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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rogueattorney" data-source="post: 6077443" data-attributes="member: 17551">By my count, the OP is through page B9 of the rules.  I'll try to keep up a bit but not pass him.Do we really need a mapper?  I tend to stress the dungeon exploration theme and strongly encourage the party to map.  I don't do it for them.  If they get lost in the dungeon and can't find their way out...  Oh well.  That said, I try to make it easy on the mapper and make sure he doesn't get hung up on the little details.  I generally tell my players that a flowchart will probably work just as well as anything else.Do we really need a caller?  This one of those things I think modern players completely misunderstand, especially since the 4 person party became standard.  "Nobody tells me what my pc does."  Etc.  As this section makes clear, that's entirely not the point.  The caller just takes what everyone wants to do with their character and passes it along to the DM.  It's not particularly useful for smaller groups, but once you've got 6 or more players, it can cut down on the chaos.  Creating a character:  There should be an additional step:  "Pick extra languages, if applicable."Ability scores:  Low and average ability scores are not as crippling to a character in this version of D&D as they are in other versions.  A character with nothing but average (9-11) scores will be a perfectly good character.  A character with a couple below average ability scores might be serviceable depending on which scores are low and whether he has some high scores.  Generally speaking, your ability scores will not be the most important rolls made at character creation; in my experience, one’s starting hit point roll and starting gold roll have more impact on the character’s short-term survivability and long-term viability.  Hit points:  Note the optional rule to re-roll 1's and 2's.  It doesn't say how many times you get to re-roll it.  So, I suppose that could be interpreted to say that when using the optional rule first level characters have a minimum starting hp of 3.  Classes:  I think the key to the classes is to think of each of the classes as broad archetypes rather than a specific profession.  No one actually calls himself a “fighter.”  Rather, a bounty hunter, soldier, highwayman, pirate, or guard.  No one actually calls herself a “magic-user.”  Rather, a seer, enchantress, mystic, or scholar.  Clerics are teachers, preachers, bureaucrats, tax-collectors, and scientists.  All demi-humans don't conform to the respective classes, but rather the class represents a typical adventuring member of the race.  Don't get hung up on the accretions that decades of further game products have laced these terms with.Level-titles:  Level titles are really only there for fun.  I neither encourage to nor discourage players from using titles.  As a player, I'll often write them on my character sheets, but then never do anything with them.  As a DM, I have NPCs use the level titles from time to time, but they also often exaggerate or downplay their abilities by using a level title that doesn’t match their actual level.Weapon and armor restrictions:  This is how I handle weapons and armor restrictions...  Clerics do not use edged weapons.  Magic-users do not use any other weapon besides a dagger and do not wear armor.  Thieves do not wear metal armor.  It’s not that these characters cannot use the relevant weapon and armor; it’s that they, as a general rule, don’t.  Failure to abide by the weapon and armor restrictions is a failure to play the role of the class.  In extenuating circumstances, a character can violate the restrictions.  A magic-user or thief could don plate mail as part of a disguise while infiltrating a castle.  (But will be unable to perform most class specific functions.)  A cleric or magic-user could pick up a sword in self-defense if he had no other recourse.  (But would attack with a substantial penalty.)  However, if a character makes common practice of violating the class restrictions, he will not gain any experience points for those adventures where he does so.  You receive experience points for acting as your class.  If a magic-user dons plate mail and charges into battle wielding a sword, he’s not acting as his class, and thus gains no experience as a magic-user.</blockquote>

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