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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5973297" data-attributes="member: 54877">I did run 1E quite a lot (and BECMI too, at low levels).  It's not the answer to all that Mustrum is trying to cover here.  Mainly, the problem with "just go back to the way 1E did it," is that the problem 3E was trying to solve when it busted casters wide open was still a real problem.  It's just that in its haste to change wizards from having a range of "early peon" to "late god," the 3E folks got a little too focused on the early end of the scale to the detriment of the upper.  Well, that, and they thought that feats and prestige classes were going to square that circle, but then didn't playtest nearly enough on the upper end. So if "make the wizard stay at peon longer and grudgingly let him climb into god-like," isn't a real answer for fighter issues, it is true that the scaling on the effects as presented here might be a bit too 3E wizard centric.  There'd be nothing inherently wrong, for example, in structuring the stamina system such that a fighter gets very little early (depending more on his basic hit points, strength, and arms), gets a decent dose of stamina around 5th level, grows rapidly in stamina for awhile, and then tapers off in the upper levels on the automatic stuff in favor of having to quest for it.  Match that with no automatic spells for casters at the upper end, and it will work out fairly close.  Then on top of that, put in an option for a handful of automatic high-level abilities for groups that don't want to fool with questing for them. In any case, I'm not proposing that as a superior replacement, but rather as an alternative progression by way of example of what a 1E sensibility might constructively bring to the discussion.  I've said elsewhere that it was very helpful in early D&D that the wizard spell acquisition was somewhat independent of level gain, and that similar abilities should be available for all kinds of classes.  Besides what Mustrum has discussed here, it vastly expands the kind of character growth pacing one can do in a campaign without having to butcher the rules.  Ideally, the pace of such ability acquisition would not even be embedded into the level rules at all, but discussed separately in the context of play styles.  (For example, if your DM is prone to be a miser, then the group might want to adopt some explicit gains, such as the 3E wizard gaining a minimum of two relevant spells per level.  OTOH, if your DM is prone to being Santa Claus on this issue, then such a rule is merely a speed bump in your way.)</blockquote>

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