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Shoe Horning the Races by Class?
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<blockquote data-quote="Jer" data-source="post: 7635808" data-attributes="member: 19857"><p>I don't remember this, though I ran B/X and only really engaged in AD&D as a player, and it's been a long time, so perhaps my memories are shaded.</p><p></p><p>What I remember was that the class/race combos you could play were insanely restrictive. If you were playing anything other than a fighter, magic-user, or fighter/magic-user you were playing a human or a half-elf. When I played I was almost always a cleric, so I was almost always playing a human. Because only half-elves, half-orcs and humans were allowed to be clerics, and the level caps for half-orc and half-elf clerics were stupidly low and the benefits of not being human weren't that great (I googled it real quick to remind myself, and it was worse than I thought - half-orcs were capped at level 4 and half-elves at level 5 - honestly in retrospect it wouldn't have mattered much because our AD&D campaigns never got past level 10 and more typically level 5, but when we were starting out we always assumed they would.) You might get someone playing a halfling thief every once in a while, but that required someone to be a thief and honestly most of the people I gamed with thought AD&D 1e thieves were a joke.</p><p></p><p>Of course that was 1e. You're probably talking about 2e where it loosened up a bit (hey, at least dwarves and halflings could be clerics in 2e - widening up the options a bit), but even there most of the folks I gamed with had the same attitude towards class/race combos and the "right" choices to make. And many races were still restricted - by the rules you couldn't have a halfling wizard or a dwarf druid, for example. It wasn't until 3e that I saw a widening of the combos outside of house rules at various tables.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes - this is one of the mechanics of 13A that is more subtle than a lot of the other ones that folks think of, but I think it has a major impact on the game. Your players who want to have a cool character that is outside of the typical stereotypes but also don't want to be less effective mechanically can have their peanut butter and their chocolate.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jer, post: 7635808, member: 19857"] I don't remember this, though I ran B/X and only really engaged in AD&D as a player, and it's been a long time, so perhaps my memories are shaded. What I remember was that the class/race combos you could play were insanely restrictive. If you were playing anything other than a fighter, magic-user, or fighter/magic-user you were playing a human or a half-elf. When I played I was almost always a cleric, so I was almost always playing a human. Because only half-elves, half-orcs and humans were allowed to be clerics, and the level caps for half-orc and half-elf clerics were stupidly low and the benefits of not being human weren't that great (I googled it real quick to remind myself, and it was worse than I thought - half-orcs were capped at level 4 and half-elves at level 5 - honestly in retrospect it wouldn't have mattered much because our AD&D campaigns never got past level 10 and more typically level 5, but when we were starting out we always assumed they would.) You might get someone playing a halfling thief every once in a while, but that required someone to be a thief and honestly most of the people I gamed with thought AD&D 1e thieves were a joke. Of course that was 1e. You're probably talking about 2e where it loosened up a bit (hey, at least dwarves and halflings could be clerics in 2e - widening up the options a bit), but even there most of the folks I gamed with had the same attitude towards class/race combos and the "right" choices to make. And many races were still restricted - by the rules you couldn't have a halfling wizard or a dwarf druid, for example. It wasn't until 3e that I saw a widening of the combos outside of house rules at various tables. Yes - this is one of the mechanics of 13A that is more subtle than a lot of the other ones that folks think of, but I think it has a major impact on the game. Your players who want to have a cool character that is outside of the typical stereotypes but also don't want to be less effective mechanically can have their peanut butter and their chocolate. [/QUOTE]
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