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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fuindordm" data-source="post: 9677575" data-attributes="member: 5435">I just had a conversation with one of my players about the feel of combat in 1st-2nd edition vs 3rd & 5th edition.For context, the party is playing Village of Hommelet and just finished the boss battle in the moathouse.He was struck by two differences: First, there is a lot more missing but the hits count more. Part of that was bad luck on both sides of the screen, but it's true that it is relatively easy in AD&D to get an AC so good that you are hit only 10-15% of the time. In the module, 2 of the major NPCs have plate mail and a high dexterity. The PCs do not have ACs that good yet but they could get there before long. So compared to recent editions, the big fight took longer and a lot of rounds went by without seeing progress.Second, magic is more powerful, for both players and enemies. The party blew threw the first two waves of enemies using hold person to good effect... then ran up against the final boss and got held themselves (one PC and 2 NPC allies).  Between losing two fighters and the enemy's very good AC, the rest of the party fought on for a couple of rounds then decided to flee.Both of these differences are mixed blessings, to be sure. It feels great to one-shot a battle with the right spell, but feels terrible to be on the receiving end. It feels great to laugh your way through a horde of kobolds in your plate mail but terrible to come up against a boss that you have almost no chance of hitting. But in both cases, the key to success and survival is tactical thinking. If you can't hit the AC, is there something else you can do? If the enemy is likely to have a cleric, how can you avoid being the target of their spells? (The party managed to distract the cleric from spellcasting for a couple of rounds with a well-aimed flask of flaming oil.)And this is exactly why I like AD&D. Because tactical thinking as a player or DM is just as important as the numbers on the paper.</blockquote>

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