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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 8204686" data-attributes="member: 7026594">BECMI & RC really screwed Thieves.  I'm not a fan of how character progression was stretched over 36 levels in general, but Thieves in particular suffered.  BECMI did fix a rare editorial error on Moldvay's part, though, in once again allowing Magic Users and Elves to add more spells to their spellbooks besides just the ones from gaining levels.Miniatures for combat in the 1E and 2nd ed days was mostly a matter of local gaming culture.  My groups used them extensively, along with a hex map, and house rules for flanking and opportunity attacks which we were pleasantly surprised to see similar rules for appear in 3rd.One of the virtues of battlemap combat is greater mutual understanding of the tactical situation.  One of the older players from my longtime 90s 2nd Ed group talked about how they had a DM at one point who always liked to have monsters run through their battle line straight for the mage.  They then reacted by specifically planning a tight formation with the mage shielded on all sides.  And then in a subsequent combat the DM STILL had an orc or something run straight through their formation and bash the mage.  The group adopted a battlemat immediately.3E put in a fair amount of effort to try to support Theater of the Mind non-minis combat, but you can tell in reading it that it's definitely designed principally from the perspective of using a battle mat/grid.  3.5 pretty much abandoned support for TotM and assumed you'd use a grid, and 4E embraced that still further. It is interesting that BECMI abandoned all reference  to minis and a grid.  Even Moldvay's 1981 Basic set included a reference to using minis and a 5' grid in the Dungeon Mastering as a Fine Art appendix at the end of the rulebook as an option for those who wanted it.Re: THAC0 and Target 20, I do think Dan Collins' thesis that Target 20 is actually the simplest and most intuitive combat algorithm for most people is pretty solid.  But of course most people are learning D&D from experienced players, and ascending AC is darn simple.[URL unfurl="true"]http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-is-best-combat-algorithm.html[/URL]</blockquote>

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