The Nature of Change (or, Understanding Edition Wars)

[Filcher]

And here is where I ask are more people going to come to D&D because of Indiana Jones and comic book movies (Batman, Spider-Man, The Watchmen ), or WOW and the like? Where new players come from will color their impressions of healing surges.

Well, even the term "second wind" is a pulp/noir trope. But so long as new players come, I'm not worried about how they justify the "healing."

 

[Filcher]

And while my AD&D UA is open, I'm going to roll up a cavalier (page 74)...

Lesse,

8d6 for Str
6d6 for Int
4d6 for Wis
7d6 for Dex
9d6 for Con
3d6 for Cha
5d6 for Com

Old school starting stats are pretty BA. Of course, like 4E, my cavalier improves his stats as he goes up in level. Page 74 even has recommended starting HPs, that look a lot like 4E.

 

[thedungeondelver]

I'm not touching you...

Am I bugging you?

 

[Jasperak]

And while my AD&D UA is open, I'm going to roll up a cavalier (page 74)...

Lesse,

8d6 for Str
6d6 for Int
4d6 for Wis
7d6 for Dex
9d6 for Con
3d6 for Cha
5d6 for Com

Old school starting stats are pretty BA. Of course, like 4E, my cavalier improves his stats as he goes up in level. Page 74 even has recommended starting HPs, that look a lot like 4E.

And we know how not broken AD&D UA is.

 

[thedungeondelver]

And with my AD&D UA is open, I'm going to roll up a cavalier (page 74)...

Lesse,

8d6 for Str
6d6 for Int
4d6 for Wis
7d6 for Dex
9d6 for Con
3d6 for Cha
5d6 for Com

Old school stats are pretty BA. Did I mention my cavalier improves his stats as he goes up in level? Page 74 has recommended starting HP, too, that looks a lot like 4E.

Except that's not the whole story: the generation method isn't to generate stats from (in the case of STR) 8-48. The actual rule is:

After the player's selection of a class is approved, he or she rolls a certain number of six-sided dice for each ability score to be generated, as indicated on the following table. The best three die rolls fo each ability are added together to produce the score. (For example, a fighter's strength is determined by rolling 9d6 and keeping the three highest results.)

(emphasis mine)

Moreover, use or not of METHOD V is wholly the purview of the Dungeon Master, as it is in the DM's section. Like the other methods that precede it in the DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE, whether or not it gets used is up to the DM to suit his or her specific campaign.

 

[Filcher]

Except that's not the whole story: the generation method isn't to generate stats from (in the case of STR) 8-48. The actual rule is:


(emphasis mine)

Moreover, use or not of METHOD V is wholly the purview of the Dungeon Master, as it is in the DM's section. Like the other methods that precede it in the DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE, whether or not it gets used is up to the DM to suit his or her specific campaign.

Delver, give me the benefit of a 6 Int, please. My case is that 4E didn't invent these concepts.

And it bears noting that, on average, AD&D's Method V will give you better start stats than any other edition.

 

[thedungeondelver]

Edit: never mind: I see what you did there.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

See, for me it dates back to AD&D's "minion" mechanic found in the Unearthed Arcana, page 22.

To a grognard like myself, minions are old news.

I've been playing since '77.

I simply don't like the minion mechanic, old news or not.

 

[Filcher]

Before I give myself Delver's aneurysm, I'll go to bed, having noted that:

AD&D gave us: minions, better stats than any other edition, static starting HP, progressive stats according to level, the aggro mechanic*, and a lot of other 4Eisms, I'm sure.

















*All right, I'm lying about this one. Poor taste on my part.

 

[FireLance]

D&D never had people stand around for 5 minutes and be back up to full health.

Technically true. You had to kneel down in Neverwinter Nights. But perhaps that's not D&D because it is a video game.