hmm. Did people actually use the random % chance to know a spell rules? From what I remember back in the 1E gaming days, we pretty much let starting mages pick the spells they wanted (they already had a difficult start). I don't think we used the % chance of adding a new spell either.... if they found a scroll, they could copy it in, no problem. I don't remember how we did 'adding new spells when you gained a level', although I think it was just 'add one of whatever you want'....
Yes, absolutely. From the explanations in the DMG, for example, it was clearly the intent, meant to ensure different M-Us knew different stuff as opposed to just "the best", and to incentivize finding new ones. Fuindordm is right that this was part and parcel of Vancian magic- the struggle and sub-game of finding new spells. M-Us and their sub-classes functionally have their own whole category of treasure to find and be excited by.
Oe was an exception. 1st level charm person RAW was permanent until dispelled and they were effectively your slave and so could fight for you as a new meat shield.
Very vancian of few spells but they could be whoppers, even from first level.
Charm Person: This spell applies to all two-legged, generally mammalian figures near to or less than man-size, excluding all monsters in the “Undead” class but including Sprites, Pixies, Nixies, Kobolds, Goblins, Orcs, Hobgoblins and Gnolls. If the spell is successful it will cause the charmed entity to come completely under the influence of the Magic-User until such time as the “charm” is dispelled (Dispel Magic). Range: 12”.
A little bit of wiggle room for a DM to quibble about what coming under the influence of means.
Well, and bear in mind that TSR started to limit that power almost immediately. Dropping the unlimited duration and giving it varying duration based on the Intelligence of the victim was the first revision it got, in 1975 Supplement I: Greyhawk.
3e and 3.5 worked the same, both had holding the charge as a general rule for touch spells and both gave shocking grasp an instantaneous duration.
Good catch on the general rule in 3.5 for holding touch spells! You're incorrect on that last part (I quoted the durations of each, "until discharged" from 3.0 and "instantaneous" from 3.5, both verbatim), but they do work the same despite that wording change, because of the general rule.
B/X did not have shocking grasp.
Web at even 10' range means you can cast it past your front row tankers as a wall if you want.
1e was always explicit that you could cast in melee.
Cause wounds and other cleric reversed touch spells in B/X was the sticking point. In the basic book they said rules would be provided in expert, then expert changed the phrasing for when you could cast spells.
I would contend that Expert clarified the intent and made it more explicit.
that seems like it could really hamper starting mages who don't have really high INT. At the least, I'd think they should be able to choose one spell for their book. Otherwise, random bad luck (something that can really plague 1E RAW) could give them nothing all that useful to survive....
The procedure in 1E is really arcane and not clearly explained. See PH p10.
If I read/recall correctly basically each time you get access to a new spell level (including 1st level), you go through that entire spell level in any order you choose, and check whether you can potentially learn each given spell (except Read Magic, which all M-Us automatically start out knowing, and your other three randomly-generated spells in your beginning spell book). Once you hit your Max Spells Known based on your Int score, you stop. If you fail too many rolls and don't meet your Minimum Spells Known then you can re-try failed ones until you hit your minimum, again in whatever order you choose.
However there's also some implication that you don't actually check for a given spell until you encounter its formula (on a scroll or in a spell book) in play, so the exact timing is a little ambiguous and the DM needs to figure out how they want to run it.
