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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bullgrit" data-source="post: 5638252" data-attributes="member: 31216">And here are a couple thoughts on stuff that came up in the game session:After the game, there was talk of splitting up the treasure looted from the dungeon. One of the dads explained to the boys that you can use the gold to upgrade your equipment, "Get better weapons and armor."Well, not really. In BD&D, there's really nothing better than the starting equipment to buy. The fighters could buy plate mail for 60gp and improve their AC by 2 points, but that's it. And most 1st level fighters can afford to buy plate mail at character generation, anyway. I gave them all chainmail only because the minis I was using were wearing chainmail -- I made the characters match the minis just to avoid confusion with this learning first game session.So, really, in BD&D, all that loot hauled out of the dungeons isn't of much use after getting the xp for it. * * *I was surprised at how well the 1st level fighters held up in this adventure. Granted, I gave them all max hit points, (9 hp, in this case, with a 13 Con), and I remember in my early, original, BD&D days, it was not uncommon for a 1st level fighter to have 4 hit points. Technically you could have even 1, 2, or 3, but most DMs allowed rerolls for that low.Also, I gave the cleric a staff of healing -- heal 2-7 hit points for each person once a day. I think every PC got healed by this, plus one cure light wounds spell used on one fighter.When we were nearing the end of our game session, and the boys were talking about wanting to see a dragon, I decided to throw a 5 HD dragon at them. When I was writing up the monsters for this game session, I kept finding myself making monsters beyond 1st level. And I kept reminding myself that those creatures will kill the whole party. I remember my early, original, experiences with BD&D and the Caves of Chaos -- we had at least one TPK against the ogre.I had decided to not use the 5 HD critter against the boys. But then with the end of the game session needing a climatic final encounter, I thought, what the heck, let's wipe them out. It'll end the game with a big bang.The dragon had 25 hit points, did 1d10 damage with a bite and 2d10 with his fire breath. As soon as the boys opened the door to the room with the dragon, it breathed fire on them. One boy was taken to 1 hit point, and another made his saving throw so only took a minor hurt. Then the other boys ran up with their spears and swords and killed the beast. It only managed to wound one other fighter. It wasn't even climatic.It's amazing what max hit points and one healing spell per person can mean for a party's staying power at 1st level.I also allowed one fighter to be revived by the healing potion from -1 hit point. This fighter was played by the 7 year old boy, and he had been killing goblins left and right.Bullgrit</blockquote>

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