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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
The Early "Design Principles" of D&D, and their Lasting Legacy
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<blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 8596919" data-attributes="member: 2209"><p>This is a design trend that I think was at its height with AD&D. The stats worked off of a reverse bell curve for bonuses. A 14 strength in AD&D gave you zero attack or damage bonuses, not the flatly ascending +1 per two points above 10 that is common from 3e-5e. 18(00) strength in AD&D gave you more damage bonus than a 5e 20 strength's +5. B/X by contrast smoothed down the progression of bonuses so that a 13-15 is a +1, a 16-17 is +2 and an 18 is a +3. In B/X rolling 3d6 in order has significantly less impact on your PC's mechanical effectiveness. In AD&D there is a hugely significant advantage to using the Unearthed Arcana human stat generation rolls compared to other stat generation methods. Both in that it guarantees making the minimum on the gatekeeping stats for a chosen powerful class, but also for getting a better chance at those top tier stat bonuses.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Voadam, post: 8596919, member: 2209"] This is a design trend that I think was at its height with AD&D. The stats worked off of a reverse bell curve for bonuses. A 14 strength in AD&D gave you zero attack or damage bonuses, not the flatly ascending +1 per two points above 10 that is common from 3e-5e. 18(00) strength in AD&D gave you more damage bonus than a 5e 20 strength's +5. B/X by contrast smoothed down the progression of bonuses so that a 13-15 is a +1, a 16-17 is +2 and an 18 is a +3. In B/X rolling 3d6 in order has significantly less impact on your PC's mechanical effectiveness. In AD&D there is a hugely significant advantage to using the Unearthed Arcana human stat generation rolls compared to other stat generation methods. Both in that it guarantees making the minimum on the gatekeeping stats for a chosen powerful class, but also for getting a better chance at those top tier stat bonuses. [/QUOTE]
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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
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The Early "Design Principles" of D&D, and their Lasting Legacy
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