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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 9500576" data-attributes="member: 7026594">Nah, not really.  In 1974 Dwarves, and Halflings didn't have choices, but all had to be the Fighting Man class.  Elves got to be either Fighting Men or Magic-Users, and could switch from adventure to adventure IF they wanted.  Halflings and Dwarves had the exact same HD as any other Fighter, but got to save as if 4 levels higher.  As opposed to B/X where they became their own classes and got their own attack and save charts and so forth.Supplement I, Greyhawk, in 1975 (as opposed to the World of Greyhawk campaign setting, 1980) introduced more class options for demihumans, with Halflings getting the option to be Fighters or Thieves, Dwarves getting to be Fighter, Thief, or Fighter/Thief multiclass, Elves got the option to be pure F/M-U, triple-classed F/M-U/T, or single classed Thieves.  And the new Half Elf race could be a Thief, F/M-U, or, if their Wisdom was at least 13 and they were not Chaotic, triple-classed F/M-U/Clerics.The wording is definitely less clear in Holmes but race and class were definitely separate things in OD&D.From my experience (I started playing in '85 but not heavily until 2E), restrictions on Demihumans got less and less over each edition.  The ones in 1E are less harsh than in OD&D, the limits were relaxed further and class choices expanded more in Unearthed Arcana, and the level limits in 2E are almost negligible for regular play, the lowest of them being 8th for Halfling Clerics.  9th for Fighters, for Gnome Clerics, and for Half Elf Druids, but all the other demihuman limits are in the double digits, and multiple different optional rules are presented for exceeding those limits.Certainly a notable change in 3rd ed was the complete (as opposed to de facto) removal of level limits, and the removal of class restrictions by race.  But giving humans the same ability to multiclass, and finally giving them racial abilities other than full class selection and (theoretically, but only used in a tiny fraction of campaigns) unlimited level advancement accompanied that.  IME demihumans were still clearly dominant in most AD&D games, and you mostly saw humans only for the sake of playing one of the restricted classes.  YMMV, of course.</blockquote>

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