NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 9418956" data-attributes="member: 6799660">AD&D 2nd Edition is an interesting case. And here, I'm going to focus on the part of 2e that comes before the Player Options era, and also before some of the late 'faux leather splatbook' era (I think everyone agrees that era having some very clear power creep).Now, 2E comes out and incorporates some of the mid-level power creep from UA like the first level of weapon specialization and boosted demihuman level limits, but not some of the over-the-top attribute generation methods or Cavalier stat progression or the like. Overall, the rules are kind of a wash compared to 1E --some things have fluctuated, but not overthrown established relationships*, which mostly remain the same.*initiative rules have changed, but MUs still want to hide behind meat shields to not have their spells disrupted; Thieves get to distribute their %s as they see fit, but their best strategy is still to game the DM to not have to roll the dice at all, etc.Almost immediately, a massive number of red-brown, green, and blue paperback accessories come out with options for specific character and campaign types. This bloated the rules rapidly and over many fields of the game.And yet, overall, the power creep was small. Most of the new options were lateral moves, or ways to self-restrict power to enhance flavor (be that being a swashbuckler who wore leather and wielded rapiers, or being in a historic setting where magic using classes were rare/ intrinsically restricted). The most prevalent mechanical option was 'kits,' which generally limited power (weapon/armor choice, behavior, NPC reaction) in exchange for a proficiency slot or two or a situational bonus. The one early book which allowed massive changes to actual class abilities -- The Complete Priest's Handbook  -- was by in large a power downgrade.There were some boosts -- the fighting styles and weapon proficiency groups in The Complete Fighter's Handbook were generally upgrades, and there were some equipment options in Complete Thieves' that would strictly raise some %s here and there, but in both cases generally less so than weapon specialization or being able to focus your thief skills were in the first place (so it less than doubled the shift since early 1E). Even the ever-discussed 'broken' option -- the Bladesinger kit from The Complete Book of Elves -- was really just a strict-upgrade to the non-optimal-in-2E character type of multiclass F-M.And it stayed that way for quite some time. Character options expanded to underpowered (compared to 1989 core) Vikings, underpowered Camelot campaigns, generally-underpowered* humanoid races (although this did expand the number of options for spending extra proficiency slots on minor combat boosts),  orthogonally-powered psionic characters, admittedly not underpowered Athasian characters (but for the record, I never saw anyone try to use those rules outside of a Dark Sun campaign), and so on.*barring a few creatures who could start with 19+ str, or the like.It really wasn't until 1996's Warriors and Priests of the Realms where I recall there starting to be things that really looked like expanding abilities (IIRC priests of Meilikki who got 18/## str and fighter-level Con bonuses for 17+ con, neither of which paired with the extreme spell-option limits that similar bonuses might have come with in Complete Priest's). Then of course the Player Option series, and all bets were off.My point is that, while 2e did suffer from power creep, it didn't have to, and didn't for quite a while (including when they were putting out massive amounts of material).</blockquote>

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