Majoru Oakheart
Adventurer
I agree. I also normally agree with Hussar but have to disagree with this one...to a point. He's right that most of the balance issues in 2e came from certain choices being so much more powerful than other choices. Pretty much every fighter dual wielded because it was so much better than everyone else. They were the kings of damage and if you simply wanted to do damage you'd be one. But then going up levels meant nothing because you never got anything important except hitpoints and THAC0. They WERE front loaded.We agree much of the time, but one of the distinguishing features of 3e was its jettisoning of most balancing factors which kept spellcasters in check.
However, Wizards in 2e were the nuclear bombs of the game. They had the ability to take out 30 enemies in one fireball when rolling only average on their spell damage. They could only cast one or two per day but when they cast it, they singlehandedly defeated the encounter. Unfortunately, they tended to get worse and worse as they went up levels. Nearly every enemy had enough hitpoints to survive their (now capped) damaging spells. All of them made their saves 90% of the time now, so Wizards did even less damage than before.
He's right that in a way 3e balanced things. It smoothed out the curve for both Wizards and Fighters. Fighters actually got things as they went up levels and Wizards didn't lose power as they went up levels. The problem is that Wizards got so much more from 3e than Fighters did that it made them even more unbalanced than before.
Meh, material components are one of those things that is hard to classify. We never used them, even in 2e. We had a couple of DMs who attempted to enforce them and everyone kind of refused to play a Wizard in their campaigns. Keeping track of each spell component was just a pain in the butt. I think a couple of people said "How much does it cost at the local store to buy 100 uses of every spell I have in my spellbook? 100gp? Alright, I pay that and I'm marking it down. I'll mark off each charge as I use them." and then didn't have to buy more spell components for the rest of the game.Material components are another big one. 1e and 2e, you needed to track them. 3e, you're solid as long as you have a very metagamey "pouch", which was basically Bugs Bunny's back pocket of whatever you needed.
I'm fairly certain that situations like that are what eventually caused WOTC to say "You are assumed to bring enough spell components with you".
Yeah, Wizards got interrupted WAY more before. After 3rd level or so, it's impossible to interrupt a 3e caster. Though, I have to say that in 2e it was still extremely rare. The enemies had to get close enough to the Wizard to hit him and then with speed factors, it almost always ended up with the spell being cast before the attack successfully interrupted it.In 1e, you get interrupted if you're hit during casting, even for 1 point. In 3e, you need to act at a specific moment with a readied action and your target gets a chance to resist with a skill check.
So I'm not sure where you're coming from, basically.
I'm not sure about 1e, however, since I never played it.