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

[Lanefan]

I'm pretty sure that's an incorrect version of how the spell is supposed to work. If you get "hit" twice by the bolt, you don't take double damage. Instead, you need to succeed on two saves to take half damage (basically, disadvantage).

We've always played it that if it hits you twice (or more!) it does full damage each time, saving for half each time.

Which meant if you could somehow get a long thin one* rattling around in a confined space (e.g. start it just inside the open door of a small room on an angle such that it ricocheted around and around in the room), Lightning Bolt could sometimes do crazy amounts of damage to anyone caught in there.

* - you got to choose whether it'd be an 80x5' bolt or a 40'x10' bolt

 

[James Gasik]

Not an obscure rule, but something very strange. Encumbrance! I just finished making a new 2e character, and when writing down her Encumbrance categories, I was suddenly struck by how weird they are.

So with 18/56 (woot!) Strength, she can lift 305 pounds. She is unencumbered until she exceeds 160 pounds. Then it gets weird.

At 161-200 pounds...no allowance for fractional weights, which there are several items that weight 1/2 or 1/10 of a pound, which leads me to wonder what you're intended to do if you're at 160.2 pounds, lol, her speed drops from 12" (lol) to 8".

Ok, that's a 39 pound range. Then we go to 200-238 where she's down to 6". Then 239-277 for 4", and finally 270-305 where she's down to 1"- which means she wouldn't even be able to move 5' at combat speed, if that ever were to happen, as I understand the rules for combat speed.

Ok so, the weirdness. She can carry over half her maximum press without any problems, and then suddenly there's these comparatively small 35-38 pound increments where she starts being increasingly more burdened.

I don't know, it just seems strange to be like "yeah, 160 pounds no problem...oh wait, you went from 199-200?! Half speed for you!"

I'm curious if anyone knows the rationale here- as I understand it, a normal human starts being slowed down when they carry more than 20% of their own bodyweight, and here I have a character who can carry around over 150% of their own bodyweight and not care, and then suddenly another 40 pounds and they're staggering around at half sleep, lol.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Not sure if it has already been mentioned. Just noticed on the UA (1e) addendum in dragon it says assassins cannot assassinate the round they are using a shield!

Never realized it used that one…

 

[James Gasik]

Not sure if it has already been mentioned. Just noticed on the UA (1e) addendum in dragon it says assassins cannot assassinate the round they are using a shield!

Never realized it used that one…

Which is just weird since you can only assassinate with surprise...so what about the shield is interfering here?

I've noticed the Assassin gets a lot of heat for having the super amazing ability to use a shield when Thieves can't- and it's so strange since by default, a shield provides a very small AC bonus to a limited number of attacks per round. Sure, magic shield are great, but so are just about any magical protection device- it's a 1st world problem if there ever was one, lol.

And Assassin weirdness doesn't ever stop! I really have to wonder why this class exists, given how much the people who make the game seemed to dislike it (and let's not even get into the 2e party line of "assassin doesn't need to be a class" only to eventually release an entire book about Ninjas...

But just read this and stop and think a moment.

Even if you feel this is a reasonable reaction NPC's would have about poison, and are fine with random NPC's realizing the difference between oil of sharpness, weaponblack, and "grade A cheapie poison", why is this here, under the Assassin, and not some general rule about anyone who dares to use a poisoned weapon?

EDIT: not to mention "All non-assassins within 10' of the bared weapon"...that doesn't exclude player characters!

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Thought this would be helpful to explain how we used to rull, OG ... um ... OId School Style.

THE OLD SCHOOL ....

DM: You've entered a 30'x30' room. There is an unopened chest in the middle of the room.

Players: Um ... there's no monsters? Just a chest?

DM: Yup! Just, you know, a chest. Sitting there. Unopened.

Players: Oh no .... RUN AWAY! WE RUN AWAY!

DM: ...you run away?

Players: QUICKLY! WE RUN AWAY .... QUICKLY!

DM: TOO LATE!

Players: NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Lanefan]

Not an obscure rule, but something very strange. Encumbrance! I just finished making a new 2e character, and when writing down her Encumbrance categories, I was suddenly struck by how weird they are.

So with 18/56 (woot!) Strength, she can lift 305 pounds. She is unencumbered until she exceeds 160 pounds. Then it gets weird.

At 161-200 pounds...no allowance for fractional weights, which there are several items that weight 1/2 or 1/10 of a pound, which leads me to wonder what you're intended to do if you're at 160.2 pounds, lol, her speed drops from 12" (lol) to 8".

Ok, that's a 39 pound range. Then we go to 200-238 where she's down to 6". Then 239-277 for 4", and finally 270-305 where she's down to 1"- which means she wouldn't even be able to move 5' at combat speed, if that ever were to happen, as I understand the rules for combat speed.

Ok so, the weirdness. She can carry over half her maximum press without any problems, and then suddenly there's these comparatively small 35-38 pound increments where she starts being increasingly more burdened.

I don't know, it just seems strange to be like "yeah, 160 pounds no problem...oh wait, you went from 199-200?! Half speed for you!"

I'm curious if anyone knows the rationale here- as I understand it, a normal human starts being slowed down when they carry more than 20% of their own bodyweight, and here I have a character who can carry around over 150% of their own bodyweight and not care, and then suddenly another 40 pounds and they're staggering around at half sleep, lol.

Yeah, doesn't make sense to me either.

I long ago simplified it into thirds: if your max carry cap is 170 lb you're encumbered at 60 and heavily encumbered at 120.

And I don't have movement suddenly and dramatically slow if (using my numbers here) you pick up a 2-pound object that takes your load from 119 to 121; it's more gradual.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Thought this would be helpful to explain how we used to rull, OG ... um ... OId School Style.

THE OLD SCHOOL ....

DM: You've entered a 30'x30' room. There is an unopened chest in the middle of the room.

Players: Um ... there's no monsters? Just a chest?

DM: Yup! Just, you know, a chest. Sitting there. Unopened.

Players: Oh no .... RUN AWAY! WE RUN AWAY!

DM: ...you run away?

Players: QUICKLY! WE RUN AWAY .... QUICKLY!

DM: TOO LATE!

Players: NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We still mock our main dm from high school days. Walking in the wilderness we see a town:

“Run for it!!!” A little possible island of safety.

We also would complain “hostile immediate attack?!” Come on man!

 

[Voadam]

1e Assassins and shields are just weird. I can't think of an exemplar fictional assassin using a shield.

I can see someone with a weapon, shield, and no decent armor but that image is more that of a viking not rich enough to have chain mail than a sneaky infiltrator assassin.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

1e Assassins and shields are just weird. I can't think of an exemplar fictional assassin using a shield.

I think that there's an additional big issue with the shield.

Assassins probably didn't want to get "marked" as assassins (hence there later ability to speak different alignment tongues or other secret languages, such as Druidic .. kinda weird that they can't speak Thieves' Cant to start).

Given the restriction on armor to leather, they would normally be able to pass as regular thieves easily (watching their weapon choice, of course) but as soon as they grabbed a shield ... WATCH OUT!

I s'pose they could say that they were a fighter, and just wearing leather armor, but still. In the world of Skilled Play, you never trust a thief with a shield.

 

[Voadam]

I think that there's an additional big issue with the shield.

Assassins probably didn't want to get "marked" as assassins (hence there later ability to speak different alignment tongues or other secret languages, such as Druidic .. kinda weird that they can't speak Thieves' Cant to start).

Given the restriction on armor to leather, they would normally be able to pass as regular thieves easily (watching their weapon choice, of course) but as soon as they grabbed a shield ... WATCH OUT!

I s'pose they could say that they were a fighter, and just wearing leather armor, but still. In the world of Skilled Play, you never trust a thief with a shield.

In my long running 1e campaign in the 80s two of the players were Grugach assassin brothers who originally told the rest of the party they were thieves. One used a spiked buckler and trident and counted on nobody reading the 1e thief class weapon restriction descriptions. I guess it helped that B/X thieves could use any weapon.

They did not have any thief skills until 3rd level either, just elven outdoor sneaking which they used a lot.

Nobody blinked an eye.