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

[Maxperson]

Heck, based on the laws where you live, putting Explosive Runes or a Fire Trap on your book that seriously injures a thief could be against the law, as a judge might rule that the thief had no realistic expectation that touching a random book could cause them harm!

D&D is a quasi-medieval set up. You're far more likely to encounter a judge who will be like, "Well, the explosion took off your hand which saves us the effort of cutting it off! Ha!" than to encounter a judge with a modern outlook on things.

For the rest of your points, I agree. It was a royal pain to create the backup and then even more of a pain to have it close enough to get without having to take 6 months of real time and much more time in game getting back to wherever you kept it. Or else it was on you when the fireball hit and it burned up too.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

One of my favorites is not really an obscure rule so much as an obscure origin. Lots of people aren't familiar with Tolkien or not enough to realize that the Aragorn class was in 1e and might be wondering at the oddly specific ability of Rangers to use palant, er, crystal balls.

Even more than that! The Ranger class was actually written by Joe Fischer (who was 18 at the time) who had seen the new Paladin class, and thought ... YES, BUT MORE ARAGORN!!!!

It was published in The Strategic Review v.1 #2, and was later put in to the PHB by Gygax.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

ETA- @Maxperson I previously discussed this issue, and why the history of the Ranger has led to the continuing debates about the class identity.

D&D 5E - The Dual Wielding Ranger: How Aragorn, Drizzt, and Dual-Wielding Led to the Ranger's Loss of Identity

Whoever fights monsters should see to it in the process he does not become a monster. And if you research into the Drizzt, the Drizzt will research back into you. - Herbert West, animatedly. Today, on a very special episode of Snarf Explores the Classics featuring a young John Travolta in a...

www.enworld.org

Also why Zeb Cook writing OA led to the Ranger's association with TWF.

D&D General - Dual-Wielding and The Ranger, Part 2: On the Unappreciated Genius of Zeb

Last week, I began to research a topic that I had not looked into before- while I had previously looked into the history of the Ranger class, I had never before thought about the issue of the evolution of the Ranger from OSR/AD&D into 2e. More specifically, the question of whether of not Drizzt...

www.enworld.org

 

[Alzrius]

One obscure rule that I liked in AD&D 2E (which was never obscure to me, but which a lot of people seem to have missed) is that for all the talk about how the gods were beyond stats in that edition, they actually weren't.

I mean, looking through Legends & Lore 2E, it very clearly gives stats for what the gods can do; they're just not complete stats. We know how many actions they get, what their saving throw values are, how much magic resistance they have, etc. It's just that they have no hit point listings, AC listings, and certain other salient stats. Heck, we're even told how long a god that's defeated by a mortal is discorporated for (1d100 days), after which they reform at full health.

Fun fact: the Forgotten Realms excellent Faith & Avatars did some stealth updates in this regard, adding things like requiring weapons of a certain "plus" value to hit gods of various divine strata, that they were immune to certain spell schools, etc.

And of course, let's not forget all of those times we got full-on stat blocks for various gods in 2E, even if most of them were demigods. Vecna and Iuz were in Die Vecna Die!, for instance, and Hercules had full stats right there in Legends & Lore itself.

 

[James Gasik]

One obscure rule that I liked in AD&D 2E (which was never obscure to me, but which a lot of people seem to have missed) is that for all the talk about how the gods were beyond stats in that edition, they actually weren't.

I mean, looking through Legends & Lore 2E, it very clearly gives stats for what the gods can do; they're just not complete stats. We know how many actions they get, what their saving throw values are, how much magic resistance they have, etc. It's just that they have no hit point listings, AC listings, and certain other salient stats. Heck, we're even told how long a god that's defeated by a mortal is discorporated for (1d100 days), after which they reform at full health.

Fun fact: the Forgotten Realms excellent Faith & Avatars did some stealth updates in this regard, adding things like requiring weapons of a certain "plus" value to hit gods of various divine strata, that they were immune to certain spell schools, etc.

And of course, let's not forget all of those times we got full-on stat blocks for various gods in 2E, even if most of them were demigods. Vecna and Iuz were in Die Vecna Die!, for instance, and Hercules had full stats right there in Legends & Lore itself.

I couldn't tell you where I got the impression from, but I thought that the stats for Gods was merely for their avatars, not the actual power as it would be encountered on their home plane.

 

[Alzrius]

I couldn't tell you where I got the impression from, but I thought that the stats for Gods was merely for their avatars, not the actual power as it would be encountered on their home plane.

Each god's write-up has a stat block for their avatar, but if you look at the beginning of the book, before they start talking about specific pantheons, it's very clear in delineating the powers of the actual gods themselves.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I couldn't tell you where I got the impression from, but I thought that the stats for Gods was merely for their avatars, not the actual power as it would be encountered on their home plane.

I think that was a later edition; in 1e (Deities & Demigods) there was a small passage that many people ignored.

It specified that all gods had the ability to teleport (or "blink") away at any time, and that this takes no time or concentration during battle. In short, gods don't fight to the death- and if they start taking damage, they blink away. (Deities & Demigods p. 7).

 

[Lanefan]

.Ok, time to add another old rule to the pile. May I present, How to Subdue Your Dragon!

View attachment 365768
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Talk about your complex subsystems, this takes up over half a page in the Monster Manual!

EDIT: also, the chance being higher the lower the Dragon's hit points are makes me wonder if this was the inspiration for Pokemon...

We expanded that "hit to subdue" rule and process to apply to any combat vs any living foe, to allow for victory without kill in cases where one wants to show mercy, or to take a prisoner, or to not leave lasting injuries, or for simple sparring to see how good someone is at fighting.

 

[Lanefan]

As long as you understand that unless the players know you and your DMing style, you absolutely must have a "session 0" where you tell them these things. Explicitly and overtly.

...

Maybe this didn't need to be stated out loud in 1984, but it definitely needs to be in 2024.

That's a sad statement on many levels.

Modern players are conditioned into certain expectations, and the idea there is no script immunity as regards mere conveniences will not occur to them unless you say so exceedingly clearly.

It'll occur to them fast enough once it happens a few times...

 

[Lanefan]

First of all, how does one afford to make a backup spellbook? At what level will you have the money/time to do so? Second of all, where do you keep it?

Third, how do you access it when you need it?

Answer the first: you probably can't afford it until you've done a few adventures, after which you probably can. And you can make the time by simply stating this is what you're doing next; the party will either wait for you or they won't, and if they don't that says something about the party you're in.

Answer the second: you keep it at your guild, or at your home, or your party's home base, or at a trusted temple, or in a bank vault.

Answer the third: you access it by going to where it's kept and getting it. In the meantime, you're spell-less.

Heck, based on the laws where you live, putting Explosive Runes or a Fire Trap on your book that seriously injures a thief could be against the law, as a judge might rule that the thief had no realistic expectation that touching a random book could cause them harm!

Explosive Rune is a bad idea unless you don't mind your book self-destructing if-when someone reads it who isn't supposed to.

Is it Fire Trap that doesn't harm the thing it's protecting? If yes, that'd be a better idea.