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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5917360" data-attributes="member: 82106">Well, virtually all AD&D spells required a number of segments equal to the spell level. There are a few 'ritual like' exceptions, most of those require 5 minutes or more to cast (and a few require long casting times). Once in a while there's also one that goes quicker than the norm. PWK is a good example, but it was also pretty limited in other ways. The enemy had to have less than 60 hit points (in the 2e version) or you could hit up to 120 hp worth of enemies of considerably lower level. As a 9th level wizard spell it didn't let you actually kill major plot enemies you were likely to face at that level, unless they happened to be NPC spell casters. In that case of course they would be well advised to have strong magical defenses.I think the general consensus on how AD&D casting works is that your spell goes off unless you actually take damage, so you can cast in combat, it is just problematic. You'll lose DEX mods to AC and many casters will be hit without much problem. Of course even some level 1 spells are pretty useful anyway, like MM, which is a 1 segment spell. It wasn't a huge issue anyway, as any old wand would be 1 segment activation and there's no spoiling magic item activation (well, death).The bigger impact was needing to be still and stable. You can't cast from horseback, on a pitching boat, etc. I think a lot of groups didn't really follow that too closely. Heck, the "Emerikol the Chaotic" illustration in the DMG is technically not a rules legal situation in AD&D (Emerikol casting something, MM maybe, from horseback). I could see a setup where casting slotted spells was like that in 5e, hard to do, but cantrips (which I guess would include your basic at-will attacks like MM) would be less restricted.</blockquote>

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