MinMax in the Dark Ages

[carnivore]

Fundamentals of First Edition Multiclassing:

1. Dual-Classing is king.  Certain classes (like fighter) are incredibly front-loaded; a level of fighter gets you the potential for exceptional strength, the fighter's Constitution bonus (only fighters can get more than 2 bonus HP/level,) weapon specialization, and the ability to use fighter-only magic items at essentially no cost.  (The fact that experience advancement is geometric means that the experience it takes to get to second level as fighter is completely inconsequential in the long run.)

2. The bard is broken.  Very, VERY broken.  If you have the stats, and the DM is allowing it, go for it.  You start as a fighter (picking up double specialization in your weapon of choice.)  You progress to thief and pick up some thief abilities.  You then become a bard, and the brokenness really starts.  A bard has all of the abilities of a druid his level, PLUS his own bardic abilities.  A bard will also have more hit points than ANY other class, because of the way hit points work in first edition (you only get hit dice and Con bonus up to about 9th level, and then a small fixed number of HP at every succeeding level.  A bard gets a whole NEW set of hit dice-producing levels, so he winds up with about 15-20 hit dice to everyone else's 9.

close.... but slightly off..... Bards can cast some Druid Spells(up to 4th lvl) and some Wizard Spells(up to 3rd lvl)

also... there are Racial Limits when Multiclassing or even Single classed.... be careful...

Elves do well with Fighter/Magic Users
1/2 Elves do well with Ranger/Druid
Gnome ..... Ilusionists

Halfling Thief is incredible even at 1st lvl

 

[jameswilliamogle]

Yeah the halfling thief was my 1st dnd character, ever, and that net +30% to thieving abilities was used quite extensively...  poor fellow was recruited to the military and died later... DM got sick of me looting body parts from the dead enemies...

[Caelic]

close.... but slightly off..... Bards can cast some Druid Spells(up to 4th lvl) and some Wizard Spells(up to 3rd lvl)

I wasn't talking about the spells; I was talking about the abilities.  It's one of the most overlooked aspects of the first edition bard.

The bard gains druidic powers as a druid of the same level, with the exception of druidic spells as explained below.

(PHB, p.118)

...so the bard gets all of the Druid's nifty special abilities--pass without trace, shapechange, free languages, and so forth. 

also... there are Racial Limits when Multiclassing or even Single classed.... be careful...

Yep.  It's one big reason I prefer dual-classing.  Most of my multiclassed characters are something/thief, so that at least one class will be unlimited in advancement.


(We used to have an annual "Rules Rapist Tournament" using first edition rules.  I won. 

[Caelic]

Let's also not forget a few other fun peculiarities of first edition:

1. Invisibility lasts until dispelled or broken.  Don't attack, and you can theoretically stay invisible forever.

2. Animate Dead doesn't require costly components, and there's no "level cap" on the number of undead you can control.  Go nuts.  Legions of undead.  Self-propelled war machines driven by skeleton power.  Sew a halfling skeleton up inside a teddy bear and animate it as a present for your favorite niece. 

[Straw_Man]

  Finally played first session. It was ... interesting, rules heavy but a lot of them custom houserules. Not sure how opt'ed I am, darts are useless because wp. speed rules are not being used, damage is non-existant from spells, but due to some good rolls I have Major Psionic powers Alter Self (polymorph), teleport, and an imp familiar to boot 

[woodenbandman]

Dude, I've heard stories of a character that had a +5 repeating crossbow, bolts of magic missile, and the quiver of elhona, so that she basically just fired a bunch (like 5) magic missiles every round forever and ever.

I've never played in 1e, but now I have a hankerin' to start a topic about 2e.

[awaken DM golem]

My archaic personality parasite had to do a recovered memory operation ... 

The Shade whatever later book it was in (maybe MM2), could pile up a bunch of classes; but I don't remember the details.

1st Edition Psionics was a gas ... like the real old fashioned definition of "gas".
Almost all random.
You want it anyway.
It might kill you.
Major question of the DM: "I wanna get the Helm that get me +90 power points. You gonna let me  pretty please ?!"
Minor question: How many power points do you have at the start?

Attack powers went:
(1) ... Mind Thrust - always the 1st pick
(2) ... Id Insinuation - always the 2nd pick, unless both the Major + Minor questions had really good answers
(3a) ... Psychic Crush - save or die at level 1, sign me up ... expensive ... works better later
(3b) ... Psi Mind Blast - only power that works on non-psi ... very expensive ... you basically need the helm
(5) ... Ego Whip - was useless period. But you would use it if you had no other option.

Defense powers went:
You use #1 against (1)
You use #2 to #5 against (2) to (5) ... whatever ... yawn
You picked #2 if you picked (3a)
You always ran out of attack points before defense points, unless the dice were weird.

Powers almost random.
Too many of them were just DM fiat.
Getting a Major power at level 5, if that's what you rolled, was broke beyond broke psionic-back mountain could ever be broke.
Mind Blank was not the best choice, but was effectively a 6th defense.
Sleep spell helped you recharge power points. (yawn)

Capture a bunch of Brain Moles via Id Insinuation. That powers your numbers way up.
Chances are you lose a few of your attacks and defenses, due to psi combat before you get the Helm.
The Wilder feels like 1e psionics, some of the time.

You have a minor chance of one-shotting category 4 Gods ...  !!
Really.
That's where I caught the psionics bug.