1st Level Magic-Users Suck?

Did Grognardia stir up this old chestnut again?  I know there's already a ten page or so thread on Dragonsfoot about it just within the last couple days (although it's been semi-hijacked by a debate about whether using hirelings makes you a 'wuss gamer' or not).

How can a 1st level Magic-User survive to 2nd level?  And find ways to be useful while doing so?

And of course, all these people are either stating how there's nothing to do but fire your one spell then run away to rest so you'll be 'effective' again.  Or on the other side, bringing out the old standby of 'prepare lots of flasks of oil, marble bags, 10' poles, Swedish-made penis enlarger pumps, garlic, wolfsbane, catnip, spare socks, iron spikes, reading glasses, and cooking pots to make yourself useful.'  Then of course, the idea of hiring meat-shields to protect your AC 11, 1d4 HD ass which touched off the near derailment of that DF thread. [Sorry, no link today.  Just got back from grad school, and don't feel like hitting DF tonight just to snag a link.  It's in the General Discussion section if you want to track it down yourself.]

Anyway, words of wisdom from old Jack Burton.  Er, um, I mean Lord Gwydion. 

ALL CHARACTERS SUCK AT 1ST LEVEL. 

No, your Fighter cannot beat down goblins all day long.  He can take one hit if he's lucky, then he'd better retreat.

No, your Cleric (even if using AD&D where they get spells at 1st level) is not going to be casting spells and turning undead all the time.  He's got better than 50% odds to turn skeletons, but the first time he botches that roll, he's done for that encounter.  And even with an 18 Wis, he's still got a limited number of spells.  And remember, in Classic (my preferred game), he's got no spells.  Just the ability to take one hit if he's lucky and maybe turn some undead.

No, your Thief is not gonna be finding every trap, unlocking every door, and if he gets really lucky and actually manages to sneak up on someone, likely is gonna miss that backstab roll and get his AC 6, 1d4 HD ass handed to him.

They all suck.  That's kinda the point.  And EVERYONE should be getting all that miscellaneous equipment and using it at every opportunity.  First level characters get to become second level characters by being smart, not by acting like 6th level characters.

Another Castlevania Monster for Halloween

One problem of converting CV monsters into D&D is that in a video game, a different sprite and attack pattern makes it a new monster.  Not so in D&D.  There are a ton of skeleton-type monsters in Castlevania, and most of them don't really need new stats for D&D.  Just arm them appropriately, and you've got them.

This one, however, is a fun little variant undead spellcaster.  No where near as powerful as a lich, it's a niche that's been filled before, but I'm doing it in a Castlevania way.

Dhuron
AC: 5 (15)
HD: 4**
Move: 90 (30)
Attacks: 1 weapon or spell
Damage: by weapon, or spell
No. Appearing: 1-8 (2-6)
Save As: Fighter 8
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: B (U)
Alignment: Chaotic
XP:175

Dhurons are criminals executed by decapitation who have risen as skeletal undead.  They carry their skulls in one hand, and wield weapons in the other.  Dhurons are not mindless, and can be quite crafty.  They will often hide amidst normal skeletons to surprise opponents with their spellcasting ability.  Dhurons cast spells as a 4th level Magic-User in addition to being adept with weapon attacks.  Due to their magical nature, they save as 8th level Fighters.  They are immune to sleep, charm, and hold spells.  Clerics turn Dhurons as Mummies.

A bit of a surprise

When Robert Jordan died a few years ago, I'd read all 11 volumes of The Wheel of Time series at that point.  And I'd really been reading everything since about volume 8 mostly on inertia.  I'd read that much already, I might as well keep reading them, I thought.  Even though the series was obviously being strung along just for the sake of stringing it along, and the bloated descriptions were getting annoyingly bad.  It's kinda like Jordan ran out of descriptive phrases around book 4, and just recycled them over and over and over again.  But, I was working as a public school teacher in Japan, and had plenty of free time on my hands.

And then Jordan died.  And I thought, "I'm done with WoT."  I just didn't care anymore to finish the series, especially when I found out that Sanderson would not be writing one final book, but three. 

But then this past summer, Steve was giving away books before he left for Singapore, and one of them was a copy of The Gathering Storm, WoT book 12.  And I said, "What the hell, it's free." 

I finally started reading it this weekend.  After two days of reading, I'm 200 pages into it and finding I'm liking Sanderson's prose more than Jordan's later prose.  It's that bit of freshness that the series needed.  It's still long, and bloated, and I'm looking at having to trudge through another 3000 or so pages, but I may just finish the series after all.

A New Blog and a Halloween Monster

So there's a new blog that's just come to my attention, BladeSharp.  Fabian is working on a conversion of Oriental Adventures (1E, 2E and 3E stuff mashed together) for Labyrinth Lord.  I'd actually considered doing something like that but decided instead to focus on Dragon Fist.  Since most stuff for the various clones/simulacrums is easily interchangeable, and fits easily with most TSR versions of D&D, I'm looking forward to what he comes up with.

And since it's October, it's time for WaHNtHaC's annual (well, since last year anyway) Castlevania monsters converted to Classic D&D!

And we're starting off with a true classic creature of the CV games.  You really can't call a game Castlevania unless it includes a few of them--the Red Skeleton!

Red Skeleton
Armor Class: 7 (13)
Hit Dice: 1/8* (1 hit point, but see below)
Move: 60 (20)
Attacks: 1 claw
Damage: 1d6
No. Appearing: 1-2 (1-4)
Save As: Fighter 1
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: nil
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: special (see below)

Red Skeletons look like normal animated skeletons, except that they are a deep blood red color.  They are slow, plodding creatures, and appear very weak.  Any hit with a weapon or spell, or a Turn Undead attempt, will seem to destroy them.  But 1d4 Rounds later the red skeleton will reform in the spot where it was 'destroyed.'  Scattered bones will fly back to the spot if nearby.  More distant bones will teleport back to the spot.

While it is possible to knock them down and then flee, adventurers gain no experience points for doing so.  However, if a means can be found to permanently destroy them (at the DM's discretion), the adventurers will gain a special XP award of 1000 XP the first time they discover the process.  Only by discovering a new method to destroy one will grant this special XP award again in the future.

As Undead creatures, red skeletons are immune to sleep, charm and hold effects.

Rough Week

Forgive the lack of substantive posts this week, please.  Working too much, grad school, all that.  Instead of more blathering about games, here's something to think about.

Dungeon Design: Moldvay Basic D&D

At long last, this little series continues.  Read about OD&D, Holmes, AD&D 1E.

In Tom Moldvay's Basic Set (Erol Otus cover), we get a very well organized two pages on dungeon design.  We're given a six-step process to follow, which helps DMs conceptualize their dungeon quickly and easily.  It's mostly a clarification of the information in OD&D, but with one big difference.  As with AD&D 1E, we've got a very different focus.  OD&D assumed a megadungeon, while Moldvay assumes smaller dungeons created for each adventure (although they can easily be re-used). 

Moldvay's steps are:

A) Choose a scenario [10 sample types listed]
B) Decide on a setting [10 sample locations listed]
C) Decide on special monsters to be used
D) Draw the map of the dungeon
E) Stock the dungeon [using the random system from OD&D, and providing six room traps, six treasure traps, and ten ideas for 'specials']
F) Filling in the final details

Moldvay then, after discussing Wandering Monsters (which actually may be part of step F, making it three pages of dungeon design advice), gives us The Haunted Keep.  He goes through and explains his six steps above, and provides a fully detailed and keyed map of one of the two towers, and a cut-away map of the two dungeon levels.

What Moldvay has done here is take the dungeon design principles of OD&D and the 'site-based' preference of AD&D and married them nicely together.  One could easily design a megadungeon using the Moldvay method, even though the text assumes smaller complexes made for their own separate adventures.  All one needs to do is decide on what sections of the megadungeon will or could be used for the various types of scenarios listed, then follow the rest of the instructions for each section.

Humor for a Monday Morning

Didn't get much sleep last night, and not looking forward to this Monday.  So here's a funny pick I snagged off a friend's Facebook account yesterday.

I didn't get to do any gaming this weekend.  Enzo, who was DMing 4E, suddenly found a job in Seoul, where his girlfriend lives, and moved there.  So that game's finished.  And we're not sure what do do next. 

I'm just too damn busy to be full time DM, even for something like Classic D&D. 

Jeremy is thinking about running something with the Microlite20 system, and having looked over the player's book last night, it looks interesting.  No one else has shown any interest in that yet, though.

Then there's the guy in Gimhae who wants to play Pathfinder.  I'm not against playing PF, but the dude lives fairly far away from all of us, and wants us to go to his place to play.  So that's not likely to happen unless he gives and agrees to run the games at some location here in Busan.

So who knows what's going on there?  We've got this fairly large group of potential gamers that we can now contact online, but it looks like I'm going to have to be the one to take the initiative and form the new group.