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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Obryn" data-source="post: 4867184" data-attributes="member: 11821">Yep, I'm running a 1e game right now, and it makes a really big difference.(Although I should note I'm using one of the many possible interpretations of initiative for spellcasters, and basically treating the spell's casting time as the caster's initiative, rather than adding the casting time to the d6 result.)At any rate, in 1e - and to a lesser extent 2e - had frequently-used rules for interrupting spellcasters.Not only could you do so fairly regularly, but there was no such thing as a Concentration skill or defensive casting.  Simply put, the caster didn't have a chance to resist.  If you lucked out and damaged Elminster with an arrow while he was in the middle of casting meteor swarm, the spell would simply be gone.  (Which is why Elminster should have remembered his stoneskin....)Somewhat mitigating this, there are no real rules against casting in melee other than a few notes from Gygax about the DM thinking long and hard about it.Oh - a quick note about 1e vs. 2e, here...Generally, it's easier to interrupt spells in 1e.  Although there are 10 segments in a round, each side starts their actions on segment 1-6.  If you are in melee combat, you act on that segment, unless you have multiple attacks with your weapon, in which case you (IIRC) get to act first and last every round.  Your weapon speed factor does not change your initiative in any way, but gets funny on ties.  If you are using missile weapons out of melee, you also get to go faster, subtracting your Reaction/Missile Attack bonus from your initiative point.  If you are casting spells, depending on how you read the rules, you either add your spell's casting time to your initiative point, or finish casting on whatever segment matches the spell's casting time.  Either way, spellcasters would generally go quite late in a round, and they get progressively later as their spells get more powerful.In 2e, initiative rolls are on a d10, and both weapon speed factors and casting times influenced when you would act.  Under this system, a longsword is as cumbersome as your average 5th-level magic-user (or 3rd-level cleric) spell.  Combined with the fact that the initiative die now spans the entire length of a round, rather than just the first 6 portions of it, it is much harder to interrupt even the longest spells.-O</blockquote>

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