One of the Handiest Rules of All: Greyhawk Average Hitpoints

I cribbed this rule from Living Greyhawk,, to give credit where credit is do.

How it works is simple

Instead of rolling hit points are calculated as the middle number on the die plus one. Basically average rounded to the nearest number. I.E. 1d6hd is 4, 4d8hd is 20, 7d10hd is 60 and so on.

This adds a tiny bit of extra punch, maybe 1/2 hp per level, speeds and simplifies prep time and is across the board fair.

It works only a tiny bit differently for PC's and major NPC's in that they still get Max at level 1.

Whats also great about this rule is it can be used with almost every D&D edition except 4e where its not needed anyway.

Try it I think you may like it.

#3 Old School Rules I Don't Use, Weapon Speed Factors

Now to be honest I have played with weapon speed factors with a shifting initiative engagement system (I'll post that later) but they never quite clicked for me.

Over the years as I learned more about swordplay I also found the rules really didn't make sense or fit the D&D combat system very well so I dropped them.

I haven't missed them since.

#2 Old School Rules I Don't Use, Weapon vs Armor.

Weapon vs Armor.

Its a perfectly sensible rule and its even somewhat realistic, if thats of any matter but in my really slows down play and is a poor fit for the highly abstract D&D combat system.

The AD&D 1e version was especially complex and not well thought out (little was known about weapons then) and since I never used it there, I never saw any use in using it in 2e either.

#1 Old School Rules I Don't Use: Maximum # of Spells Known

Why? Because the rule serves no real use in the game thats why. Besides as a DM I already control what spells are in the game. A hard cap serves no purpose that simply saying "No, you can't have that spell, how about you make something that does X instead" won't already do.

Now I know some DM's who do not count spells created by the magic user against that limit. Thats not a bad rule but I think % to learn, a rule I do use ,covers that nicely. Can't learn fireball? No problem. Create your own version.

Also a lot of the games that I run have lists and list of extra spells, from Dragon, from the web or just from my own brain.I figure if I don't put a limit on how many spells they can know they might take a chance in something a little less ordinary once in a while and that means for fun for all.

3rd Confession: 5 Reasons I Don't Much Like Prestige Classes

My reasons?

1st With one exception I'll get too later, I dislike the "must be planned from first level" effect that so many of these have.

2nd They create too much unfun optimization.

3rd In a way they are a legacy of the Players Handbook Only era and do not mesh very well with new classes or with the extended feat progression of Pathfinder. They are IMO mostly redundant.

4th There are hundreds upon hundreds that people might want to use and it requires a lot of effort to filter the bloat for bad designs, effort that I think could be used elsewhere to make the game more fun.

5th Most of these including some old favorites like the Arcane Trickster and the Arcane Archer and the Fighter/Mage are better served with core classes, core class combos or core class variants. In the rare case that a core class variant doesn't work a feat will often do the job fine. Instead of Rogue of the Flashing Blade prestige class it makes a lot more sense to take that allows both Swashbuckler and Rogue abilities to progress a little. You can even give the feat the same flavor so you lose pretty much nothing doing this.

4th While flavorful, I do not much like the way they mesh with levels. They kind of create level inflation, a mid tier knight instead of being 6th level ends up around say 11th after seemingly needing to \ 5 levels of some prestige class. It makes more sense to me to allow the Knightly Order's Special Ability to be either a feat or a substitution level.


Now as I mentioned before there are a few prestige classes I do like in certain types of games.

My favorite is the Mystic Theurge as the idea of magic being mostly incompatible across arcane, divine and other types appeals to me. Even the planning aspect is kind of interesting to me.

In my Sword and Sorcery game where casters have been limited to Black Mage (uses all Arcane Spells) and White Mage (uses most Divine Spells) the Mystic Theurge makes for a great Grey Mage class. Its a long hard road to master both the magic of light and dark ...

And yes gentle readers, you'll see those rules someday soon. But until then, stay tooned and good gaming.

How Many Orcs can a Fighter Chop if a Fighter Could Chop Orcs Chop Chop

One of the most interesting facets to compare about editions is how the high level fighter as relates to the world around them.

In earlier variations of D&D a high level fighter while scary was was still recognizable as human instead of a second string member of the Justice League.

Let me explain

Assuming Max at Level 1 , Greyhawk Average Hit points and a 16 Con such a fighter in B/X or LL has has around 78 A 2e fighter would have around 88 hit points and a Pathfinder Fighter has around 121

In each case Orc still has about 6hp.

One on one the difference is small, the orc has no chance. However the big differences here come in fighting multiple foes,

For B/X or LL guy a gang of orcs is scary, say a troop of 20. LL guy will get aced around Orc 17,

late 2e guy will be able to drop around 80 (he can kill 5 per round)

and 3x guy assuming similar “Orcish wave” tactics and decent feats even against the nastier Pathfinder orcs can get near to 200!

Even at super high levels LL guy can only manage another 5 or 6, while 2e guy gets another 25 or 30.

Whats even more “whoa!” is that Pathfinder guy in addition to being able to handle an extra hundred or so he can extend this combat ability to much bigger nasties and is able to cleave his way through things like bugbears and even ogres.

At "near max" level 19 in Pathfinder with decent magic items, no reasonable amount of orcs are actually a threat as even when they hit only 1 time in 20, most of the attacks bounce of the DR 8 (Adamantium Full Plate!)

Now don't get me wrong here, this is not a criticism of 3x or Pathfinder there is a place for both style of gaming in my book, its why we support Pathfinder and Labyrinth Lord alike. Both are a heck of a lot of fun.

What it comes down to is making sure you select the right game for your group and most importantly, having fun.

What Abilities Should an Old School Fighter Have

Its a trickier question than it seems.

The obvious things access to the all weapons and armor and having the best combat abilities.

To my mind the best published fighters are the Late 2e one and the Pathfinder one (with only slight moods)

The Late 2e fighter got

Access to Weapon Specialization
Usually had a Style Specialization (a few slots here were awesome)
Multiple attacks
Good saves especially at high level
and by the time players options came out doubled attacks vs 1hd or less monsters

The Pathfinder fighter can be seen in all its glory here and it is bar none my favorite of all the D20 fighters.

If you want a "great fighter thats still just a regular guy" You won't go wrong with the Labyrinth Lord fighter. Its solid and playable but even at high level still just an ordinary guy.

If used with Fighters with Flair and a good set of background rules, you get a very nice fighter that is quick to roll up, down to earth but still fun and easy to play.