D&D 2E On AD&D 2E

[Micah Sweet]

2e was the peak of my D&D playing and certainly still love it. That said, the designers just made stuff that they thought was cool. My favorite example is the swashbuckler kit from Complete Thieves. You get Fighter THACO and rapier in exchange for lower thief skill points. Other kits give you the ability to plant flowers better or whatever. Also Priest spheres/spell selection. Oh boy.

There are times I truly wish that WotC's designers would make stuff they thought was cool, because the worse thought is that they are.

 

[deganawida]

2e was the peak of my D&D playing and certainly still love it. That said, the designers just made stuff that they thought was cool. My favorite example is the swashbuckler kit from Complete Thieves. You get Fighter THACO and rapier in exchange for lower thief skill points. Other kits give you the ability to plant flowers better or whatever. Also Priest spheres/spell selection. Oh boy.

I thought Swashbucker was from Complete Fighter’s? I had that one and it was there as I recall.

Separately, going to be repurchasing those old 2e books from before the revision. A cursory search shows that it will cost me a pretty penny, but it will be worth it to have them in physical form again.

 

[Voadam]

I thought Swashbucker was from Complete Fighter’s? I had that one and it was there as I recall.

There are separate class specific swashbuckler kits in both the Complete Fighter and the Complete Thief Handbooks.

 

[deganawida]

There are separate class specific swashbuckler kits in both the Complete Fighter and the Complete Thief Handbooks.

Thanks. I never got the Thief Handbook. Did get Fighter, Paladin, and Ranger.

 

[Voadam]

There are a number of kit concepts that got different implementations in various 2e books, usually for different classes. I believe there are multiple amazon kits as well.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Couldn't resist

 

[Towheadedmule]

1e UA bumped up demihuman class options, multiclass options, and level limits a bunch from the 1e PH. No explanation, just an updated chart.

Dragon 95, pages 8-9. Gary put the reasoning there.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Dragon 95, pages 8-9. Gary put the reasoning there.

"After long contemplation of the plight of dead-ended demi-human characters, and considerable badgering from players with same, it seemed a good plan to work up some new maximum levels for those demihumans with super-normal statistics and in a couple of cases just reward those with high stats across the board. Demi-human swere limited in the first place (in the original rules) because I conceived of a basically human-dominated world. Considering their other abilities, if most demi-humans were put on a par with humans in terms of levels they could attain, then there isnt much question who would be saying Sir! to whom."

 

[Voadam]

Dragon 95, pages 8-9. Gary put the reasoning there.

"After long contemplation of the plight of dead-ended demi-human characters, and considerable badgering from players with same, it seemed a good plan to work up some new maximum levels for those demihumans with super-normal statistics and in a couple of cases just reward those with high stats across the board. Demi-human swere limited in the first place (in the original rules) because I conceived of a basically human-dominated world. Considering their other abilities, if most demi-humans were put on a par with humans in terms of levels they could attain, then there isnt much question who would be saying Sir! to whom."

Sort of, it looks like Dragon 95 was a full article on some revised limits and came out first and then included in UA with modifications. It looks like there are differences between the two.

The Dragon Magazine article says single classed demihumans who could multiclass with that class can go 2 higher than in the PH charts and the new charts are for single classed exceptional ability score demihumans only.

The UA level limit charts are for anybody of the right class and stats and a single classed demihuman who could multiclass with that class can go 2 higher than the chart in UA.

UA also allows demihuman cleric and druid PCs that are not in the PH or Dragon Magazine article options.

UA also does not explain multiclass options for those new allowed classes even though it uses a hill dwarf fighter/cleric with an 18 strength as an example to compare with a hill dwarf fighter with an 18 strength who can go two levels higher.

 

[Towheadedmule]

Sort of, it looks like Dragon 95 was a full article on some revised limits and came out first and then included in UA with modifications. It looks like there are differences between the two.

The Dragon Magazine article says single classed demihumans who could multiclass with that class can go 2 higher than in the PH charts and the new charts are for single classed exceptional ability score demihumans only.

The UA level limit charts are for anybody of the right class and stats and a single classed demihuman who could multiclass with that class can go 2 higher than the chart in UA.

UA also allows demihuman cleric and druid PCs that are not in the PH or Dragon Magazine article options.

UA also does not explain multiclass options for those new allowed classes even though it uses a hill dwarf fighter/cleric with an 18 strength as an example to compare with a hill dwarf fighter with an 18 strength who can go two levels higher.

Most of UA was previously published in Dragon, as well as scattered about various modules. TSR was in hard need of cash when Gary returned from Hollywood, and UA was deemed as the quickest.