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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ECMO3" data-source="post: 8309602" data-attributes="member: 7030563">I started playing D&D in 1981 and played 1E more than all other combined.  It was true, the designers have said it was true and they purposely intended for the fighter to be the main hero in the game.  Gygax purposely made the other characters less powerfulThe fighter was intended to be the hero or knight in shining armor and the others were intended to be sidekicks.  There is even a video online from one of the designers about an argument with Gygax over making magic missile an automatic hit because Gygax wanted to make sure the wizard was inferior to the fighter and Gygax thought an automatic 3 points of damage would put it too close to  the fighter who had to swing to make 8 average per round when not counting strength (which would later be bumped to 16 by Gygax when he wrote unearthed arcana).Then you had the spell Chaos, which would not allow a save ..... UNLESS THE TARGET WAS A FIGHTER and then he could save.Look at spells like the cleric's spiritual hammer, a 2nd level spell that does a lot less damage than a 1st level fighter can do.  At 13th level a wizard can throw up mordankainans sword with a 14 THACO that does an average of 12 points of damage.  A 13th-level fighter with a 9 strength and a TH Sword has an 8 THACO and can do 19 a turn. Add in the magic and strength bonuses common at that level and he is easily doing 3 times as much damage considering he is hitting a lot more.And the vast majorty either had level restrictions, hit point maximums or saving throws that a high-level monster would usually beat.  If he had magic resistance, the magic user had to beat that before he even had to save.For example, death spell had no save and came at 11th level, but would only affect creatures of 8th-level.  A 11th-level fighter will take down an 8th-level foe in 2 rounds, all day long.Freezing sphere could be effective but it gets a save.The only truely good combat spells for a high level 1E magic user are imprisonment and maze.Honorable mentions:Meteor Swarm is decent because it gives massive damage, which is still high with a save.Power Word Stun is decent because there is no save and the hp limit is high, but because the effects are not that bad or debilitating, it is just decent.  It can reliably and without fail degrade most enemies of even high level for a few rounds.If they had 3E or 5E saves then some of the spells would be better, but as is they were not reliable when you really wanted to use them.  On the other hand the fighter reliably destroyed enemies.In 1E Command only lasts one round and you get a saving throw if you have 6 or more hit dice and he only needs an 8 to save.  Yes she could do this and prolong the inevitable if he kept rolling below an 8.Moreover Lolth was a goddess, and this speaks to how powerful fighters are.  A low teens level fighter can fight her and have a reasonable chance of winning.  A low teens level mage has no chance and even an Archmage is going to be severely pushed due to her magic resistance and low saves.The reason I used Lolth in my example is I fought her as a player and then later a group fought her with me as a DM in I think it was the Vault of the Drow module.  In both of these she was defeated in the first couple rounds by the fighter.</blockquote>

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