Stormonu
NeoGrognard
Here I was about to start a thread about my recent 2E experiences, and lo and behold, I find this one!
A couple of weeks ago, we played I6 using 2E rules. Even dug out the Core Rules 2.0 to help with making characters. The characters were, on average about 5th level and oddly, all single-classed.
One of the things I noticed, though I don't know if it was just my bias, was how different the 2E cleric was. The spell lists struck me as being useful before or after the combat - very, very few actually designed for use in the middle of the raging battle.
The second thing, of course, was the fragility of Wizards. A bare handful of spells to be doled out only when it was apparent the fighters were in trouble or some specialized problem needed to be handled. Wizards were truly the "big guns", but they weren't solving every encounter. They were, instead, the Ace in the Hole.
Not having to deal with Wealth Per Level Guidelines was interesting. I had each player randomly roll up 6 magic items. Some of the results were really surprising - the fighters decked out with Protection scrolls, for example and the intelligent Chaotic Evil blade Ambition the Wizard rolled up and the Lawful Good intelligent longtooth blade Insight that the Bard ended up with (the two blades hated one another, that was fun to play up). The party definitely had some good items, but they didn't feel like they either overshadowed or overpowered the characters. They didn't feel like they were mathematically needed, most of all.
There was a bunch of other minor things that I'd forgotten about that were little joys to see once again in the game. Too many to list here.
However, there were some annoyances as well. The yo-yo numbers (roll high for this, low for that) were a bit frustrating to remember. Likewise, the non-proficiency system was clearly inferior to 3e's/4e's more polished skill system. Finally, as others mentioned, the monster entries are like treasure hunts to find the info you need - I do like later system's presentation of needed stats into tidy easy-accessible blocks.
A couple of weeks ago, we played I6 using 2E rules. Even dug out the Core Rules 2.0 to help with making characters. The characters were, on average about 5th level and oddly, all single-classed.
One of the things I noticed, though I don't know if it was just my bias, was how different the 2E cleric was. The spell lists struck me as being useful before or after the combat - very, very few actually designed for use in the middle of the raging battle.
The second thing, of course, was the fragility of Wizards. A bare handful of spells to be doled out only when it was apparent the fighters were in trouble or some specialized problem needed to be handled. Wizards were truly the "big guns", but they weren't solving every encounter. They were, instead, the Ace in the Hole.
Not having to deal with Wealth Per Level Guidelines was interesting. I had each player randomly roll up 6 magic items. Some of the results were really surprising - the fighters decked out with Protection scrolls, for example and the intelligent Chaotic Evil blade Ambition the Wizard rolled up and the Lawful Good intelligent longtooth blade Insight that the Bard ended up with (the two blades hated one another, that was fun to play up). The party definitely had some good items, but they didn't feel like they either overshadowed or overpowered the characters. They didn't feel like they were mathematically needed, most of all.
There was a bunch of other minor things that I'd forgotten about that were little joys to see once again in the game. Too many to list here.
However, there were some annoyances as well. The yo-yo numbers (roll high for this, low for that) were a bit frustrating to remember. Likewise, the non-proficiency system was clearly inferior to 3e's/4e's more polished skill system. Finally, as others mentioned, the monster entries are like treasure hunts to find the info you need - I do like later system's presentation of needed stats into tidy easy-accessible blocks.
