D&D 1E Holdover rules from 1e/2e

[Quasqueton]

Two plus Int bonus 1st-level spells, chosen from this book, and that book, and maybe the other one ... And what does this spell do? Or that one?

Etc.

It can be complicated for someone who's never played a wizard before.

Really, the only thing complicated about it is "chosen from this book, and that book, and maybe the other one". And that's your own doing.

Quasqueton

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Really, the only thing complicated about it is "chosen from this book, and that book, and maybe the other one". And that's your own doing.

In addition to the "What does this spell do?" question.

Of course, this isn't any more complicated for wizards than it is for sorcerors, but it is there.

Picking her spells is what took my wife the longest time for her Bard character; she could get a handle on skills pretty well, but spells were another matter entirely.

 

[Quasqueton]

In addition to the "What does this spell do?" question.

Well, being as the description is right there on the page...

The spell descriptions aren't more complicated than the skill/feat descriptions.

Besides, that is a separate issue from the concept that choosing spells is complicated, and not an issue mentioned in the post I responded to "For new players with Wizards, I'd use the 1st Ed. starting spellbook tables, instead of trying to communicate all the options for starting spells to the new player."

Quasqueton

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Well, being as the description is right there on the page...

A description which usually doesn't explain half as much as it needs to ...

Besides, that is a separate issue from the concept that choosing spells is complicated, and not an issue mentioned in the post I responded to "For new players with Wizards, I'd use the 1st Ed. starting spellbook tables, instead of trying to communicate all the options for starting spells to the new player."

I can't understand what you're saying here.

 

[kenobi65]

Not so much rules that we use as it hasn't come up yet but a rule that seems to have just managed to crawl into 3e........

Disruption weapons restricted to bludgeoning!!!!!????!?!?!???

WHY DAGNABIT!!!!??!??!?!??!

Because the original disruption weapon was the Mace of Disruption. It only came as a mace; you couldn't have (for example) a glaive-guisarme of disruption, because it wasn't in the book.

More broadly, it might be because disruption is a weapon power that seems particularly suited to clerics, and clerics were typically limited to bludgeoning weapons.

 

[delericho]

A separate appearance stat is something I definitely want as a rule. It's messy and annoying to have two disparate attributes combined in one stat.

I generally assume that appearance has nothing to do with charisma. It's too easy to come up with examples of really (physically) attractive people with no charisma at all, and examples of people who are not at all (physically) attractive but who are extremely charismatic. So, I just let players decide for themselves what their characters look like, and have NPCs react appropriately to the character's charisma.

Granted, it's not strictly correct per the RAW, but it's close enough as to make no actual difference in play.

 

[dcollins]

What's complicated about "all the cantrips, and two 1st-level spells"?

The issue is "which 2 spells should I pick out of 40+?". This leads a player to needing to understand all the 40+ 1st-level spells, understand all the ramifications of spellcasting (assuming here they've never seen a spell in play), and do an optimization process on all those spells to pick two. I have friends for whom that could potentially take weeks.

 

[Hypersmurf]

1E initiative rules rocked!

-Hyp.

 

[Quasqueton]

The issue is "which 2 spells should I pick out of 40+?". This leads a player to needing to understand all the 40+ 1st-level spells, understand all the ramifications of spellcasting (assuming here they've never seen a spell in play), and do an optimization process on all those spells to pick two. I have friends for whom that could potentially take weeks.

Problem with the Player, not the game. A Player (even a complete newbie) who can't pick out up to 6 spells within 10 minutes by reading the one-sentence summaries shouldn't be allowed to play a wizard.

And the full spell descriptions are complete and clear enough for 90% of game situations.

Something is terribly wrong with a Player when the DM has to resort to random roll to save a Player from his own indecisiveness.

Quasqueton

 

[boolean]

This leads a player to needing to understand all the 40+ 1st-level spells, understand all the ramifications of spellcasting (assuming here they've never seen a spell in play), and do an optimization process on all those spells to pick two. I have friends for whom that could potentially take weeks.

So the problem isn't the rules, it's that the player can't just pick two good spells, they have to pick the two best spells.

How many different weapons are there in the PHB alone? How many feats? How long would it take these players to create a fighter using the same process?