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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ezo" data-source="post: 9329375" data-attributes="member: 7037866">It wasn't the height of the wizard's power. I hear people talk about the LFQW issue, but there never was one IME. Wizard's were powerful, but had all sorts of survival issues, especially pathetic HP. I recall an archmage in a game with 40 hit points, because he didn't have a 15+ CON, so no bonus hp. Meanwhile, the fighter in the group had roughly 100 hit points, and a much better AC, and better saves.Either way, to answer your question -- both. It is a serious check, coupled with other checks, such as learning spells, low hp, etc. Playing a wizard from levels 1-6 or so was hard! Your chance of survival was pathetic, and barely improved afterwards.It was also the intellectual challenge of spell selection from what you had. What would you need for the day, etc.? You didn't have the sort of versatility we see in 5E wizards with non-Vancian casting and automatic spell selection when leveling.Finally, IME a big issue was also ability scores. Let's face it: most groups either cheated on rolls, rolled several sets, etc. If you roll, your expected array was something like 16, 14, 13, 12 , 10, 9. Races usually had just a +1 / -1 adjustment to two scores. So, unless you rolled very lucky, your 16 went into your prime requisite for the 10% xp bonus, and you might have a second score that really gave you a bonus (i.e. a 15 or better).I mean, if I used the expect array for a magic-user in AD&D, my scores would likely be:STR 9INT 17*WIS 10CON 11*DEX 15*CHA 13*I make an gray-elf magic-user/thief or something, getting an extra +1 INT to go with my elven +1 DEX, -1 CON.My AC is 6 (leather and +1 DEX) and I have 3 hp. I also have ONE prepared spell for the entire day. I talk to the DM to find out what spells I begin with in my spellbook. He references the chart in the DMG:[ATTACH=full]360146[/ATTACH]I roll 8, 10, 4. So I'll have read magic (automatic), shocking grasp, find familiar, and choose spider climb for my defensive spell since I rolled a 10.The DM is generous and says I can make a roll for a familiar and he'll wave the 100 gp fee this time. I roll a 9, getting a screech owl. The DM rolls 1d3+1 and gets 3 hit points for my familiar. If it is within 12" of me, my hit points are 6! Count them, 6! hit points.Of course, if my familiar dies (AC 7) before I level up for more hp-- it'll kill me as well since I permanently lose double the hp (I go from my normal 3 hp to -3.... yeah, dead...).Finally, assuming I make it to a reasonable amount of xp, say 36,500 for each class, I'd be 6/6 levels (thanks to my 10% xp bonus for my magic-user). Well, that is another 5d4 and 5d6 hit points... divided by 2, which averages 15 more hit points, bringing my total to 18 at 6/6 level. By comparison, at 73,000 xp, a fighter would be well into 8th level (closer to 9th than 7th!).  Assuming I use my 16 for STR and 14 in CON with a +1 bonus for race, the fighter would average 52 hit points-- nearly triple my M-U/T's 18 (21 if my familiar was still alive, or 12 if he died along the way).Ok, enough, right? It isn't just vancian casting that balanced out the M-U in AD&D, but everything that goes along with it --let's not forget how spellcasting worked with initiative back then! So sure, if you found the best spells, and if you learned them, you could be pretty powerful---if you had them prepared, that is, and still had the slots to cast them, and didn't get hit while casting them. <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="🤷‍♂️" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f937-2642.png" title="Man shrugging    :man_shrugging:" data-shortname=":man_shrugging:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" /></blockquote>

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