Hooboy.... here I am diving in late with a multiquote. Sorry for being a PITA, but hey, that's on-brand.
Rightho. Where was I? Oh, yes.
It also doesn't help that there is no rhyme or reason to the source of xp. The xp value of monsters has many, many examples where someone just decided on a number and called it a day. Treasure values are random, and there are many effects that can raise or lower one's level or xp total out of thin air.
What I did to solve that was take the generic calculator in the back of the DMG (Table 31/32 in the TSR 2100 version) and put all those fomulas into a spreadsheet - then tweaked them for "I don't give XP for loot." Everything is now calculated through that. So the monster XP is based on that calculator.
madness of training subsystems that function as a limiter on advancement (and additional limiters like Druids, Monks, and Assassins duking it out for the privilege of advancing to a new level of experience).
That was daft. Now, I do have the general idea that each faith has its "high priest/ess," and that given the limitations of high-end clerical magic, only the highest of practitioners may have access to the higher-level magics .... but that's an in-game limitation that would need years of play to become valid.
I also have clerics needing to return to a temple for blessings to advance at certain levels. Nature clerics, who gain shapeshifting at seventh level, must undergo religious rituals to gain those powers.
Regarding scrolls:
To be more explicit, I do not use the DMG's incomplete recommendations for scroll creatiom. All a MU has to do is pony up the 100 gp (materials cost) and 1 day of downtime.
Enter the fourth-level mage and cleric spells (if the deity grants it), "create scroll."
Problem solved.
The DMG puts obstacles in front of magic item creation because Gary wanted his PCs out adventuring and enjoying the thrill, not staying at home making bespoke items to buff themselves and the party. Like many of the rulings in the DMG, magic item creation is one part creative writing, one part system expansion, and one part antagonistic gatekeeping to preserve what he saw as the best type of gaming.
There are ways to interweave mechanics and gaming to achieve a reasonable result, though. Indeed, I had a low-level character with blacksmithing skills who wanted to create a wakizashi. He did so at a Node, which is a concentration of ley lines and magical power. He was
hoping he might somehow imbue the wakizashi with magic. He did .... but he's not figured out what it is.
The node is tied to an Oracle, and the oracle is gifted (cursed) with the ability to create artworks that cryptically predict the future. The previous oracle wrote poetry, the current oracle crafts paintings that she doesn't always understand. The Samurai in my game can cast something akin to "Omen."
So that's what the sword can do. Omen, 1/month. The player hasn't discovered that yet. Is it useful? Probably not much. But ... it introduces the idea that if you go to magical places, maybe magical things will happen.
The thing is ... these nodes are .... occupied. The more powerful the node, the more powerful the occupant. But I digress.
I discussed earlier the fact that the weirdest thing about the M-U was that they leveled up very slowly when they were the weakest, and then suddenly accelerated to leveling faster than a thief just when they were really beginning to get powerful. I hadn't touched that yet because setting leveling rates on a class is always very touchy as it is easy to hidden nerf a class badly by messing with the level advancement rates. After all, it's not how powerful are you at level X that matters, but what level are you at XP total Y.
The frigged-up levelling always bothered me. The solution was to simply create new tables. Again, with easy access to a spreadsheet these days, it's simple to follow the basic double-every-level modality.
Early mage powers
Several posters raised the valid observation that many low-level mages were squishy and weak. There are solutions... to solve that problem, I (a) grant more spell points at low level. This means that even a flat-dumb mage is going to have the power to cast four first-level spells per day, more if they can rest. Intelligence bonuses mean five-six spells at first level - which is kinda ok. The ability to freely cast first-level spells if known at third character level, and upcast those to make them more oomphy is, so far, working in game. (A Runecaster got hold of Magic Missile. She now regularly blows two spell points to chuck out 2d4+4 damage.... and the Xp gained from being significantly involved in taking down some potent beings is transitioning the character into the role I wanted for Mages - that is, at fifth-eighth level they start becoming savagely potent.)
To compensate for the greater spell points available, some of the classic AOE spells have been nerfed, or require additional investment of spell points to be powerful, but may have utility at lower levels. For example, fireball is a first-level spell, but only creates a 2-m sphere doing d6 damage. If cast as a third-level spell without extra spell points, it creates a 4m sphere doing 3d6 damage (save, dex, halved.) But a sixth-level mage could pump in extra spell points to make it larger and more potent....
In essence, yes, there are problems with 1e/2e mages, but there are solutions. Even without going to a spell point system, adopting the 5e rules for spell slots and upcasting would breathe a bit of vitality into the class under a 1e/2e umbrella.
