D&D 1E Favorite Obscure Rules from TSR-era D&D

[Alzrius]

And how does that work if you don't have the 15 and 16 in Int and Dex respectively? Say, for example, your in-order S-I-W-D-C-Ch rolls are 11-17-10-9-4-12, what class can you possibly be?

Nothing, I'd guess, and so you'd have another instance of a permanently 0-level character and would need to start rolling up a new one.

 

[Lanefan]

Yeah I can only say I've never had a 5 and I've rolled up many characters. I had a friend with a Goblin Thief with a Str of 6, and that's the lowest stat I think I've ever seen on a character

Not sure if I've personally ever started* with a 5 or lower (probably have, I just don't remember); but I've seen a fair few in play; and lots of 6's.

* - one of my characters, whose Con wasn't great to start with, died and came back enough times that her Con got down to 5, forcing her to retire as she couldn't be either of her classes any more.

 

[James Gasik]

Not sure if I've personally ever started* with a 5 or lower (probably have, I just don't remember); but I've seen a fair few in play; and lots of 6's.

* - one of my characters, whose Con wasn't great to start with, died and came back enough times that her Con got down to 5, forcing her to retire as she couldn't be either of her classes any more.

Wait, is that how that works? I don't recall ever seeing a rule in AD&D that if your stat gets too low to qualify for your class you can't continue to play. If there is, please let me know because that came up a few years back- my friend's Paladin saved some people from a burning house and the DM ruled that his burn scars caused him to lose 4 points of Charisma!

 

[rgard]

And how does that work if you don't have the 15 and 16 in Int and Dex respectively? Say, for example, your in-order S-I-W-D-C-Ch rolls are 11-17-10-9-4-12, what class can you possibly be?

Died in a bar fight before the first adventure.

 

[Lanefan]

Wait, is that how that works? I don't recall ever seeing a rule in AD&D that if your stat gets too low to qualify for your class you can't continue to play. If there is, please let me know because that came up a few years back- my friend's Paladin saved some people from a burning house and the DM ruled that his burn scars caused him to lose 4 points of Charisma!

I don't know of a rule that specifies either way, which of course leaves it open to interpretation.

My reading of it is that if you need the required stats to start in a class then it only makes sense you need to maintain those requirements in order to continue in that class.

Others might read it differently.

 

[Shardstone]

If a helmet is not worn, 1 blow in 6 will strike at the AC 10 head, unless the opponent is intelligent, in which case 1 blow in 2 will be aimed at the AC 10 head (d6, 1-3 = head blow).
Okay? So ... you can aim your (abstract) attacks?

It is not in the best interests of an adventure game, however, to delve too deeply into cut and thrust, parry and riposte. The location of a hit or wound, the sort of damage done, sprains, breaks, and dislocations are not the stuff of heroic fantasy. The reasons for this are manifold. As has been detailed, hit points are not actually of measure of physical damage, by and large, as far as characters (and some other creatures as well) are concerned. Therefore, the location of hits and the type of damage caused are not germane to them.
...
With complex combat systems which stress so-called realism and feature hit location, special damage, and so on, either this option is severely limited or the rules are highly slanted towards favoring the player characters at the expense of their opponents.

Um... Welp, consistency is the hobgoblin of small ... goblins?

This is lowkey a great rule for really brutal combats against humanoids.

 

[Shardstone]

There are lots of obscure TSR rules that bring me joy, but my favorite is 8th level fighting men in 3LBB OD&D. Being the equivalent of Chainmail superhero figures, they automatically see invisible opponents, and any normal soldier-type enemies they're close enough to charge have to check morale or flee the battlefield.

And people say 5E is a power fantasy!

 

[Shardstone]

I also have noticed that a lot of people remember the 2e rules and read those back into the 1e rules. Memory is a tricky thing!

Personally, I enjoy trying to make sense of the weird and conflicting rules in 1e. Because I'm a masochist, I guess?

D&D General - How to Read a Rule: Dueling Canons in D&D

A recent thread on first level Magic Users in AD&D (1e) ended up meandering, as threads are wont to do, into discussing various opaque rules from the Gygaxian era and the "officialness" of Sage Advice from that time. Oh, we also discussed how to best serve Bards ... my suggestion? Medium Rarye...

www.enworld.org

Despite common opinion, I don't think they are bad rules. They are very flavorful rules, most of which clearly exist just to give you ideas of the wild stuff you can do in a Fantasy roleplaying game. When viewed through this lens, the rules themselves become story prompts -- how do we get these fire and stone giants to excavate a dungeon underneath the keep? What weird cult forms when people start realizing my sword casts 20 feet of light whenever I draw it? How can we get the helmet off the Blackguard so we can dome him and steal his sword? What do we do now that the Blackguard's sword with extremely powerful Ego has taken over our fighter?

Gary delivered story seeds through rules ideas. I like it.

 

[Shardstone]

Just though of another one. Spell immunities for high ability scores (2e). First, we have this straighforward (if unfair to the illusion school in general) table for Intelligence:
View attachment 364716
But then, when it comes to Wisdom, rather than saying "xth-level Enchantments", we get this bespoke list of spells and magic item effects that covers only specific spells and isn't future-proofed for new spells and magic items at all!
View attachment 364717
Not to mention some lolrandom choices like Ray of Enfeeblement (I'm so wise you can't make me weak!) and Death Spell? What are we saying, that Death spell is only trying to convince you that you're dead? lol.

I would love to hear who thought this was a good idea and what their thought processes were.

This is a very interesting idea. It works for monster design, because you can give monsters, NPCs, and heroes high stats to make them immune to campaign derailing spells like Charm Person. Can't charm the wise King with his Wisdom of 20, so you have to actually interact with him!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

NPC's hate sharing spells

Tangent:

One of my long-term gaming buddies (going back to the 80s) interpreted this as Wizards hate sharing spells. In all my decades of playing with him, he has never shared a spell with another caster. If you wanted to learn a spell from a scroll or tome the party acquired, you had to speak up and ask for it.

Sometimes, he even got pissy about it. The last time I asked him about mutual transcription of our PC’s’ respective spellbooks, he flatly stated there was nothing worth knowing in my character’s tome.