D&D 2E Let's Read the AD&D 2nd Edition PHB+DMG!

[Micah Sweet]

This is very important I suppose. There are some big differences between the PHB printed in 89 and the black PHB printed in the mid-90s (I always preferred the earlier one but it has been harder to come by these days)

I thought the only differences were art and formatting. What content changes did they make?

 

[Bedrockgames]

I thought the only differences were art and formatting. What content changes did they make?

I can’t recall offhand but I remember there being some crucial differences

 

[Micah Sweet]

I can’t recall offhand but I remember there being some crucial differences

Well, if anyone knows about that I'd love to hear it.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Well, if anyone knows about that I'd love to hear it.

Unfortunately I no longer have my 89 PHB (it is at my old apartment). Otherwise I would look it up

 

[Micah Sweet]

Unfortunately I no longer have my 89 PHB (it is at my old apartment). Otherwise I would look it up

I have the original, but not the reprint.

 

[James Gasik]

I see you have an older version of the PHB which gave access to Divination to more than was supposed to be available.

Although, I don’t think I’ve ever seen “any” in the race column before. It usually has Humans & Gnomes.

This was corrected later, but honestly, Gnomish diviners didn’t seem that odd thematically either. Gnomes did get access to Artificers school in PO:S&M.



Wu Jen were a kit in the wizards handbook and never really a unique class in 2E. Wild magic and elemental magic were in the ToM as distinct specialist classes.

PO:S&M expanded this to create different types of spell identification, Schools of Philosophy—same as the PHB; Schools of Effect—elementalist from ToM, with dimensionalist, force mage, mentalist, and shadow mage; and Schools of Thaumaturgy—wild mage from ToM, alchemist, artificer, geometer, and song mage.

The other biggest addition to the wizard group was from Al Qadim and Dark Sun, the former of which added the sorcerer (basically a modification of the elemental wizard who has access to two elements but without the benefit of specialization), elementalist (basically straight from the ToM), and the sha’ir who accessed magic via genies. Dark Sun had the preservers and defilers which really felt like it was something that came from the zeitgeist of the late 80s/early 90s ecological pop science, which unlike today was much more focused on pollution and resource conservation rather than greenhouse gases & climate change. Oddly, even though that wasn’t a huge part of the discussion at the time, we see magic-caused desertification showing up in a few different places, Dark Sun being the most prominent, but also in Forgotten Realms in both Anauroch and Raurin deserts.

All in all, the 2E approach to magic was extremely extensible without having to really add any extra complexity.

Ah, sorry about the misinformation about the Wu Jen. I was probably thinking of 3e, where they were their own class.

 

[James Gasik]

Oops, forgot to add something. So that's where any race being able to be Diviners came from! I remember this was a thing in one of the campaigns I played in, where Dwarves were allowed to be Diviners, and I recalled that being in a book, but years later when I offered the option in a game I was running, my players were confused ("Dwarves can't be mages!", an older player cried in dismay).

I must have replaced my PHB at some point. Personally, I didn't see it as a big deal, but apparently someone at TSR must have!

 

[cbwjm]

Oops, forgot to add something. So that's where any race being able to be Diviners came from! I remember this was a thing in one of the campaigns I played in, where Dwarves were allowed to be Diviners, and I recalled that being in a book, but years later when I offered the option in a game I was running, my players were confused ("Dwarves can't be mages!", an older player cried in dismay).

I must have replaced my PHB at some point. Personally, I didn't see it as a big deal, but apparently someone at TSR must have!

I probably would have read "any" as "any race able to be wizards" so dwarves would be excluded. But then I grew up reading norse myths where dwarves were very much magical and so like to include the option for them to be mages anyway.

If people are interested in 2e eratta, Ive found this thread on dragonsfoot: Second Edition Errata - Dragonsfoot

 

[ScottDeWar_jr]

A quick note on difference between conjugation/summoning vs evocation
Conjunction summoner calls forth from elsewhere to the wizards location, whereas evocation calls into existence that which does not exist, but creates it

 

[PHATsakk43]

I can’t recall offhand but I remember there being some crucial differences

There were differences in the 89 printings as well.

At some point, “any” was changed to “H, H-E, E”

There were close to 10 printings with various errata updates prior to 1995 reprint.

EDIT: there’s at least 11 printings of the 89. The 1st one has differences. 2nd+ are all including the errata. Similarly, there are major errata updates with the 1995 version between 1st and subsequent printings.

Although, honestly, gnomish diviners are not in anyway game breaking.