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  1. Celebrim

    OSR Why does OSR Design Draw You In?

    Pithy, but not simple. It's probably the most complicated way to write a rule. It sounds like it would be a nightmare in play. The player doesn't know, but he always will want advantage. So he's motivated to always ask. Every single dang time. And it tends to push the game toward being...
  2. Celebrim

    AD&D 1E Revised and Rebalanced Barbarian for 1e A&D

    Reserved for Shaman and Witchdoctor path discussion.
  3. Celebrim

    AD&D 1E Revised and Rebalanced Barbarian for 1e A&D

    Barbarian The barbarian class is a sub-class of fighter which – having grown up in lands far from civilization - is adept at the many skills necessary for survival in a hostile wilderness. These skills include rapid movement, climbing, use of many weapons, uncanny intuition, and many skills...
  4. Celebrim

    AD&D 1E Redesigned and Rebalanced Thief for 1e AD&D

    I think cleaning up the relationship between the Barbarian and NWP's is a big part of cleaning up the class. I can't really endorse or criticize what 2e did because I'm not familiar with most of 2e, having not been impressed by its rollout, and aside from stealing its rules for surprise and...
  5. Celebrim

    D&D 3.x I miss 3.5 edition

    No, but saving throws are generally easier across the board because not only do you not add spell level to the DC of a save, but you don't add 1/2 the HD of the monster to the base DC of a save either. Again, that's double counting since larger monsters will already tend to have higher...
  6. Celebrim

    D&D 3.x I miss 3.5 edition

    Druid in 3.0 is a lot less broken than in 3.5. "Natural Spell" and the ever-enhancing animal companion are the two big reasons for that. I don't even use Druid in my 3.0e homebrew, preferring a homebrew variant of the Green Ronin shaman, but it's not hard to keep Druid under control. Cleric...
  7. Celebrim

    AD&D 1E Redesigned and Rebalanced Thief for 1e AD&D

    Commenting on my own thread, one thing I do like about this is that the NWP system (as outlined) creates a wonderful "build your own background" that's not particularly impactful perhaps but which is definitely flavorful and very much gives you some little perks that makes your character feel...
  8. Celebrim

    AD&D 1E Redesigned and Rebalanced Thief for 1e AD&D

    The bonuses to DEX and CON modifiers are literally the only things that the class has going for it. Without it, you are going to actually lag the Fighter in hit points, and probably in AC. The only real problem with either idea is the DEX is front loaded. The CON modifier develops over time...
  9. Celebrim

    AD&D 1E Revised Grappling for 1e AD&D

    Grappling is a controversial topic in RPGs. People are always lobbying for simpler rules for grappling, rather than it having its own subsystem. The simpler the system though, the more it's disassociated. Personally, I feel that grappling is sufficiently different than "standard" striking...
  10. Celebrim

    AD&D 1E A Long Thread about the Weapon's vs. AC Table

    I've decided to put this down for now, on the grounds it's a ton of work and I feel I've learned what I intended to learn from the exercise. Since I don't have any intention of running 1e AD&D any time soon, the work isn't immediately useful to me. Also, publishing "to hit" tables for...
  11. Celebrim

    AD&D 1E Redesigned and Rebalanced Thief for 1e AD&D

    Can you cite some text to support this assertion? And for a lot of skills this interpretation doesn't work, because what is "normal circumstances" for picking pockets? And how would that interpretation apply to hearing noise or reading a magical scroll? I'm not sure what to make of your...
  12. Celebrim

    AD&D 1E Redesigned and Rebalanced Thief for 1e AD&D

    The barbarian ends up with like 50% more hit points than any other class, but it really needs that 18 CON (presumably, you'd never bother to play one without it). The troubles are numerous. You are still 1st level with the thief is hitting 4th level, and you are 13th level when a fighter is...
  13. Celebrim

    AD&D 1E A Long Thread about the Weapon's vs. AC Table

    Isn't that the opposite of my goal though? Tactics are a combination of weapons and terrain. You just removed weapons from the equation. DW is literally not designed to produce any of the aesthetics of play I'm describing.
  14. Celebrim

    Shadowdark Unless I am wrong

    About 2.9% chance if you straight up rolled 3d6 rather than 4d6 pick the best three. The odds you'd have at least one 5 or less on six sets of three rolled six times is closer to 25% of the time though. So if you really did it that way - and the official AD&D rules didn't tell you to do so -...
  15. Celebrim

    Shadowdark Unless I am wrong

    For each ability score there is a restriction that if you have 5 or less in that ability, you may only be a member of a single class. For example, if you have 5 or less wisdom you may only be a thief. If you have 5 or less dexterity, you may only be a cleric. But if you have 5 or less in two...
  16. Celebrim

    Shadowdark Unless I am wrong

    I mean that per the 1e AD&D RAW, if you have a 5 in two different attributes, you do not qualify for any class regardless of what your other stats are. You'd be limited to being a 0th level human who can't advance in levels. My gaming circle has crossed like 6 states at this point, and I've...
  17. Celebrim

    AD&D 1E Redesigned and Rebalanced Thief for 1e AD&D

    The more I think about this, the more I think that post Unearthed Arcana this might not go far enough. I probably need to do a write up of the much maligned Barbarian, which generally gets lumped in with the cavalier as an "overpowered class". In fact, that's unfair to the Barbarian which if...
  18. Celebrim

    AD&D 1E A Long Thread about the Weapon's vs. AC Table

    I have had that same thought. But if we assume the table captures some idea, moving that would just move numbers around elsewhere. The idea in the table that captured my attention 36 years ago or so when I first studied it seriously was, "There are some weapons on here that are light and...
  19. Celebrim

    D&D 3.x I miss 3.5 edition

    Mid to late 3.5e required a session minus one where the participants worked out to what degree they were going to not break the game so that they'd be all on the same page.
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