Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
New School Thinking of Going Ol' School
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Kae'Yoss" data-source="post: 3656863" data-attributes="member: 4134"><p>From the top of my head (has been a couple of years since I stopped playing AD&D):</p><p></p><p>Instead of (Base) Attack Bonus, you have THAC0 (to hit armour class 0). ACs start at 10 and go down, and the THAC0 does as well. THAC0 of 10 means that you need to roll a 10 to hit AC0. You subtract the AC from that, so with THAC0 10 and AC 5, you hit with a 5 or better</p><p></p><p>XP Tables aren't unified - thieves advance fasters than wizards, for example</p><p></p><p>There are maximum levels for all races except humans - so race X can only advance to level Y in class Z</p><p></p><p>There are minimum ability scores for many classes. A paladin needs Cha 17, for example. </p><p></p><p>There were more alignment restrictions for classes, and on top of that, racial restrictions: Paladins had to be human, halflings couldn't be Rangers, Elves couldn't be bards. </p><p></p><p>Characters with more than one class were different: Humans had to dual-class - that's where you abandon your old class and start at 0 with a new one. Your old class abilities remain dormant until you have a higher level with your new class than with your old. You also have heavy ability score requirements for that. </p><p>All other races must multiclass - you have two or three classes at once (only some combinations allowed), and divide your XP equally. That usually meant that when your buddy was a Fighter 8, you were something like fighter 7/mage 7, or maybe 6 in both.</p><p></p><p>No PrC's. Instead there were kits - variant classes that get extra abilities from the start, but may not get certain other abilities and have extra reequirements. </p><p></p><p>No feats or skills as we know it. Instead there are weapon proficiencies - you get one every several levels (different for each class), and the penalty for using a weapon you're not proficient with differs from class to class). Not all weapons are open to learn for every class - a wizard may never learn to use the sword. If you take two points in a proficiency, you are specialized (only some classes could do that), and there's bigger specialisation, too (only for fighters, if I remember correctly).</p><p></p><p>You can also get non-weapon proficiencies instead of your weapon proficiencies. They were an all-or-nothing affair. </p><p></p><p>There were many differences in the classes. The rogue, for example, was still called thief. It had "rogue skills", which were percentile, and rolling them was absolute - if you rolled beneath your hide skill, you were hidden, no matter how good the other guy's eyes were. Instead of sneak attack, there was backstab, which was a damage multiplier instead of extra dice, and had a much narrower application.</p><p></p><p>There was no ability score formula (12/13 is +1, 14/15 +2 and so on). Instead, each ability score had its own table, which also had some benefits you only got if you had a certain class or race. The abilities went only to 25, never any higher. Plus, Strength had a special ruling: instead of 18, there was 18/XX, where XX is between 01 and (1)00. Those percentiles were only for certain characters, though.</p><p></p><p>Spontaneous spellcasting wasn't. There were no sorcerers like we know them. Clerics only had 7th-level spells and below, and 0-level didn't exist (yes, detect magic took away a slot you could otherwise use for magic missile), and only clerics got bonus spells for high ability scores. Otherwise, the ability score didn't change the difficulty of the saves the targed hat to make. </p><p></p><p>There were 5 different saving throws - I can't get them together, but they were something like "wands", "petrification/death", "other magic", and another two things. Ability scores didn't change them if I remember correctly - only class and level.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kae'Yoss, post: 3656863, member: 4134"] From the top of my head (has been a couple of years since I stopped playing AD&D): Instead of (Base) Attack Bonus, you have THAC0 (to hit armour class 0). ACs start at 10 and go down, and the THAC0 does as well. THAC0 of 10 means that you need to roll a 10 to hit AC0. You subtract the AC from that, so with THAC0 10 and AC 5, you hit with a 5 or better XP Tables aren't unified - thieves advance fasters than wizards, for example There are maximum levels for all races except humans - so race X can only advance to level Y in class Z There are minimum ability scores for many classes. A paladin needs Cha 17, for example. There were more alignment restrictions for classes, and on top of that, racial restrictions: Paladins had to be human, halflings couldn't be Rangers, Elves couldn't be bards. Characters with more than one class were different: Humans had to dual-class - that's where you abandon your old class and start at 0 with a new one. Your old class abilities remain dormant until you have a higher level with your new class than with your old. You also have heavy ability score requirements for that. All other races must multiclass - you have two or three classes at once (only some combinations allowed), and divide your XP equally. That usually meant that when your buddy was a Fighter 8, you were something like fighter 7/mage 7, or maybe 6 in both. No PrC's. Instead there were kits - variant classes that get extra abilities from the start, but may not get certain other abilities and have extra reequirements. No feats or skills as we know it. Instead there are weapon proficiencies - you get one every several levels (different for each class), and the penalty for using a weapon you're not proficient with differs from class to class). Not all weapons are open to learn for every class - a wizard may never learn to use the sword. If you take two points in a proficiency, you are specialized (only some classes could do that), and there's bigger specialisation, too (only for fighters, if I remember correctly). You can also get non-weapon proficiencies instead of your weapon proficiencies. They were an all-or-nothing affair. There were many differences in the classes. The rogue, for example, was still called thief. It had "rogue skills", which were percentile, and rolling them was absolute - if you rolled beneath your hide skill, you were hidden, no matter how good the other guy's eyes were. Instead of sneak attack, there was backstab, which was a damage multiplier instead of extra dice, and had a much narrower application. There was no ability score formula (12/13 is +1, 14/15 +2 and so on). Instead, each ability score had its own table, which also had some benefits you only got if you had a certain class or race. The abilities went only to 25, never any higher. Plus, Strength had a special ruling: instead of 18, there was 18/XX, where XX is between 01 and (1)00. Those percentiles were only for certain characters, though. Spontaneous spellcasting wasn't. There were no sorcerers like we know them. Clerics only had 7th-level spells and below, and 0-level didn't exist (yes, detect magic took away a slot you could otherwise use for magic missile), and only clerics got bonus spells for high ability scores. Otherwise, the ability score didn't change the difficulty of the saves the targed hat to make. There were 5 different saving throws - I can't get them together, but they were something like "wands", "petrification/death", "other magic", and another two things. Ability scores didn't change them if I remember correctly - only class and level. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
New School Thinking of Going Ol' School
Top