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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8832007" data-attributes="member: 29398">In part because one of the underlying tenets of old-time D&amp;D is what I'd call &quot;enforced randomness&quot;.&nbsp; Characters generally didn't get to pick and choose what they got, instead it was at the whim of the dice (or module).&nbsp; The new spell given an MU on training?&nbsp; Random.&nbsp; Stats and hit points?&nbsp; Random.&nbsp; Treasure found?&nbsp; Random, and sometimes random whether or not you even found it; you might get a ring of multiple wishes at 3rd level or you might never see one in ten years of play.&nbsp; And for the most part I like this.&nbsp; The randomness of it all is part of what makes it fun.There was also a line of concern suggesting that if item creation was allowed too soon, PCs would spend much of their time making items instead of field-adventuring to find them.&nbsp; 3e would be the test of this, as PC item creation was a big deal in that system; but I can't speak to it much as despite being in a 3e game for 7 years I in saw next to no PC item creation - it just wasn't our thing. (my PC researching and designing her own new spell was a real outlier)Find Familiar was a 1st-level spell in 1e (and 2e I think); but wise characters never cast it as written because of the risk, and any fix I've ever seen makes the familiars way too useful/powerful.&nbsp; Technically the spell is still in my game but it's probably going bye-bye next time I change settings and go through a rules update.Not for me, for a few reasons.One, those high-level abilities gave us something to aspire to.&nbsp; If we keep at this long enough and survive, we can do that too.&nbsp; It also added a sense of open-endedness, which is good.Two, I prefer that very-low-level characters not be too far removed from ordinary Joes when it comes to game mechanics.&nbsp; The big mechanical gaps between commoner and 1st-level characters in both 4e and 5e is to me a massive design fail.Three (and connected to the first two), if you're going for a zero-to-hero experience, there has to be a 'zero' phase, followed by a near-zero and slowly improving from there.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 8832007, member: 29398"] In part because one of the underlying tenets of old-time D&D is what I'd call "enforced randomness". Characters generally didn't get to pick and choose what they got, instead it was at the whim of the dice (or module). The new spell given an MU on training? Random. Stats and hit points? Random. Treasure found? Random, and sometimes random whether or not you even found it; you might get a ring of multiple wishes at 3rd level or you might never see one in ten years of play. And for the most part I like this. The randomness of it all is part of what makes it fun. There was also a line of concern suggesting that if item creation was allowed too soon, PCs would spend much of their time making items instead of field-adventuring to find them. 3e would be the test of this, as PC item creation was a big deal in that system; but I can't speak to it much as despite being in a 3e game for 7 years I in saw next to no PC item creation - it just wasn't our thing. (my PC researching and designing her own new spell was a real outlier) [I]Find Familiar[/I] was a 1st-level spell in 1e (and 2e I think); but wise characters never cast it as written because of the risk, and any fix I've ever seen makes the familiars way too useful/powerful. Technically the spell is still in my game but it's probably going bye-bye next time I change settings and go through a rules update. Not for me, for a few reasons. One, those high-level abilities gave us something to aspire to. If we keep at this long enough and survive, we can do that too. It also added a sense of open-endedness, which is good. Two, I prefer that very-low-level characters not be too far removed from ordinary Joes when it comes to game mechanics. The big mechanical gaps between commoner and 1st-level characters in both 4e and 5e is to me a massive design fail. Three (and connected to the first two), if you're going for a zero-to-hero experience, there has to be a 'zero' phase, followed by a near-zero and slowly improving from there. [/QUOTE]

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