"Spellcasting. The death knight is a 19th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 18, +10 to hit with spell attacks). It has the following paladin spells prepared:They have always cast spells. Yet, not once has a Death Knight actually been able to cast spells since a Death Knight has never, ever been a spell caster.
That isn't correct. Elf, Dwarf and Halfling were PC classes in basic, and those NPCs appeared with those PC classes in B1 in 1978. D1 for AD&D 1e also came out in 1978 and had elf drow fighters, clerics and magic users in it. 1978 is the earliest that I could find official modules being released.Just as an interesting piece of history. The very first instance in an official D&D product of a non-human or demi-human gaining a PC class was Strahd in 1983's Ravenloft module.
I think that @Hussar ‘s grammatical ambiguity could be parsed as non- (human or demi-human), i.e. the first appearance of a “monster” with class levels was I6 Ravenloft.That isn't correct. Elf, Dwarf and Halfling were PC classes in basic, and those NPCs appeared with those PC classes in B1 in 1978. D1 for AD&D 1e also came out in 1978 and had elf drow fighters, clerics and magic users in it. 1978 is the earliest that I could find official modules being released.
This is how I read it.I think that @Hussar ‘s grammatical ambiguity could be parsed as non- (human or demi-human), i.e. the first appearance of a “monster” with class levels was I6 Ravenloft.
Not sure if that’s accurate, but I think that’s what they meant.
To be fair, liches (regardless of their in-game rationale of being powerful MUs) follow the same pattern as, say, nagas or sphinxes - monster HD with baked-in caster levels: what would be later known as “integrated caster levels.”While I6 appeared in 1983, the D&D Companion Set was right on its heels in 1984 with manscorpion clerics. The 1978 Monster Manual also had the lich, and AD& had dwarf clerics who hence classed monsters; PC dwarfs were barred, in fact.
The spell doesn’t do much of what it did before. So your second statement is completely false outside your own personal table, at most.Meh. Losing players constantly gaming the system so they can eke out every single drop of power out of a spell is not a loss. The spell does pretty much exactly what it was always going to do, just with far less muss and fuss.
That could be. I read it as non-human(say vampire) or demi-human.I think that @Hussar ‘s grammatical ambiguity could be parsed as non- (human or demi-human), i.e. the first appearance of a “monster” with class levels was I6 Ravenloft.
Not sure if that’s accurate, but I think that’s what they meant.
Reread what I wrote.That isn't correct. Elf, Dwarf and Halfling were PC classes in basic, and those NPCs appeared with those PC classes in B1 in 1978. D1 for AD&D 1e also came out in 1978 and had elf drow fighters, clerics and magic users in it. 1978 is the earliest that I could find official modules being released