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

[Snarf Zagyg]

I guess I should have appealed my illusionist's fiery end to Sage Advice.

I am imagining a court of appeals for all DM decisions now!

Just IMAGINE the quality of rules lawyering we would get.....

 

[rgard]

I am imagining a court of appeals for all DM decisions now!

Just IMAGINE the quality of rules lawyering we would get.....

Speaking of lawyers, the DM was a first year law student. I bet he's still finding inventive ways around the law.

And +1 for 'IMAGINE'.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Speaking of lawyers, the DM was a first year law student. I bet he's still finding inventive ways around the law.

Ugh. You have my sympathies. Lawyers are the worst!

 

[rgard]

Ugh. You have my sympathies. Lawyers are the worst!

It's ok. I rolled up an illusionist in a different campaign and didn't have that issue with the other DM. Thinking about it, I'm DMing my grown kids in a 3.5 campaign. Some NPC should send them on a quest to find Geb's bones to be relics or for resurrection.

 

[Bedrockgames]

What's a non-weapon proficiency anyway?

It is basically a skill a system

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I guess I should have appealed my illusionist's fiery end to Sage Advice.

Not a good suggestion. Sage Advice too frequently did not give sage advice.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Not a good suggestion. Sage Advice too frequently did not give sage advice.

I think that the Sage Advice from the 1e era was as close to official as you could get, given that it was written by TSR employees and put out by a TSR periodical (I am eliding one dustup).

It's not the same as it later became, in other words.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I think that the Sage Advice from the 1e era was as close to official as you could get, given that it was written by TSR employees and put out by a TSR periodical (I am eliding one dustup).

It's not the same as it later became, in other words.

Well, it's funny because as I said SA wasn't always reliable as they wanted to be. Not trying to make that big of a thing of it, but SA really should only be taken for what the name says it is - advice. Despite it having the stamp of being "official" answers to rules questions they were sometimes themselves just as wrong as the original rule books could be, or came up with less-than-stellar solutions easily improved upon by a DM for their own game. I've always enjoyed pointing out that Gygax himself admitted in the DMG that he couldn't think of everything and his rules weren't so perfect that they couldn't be improved upon. Same applies to Sage Advice. They didn't always see clearly or come up with the best answers, especially when those answers were being used as ammunition to argue against how DM's chose to rule in their own games BEFORE seeing what Sage Advice had to say about it.

SA was a useful tool for everyone - but DM's still run the game, not SA.

 

[Lanefan]

I think that this wouldn't fall under the "character with two classes" rule, since you would be giving up the old class completely. That's for when you want to benefit from the old class.

This would be in the sub silentio "gave up your class rule," that applies when you are a defrocked monk, or a reincarnated character, or the other examples, and you just have to qualify for the new class. Because you don't have the option of using your old abilities later.

To cover this admittedly rare situation, I invented a new spell "Renouncement" (7th Cleric) that, when cast on a willing target, completely and harmlessly removes a class - along with any and all associated benefits, penalties, etc. - from someone who doesn't want it any more. If single-class, the target becomes a 0th-level commoner; if double-class*, the character becomes single-class in the one that isn't Renounced. It fails outright if cast on an unwilling, compelled, or charmed target.

This came about due to a PC in an old campaign of mine who, after a non-forced change of heart and ethos, wanted to completely give up Thieving and become a Cleric; yet the game mechanics held no means for him to completely drop the old class before starting over.

* - I don't allow triple-classing.

 

[Lanefan]

Not a good suggestion. Sage Advice too frequently did not give sage advice.

A problem that 1e and 5e share.