Help calculating Fighter damage

[The Crimson Binome]

Yeah, but it's worth noting that, if you're actually playing 1e/2e fairly, 18/00 strength should see play perhaps once in a player's lifetime (in my 30 years of experience, I've seen it rolled exactly once).

It's worth remembering that there were many different methods of stat generation presented, throughout both PHBs and DMGs and supplements. Rolling an 18 is far from an unlikely event, even if you're rolling fairly, and I know at least one method allowed you to point buy your percentile.

In my personal experience (with late-edition 2E), percentile Strength only showed up if you found Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Aside from that, anyone who rolled an 18 for Strength would just choose to play a half-orc, and skip straight from 18 to 19.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Aside from that, anyone who rolled an 18 for Strength would just choose to play a half-orc, and skip straight from 18 to 19.

You can't do that. Half-orcs in 1e they racially limited to 18/99 strength. Humans, and *only* humans, can begin play in 1e with 18/00. AFAIK, they were still limited to 18 strength in Complete Book of Humanoids, too.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

You can't do that. Half-orcs in 1e they racially limited to 18/99 strength. Humans, and *only* humans, can begin play in 1e with 18/00. AFAIK, they were still limited to 18 strength in Complete Book of Humanoids, too.

I have no experience with 1E, but it's perfectly legal by late 2E rules. I don't recall whether the change was in Humanoids, or in Skills & Powers; both books were pretty wonky in terms of balance. It also works in Baldur's Gate.

 

[Kupursk]

In my personal experience (with late-edition 2E), percentile Strength only showed up if you found Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Aside from that, anyone who rolled an 18 for Strength would just choose to play a half-orc, and skip straight from 18 to 19.

I've had my share of 2e games with rolled stats, but eventually most groups I played with moved to some form of array or point buy system.

18/00 was a rare ocurrence indeed, even then, but expecting something above 18/60+ was not unusual. Truth is without an 18 in Str lots of players tended to switch to something else like ranger, or paladin, insread of fighter.

I love 2e but percentile strength was never good design.

 

[Kupursk]

I have no experience with 1E, but it's perfectly legal by late 2E rules. I don't recall whether the change was in Humanoids, or in Skills & Powers; both books were pretty wonky in terms of balance. It also works in Baldur's Gate.

That's a tricky one. In 2e Half-Orcs appear in the Book of Humanoids, and they do gain +1 to Str. But their racial maximum is listed as 18 and not 19.

Now comes the tricky part...

Standard AD&D rules state that you have to meet the racial minimum/maximum before the racial bonus. So an elf can roll a 18 and raise his dex to 19 with the bonus because the listed maximum of 18 is before said bonus.

However, the Book of Humanoids seems to approach that rule in the opposite way, giving racial maximums and minimums for after the bonuses and penalties are applied. The text isn't very clear but it leads one to think so, and also races in that book are listed with their maximums already going past 18, which would be impossible to get on the dice alone before the adjustment. So this book seems to present these maximums differently.

With that in mind, supposedly the Half-Orc does get a +1 to Str but that can't get him past 18.
His Con though (which is also increased by +1) is clearly listed as having a 19 as the maximum racial.

Baldur's Gate 2 however does allow you to reach 19, but BG takes quite a few liberties with the rules.