch up in level with their companions, and gain the full benefits of both classes.

The only time I ever remember it working well was when a guy really wanted to be a thief but rolled... extremely well. He started as fighter until level 2 and then switched ASAP to thief just to get whatever ridiculous percentile strength he had rolled and moderately better equipment draw. As usual, though, it's hard to evaluate dual class because just to do it requires pretty crazy rolls.

I also did see one 1e Bard. He was pretty disgusting. He had over 110 hit points when the rest of us were like level 13. However, anything over name level makes multiclass and dual class characters look really good.

 

[cavalier973]

So, I discovered that a relatively important rule is missing from the RC: non-magical, non-skill-based healing.

So, the party emerges from the dungeon pretty beat-up. The cleric is still level 1, so no healing spells. They don’t have enough gold to pay for healing, and the DM opted to not introduce skills.

How long will it take the party members to recover by just resting? The RC doesn’t say, that I can find.

I checked out my copy of Mentzer Basic, and it isn’t there, either. Moldvay at has the answer (1d3 HP regained per day).

 

[cbwjm]

After a quick look through the usual places in the rule books, I can't seem to find anything about it either. I think I always thought it was 1 hit point/day but I'm likely getting mixed up with 2e which used this rule (3 with complete bed rest, add your hit point bonus if you have a full week of bed rest). I know it was quite slow, especially when at higher levels but I guess they assumed that at higher levels you had enough healing spells that you didn't have to worry about hit point recovery.

 

[Michael Linke]

The rule is missing from the Rules Cyclopedia. The Black Box starter set, which was supposed to be the introductory set to the RC, gives 1d4 hp per day of bed rest on page 28.

 

[cavalier973]

Another (probable) error: it says that magic users must be 36th level and have a score of 18 in Wisdom to cast the “Wish” spell. This is the same wording as the cleric, with regard to the “Wish” spell, so I think it was copied and pasted. It ought to be an 18 in Intelligence for magic users.

Right?

 

[cavalier973]

I wish I had a copy of the All New Easy To Master Dungeons & Dragons Game. [sad face emoji]

They haven’t released the pdf of it, yet, on dndclassics

They have released the three expansions for it, though. Some of the purchasers who reviewed one of them claimed that some of the expansion was missing—specifically, the back side of some of the cards, which had character information.

 

[Michael Linke]

The final version of that rulebook, branded "The Classic Dungeons and Dragons Game" was available on Drivethru or RPGNow a very long time ago. I had a legal, watermarked pdf file of it until recently, but i'm not sure which hard drive I archived it on.

It was more or less the same text as the Black Box rulebook, but some of the extra stuff from the dragon cards was edited into the text as sidebars.