A first level M-U gets one god damn spell per motherfucking day. They can't even create magic scrolls to store spells until level 7 (if you use general 1e wisdom). In B/X, a M-U must be level 9 to create a scroll or magic item.
Let's drive home this point a little bit more. A M-U cannot even read a magic scroll without casting the spell Read Magic. Which means, as a first level caster, if you don't take Read Magic as your one and only spell, then you can't read scrolls.
"I'm glad I didn't choose Magic Missile instead of Read Magic. I was able to cast Read Magic so I could read that Magic Missile scroll and save the party from that one orc!"
The pushback is obvious and widely-screamed: If you can't think of anything else to do other than cast spells then you suck at this game.
That's fine. Except it's a fantasy game and I came on my Friday night with but one dream: to be a motherfuckin' wizard. And here you got me casting Read Magic and hiding behind the dwarf.
I beseech you, my OSR friends: don't visit this hell upon players. Unless you know for a fact that the person who wants to be a wizard both understands these limitations and LIKES IT, you gotta house rule that shit. And there's a lot of fine, fine house rules out there you can use to fix this broken-ass setup. For example, Magic-Users in your game can...
• Read any scroll.
• Create scrolls and magic items, per the Magical Research rules, starting at first level.
• Cast 3 additional first level spells per day in addition to what's on the spell slot table. Call it baseline training.
• Use any weapon they care to pick up, but if it's not allowed by the rules-as-written, then they get a -3 to hit. No biggie.
• Detect the presence of magic in a device or an area, perhaps by making a simple Intelligence check. You don't have to tell them what the magic is, just that they "get a vibe" off it.
• Possess one trivial magic item at character creation. It's their signature thing, like a hat that returns to them or an unseen hand that carries their sack. I promise you it will not break your fragile dungeon ecosystem.
Ok, this is all just a little bit tongue-in-cheek. But it's also true. If you can't save the Thief class at least pull the Magic-User up from the darkness.
The 1977 D&D Basic rulebook (edited by Eric Holmes) has this great rule on page 13: 'Magic users may make a scroll of a spell they already "know" (i.e. have in their magic book) at a cost of 100 gold pieces and 1 week's work for each spell of the first level, 200 gold pieces and 2 weeks for a second level spell (if the magic-user is third level), etc.'
ReplyDeleteThe best thing a magic-user can do with his money and free time, then, is to make lots of spell scrolls.
Holmes had some great little flourishes that didn't seem to originate with 0e. B/X is my jam, but it is more or less a polished 0e. I never experienced Holmes back in the day, so I think I never had the nostalgia necessary to glom onto it. I have BIG nostalgia for B/X and a bit for BECMI and 1e too.
DeleteI haven't read Holmes in years. That's a good idea.
DeleteAlso the spells are stronger in Holmes, I suggests re-reading the spell list ! It seems also to expect that you will provide a lot of tools to play in the dungeon--the ample dungeon has a fireball wand if i'm not mistaken
DeleteThe old school Magic User does not suck, unless you want it to be something it isn't - which is "a motherfuckin' wizard". What you have here is a mismatch of your desires and the game you've chosen to play.
ReplyDeleteIn old school play, regardless of class, you start off barely better then an average person and claw your way to great power, or die trying. Everything is earned and life is hard. Pulp and Dark Fantasy really shine here.
If you want to "be a motherfuckin' wizard" however, that's what the 3E+ editions are for (esp 4E and 5E). These version support that kind of power-fantasy play, rather then having to slog through half-a-dozen levels of crud before you're really strong. Heroic and Epic Fantasy live on this side.
I completely agree. The original MU sucks because it isn't the thing I want it to be - which is the thing it LOOKS LIKE on the box: a wizard.
DeleteBut it's not, in fact, a Wizard. It's a Magic User. A Wizard is an 11th+ level Magic User in old school D&D, which tells us that low level Magic Users aren't intended to be wizards, but weaker versions of a wizard.
DeleteI'm curious, which pre-1975 "wizard" archetypes are you struggling to recreate in old school D&D anyway?
I don't disagree with any of your logic. But I also don't care. This was very much a screed about how I feel about old school Magic-Users: they suck. You can work your ass off to make them great. But I didn't come to the table to work, I came to play. Know what I mean? That's the whole of it.
DeleteI agree with you ! The rules don't match the cover illustration, and that's what you want to play ! There is a game who works incredibly well for that kind of old school pulp Conan and Leiber fantasy: The Pool !
DeleteI have heard of The Pool. I heard it was badly under-developed and not supported with any settings or adventures because the author is so lazy. lol
DeleteBut some other people have used it with great effect this Dr Frankenstein's creature! https://adeptplay.com/2021/11/16/frog-pool-fantasy/
DeleteI've used it with regular one page osr dungeon with great effect
I've played (and still playing) with great success :D It's specially well done if you only start with a 10 lines max paragraph describing a cool pulp fantasy setting and want to play those Frazetta characters or D&D Covers that you're not allowed to play with the rules :D
DeleteRE: " Pulp and Dark Fantasy really shine here." .... The pulp fantasy fiction I am aware of has no protagonists who in the least resemble D&D's "first level characters." I'm thinking Conan, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Kane, Rhialto the Marvellous, Cugel the Clever, they never battle their way up from wuss-dom. "leveling up cause you beat up enough goblins" is just an RPG thing, like hit points, that people got from D&D and then make a part of their mental universe about "what fantasy adventures are like."
DeleteThere are "ordinary person goes on adventurers and becomes more adventurous" stories, like hobbits getting somewhat less hobbit like, or an Assistant Pig-Keeper becoming an actual adventurer, but they usually don't resemble the D&D "leveling up by fighting shit and taking its treasure" experience either.
It's just something D&D made up.
And if I remember correctly, they made it up *retroactively*. The earliest proto-D&D-ish wargames just had name-level characters. They came up with low level characters and leveling up to name-level later on.
Sorry for the rant but this may be the single thing in the world that I like *least* about D&D, the "leveling up" trope. I dislike starting wimpy, and I dislike the nonstop accumulation of power (which in later versions of D&D becomes weird and arbitrary, sprouting new powers and abilities when you "take a long rest")
That's true. This is one of the reasons I made the level up process in GOZR a little more organic and low key. Your primary abilities don't change by gaining a level up (there are no actual levels either, it's just a term). My idea was that you'd change over time based on what happens in play rather than being on rails the game rules have provided.
DeleteRe: First level characters -
DeleteSo? Conan wasn't born fully grown with all the capabilities we see in the stories. If you don't like leveling up, start at 9th level. Your problem boils down to "1st level characters aren't mechanically powerful enough for me to have the fun I want".
This isn't because D&D is wrong, you have different tastes.
Also everything in D&D is "just something D&D made up". Is that really supposed to be a criticism? lol?
How many spells a day can you cast? Having been introduced to the game with the original Basic set MU's can scribe scrolls from level 1 in my campaigns, if they have the means to do so.
ReplyDeleteI can cast at least 12 per day.
DeleteYes, you should 100% let MUs create scrolls from the start. AND potions. I didn't realize Holmes let them make scrolls from the start, which is great! Wish Moldvay took that route. Of course house ruling it is very simple. Which is what this post was about. B/X, being such good bread, soaks up the wondrous flavors of house rules.
This age old debate is STILL going? Yeah BX is an awesome base game! From time to time folks want to spice it up a bit and alter it to reflect other styles. Be less lord of the Rings and embrace more Groo the wanderer or Wizards "the Movie". Relax guys. We all love the same old wonderful game.The funny thing is everyone is pretty much right. Low level magic user does suck. We all know it. It's just it's meant to suck. That is the price for all that POWER later on.
ReplyDelete