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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7214449" data-attributes="member: 996">Not that anyone called it 'optimization' - "Monty Haul," maybe <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> - but, yes, 1e encouraged a dynamic in which the DM was expected to know the rules better than his players, and, in part to that end (and in part because it was just how he rolled), EGG wrote an awful lot of rules (by the standards of the day, when other full RPGs were in 64-pg books) for it, in a quixotically-organized, verbose, college-level-English, style that could be politely described as 'opaque' or 'inaccessible' or something else other than 'crystal clear.'  Plus it was the 70s, so, y'know, YMMV!   Weapon Specialization did turn fighter-types into DPR machines, among other little things, sure. Better to ask "did you play anything else?" A good example of a rule not everyone may even have been aware of at the time, let alone chosen to use, let alone remembered...... 'nother obscure rule:  magic resistance went up/down 5% per level of the caster different from 11th, I think it was... 'Monster level' was barely a thing.  There were summoning spells that referenced a 'level X monster' and encounter tables 'by level' (monster level? dungeon level?).  And "HD/levels," implying equivalency, wasn't an uncommon thing to see, either......anyway, CR was AFAIK, new in 3.0... OTOH, the high-CON fighter could have +3 or even +4 per die.  A 10th level fighter might have right around 90 hps.  Or, he might have half that, or less.  Random generation of CON plus randomly rolled hps = no universal experience to be found, here. Monsters didn't level or anything, nor did HD/level /quite/ correspond.  They just got an arbitrary number of HD plus an equally arbitrary number of bonus hps added to that (or not).   The Type V demon y'all keep harping on didn't have all that many HD.  ;| We haven't had the term 'Monty Haul' for so long because no one ever played that way.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />And, the published modules and the Treasure Types also gave out (what always seemed to me like) a lot of magic items.And, in a way, the 5e assumption of few/no magic items and magic items 'making you just better' /supports/ that style.  FWIW. Some of the DMG methods made multiple high stats (and thus higher hps than you listed, above) pretty likely.  Different assumptions, different rule books in use, differences in how the DM selectively applied rules, interpreted or changed rules, etc, etc... I think you're talking about his experiences, not his assumptions, and them being different from yours, not 'flawed.' It was harder to run 1e at any level than it is to run 5e - it was just that quixotic a design - but aside from that consideration, I don't see how one could be judged hugely more difficult to run, specifically, at high level vs low, than the other.  Both do get more difficult to concoct interesting/plausible challenges as you climb the level ladder, sure.The variation from group to group, in both cases, would be a lot greater.</blockquote>

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