It reminds me a lot of the Dungeoneer RPG rules that were based on the Fighting Fantasy books. I think the two rules sets would probably play well together, and that D@D might appeal to players of the FF books. I am thinking of trying the rules out by playing through one of the FF books using the D@D rules.
Not familiar with Dungeoneer but that's intriguing
As written, combat seems like it would be lethal, especially in the basic game where characters don't increase in hit points.
I tended to think so too when I wrote it but, so far, no player characters have been killed in my campaign.
Moral is a big mitigator. Of course things will depend on the strength of the monsters the characters face too. If you do find the combats too deadly, I would suggest trying CHAINMAIL troop type combat or adjusting the charts to suit.
In the basic game, in which magicians are limited to 5th level, are they still unable to cast spells above their level?
Wizards can attempt to cast above thier level, but they cannot make spells above their level. So, in theory, in the basic game there are no 6th level spells. Personally I would just fold them into the level 5 list, but you could ignore them completely, or assume there is some greater than human spell power that does make sixth level spells.
Say a balrog has AC -2 and is being attacked by an adventurer with a +2 sword. For the purposes of rolling under AC to avoid damage after being hit, is an AC -2 creature treated as AC 10 or AC 12? I would assume that being hit with a +2 sword would result in a -2 penalty to AC, resulting in an effective AC of 8 or 10?
As stated in the rules, negative AC mirrors positive AC. But I neglected to explain that that would mean the AC save would be the same whether the AC is positive or negative. Meaning, you should need a 3 or or less to save if you have a -4 AC or a 4 AC. This applies to all numenous negative AC's. Most spirit creatures or undead really don't have great AC's, they just can't be hit by normal weapons. In the as yet unheard of case where a bonus raises AC above 10, making them effectively negatives, then the save would have to be against the true AC. For example, a character in a suit of full plate and shield with a +6 bonus (8+6=14, unlikely but who knows) would be rated at AC -4 for combat, but would save as a 13 or less.
Or would the magic sword automatically hit, ignoring AC? In that case, I would assume that magic swords always ignore normal ACs as well, making them incredibly useful. And if the sword hits, would it do +2 damage, or +2 damage per hit die of damage, or an additional two dice of damage, or double damage, or no bonus to damage?
Certainly do customize the abilities of your swords as you wish, but normally in D@D and, if I understand correctly in Arneson's early games, there is no "+" damage bonus. The positive rating of the sword is only its ability to strike against negative AC's. No bonus to anything is implied by the + rating.
Increasing damage can be an ability of a sword, but only against specific creatures and only in the hands of certain types of weilders etc. As may be a custom feature of the blade.
Under the rules for magic swords it says " Bane to enemies - this is 1-6 types of creatures against which the blade will double, triple or quadruple the Fighting Strength of the wielder in accordance with the magical bonus of the sword . . ."
Since the magical bonus can range from +1 to +6 am I right to assume that +1 and +2 swords double Fighting Strength, +3 and +4 swords triple it and +5 and +6 swords quadruple it?
That "in accordance.." phrase was a last edition insertion I should have explained or added "often". Basically there are two kinds of attack ratings for a magic sword. 1) its ability to strike negative AC's. 2) its ability to increase combat effectiveness (bane to enemies).
For the sake of simplicity, it is easiest (and more compatible with published material) to stick with one number for everything, so that a +3 sword is also triple FS against zombies and giant ants or whatever. However there is no reason the Bane values have to be the same as the + rating, or that they have to be the same at all. The sword could be +3 versus negative AC, be double FS against zombies, and be quadruple FS against Giant Insects. In the case of the + 1 sword I would simply rule that no Bane Enemies value could be less than double FS.
Swords ought to be custom made prior to adventures, but I recognize that many, including me, will be using published material from time to time and need a quick way to translate to DaD, hence the "in accordance with.."
Some ideas for house rules:
When rolling 0-10, instead of rolling 2d6-2, roll 2d6 but treat rolls of 6 as 0.
Reduce the damage from one hit die per hit die to the following:
1/2 HD : 1/2 d6
1-1 to 1 HD : 1d6
2-3 HD : 1d6+1
4-5 HD : 2d6
6-7 HD : 2d6+1
8-9 HD : 3d6
10-11 HD : 3d6+1
etc.
Treat combat multipliers as follows:
x4 becomes +4
x3 becomes +3
x2 becomes +2
x 1/2 becomes -2
x 1/3 becomes -3
x 1/4 becomes -4
Roll 0-10 against the "to hit" number instead of 2-12 - this will result in less misses (and therefore, faster combats).
Roll 0-10 against the morale number instead of 2-12 - this will result in less negative morale modifiers (and therefore, less calculation during combat).
Some interesting ideas. There could definetly by some advantages to using a d10 or even a d12 over 2d6. Of course 2d6 is what Arneson was using originally but he did move into using d10's (actually d20's numbered twice) so experimenting in that direction is well within the historical frame of the game. I didn't have enough evidence to know just what he did with percentiles so I couldn't put that in D@D, but I'd encourage you to experiment and let us know.
One thing I would like to see for D@D is some kind of adventure. I don't care if it's a dungeon, a plotted adventure, a mini-sandbox setting, or a campaign outline, and I don't care if it's published in Dragons at Twilight or Fight On! or on its own, but I want an adventure!
Well, write one! Okay, okay, I've actually got two planned out that I'll send in to the fanzines. Life is busy though so it will be a while...
Great comments/questions Akiyama.
Moral is a big mitigator. Of course things will depend on the strength of the monsters the characters face too. If you do find the combats too deadly, I would suggest trying CHAINMAIL troop type combat or adjusting the charts to suit.