D&D General How has D&D changed over the decades?

[Yardiff]

Look at the answer you got - however the dm wanted. Kinda blows the whole Npcs were made like pcs out of the water.

Yes any way they wanted....which most likely included rolling.

 

[Cruentus]

My NPC's were built exactly like PCs. Rolled stats, assigned levels, rolled HP, etc.

The only time I didn't was when the module assigned NPCs stats and I was using that NPC.

 

[LordEntrails]

My NPC's were built exactly like PCs. Rolled stats, assigned levels, rolled HP, etc.

The only time I didn't was when the module assigned NPCs stats and I was using that NPC.

You did that for every kobold, orc and troll your players encountered? Too much prep for me.

 

[GuyBoy]

Oh Monty Haul, most of the early editions relied on magic items to increase a characters power and ability, since aside from a few items (ioun stones, manual of strength/fitness/whatever, wish) there was no way to permanently increase your stats. Whatever you started with was usually what you ended with. So between levels (more to hit), and magic items (ability to do more damage), magic items were part and parcel to the experience. Our characters (when we were much younger in 1e and 2e were dripping in magic items), but also had to deal with item/magic items saves when we failed saves versus damage spells, or falls, or criticals (roll a 1 to hit, roll save for your sword, on a 1 it breaks if its magical).
This was often offset by the NPCs, Monsters (intelligent ones at least), also using those items on us. Nothing worse than facing that monster or NPC wielding the Vorpal Sword that you so desperately wanted...

Magic items how have been "moved over" to PCs via class abilities, racial abilities, ASI's, and in some ways Feats. There is less of a "need" for magic items, aside from being able to affect creatures only affected by magic weapons. But likewise, every character now has the ability to cast some type of magic (or easy access to a damage cantrip via Feat), so even that isn't a major obstacle. To me, in 5th, Magic Items (permanent ones) would be rare, but powerful. What's the need for a wand of magic missiles when I can cast Firebolt or Eldritch Blast every 6 seconds all day long?) And because every character is just as capable as any other, you see less martials and rogues, and more parties made up of all or mostly casters or multiclassed casters, where in the older editions, the idea of a party of mages was a recipe for a short work day, and usually dead party after the first encounter or two. Magic items in 5e in adventures is part of that "legacy" of older editions, and players are always happy to get them and use them. Although in my last game (5e), one of my players continually griped about "lack of magic items", when his character had 3, and the party sheet had another 8 that no one took or cared to use. Their character sheet abilities were better in just about every instance).

On NPC's, I have pages and pages of pre-rolled NPC stats, using whatever method players used. If the players used 3d6 in order, so did I. 4d6 drop 1 six times, same for NPCs. That way I avoided situations where NPCs had better stats overall than the players because I was selecting them, and caused me to think about what that meant for the NPC in terms of his spells, abilities, and magic items. Now, of course, that was usually for NPCs who would be recurring, or were mentors, or the like. Not every Tom, Dick, and Mary villager had stats, though I could grab a row from my notebook if I needed to. And then once NPC generators became available, those would fill in for that quick NPC write-up.

I remember an occasional light-hearted article in Dragon about a Monty Haul campaign. It was pretty funny, or at least seemed so a teenage me.

 

[Weiley31]

You did that for every kobold, orc and troll your players encountered? Too much prep for me.

That would be like, only something you do for the "Key" NPCs that the pcs will encounter during the course of the campaign. Nameless Kobold#125? Nah, just use the stat block as present. Shakesscale The Unburdened, a Kobold Blackguard would have stats rolled for, Tasha's +2/+1 floating modifier applied, and then HP calculated and all that.

 

[Weiley31]

My NPC's were built exactly like PCs. Rolled stats, assigned levels, rolled HP, etc.

The only time I didn't was when the module assigned NPCs stats and I was using that NPC.

Ya, I do that for Key/Important NPCs within the campaign.

 

[Helldritch]

You did that for every kobold, orc and troll your players encountered? Too much prep for me.

There were two kinds of NPCs back then.
NPCs that were not meant to be ever played. Namely monsters, humanoid monsters such as kobolds and orcs and so forth.
Then you had NPCs that could become PC. Namely Henchmen and Hireling of the PHB races.
Random enemies were not to be played such a the basic elf as a "monster". If an NPC could be promoted to henchmen or hireling then to PC, then you would use PC stats for that NPC.

In our modern time, the distinction got blurred if not entirely erased. Which might lead to confusion.

 

[tetrasodium]

I remember an occasional light-hearted article in Dragon about a Monty Haul campaign. It was pretty funny, or at least seemed so a teenage me.

The bar to reach those monty haul tales is so low in modern d&d that it's hard to tell tales like those without spotlighting the problem that causes it is no longer the gm going to the sort of extreme lengths as then.

 

[Hussar]

Possibly another difference, talking about magic items, is that in early DnD much of the character’s abilities would be tied to magic items. Adnd presumed about 10+ magic items per character. See paladin magic item restrictions to see what a restricted magic item list looks like.

So by fairly low levels my character and your character would be quite different. Not because of class necessarily but because we had different items.

Newer DnD with its much larger number of classes (including sub classes) takes that uniqueness away from items and wraps it into class.

It really does speak to this notion of players getting to choose how their character changes over time. In early DnD it was much more random. The PC picks up some item and that becomes a signature element of that character. Every paladin wanted a holy avenger. Every MU wants a staff of the magi. That sort of thing.

In 5e, it’s class that defines the character to a larger degree. And the fact that it’s far less likely to have multiple characters of the same class in a campaign.

 

[Cruentus]

You did that for every kobold, orc and troll your players encountered? Too much prep for me.

No, that's not what I wrote. NPCs such as monsters that I assign levels? Sure. Bog-standard "monsters" (who I don't call NPCs, you know, its in the name - Non Player 'Characters') are not 'characters', they're monsters, and use the monster stat block.

NPCs who will or may have some impact on the story, leveled monsters (few and far between), etc. will get the full write up. Again, which is why I have pages of randomly rolled stats, makes it easy to pick one, or pick the next one off the page.