NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 7095317" data-attributes="member: 22779">Another thing to remember too, from those of us who played back in 1e, is that Druids progressed at an extremely fast rate.  7th level (when you got shape change) was only 35000 xp.  Compared to 55000 for the same level cleric, 70 000 for the same level fighter, and even 42000 for the same level rogue.  Druids ROCKETED up the levels until they hit 12th level.  And, even then, they were probably two levels ahead of the rest of the party.  (Presuming everyone in the group had similar levels of XP).I guess, looking back at is, this is why I never saw Shapechange as some high level power.  The druid got shape change at the same time fighters got their second attack, and about the same time wizards got fireball.  And, really, not much after that paladin got his mount (the paladin could have his mount for about 1 level before the druid gets shape change.)Note, this progression was kept in 2e as well. (I had to look it up, and, yup, 35000 xp for 7th level).  Again, at that point, the cleric just tipped 6th, the wizard is only 5th level, the fighter tipped 6th, and the ranger and the paladin are 5th.  Even the rogue is only 6th level.  My point is, this was hardly a high level ability.  This is something that was pretty routine to see in any group that had a druid in it.  3e changed things by standardizing the xp table, but, I wonder if that has a big impact on how people view the druid.  If you played very low levels in AD&D, for example, you wouldn't see much shape changing.  Our groups tended to spend the most time between about 5th and 10th level, so, seeing shape change at the table was very common.I dunno.  I'm kinda meandering here.  Just interesting to step back into AD&D and look at how perceptions are shaped.</blockquote>

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