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Len
Prodigal Member
Nothing? The first kill I ever made with a wizard character was a gelatinous cube, with a light crossbow.
L
lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
the Jester
Legend
M-Us weren't proficient in crossbows and couldn't use 'em up until 3e.
tommybahama
Adventurer
I could have sworn daggers could be thrown in 1E so you took as many as you could carry/afford. Mages back then didn't have cantrips to fall back on after using their spell slots.
Daggers can be thrown. The OP specifically mentions this. You could throw up to 2 daggers a round. Daggers do very slightly more damage (an expected extra 0.5 hp on a hit), are heavier, and only have 66% the fire rate. Darts are a decent choice. All three weapons have tradeoffs.
Celebrim
Legend
I honestly don't remember a lot of people opting to play single classed low level M-Us, and when they did they never seemed to last long enough to matter. To say that they were squishy is an understatement. Most M-U's I remember either multi-classed or if they had the attributes for it made an early class swap after starting out as a fighter to get a hit point boost, or more than likely were made as characters when the player was allowed to introduce a higher level character to the campaign either because they were new or the DM didn't want to make them start over at 1st.
In any event, dart is the way to go. While I can see an argument in favor of the versatility of the dagger, the dart storm is clearly the way to go at low level. The dart's superior rate of fire, superior range, lighter weight, and lower cost made them much more practical than a dagger storm. You had to assume that if you were taking hits in melee you were going to die, and you wanted a weapon you could hurl without worrying about whether you needed to recover them all. A quiver filled with darts gave you some reliable damage.
I'd also favor staff over dagger. If you are going to get stuck in melee, at least have a weapon capable of killing most of your foes and which you might talk the DM into letting you use from the back rank, and which you might get a first attack with should a goblin with a club or short sword charge you. Dagger seems like a compromise, but as an M-U you really can't afford to be compromising. You need an absolute advantage, or you basically have none.
In any event, dart is the way to go. While I can see an argument in favor of the versatility of the dagger, the dart storm is clearly the way to go at low level. The dart's superior rate of fire, superior range, lighter weight, and lower cost made them much more practical than a dagger storm. You had to assume that if you were taking hits in melee you were going to die, and you wanted a weapon you could hurl without worrying about whether you needed to recover them all. A quiver filled with darts gave you some reliable damage.
I'd also favor staff over dagger. If you are going to get stuck in melee, at least have a weapon capable of killing most of your foes and which you might talk the DM into letting you use from the back rank, and which you might get a first attack with should a goblin with a club or short sword charge you. Dagger seems like a compromise, but as an M-U you really can't afford to be compromising. You need an absolute advantage, or you basically have none.
Bupp
Adventurer
We played Gygaxian when I first started, and we would do anything to improve our odds, by however little amount. The increased rate of fire for the darts was key.
As others have mentioned, useless in melee, but even with a dagger or staff, you were useless in melee. Throw the darts, and still carry your staff or dagger. In the odd chance you got stuck in melee, you could still use it, just with the -5(?) non-proficiency penalty. Seeing as how your would need a nat 20 most of the time to hit anything in melee anyway, the -5 doesn't much matter.
As others have mentioned, useless in melee, but even with a dagger or staff, you were useless in melee. Throw the darts, and still carry your staff or dagger. In the odd chance you got stuck in melee, you could still use it, just with the -5(?) non-proficiency penalty. Seeing as how your would need a nat 20 most of the time to hit anything in melee anyway, the -5 doesn't much matter.
The Mirrorball Man
Aventurier
"Oooh whee! What up with that? What up with that?"
All magic users took daggers back in the day. The first time I encountered a dart-throwing wizard was, IIRC, in one of those Endless Quest books and I thought it was the most absurd weapon of all time.
All magic users took daggers back in the day. The first time I encountered a dart-throwing wizard was, IIRC, in one of those Endless Quest books and I thought it was the most absurd weapon of all time.
Harzel
Adventurer
It is hard to remember, but I think we might have neglected the 1e weapon proficiency rules. (We certainly abided by the class restrictions on weapon type, but may have ignored the proficiency stuff.) And since I just happen to have some 40-year-old 1e character sheets* right here about 5 ft. away from me, let me just look. Ok, yep, I didn't go through all of them, but I found two M-Us, both low-level, one with darts and one with darts and a dagger. So, FWIW, there's some anecdotal data.
* Ok, they're not really sheets, they are index cards.
* Ok, they're not really sheets, they are index cards.
