3. 24 Views of Mt. Fuji: What we Forget About Strength in 1e.
"Well, let me give you a saying from Colonel Sanders. I am too drunk to taste this chicken." -Natalie Portman, improbably.
One helpful thing to remember when it comes to older versions of D&D, especially 1e, is how different the abilities were back then, especially strength. I want to emphasize this- dexterity has always been a good ability. Always. Since the very beginning. It gave you an advantage to surprise. It helped with your attack rolls using missile weapons (but NOT damage). It improved certain saving throws (like fireballs). And finally, it made your AC better. But you needed it to be higher in the old system- 15 for anything!
But ... if you had a high dexterity, you were likely shunted off into one of the classes that required a high dexterity (Illusionist, Monk) or a class that, um, also required a high dexterity and the party needed (Thief, Assassin). The one subset of (official) classes that didn't have high dexterities, usually, were the MARTIAL characters. Fighters. Paladins. Rangers. The meat of the party. Primarily because Strength was king.
An 18 strength for your martial character meant you got to roll percentiles, all the way up to a possible 18/00 (+3,+6). You had carrying capacity, the ability to open doors and break lots and bend bars and all that good stuff. And you wanted a high constitution, because, again, martial characters got special advantages ... including up to +4 hp/level.
What's more, while the dexterity bonus was nice, magic shields were commonplace- so the desire to dual-wield and get the AC bonus (and give up a possible +3 or +4 magic shield) wasn't as high.
This is a long way of saying that while there were people that created what we would now call "dex builds" they were not nearly as common back then as they are now.
4. Dave "Zeb" Cook, the Kensai, and the 2e Ranger.
"No refunds, consider your refund escaping this death trap with your lives!" -Standard disclaimer on all of my posts.
So without getting into a debate about some of the modern issues of Oriental Adventures, at the time it was an eye-opening book. Importantly, it was a truly ground-breaking supplement for 1e, and, unlike Unearthed Arcana, it was well-designed. It was playable.
And it was designed by Zeb Cook. This is important because, while Zeb had previously designed all sorts of games for TSR, from Star Frontiers to Crimebusters, and even designed some of the best rules for D&D (he's the "Expert" in the B/X set), this was the first hardcover AD&D book Zeb designed. And the reason I bring this us if fairly simple-
OA has, I do believe, the first dexterity-based melee class in an official AD&D publication. This is incredibly important, because, as I pointed out just above, dexterity had not yet morphed into its status as a "god" stat. That's right- the Kensai has Dexterity (and wisdom) as the prime requisites. The Kensai has a number of special abilities. But what is the one ability that really, really, REALLY sticks out?
At 7th level he can use two weapons simultaneously with no penalty. (OA 17). That's right- the Kensai, who already get a lot of attacks, and already will likely have a high dexterity (thus, a low penalty for using a weapon in the off-hand), gets the added benefit of using two weapon with no penalty, because ... wait for it ... the Kensai is a lightly-armored dexterity-based melee character.
This is important, because Zeb wrote OA. And Zeb wrote 2e. Now, if you read my prior post, you know that the Ranger had a bit of an identity crisis. As an Aragorn clone, in play it tended to be a "Fighter, in heavy armor, with some additional abilities" in 1e. But in UA, for the first time, it had a requirement of having a bow as a weapon. This seems to harken back to what Gygax said- that it was supposed to be more of a wilderness dude (think Robin Hood), and less of an Aragorn-clone. Unfortunately, they didn't really change the rest of the mechanics, so the bow requirement was matched with a class that still had no particular support for dexterity.
But that changed when Zeb revamped the Ranger. He explicitly made it a Dexterity-based class. While the class could wear heavier armor, it had a number of abilities that only worked in studded leather or lighter. Which had the effect of greatly incentivizing players who had Rangers to maximize their dexterity, because they could no longer count on wearing heavy armor.
So if you're Zeb, and you have a Dex-based class, which means it might take a hit to strength (which is how, in the old rules, you get those sweet, sweet damage bonuses), what do you reach for in your bag of tricks that you have used previously to try and make up for it?
That's right. The kensai's TWF. The Ranger "can fight two-handed with no penalty to his attack rolls[.]" (PHB 28) It's the Kensai ability all over again. By the same guy who designed both.
So there you have it. That's my belief- Zeb, who designed the prior dex-based martial character, just reached back into the same bag of tricks.
