Looking back at the "Aquila" or "Brown Trousers" campaign, I'm remembering that it seemed that the non-spell casting classes (Fighters, Barbarians, Knights, Rogues etc) could have used a bit of a goose. I remember adding some special abilites for these classes at 4th level just so they'd be a bit more interesting compared with the spell casters.
Maybe porting in some elements of the feats from 3e might not be a bad idea. I'd restrict them to classes that don't cast spells in AD&D: i.e., fighters, thieves, and assassins from the base rules--definitely, perhaps paladins and rangers (but maybe not), and berserkers and scouts from my expanded list of classes. All the spell casters have tons of cool powers to keep them more interesting, and monks are nothing but weird special ablilites.
I wouldn't want the full fledged feat progression, but a few key choices at a few levels might spice things up.
I guess the other option is to port in the various combat maneuvers from Return of the Trolls. They were not, for the most part, class or level related, but could spice up the melee a bit. The trouble is there were only a few that were widely used (Shield Sacrifice, Heroic Rampage come to mind) many of the others were neglected.
I guess on the other hand that people played AD&D for a long time without extra fighter powers.
You know, I always found just plain single class fighters in the older generation of games (OD&D, 1e, and 2e) to be sorely underplayed in those games. Rangers and paladins have nifty abilities throughout their career, as well as spells to look forward to at higher levels, as well as fighting basically just as good as fighters did. Seemed like the only time I'd see a fighter would be a multiclassed, on occasion. Granted rangers and paladins had higher experience tables, alignment/race restrictions, severe stat requirements, and pretty serious ethical codes they had to adhere to, but there were always way more of them than just plain fighters around. I would not be opposed to some sort of boost for fighters, perhaps something at lower levels and definitely something at higher levels (which I honestly believe the original weapon specialization rules were originally intended to be), but I would not be unhappy if there were no changes to them either.
ReplyDeleteThieves and assassins have fairly weak skills at low levels, that do get progressively better as they level up. But I noticed much of the same thing as with fighters, that most of the people I played with would choose to play multiclass thief-whatevers, rather than straight thieves, especially given that thieves were one of the very few unlimited advancement classes for demihumans. Thieves (and assassins) can be pretty awesome, they could use some minor help.
As you said before, Dave, people played these classes as they were for years with these same rules. I can see fighters needing a boost, and thieves at some point as well, but I wouldn't be disappointed if they did not have anything.