D&Disms That Make You Go "Huh?"

[Nifft]

Elves were pretty common, and they didn't have any problems with it...

Elves were either/or -- you had to choose which you were each adventure. My recollection was that Gith could be both at once, but I don't have my 1e Fiend Folio any more, and I can't find a paper about it online, so I can't back that up.

In any case, it's what the word means now, as used by the folks who are best at making them. So if you ever want help, you know what to search for & ask about.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Twowolves]

Ouch. That's a tall dwarf with his/her torso on backwards, looks like.

Are you sure that's a beard? The rest of it is drawn so awkwardly that I could see if that was just supposed to be hair. After all, its face is pointing at its right shoulder, but if you just look at the "beard" it looks like the face should be pointing forward.

Yes, it's a female. There are b&w illustrations of the same character inside the module that make it obvious.

Dungeons never have bathrooms. Or outhouses.

I don't know where you get your dungeons, but I've seen a ton of adventures with toilets in them. Rappan Athuk comes immediately to mind here. I also specifically recall a Dungeon adventure with a privy trap with a portable hole halfway down the refuse shaft (PC falls down the privy into the protable hole, which is then whisked away and the PC isn't found at the bottom of the pit).

If not for dungeon toilets, we wouldn't have rot grubs, otyugs, gelatinous cubes or several of the slimes/oozes, all of which were refuse disposers.

 

[Psion]

Even if you like the word (and who does?), doesn't it cheapen the identity of githyanki fighter-mages if the word is used more generally?

I use it online. I'd be more concerned about it cheapening identity of Githyanki if I ever heard it offline, which I don't. As it is, in the face of WotC reimagining succubi as devils and eladrin as grey-elves-in-all-but-name, the cheapening of classic creatures achieved by means of casual borrowing of a term seems rather pale by way of comparison.

 

[an_idol_mind]

3. The key distinguishing trait of a troll was that it regenerated instead of turning to stone in sunlight.

For some reason, I specifically remember a reference in the 1991 basic D&D box (based off the BECMI rules) that states that trolls turn to stone in sunlight. But it also might be something my teenage mind inserted into the text.

 

[freyar]

I'm not sure, but I think this may have come from Tolkein. There's a scene in the movies where Glimli talks about it, but I don't know if that was made up for the movie or came straight from the book. (There are other things that I thought were added for a 21st century audience that turned out to have been in the original book, so I'm not sure.)

In fact it did come up in Tolkien (though I don't know if it started earlier or not). It's not in the main text, but there is a discussion of dwarven society in one of the appendices to LotR, which specifically mentions the facial hair. IMO, that scene in the movie is one of the few bright spots in the film adaptation of The Two Towers.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

In the spirit of sharing and well-humored enlightenment, there are at least two D&D terms of phrase that make me scrunch me nose and quirk an eyebrow in query when I see them.

• Gish: A multiclassed fighter-mage.

Someone asked the question; it's a term for githyanki (and githzerai?) fighter/mages. It later became applied more broadly.

• Christmas Tree Effect: Actually, could someone please fill me in on what the heck this term means?

A typical PC is covered with a large variety of magic items, usually stuff like a Cloak, Ring of Protection, Amulet of Health/Natural Armor, and other things. Functioning at a balanced level without these magic items is extremely difficult.

 

[Rhun]

Elves were either/or -- you had to choose which you were each adventure.

Huh? In 1E (AD&D) that was the whole benefit of playing a demi-human was the ability to multi-class (as opposed to a "dual class" character, which is a wholly different term). But elves could easily be Fighter/Magic-Users, or even Fighter/Magic-User/Thieves for the matter.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Huh? In 1E (AD&D) that was the whole benefit of playing a demi-human was the ability to multi-class (as opposed to a "dual class" character, which is a wholly different term). But elves could easily be Fighter/Magic-Users, or even Fighter/Magic-User/Thieves for the matter.

Yep, my fave was the 1.2-elf Fighter/Magic-user/Cleric...
You think the MODERN Cleric is broken...
Let's see, I hit it with my sword. (DM _ it seems to be immune to your attack and hits you for *rolls* 14 points)
Ouch..hmmmm. I drop back and blast it with a Fireball, once its dead I'll cast Cure Light Wounds and then see if it has any treasure that was destroyed in the blast... (DM... grumble, grumble, grumble)

 

[TerraDave]

Yes, no Gish, just Elves (though I still think the straight Elf Cleric/Wizard won AD&D).

And Nifft, you haven't played AD&D, have you?

 

[Beckett]

Gish comes from the original Fiend Folio (AD&D 1E) entry for the Githyanki, and I think was supposed to be a term from their native language. The Githzerai has "zerth" (iirc) for the same combo, though it never seemed to catch on. It's something of an odd word, but in a discussion, think of how much time is saved using gish over fighter/wizard.

And I think Nifft is thinking D&D (never played, so I couldn't tell you the version) where your race was also your class, and an elf could indeed switch between fighter and magic-user abilites.