D&D General I'm a Fighter, not a Lover: Why the 1e Fighter was so Awesome

[Maxperson]

The equipment lists were expanded in UA.

Base PHB the clerics only ranged weapon is throwing hammers, and thieves only had slings.

Thieves could also throw daggers and darts. Druids had daggers, darts, hammers, and spears. And so on.

 

[Sacrosanct]

You zip pretty quickly if you are in an 8th level party getting experience designed for 8th level. Your next 4 encounters probably all get you a level.

Not RAW, as was brought up earlier and what we were talking about. RAW, once you get enough XP to level, you stop getting XP until you go back and spend the weeks and gold to train up. That doesn't happen mid-dungeon.

 

[Voadam]

I thought the max xp rule was you stopped at one xp lower than what you needed to go up two levels, not after you hit enough to level. I am away from my PDFs right now so I will check later.

 

[mixmastashizz]

I thought the max xp rule was you stopped at one xp lower than what you needed to go up two levels, not after you hit enough to level. I am away from my PDFs right now so I will check later.

Thats a B/X rule

 

[Sacrosanct]

I thought the max xp rule was you stopped at one xp lower than what you needed to go up two levels, not after you hit enough to level. I am away from my PDFs right now so I will check later.

Even if that were the case, same net result: you only level once per down time.

 

[Lanefan]

Even if that were the case, same net result: you only level once per down time.

Well, if you can get right to the end of the untrained level you train for the first one, go out and beat up someone in a back alley to get that 1 xp, then come back and train for the second one.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Well, if you can get right to the end of the untrained level you train for the first one, go out and beat up someone in a back alley to get that 1 xp, then come back and train for the second one.

And the party is just gonna sit around and wait weeks for that? It's already a stretch that they'd come back out of the lost ruins out in the remote wilds after every encounter or two, but that's even worse lol.

 

[Lanefan]

And the party is just gonna sit around and wait weeks for that? It's already a stretch that they'd come back out of the lost ruins out in the remote wilds after every encounter or two, but that's even worse lol.

After every encounter or two?

Maybe if those encounters are layering the treasure on thick and deep and if one is giving xp for treasure. Otherwise, IME it's fairly rare that they'll break mid-adventure for traininng unless over half the party has bumped or a specific character's training could make a big difference (e.g. they can't get past a door but their MU has bumped to 3rd; so go back to town, train her up, then hope she can find and learn Knock).

Once they're between adventures, though, my experience is they're usually happy to wait in town until everyone's finished training, no matter how long it takes.

 

[Zardnaar]

I've always thought "Fighters can use ANY weapon and ANY armor" was overrated because, let's be honest, in most 1E games you'd be wearing the heaviest armor you can afford, and if you're proficient in a sword, a bow (not a crossbow, because 1E/2E crossbows were worthless), and a dagger you're probably set for the entire campaign. Yeah, you might be frustrated if you somehow stumble across a guisarme-voulge +3 and can't use it, but how likely is that to ever happen? I certainly don't remember it ever happening during my 1E days.

I'm also happy the game has moved away from fighters being Magic Loot: The Class. I look back at the fighters in 1E adventures, dripping with magic armor, magic shields, multiple magic weapons, magic rings, magic helms, magic cloaks, etc., and it just seems kind of silly now. If you have only one or two magic items, they feel a lot more special than if you're coated with magic down to your underwear.

Heaviest armor wasn't the best.

Full plate didn't exist and the weaker armors usually came with higher Enchantment bonuses.

+3-5 chainmail was a lot more common than +3-5 plate mail.

By level 3 it wasn't unusual to see +1 armor, weapons, elven cloak and boots sometimes gauntlets of ogre power.

+3 and 4 weapons/atmor started turning up around level 4-7.

 

[Zardnaar]

This is why I don't DM 1E. I'll do 2E adding in bits of 1E.