Recent content by PHATsakk43

Given that 2E defined them explicitly as fighter, thief, cleric, and wizard and prior to that these had been the 4 core human classes in OD&D/basic/B/X/BECMI I had always sort of assumed that those were also the only non-optional ones in OAD&D.

It’s somewhat funny that 1E initiative is now dominating two separate threads.

Gary shockingly would say both things, nearly simultaneously. Famously he has his “you either play AD&D by the book or you’re playing something else just as one either plays poker according to Hoyle or doesn’t play poker” to his post-script in the DMG where he says, “YTMND”. My only question...

Gary not having a consistent style guide of terminology is, I suppose, part of the charm.

Really, AD&D rounds are what they are because of the roots being wargaming. The gobbledegook of 1E initiative is further predicted on some weird attempt to keep with the war game basis. For anyone who wants to disagree with my assessment of 1E initiative, here is a link to the 20 page flow...

One of the 2E DMGR splats Creative Campaigning, which is otherwise one of the less useful ones in the series has one exceptional section about how to modify the roll to develop more or less chances of success, such as using the existing 1-20 range of ability score and NWP checks, and instead...

I think your misinterpreting my point that 2E initiative is the best—from a game perspective. I really don’t care if it’s simulationist. If that’s the case, PO:C&T is probably much better as it was the first time we saw the combat round drop to a reasonable 6-15sec versus 1min. That’s been...

I think the initiative roll is the same, it just depends on if it’s individual or group. The initiative modifiers in the PHB and DMG are core; weapon speed, item and innate ability speed, and casting times are optional. Individual initiative is also an option. The writer in the PHB actually...

It is written in the core books somewhere, but I can’t remember where it is. It may be clarified in a Sage Advice post or in Tome of Magic or Book or Artifacts as well. However, in the example of individual initiative options on pg 95 in the PHB, Rath rolls a 2, has modified weapon speed of 0...

If that’s how a fighter with multiple attacks worked in 1E, that’s broken AF. 2E rules for multiple attacks was the first was in order of initiative plus modifiers, subsequent attacks after all others were done, and in order of initiative if more than one character had multiple attacks. That...

I don’t think that anyone used 1E initiative RAW. It was probably the worst mechanic of the entire game.1E initiative was so bad, it alone could have warranted a 2nd edition. To that end, weapon mastery rules and fight style specialization did boost initiative for fighters in 2E so, they would...

Which to bring it back to 2E, I say that a 2E single-class human fighter with a fairly standard set of optional rules—specifically weapon mastery from the Fighters’ handbook or Players’ Option: Combat & Tactics—is the best martial class out of every edition at every level of play. Add in the...

As far as the “tone” goes, one of the best things about 2E compared with 1E, was the lack of “tone”. Having never read the 1E books until really this year, there is a lot more explicit, “this is how you play” in Gary’s writing than Zeb’s. 2E left the table flavor out of the ruleset beyond a...

Oh, when I first found out about 1E I decided I hated it. I’ve warmed slightly, but I’ve never really enjoyed the Gygaxian prose.

I wonder what the demographics of this thread are then. I’m 45, so basically too young to even remember 1E. I started with a part of a Basic boxed set booklet around 90 or 91, then found a DM who had the RC, but pretty quickly moved into 2E around 1993 and started DMing my own group. That...