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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 6177525" data-attributes="member: 3586">The major differences to be aware of are as follows. (Some of these got reversed in later supplements).Races:* 2E has no half-orc* Some of the racial abilities have changed* Multi-class level limits are now much, much higherClasses:* 2E has a Bard class. It's nothing like the 1E Bard.* 2E did a massive rewrite on the Ranger class. d10 HD, no more magic-user spells.* 2E did a minor rewrite on the Paladin class, mainly removing access to some cleric spells.* Giants and Dragons have tougher stats in 2E* In 2E, the Wizard killed the Illusionist and took his stuff. Specialist Wizards were added to the game, which allowed 1 extra spell/spell level castable per day of the specialist school (e.g. necromancy, enchantment, evocation) and barred one or two other schools from being cast.* The Cleric killed the Druid and took his stuff. Then the Druid rebelled and set out on his own, but was now casting spells from the Cleric lists. * 2E has no monk or assassin* Thieves now had skill points to assign to their thief skills: each skill had a base, and then a number of percentage points were assigned between the skills as desired during character creation and for each level gained.Non-Weapon Proficiencies:* The NWP system has become part of the core game. (The AD&D version is in the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide and Wilderness Survival Guide). Certain supplements (the Complete series, in particular) make extensive use of the non-weapon proficiency system.Weapon Proficiencies:* Specialisation has become part of the core game, although not as powerful as in 1E's Unearthed Arcana. Certain supplements (the Complete series, in particular) make extensive use of the weapon proficiency system.Monsters:* Magic Resistance is now expressed as a flat chance of the spell failing, rather than being modified by the level of the caster.* Dragons and Giants (in particular) now have more hit dice and are more dangerous foes. Dragons also have 12 age levels rather than 8.Combat:* There's a brand new combat progression table - it's mostly analogous to 1E though, and can be ignored* Weaponless combat and combat manoeuvres have been completely overhauled. Spells:* As noted above, cleric spells and druid spells have been merged. They're now split into "Spheres", with clerics able to cast certain spheres but not all. Druids can cast different spheres. The ranger gets divine spells from a handful of spheres, as does the paladin.* Ditto for wizard and illusionist spells. Wizards can cast any spell on the list (potentially); specialists choose a specialist school and one or two banned schools.* Fireball and Lightning Bolt are capped at 10d6 damage. Magic Missile is capped at 5 missiles. There are other changes.Experience:* Characters no longer gain XP for treasure. (It is mentioned as an optional rule).There are a bunch of other changes as well. However, 99% of the changes can be found in the 2E Player's Handbook; the DMG doesn't really have very much in it at all.You could probably use a lot of the material in an AD&D campaign, but books giving more options for characters (the Complete series) have a fair whack of stuff that needs material not core to 1E.Cheers!</blockquote>

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