New to AD&D, where to look?

[danzibr]

The only AD&D experience I have is with Baldur's Gate. I was wondering... as a total noob to AD&D, where should I look to get acquainted with it/figure out what's really powerful? I'm quite adept (well, sort of) at 3.5 if that helps. Thanks.

[nedz]

Well there's OSRIC (http://www.yourgamesnow.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=362) which a is FREE, but incomplete version.

Otherwise you'll just have to buy the books, which is not that hard since there are plenty of old ones around and they seem to be re-releasing them.

[ErikJensen]

Agree on the OSRIC.

I'm not sure what you mean by "what's really powerful", though. Are you looking to run the game and concerned about some idea of balance? Or looking to play and want to ensure you choose an effective character?

If your background is 3.5, the best advice I can give you is to try to partition your brain and not assume that anything in AD&D works like it does in 3.5. Treat AD&D as its own animal, and you'll soon see the characteristics other people praise (and condemn).

[danzibr]

Yeah, I was sort of looking for an idea of balance, not necessarily an effective character. I'm more of a fluff over crunch person. For example, if I walked blindly into 3.5 and thought Wizard was good balance-wise and expected every character at level 17 to have the equivalent in power and versatility of level 9 spells... well, ya know.

I read a good bit of a couple core books last night. And oh man it is way more different than I expected.

[Yora]

Basically, 1st and 2nd edition just didn't care about balance and character builds. You take a class and unless you have really high or really low stats, you're pretty much done with character creation and future advancement.

The biggest downside is the really dumb ways to calculate anything in the game. Myth and Magic seems to be the best attempt to take the 2nd Edition rules and get them cleaned up and in order. The final release could have been published just some weeks ago, or might still be comming in the next couple of days.

[nedz]

Yet strangely 1E and 2E are a lot more balanced than 3.5

There are however fewer character options; no Feats, no PrCs and the multiclassing works differently.

[Belril Duskwalk]

Basically, 1st and 2nd edition just didn't care about balance and character builds.

I play 2nd edition mostly and I think that would be the basics of my assessment. The question is usually less 'am I on par with my teammates' and more 'am I useful to my teammates'. Wizards are comparatively less powerful, they have less spells per day and less choice of spells unless they can afford some extreme spell-book expanding costs. To push it just a little further, the spells themselves are somewhat less 'safe' (Haste ages you a year every time it affects you, Polymorphing could kill you dead, etc.)

At the same time many classes have abilities unique to them. All of the iconic Rogue abilities are their own mechanic that no one else has full access to. Clerics have the healing spells same as always, but there are a lot less reasonable recovery options without magical aid. Fighters are just plain better than others in melee.

[LibraryOgre]

Haste can also kill you... magical aging necessitates a system shock.

[Hopeless]

The only AD&D experience I have is with Baldur's Gate. I was wondering... as a total noob to AD&D, where should I look to get acquainted with it/figure out what's really powerful? I'm quite adept (well, sort of) at 3.5 if that helps. Thanks.

Out of curiosity what exactly do you hope to get from this?


Are you running a game or playing in one?

I am assuming you meant 1e rather than 2nd edition but Baldur's Gate is of course based on the Forgotten Realms setting which has gone through quite a few changes since it was first introduced with the grey boxed set (My first encounter with that setting anyway).

Under 1e Bards have to start as fighters up to about 7th level then thieves up to 5th I think before becoming a 1st level Bard under current games that would be quite tough barring the fact you don't gain any extra hd unless you exceed your highest class if I'm recalling that properly and psionics is very different from later editions and suitably rare as if I only had one character from memory who ever had psionics and that was from a lot of character generating!

Starting from 1st level at 1e ad&d do you have a copy of that editions unearthed arcane because there was some alternatives there that made some suitably tough characters quite possibly the origin of the "meatshield" but under 2e if you're going forgotten realms there are those character kit splatbooks my cleric of Helm was originated from the Bulwark from one of those books and are well worth a look if Faerun is your gameworld under 2e.

Otherwise I hope that was helpful!

[Gravitron5000]

The only AD&D experience I have is with Baldur's Gate. I was wondering... as a total noob to AD&D, where should I look to get acquainted with it/figure out what's really powerful? I'm quite adept (well, sort of) at 3.5 if that helps. Thanks.

Buying the DM pizza can be really powerful. Don't go into AD&D with the same mindset as 3.5. Your notions of risk vs. reward could get you killed. Get the loot, solve the puzzle, and get out. No need to go around killing things that could end up killing you if given half a chance. Also, to repeat what others have said, in core AD&D, builds are not really a thing. Spells give you quite a bit of variety, but can be dangerous, and the existence of specific spells will depend on your DM (hence the pizza).

[Matthew]

Echoing what the others are saying, AD&D has to be divorced from any expectations garnered from D20/3E. Probably the best place to learn about it, download high quality support material, and interact with other players is Dragonsfoot (http://www.dragonsfoot.org), but do not be surprised by the hostility towards D20 that occasionally manifests there!