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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5143695" data-attributes="member: 80487">At that point, I think it would be fair to say, "This is not Advanced Dungeons & Dragons!" Screw calling it "just bad D&D". That simplistically gives a few game mechanics supreme importance, when elements at least as fundamental -- addressed at length in the Dungeon Masters Guide -- have been cast aside.That got started with "numbers going up" generally.In the original D&D set, the only combat bonus from a stat was +1 to hit with missiles for dexterity 13+. The best magical weapon/armor/shield bonus was +3, and armor and shield did not "stack". A fighter of level 16 and up had a +12 bonus to hit over a first-level character (+2 at levels 4-6, +5 at 7-9, +7 at 10-12, +9 at 13-15).In 1st ed. AD&D, 18/00 strength gave +3 to hit and +6 to damage in melee. Dexterity 18-20 gave +3 to hit with missiles and +4 on defense (AC and some saves). Magical armament went up to +5, and armor and shield "stacked". I see no "by the book" limit of the AC range to -10. A fighter got basically +1 per level, through level 17.The greater supply of pluses amounts to a sort of "bonus inflation", like currency inflation in real life.The magic gear past +3 was not common in 1st ed. AD&D, at least per the DMG -- I estimate 8% of armor and shields, 6% of swords, 1% of miscellaneous weapons. Even +3 items were very rare, but so were such monsters as iron golems. Rare or not, their more general effects had become less impressive in proportion to bonuses from non-magical means. "Upgrades" nonetheless remained part of the fun for a lot of folks. Having acquired a sword +2, one might give one's sword +1 (itself a famous blade) to a favored henchman. A +1 luck blade or flame tongue might be even more treasured than the "plain" +2 -- and an intelligent sword with special powers could be an NPC in itself.That was no "necessity to keep up," though. It was not -- as in 4e -- a matter of more or less maintaining a certain chance to hit versus "level appropriate" foes. Neither, therefore, was it routinely a matter of foes so many levels away being invulnerable. Hit chances, damage rolls, hit point totals, special abilities, numbers of combatants, local conditions and goals of parties combined in various ways to create varied challenges.</blockquote>

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