D&D 1E Edition Experience: Did/Do you Play 1E AD&D? How Was/Is It?

[lowkey13]

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[Ralif Redhammer]

We used Unearthed Arcana quite a bit - Grugach, Cavaliers, Barbarians, Thief-Acrobats, Illusionists, and so on were staples of our games. I don't recall any one character feeling that OP, but we were young and not exactly the most sophisticated of gamers.

Going back and re-reading it recently, the worst offenders feel like traps for the unwary. The Barbarian has a massive XP requirement to level up, and the whole not being able to use magic items until you level up really begins to tell quite quickly when people are hitting 3rd level and the barbarian is still crawling along at 1st level. As for the Cavalier, their code generally makes for a short life in the deadly dungeon crawls of 1e.

 

[Dracura]

I always heard tales of UA being an unbalanced mess. I bought it for the extra spells and magic items, plus just out of curiosity. I used the spells and items here and there, but never introduced the new classes into my campaign. I also never figured out just why the heck cantrips existed, at least in the way they're written in that book.

 

[Helldritch]

Everyone cheats, HarbingerX.

The good people cheat so that they can have fun with everyone else, and the bad people cheat because they like playing paladins.

No cheat at my table. All rolls were (and still are) made on the open where everyone can see them. No fudge, no correction, no pity. If you could make a paladin, you had rolled one. It was as simple as that. Before the UA method, I've had about 3 or 4 paladins. Not that much considering the life span of a 1ed character. And after the UA, it was very common for a player to roll on the UA method and still not be able to make a paladin. It was maybe once in about three attempts that could produce a paladin. Otherwise you had to play a cavalier and even then, it did happened once or twice that even then, the player was forced to play a simple fighter. Such is the way that luck goes. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

 

[lowkey13]

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[Helldritch]

Those are good odds; looks like you win 2/3 of the time.

Still .... that's like saying, "It was maybe about one in three attempts you died." That's a pretty severe downside, mi amigo.

You got the odds reversed, 1 per 3 attempts were Paladins With the UA method. The UA method was 9d6, 8d6, 7d6 and so on up to 3d6 for the least "important" stat. Even with this method, doing a paladin was not sure. Heck the cavalier was not even a sure thing either. Before that (UA), seeing a paladin was extremely rare. Perhaps one in 50 or 60 characters (maybe even less chances than that) could hope to roll a paladin legitimately.

 

[lowkey13]

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[Stormonu]

May I ask why? When I got the UA collector's edition a few years back, I was shocked to realize how badly balanced it was. I had sort of remembered that cavaliers were over the top, but the whole thing was over the top.

Comliness, of course.

Seriously, though, I prefer the added options, raised level limits and several now-staple spells it introduced.

 

[atanakar]

Unearthed Arcana was mostly for the new spells in our group. The cover remains a classic for me.

 

[Helldritch]

@lowkey13
The UA was and is a piece of Art. You might not have appreciated it. I did wholeheartedly. We loved it and we've had some of the best fun we've ever had with it. And strangely, my UA is in quite good condition (and would've stayed pristine if it hadn't been of a water pipe that broke) I did save the book but the cover is mared a wee bit from water wear.

The UA was as good as you wanted it to be. It was a really good book.