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<blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 9119212" data-attributes="member: 2209">I think this is a big piece.D&amp;D came from chainmail where you have wizard miniatures showing Gandalf and Merlin in robes and pointy hats alongside Gimle the Dwarf and Sir Lancelot in heavy armor wielding big weapons.The wargames had rules for base men at arms units, and special unit magic users and heroes who were tougher and could do special things. So the rules for the wargame were that armored heroes were tough and magic-users were not front line tough but artillery stand ins. This was a balance of game logic for specializing war game pieces and a bit of narrative logic to match the desired fantasy iconic images.Arneson turned the men at arms into individual PCs for roleplaying. So some Chainmail rules transfer over as rules. And the thinking in D&amp;D is a bit the same of game balance design with clerics being slightly less good fighters with not being able to use magic swords standing out as a game dynamic limitation. Druids are nature clerics and can use sickle swords (part of the catchall group of curved swords under the umbrella scimitar term in 1e) because druids and sickles are iconic imagery and balanced against normal clerics who cannot use swords at all but can use metal armor. And the druids in non metal armor only matches up a bit narratively with the Merlin imagery and Asterix and Obelix druids wearing robe type stuff and not chain mail.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Voadam, post: 9119212, member: 2209"] I think this is a big piece. D&D came from chainmail where you have wizard miniatures showing Gandalf and Merlin in robes and pointy hats alongside Gimle the Dwarf and Sir Lancelot in heavy armor wielding big weapons. The wargames had rules for base men at arms units, and special unit magic users and heroes who were tougher and could do special things. So the rules for the wargame were that armored heroes were tough and magic-users were not front line tough but artillery stand ins. This was a balance of game logic for specializing war game pieces and a bit of narrative logic to match the desired fantasy iconic images. Arneson turned the men at arms into individual PCs for roleplaying. So some Chainmail rules transfer over as rules. And the thinking in D&D is a bit the same of game balance design with clerics being slightly less good fighters with not being able to use magic swords standing out as a game dynamic limitation. Druids are nature clerics and can use sickle swords (part of the catchall group of curved swords under the umbrella scimitar term in 1e) because druids and sickles are iconic imagery and balanced against normal clerics who cannot use swords at all but can use metal armor. And the druids in non metal armor only matches up a bit narratively with the Merlin imagery and Asterix and Obelix druids wearing robe type stuff and not chain mail. [/QUOTE]

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