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<blockquote data-quote="Squire James" data-source="post: 77048" data-attributes="member: 548">Oops, another long rant to clutter this thread.&nbsp; Read at your own risk!AD&amp;D 2e came out in 1989, which was unlabelled in that timeline.&nbsp; This would mean numbers 2 and 3 should be switched in the list.&nbsp; &nbsp; I have my original 2e PHB open in front of me, turned to a forward written by David &quot;Zeb&quot; Cook, dated January 1989.AD&amp;D was still clearly in 1e at the time &quot;Crystal Shard&quot; was published.&nbsp; I also note that the Balor demon in that book was so pitifully weak that it HAD to be the 1e Balor (8d8+8 HD!); as a comparison note how well Ertuu fought later in one of the sequels!This implies nothing about how good Rangers are now... this is just a little history lesson.&nbsp; I still assert that it is VERY likely the 2e Ranger inherited the 1e Drow ability of 2-weapon fighting in order to make a character like Drizzt 2e-legal (except for minor issues like him being a Drow).&nbsp; The primary reason for this guess is the raging popularity of the Drizzt books at the time.As for the armor question, they didn't have to add 2-weapon fighting in to disallow heavy armor for Rangers.&nbsp; I suppose they may have added 2-weapon fighting to balance the loss, but even if this is so I think the &quot;Drizzt factor&quot; is the reason they chose THAT particular ability!Second-hand info from Monte Cook is not enough to convince me otherwise.&nbsp; Even first-hand info might not be enough.&nbsp; At the very least, I'd need specific info like &quot;I talked to Zeb Cook, and he said he put the 2-weapon fighting ability to Rangers because he felt they needed something like that to balance them with Paladins using the same XP table.&quot;&nbsp; Even then, I'd STILL suspect that the &quot;Drizzt factor&quot; selected that particular ability... it could been the ability to specialize with the bow!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Squire James, post: 77048, member: 548"] Oops, another long rant to clutter this thread. Read at your own risk! AD&D 2e came out in 1989, which was unlabelled in that timeline. This would mean numbers 2 and 3 should be switched in the list. I have my original 2e PHB open in front of me, turned to a forward written by David "Zeb" Cook, dated January 1989. AD&D was still clearly in 1e at the time "Crystal Shard" was published. I also note that the Balor demon in that book was so pitifully weak that it HAD to be the 1e Balor (8d8+8 HD!); as a comparison note how well Ertuu fought later in one of the sequels! This implies nothing about how good Rangers are now... this is just a little history lesson. I still assert that it is VERY likely the 2e Ranger inherited the 1e Drow ability of 2-weapon fighting in order to make a character like Drizzt 2e-legal (except for minor issues like him being a Drow). The primary reason for this guess is the raging popularity of the Drizzt books at the time. As for the armor question, they didn't have to add 2-weapon fighting in to disallow heavy armor for Rangers. I suppose they may have added 2-weapon fighting to balance the loss, but even if this is so I think the "Drizzt factor" is the reason they chose THAT particular ability! Second-hand info from Monte Cook is not enough to convince me otherwise. Even first-hand info might not be enough. At the very least, I'd need specific info like "I talked to Zeb Cook, and he said he put the 2-weapon fighting ability to Rangers because he felt they needed something like that to balance them with Paladins using the same XP table." Even then, I'd STILL suspect that the "Drizzt factor" selected that particular ability... it could been the ability to specialize with the bow! [/QUOTE]

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