Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Beginning of the End" data-source="post: 5463918" data-attributes="member: 55271">OD&amp;D clearly instructs you to select race and class as separate things, but then racial limits on class selection were stringent. If you're using just the LBBs, the distinction is slight:Humans - Fighters, Clerics, Magic-UsersDwarves - FightersElves - Fighters or Magic-Users (and could swap before each adventure)Halflings - FightersBut once you add Supplement 1, the separate selection is clear:Humans - Fighters, Clerics, Magic-Users, ThievesDwarves - Fighters, ThievesElves* - Fighter/Magic-Users + Clerics, ThievesHalflings - Fighters, ThievesHalf-Elves** - Fighter/Magic-Users + Clerics(?)* Elves couldn't be clerics in 1974, but in Supplement 1 they could be Fighter/Magic-Users, Fighter/Magic-User/Clerics, Fighter/Magic-User/Thieves, or just Thieves. The mechanics are no longer &quot;swap between each adventure&quot;, but rather something more akin to AD&amp;D multi-classing (&quot;experience is always distributed proportionately in the three categories even when the elf can no longer gain additional levels in a given category&quot;).** Half-elves, confusingly, cannot be clerics because &quot;in this regard their human side prevails&quot; (despite humans originally being the only race with clerics). But it turns out they can be Fighter/Magic-User/Clerics just like an elf if their Wisdom score is &quot;13 or more&quot;.In '77-'79, Gygax refined this morass into a race + class system for AD&amp;D that was more unified and clearer.Also working in '77, Holmes apparently felt the easiest way to make the original D&amp;D rules clear to new players in BD&amp;D was to specify that dwarves and halflings defaulted to fighters and then list them on, for example, the level advancement tables as such. Race and class were still separate choices, but it's easy to see why Moldvay in '81 would further refine this into the race-as-class concept that carried through into BECMI.(Holmes is slightly more complicated than that because you're told that dwarves and halflings can be thieves in one part of the rules, but also told that they require special rules found in AD&amp;D in another (possibly with the implication that you can only play them as such if you own AD&amp;D). I know at least one person who interprets Holmes to mean that the &quot;Fighting-Men, Elves, Halflings, and Dwarves&quot; XP table should be used to determine the level of a dwarven thief, which means they advance at a slower rate than human thieves. BID.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Beginning of the End, post: 5463918, member: 55271"] OD&D clearly instructs you to select race and class as separate things, but then racial limits on class selection were stringent. If you're using just the LBBs, the distinction is slight: Humans - Fighters, Clerics, Magic-Users Dwarves - Fighters Elves - Fighters or Magic-Users (and could swap before each adventure) Halflings - Fighters But once you add Supplement 1, the separate selection is clear: Humans - Fighters, Clerics, Magic-Users, Thieves Dwarves - Fighters, Thieves Elves* - Fighter/Magic-Users + Clerics, Thieves Halflings - Fighters, Thieves Half-Elves** - Fighter/Magic-Users + Clerics(?) * Elves couldn't be clerics in 1974, but in Supplement 1 they could be Fighter/Magic-Users, Fighter/Magic-User/Clerics, Fighter/Magic-User/Thieves, or just Thieves. The mechanics are no longer "swap between each adventure", but rather something more akin to AD&D multi-classing ("experience is always distributed proportionately in the three categories even when the elf can no longer gain additional levels in a given category"). ** Half-elves, confusingly, cannot be clerics because "in this regard their human side prevails" (despite humans originally being the only race with clerics). But it turns out they can be Fighter/Magic-User/Clerics just like an elf if their Wisdom score is "13 or more". In '77-'79, Gygax refined this morass into a race + class system for AD&D that was more unified and clearer. Also working in '77, Holmes apparently felt the easiest way to make the original D&D rules clear to new players in BD&D was to specify that dwarves and halflings defaulted to fighters and then list them on, for example, the level advancement tables as such. Race and class were still separate choices, but it's easy to see why Moldvay in '81 would further refine this into the race-as-class concept that carried through into BECMI. (Holmes is slightly more complicated than that because you're told that dwarves and halflings can be thieves in one part of the rules, but also told that they require special rules found in AD&D in another (possibly with the implication that you can only play them as such if you own AD&D). I know at least one person who interprets Holmes to mean that the "Fighting-Men, Elves, Halflings, and Dwarves" XP table should be used to determine the level of a dwarven thief, which means they advance at a slower rate than human thieves. BID.) [/QUOTE]

Verification