AD&D 1E Rules that are kinda cool but everyone forgot

[Ralif Redhammer]

I remember playing a half-elf that slammed against the cleric level limit .... that was annoyingly low.

5th level! The only worse one was for Half-orc clerics, at level 4.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

I've had PCs reach level 10+ in 5e

I'm not referring to playing 5e - I'm referring to playing Od&d, B/X, or any other TSR era game today.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I'm not referring to playing 5e - I'm referring to playing Od&d, B/X, or any other TSR era game today.

Ah, I see. I saw "modern era" and thought editions. That makes more sense now. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

 

[Moving Pictures]

Reincarnate or Wish (if well worded) maybe, but I'm very dubious about Resurrection.

Edit to add: and the obvious problem with Reincarnate, of course, is you risk coming back as a badger or something else completely unplayable.

Or a snake. Or a mushroom.

 

[the Jester]

Problem, but also opportunity. I remember myriad of inventive ways being come up with to either 1) make a badger playable, or 2) get the badger back into the form of a playable character race. I don't remember how much it actually came up, rather than being the ponderings of overactive imaginations.

I saw several animal reincarnations over the years.

 

[Flying Toaster]

5th level! The only worse one was for Half-orc clerics, at level 4.

The rules for non-Humans were really bizarre and wildly inconsistent.

Half-Orcs had tough restrictions, plus at least two more undesirable quirks. They were the only non-Humans with a Thief level limit, and their maximum DEX was just 14, so they could not even get any bonuses! I never really understood why Gygax put Half-Orcs in D&D anyway. They barely appear in Tolkien’s work and were (IMHO) not one of his better ideas. Our group barely noticed them get dropped from 2E because no one ever played one in 1E, although one guy liked to play another semi-official (?) Gygax creation, the Half-Ogre.

IIRC Halfling Fighters were also limited to level 4 (or level 6 if you used the UA rule that let single class non-humans get two extra levels). I think I did the hit point math once for a Halfling Fighter/Thief, and somehow it actually came out to fewer hit points at high levels than a single class Thief.

I never really understood why multi-class demi-humans had to earn all of the XP required for each class level, but did not get all of the hit points for each class. Instead the HP got averaged together, so a Fighter/Mage could have no more than 7 HP per level(s) instead of 14. We may well have been reading those rules incorrectly...

 

[Flying Toaster]

If I ever ran AD&D or a similar game again, I would start with these house rules:

• Use the ability score spread from B/X (BECMI); no percentile STR
• HD upgrade: d6 for Wizard classes, d8 for Rogue classes
• No XP bonus for high ability scores
• XP bonus for Humans to balance no level limits for other races, rationalized as Human ambition to make a mark on the world during a shorter life span
• Max HP at level 1, reroll all HP at each level up (or before each adventure?) so HP totals average out over time, and no one gets stuck with bad rolls forever
• Allow both 1E and 2E versions of the Ranger, representing different groups with different training regimens
• Encourage creative use of situational spells by allowing Wizard classes to ditch a memorized spell and instead spontaneously cast something else of equal level, but spell failure and/or adverse effects are possible; this may need testing

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The rules for non-Humans were really bizarre and wildly inconsistent.

Half-Orcs had tough restrictions, plus at least two more undesirable quirks. They were the only non-Humans with a Thief level limit, and their maximum DEX was just 14, so they could not even get any bonuses! I never really understood why Gygax put Half-Orcs in D&D anyway. They barely appear in Tolkien’s work and were (IMHO) not one of his better ideas. Our group barely noticed them get dropped from 2E because no one ever played one in 1E, although one guy liked to play another semi-official (?) Gygax creation, the Half-Ogre.

IIRC Halfling Fighters were also limited to level 4 (or level 6 if you used the UA rule that let single class non-humans get two extra levels). I think I did the hit point math once for a Halfling Fighter/Thief, and somehow it actually came out to fewer hit points at high levels than a single class Thief.

I never really understood why multi-class demi-humans had to earn all of the XP required for each class level, but did not get all of the hit points for each class. Instead the HP got averaged together, so a Fighter/Mage could have no more than 7 HP per level(s) instead of 14. We may well have been reading those rules incorrectly...

And don't forget that Half-Orcs apparently had no souls, and were dead dead, unable to be brought back to life. Back in the day I don't think anyone in my group playing one, but as I've grown up, I've come to appreciate AD&D Half-Orcs more and more.

Multiclassing has always sacrificed depth for breadth (even as recent as 5e, I remember a triple-classed PC complaining about how low the DCs were on their spells). Which is kinda how it should be - if I was playing a single-classed Thief, I'd hate for the person that's playing a Fighter/Thief to be just as good as I was. That being said, I've never really been a fan of multiclassing.

 

[Marc17]

I never really understood why multi-class demi-humans had to earn all of the XP required for each class level, but did not get all of the hit points for each class. Instead the HP got averaged together, so a Fighter/Mage could have no more than 7 HP per level(s) instead of 14. We may well have been reading those rules incorrectly...

Balance issue as unlike 3E, those characters will have almost twice as many total levels with full abilities as a single classed character with one class due to the (nearly) exponential XP requirements per level.

I saw several animal reincarnations over the years.

I had a character fake his own death from his party (and wife), and they reincarnated the sheep I had polymorphed into myself and pushed off a tower. It ended up as an elf.

 

[SkidAce]

Multiclassing has always sacrificed depth for breadth (even as recent as 5e, I remember a triple-classed PC complaining about how low the DCs were on their spells). Which is kinda how it should be - if I was playing a single-classed Thief, I'd hate for the person that's playing a Fighter/Thief to be just as good as I was. That being said, I've never really been a fan of multiclassing.

I always use this example to players who multi-class. And I agree with the design.

But it illuminates why people are always looking for a good gish class...