Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Zyx and Rixx are pretty solid names for kids to come up with.
Just reading the sample descriptions of play, the thief Black Dougal plays his role as the trapchecer, thinks to check for traps on a chest, fails the roll and dies from the trap going off. In the fight the dwarf plays their role as a front line warrior in the group's combat and just gets hit and dies. Doing everything right death from rolls was easy to hit you.It is definitely A KEY PART of early D&D editions to just ACCEPT that characters will die - even when the DM takes multiple steps to reduce deadliness, and even when it's experienced players who always make good decisions. Characters WILL die.
Experiences vary. The casual high risk of death from rolls was a not as fun part of the game for a bunch in my experience.Change that to absolutely prevent any PC death if you insist - but that WASN'T how it was intended/expected to work, and overwhelmingly (IME) wasn't something that players were even complaining about at the time.
B/X Expert set levels 4-14 was quickly a very different mechanical situation for survival and combat than Basic levels 1-3. Poison could still ruin your day on a single roll, but combat changed to generally expecting to survive multiple rounds rather than risking being one shotted every attack. Also increased caster options and impacts.It's not until LATER editions surfaced that players really started to come at the game with that... sense of entitlement. At the time it was just part of playing the game until PC's advanced out of the first few levels - and EVEN THEN nobody was so foolish as to expect that they were now guaranteed any particular measure of survival.
And I’ve done precisely that, in more than one edition. Hell, I designed and played a 3.5Ed “mage-brute” Sorcerer who wore scale mail from 1st level. Most of his spells had no somatic components so ASF was not an issue.Nothing stops the Thief or MU character from physically donning a siut of plate, but if either hope to use any of their class abilities while in in they're flat out'a luck.
And I’ve done precisely that, in more than one edition. Hell, I designed and played a 3.5Ed “mage-brute” Sorcerer who wore scale mail from 1st level. Most of his spells had no somatic components so ASF was not an issue.
Shtick: he contributed in combat by using his maul (not a typo) or channeling spell energy into his breath weapon (lightning). The campaign ended before he qualified for any reserve feats.
That's 11 and 999 thousands of an inch, you metric heathen!Draw your 11.99999 inch dagger and attack.
Non-prof penalties are RAW, and listed in the PH. For a MU it's -5 to hit. We always assumed it applied to any weapon the character picked up regardless of class etc., using the logic that says any idiot can pick up any weapon and try to use it but won't know what they're doing.
Non-prof penalties are RAW, and listed in the PH. For a MU it's -5 to hit. We always assumed it applied to any weapon the character picked up regardless of class etc., using the logic that says any idiot can pick up any weapon and try to use it but won't know what they're doing.
This feels like a recipe for no one actually leveling up a magic-user.A first level wizard is not a spellcaster. It's a scholar accompanying an expedition of ruin explorers and treasure hunters. And as you advance through the lower levels, you might even cast the occasional utility spell that helps with negating obstacles in the path of the expedition, and you'll be the person in charge of handling the scrolls and wands the party comes across.
By 5th level you can start thinking about participating in combat, but probably won't have much to contribute until 7th level and higher.