D&D 2E AD&D 2e - Player's Options ?

[R_J_K75]

I think it would be faster than you recall!

Youre probably right because I started thinking about it afterwards and it started coming back to me more than I thought it would. I just have vague memories of how bad and slow the initiative system was, declaring your action and then rolling every round. Oh the arguments that would ensue when the players and the DM weren't quite on the same page thank you TotME. I remember getting into a 3 hour argument...err conversation with the DM after a game on why my PC should have been able to identify some kind of monstrous plant/vine with the herbalism NWP.

 

[R_J_K75]

Creating a character in 2E was quick and easy. We could get killed and have another character ready within 5 minutes

We had a few people in our group that would sit around and roll up a bunch of characters at once because they died so much. Famous last words..."I cast fireball"!

 

[R_J_K75]

It allowed me to make a thief without find/remove trap. Devilry!

Wasn't there a few more thieve skills added that you could choose from?

 

[Laurefindel]

Wasn't there a few more thieve skills added that you could choose from?

Yes: detect magic, bribery, escape artist and a few more I don't remember

Somehow I managed to end-up with weapon specialization in exchange for backstap IIRC

 

[Mark Hope]

I just have vague memories of how bad and slow the initiative system was, declaring your action and then rolling every round.

I replaced the standard 2e system with one that was much quicker, though less gritter. My players made me put the standard one back haha. They really like rolling each round and then adding the initiative modifier to see when their action comes. Go figure

 

[Retreater]

We tried it, disliked the added complexity, and still refer to it as "Skills and Cheese"

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Wiseblood]

We used them. I haven’t looked at them in years though. Maybe I will this weekend.

 

[Shiroiken]

IME players loved them, because it allowed a lot of customization, and most DMs hated them, because they allowed for wayyy too much CharOp. The very first campaign where these were introduced died in the first session. The next took about 4 sessions before it broke up (costing a friendship in the process). After that we just decided these were terrible and just killed campaigns. Admittedly we never used High Level Campaigning, but that's because none of us liked the idea of just starting that high level, and the highest we ever got in any campaign was about level 15.

 

[cbwjm]

Something I did like about the skills and powers/spells and magic options is for making priests of specific gods. Rather than allowing a player to go crazy creating an OP cleric (I'm told this is what people had done in the past) the DM can use the rules to create speciality priests.