Question about 1st edition Exceptional Strength...

[Whimsical]

BTW, does anyone know the origin of the exceptional strength system? Obvously, it was tacked on after the basic set, but before 1st edition AD&D. I checked my Dragon magazine archives, but it seems that exceptional strength existed before the magazine existed.

Mentally, I imagine an exchange between Gygax and another player...
Player: "I want to play someone like Conan"
Gygax: "Ok, make a fighter with an 18 strength."
Player: "No, you don't understand. I want to play Conan. He is way stronger than someone with an 18 STR."
Gygax: "Hm. You're right." [starts to "fix" D&D so that Conan can be represented in the game.]

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Exceptional strength first appeared in an issue of Strategic Review, IIRC. Don't know exactly why it was implemented, though -- probably to give fighters an extra edge over, say, a cleric with 18 strength.

 

[T. Foster]

Exceptional Strength first appeared as a rule in D&D supplement I: Greyhawk, published in spring 1975 (about the same time as issue #2 of The Strategic Review). The justification is pretty much exactly as Whimsical imagines -- that to model truly exceptional "Conan types" the 3-18 scale (where 1 in 216 rolls gives the best possible result) alone wasn't deemed sufficient -- an 18/00 character is 1 in 21,600.

 

[Veritas]

I was looking at my In Search of the Unknown module today, and there's the stats for an NPC dwarven fighter in the back who has exceptional strength. and this was the first printing of the module, so it existed even then, even though the rules weren't in the basic boxed set it came with (the color box with the fighter and wizard fighting the dragon on his horde).

 

[T. Foster]

In Search of the Unknown (1979) also includes demi-human thief characters who aren't allowed under the rules that module was supposedly written for either (the 1977 J. Eric Holmes-edited Basic Set). Presumably these were editorial mistakes, but not all that big ones, because unlike the later Basic Sets (the 1981 Moldvay edition or the 1983 Mentzer edition) the 1977 set wasn't intended as a separate stand-alone game. It was assumed that once characters reached 3rd level that the DM would switch over to either original D&D (which was no longer receiving official support but was still in-print until 1979-80) or that 'new-fangled' Advanced D&D (MM 1977, PHB 1978, DMG 1979), both of which included Exceptional Strength and demi-human thieves (assuming that you were using the Greyhawk supplement with original D&D), so even if the DM didn't know what those rules were at the moment, he'd figure them out eventually when he 'upgraded' rulesets.

 

[Veritas]

I believe it's my 1977 version of the blue/white rulebook rules says that dwarves can be fighting men or thieves (or it could be the 1979 version... I can't remember). However, the module gives halfling thieves as well, even though none of the rules I've seen allow that, and they had elf fighters and elf magic users, rather than having them multiclassed like in the rulebook... so yeah, it was a little messed up. heh.

The 1978 version I'm looking at right now doesn't mention anything for dwarves except fighter, but it does mentions how when characters advance to 4th level, they should begin to refer to the AD&D rules... all the blue/white rulebooks refer to AD&D, whereas the Red Basic rules and Blue Expert rules stick to themselves.

 

[diaglo]

I believe it's my 1977 version of the blue/white rulebook rules says that dwarves can be fighting men or thieves (or it could be the 1979 version... I can't remember). However, the module gives halfling thieves as well, even though none of the rules I've seen allow that, and they had elf fighters and elf magic users, rather than having them multiclassed like in the rulebook... so yeah, it was a little messed up. heh.

The 1978 version I'm looking at right now doesn't mention anything for dwarves except fighter, but it does mentions how when characters advance to 4th level, they should begin to refer to the AD&D rules... all the blue/white rulebooks refer to AD&D, whereas the Red Basic rules and Blue Expert rules stick to themselves.

all races could be thieves. as per SUpplement I Greyhawk. (1975) the carryover to the Holmes Basic came from OD&D.