Edition Wars MCXIII - A matter of Class

[Particle_Man]

I have never understood why clerics and druids from 1e were considered weak classes that no one wanted to play.

My first five characters were fighters and died in 1st ed. My sixth was a cleric, and lived. Healing is GOOD. Turning undead is GREAT.

(Mind you, in 1st ed, my paladin had that reversed when an NPC evil cleric turned HIM. That was a nasty 1st ed. trick!)

 

[Henry]

I have never understood why clerics and druids from 1e were considered weak classes that no one wanted to play. Other than the guys who always played warriors, EVERYONE seemed to gravitate towards clerics and druids.

It's not a question of weakness, it's a question of alignment restrictions (true neutral is a BEAR to play!) and of having gods that had to be obeyed. To many, many players, there's just something "unsexy" about druids and clerics. I, of course, think these people are crazy.

In my groups' experiences, I was one of the few willing to play a druid or cleric; everyone else was an assassin, or fighter, or thief, or magic-user, or illusionist, or ANYTHING but a cleric. They just didn't want to play a class that had to follow a god's (the DM's) edicts. However, my fellow players missed out, because the DM never was a stickler for bossing around the clerics via god-phone, and as long as we didn't do anything totally against the deity's precepts, it was free reign.

Ah, entangles, produce flames, barkskins, snares, and protections from fire... good times, good times.

 

[Aaron L]

I choose the 1E ranger!

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I would love to see someone's attempt at developing separate spell lists for the different specialists. Lists that are "mostly unique" with some overlap as necessary.

I agree completely. I'd like to see more of that kind of thing.

I think the problem is you'd have to chew up a lot of book with spell lists and there are some taboos you'd end up breaking such as wizards healing or clerics fireballing. There are plenty of gamers who would rather marry thier cousin than see a wizard cast cure light wounds.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I take offense to that. I'd never marry my cousin. I might sleep with her, but I wouldn't marry her, that'd be wrong.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'm actually going to go with the 3e Druid over the 1e druid! I think that the opening up of the class to all neutral alignments was a great move, in no small part due to the complexity of True Neutral in 1e. While the 1e Druid had a lot of flavor and RP-requirements, I find the 3e Druid to be the more player-friendly class.

I prefer the 1e illusionist, hands-down. C&C did a really neat job with bringing back the Illusionist as a core class.

And if we're bringing in the Ranger, definitely 1e. I couldn't stand the 3e Ranger. The revision in 3.5 helped, but there's still too much emphasis on the favored enemy class feature for my tastes.