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Gaming Through the Editions of D&D

Hello. Nerdarchist Ted here and today I am just going to go through the editions of Dungeons & Dragons I have played and my opinions on them. I have been tabletop roleplaying for over two decades and I started with second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Some of the people who have been on Nerdarchy have a longer history and started earlier than I did. I have the red box that Nerdarchist Dave started with.

Honestly it was so long ago I cannot say for certain what got me into D&D or how I started with roleplaying games. If I had to take a guess I would say friends of mine in my Boy Scout troop introduced me to it and it all snowballed from there. Like many of you out there I was not guided by an experienced Dungeon Master so playing was all about killing monsters, acquiring treasure and power. Much different than the gaming I do today.

Not to say anything bad about getting power and treasure — what player does not want those things? However when there is no story or scope to the world it doesn’t mean as much to me. As I grew older and seriously got into reading novels the flow of a good story became important.

Second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

As I stated, I started here and spent many years playing this edition. With the many, many splat books available it seemed there was an endless supply of new things to play. Many roleplayers today still feel this edition holds strong to the ideals of D&D and they continue to play it despite the numerous editions launched since.

When you have dozens to hundreds of books with all the rules why move to the next edition? You have everything you need right? You have the balanced classes vs. experience total differences. You get multiclassing rules that allow you to amass power like no other edition to date. I had a 20th level fighter in a campaign while Nate the Nerdarch had an 18th level cleric/17th level wizard/17th level psionicist. How can you compare these two characters?

Leveling up was very simple in 2E AD&D. Most of the time it was a hit die, check THAC0, add any new weapon proficiencies and non-weapon proficiencies and you were done. Unless you were a spellcaster then you need to check that as well. This edition was set up at a time when characters at the gaming table need not be balanced and equal. Characters were all helpful even if they were not all on the same scale. After years of playing we even had our own campaign world with a rich history filled with gods and kingdoms alike. It was great. Then the rumor of third edition D&D started to leak through Dragon Magazine.

Pros of 2E AD&D

• Loads of books with options and extras
• Many new official campaign settings
• Lots of class and race choices
• Simple leveling system
• Well established rules with all kinks worked out through decades of play

Cons of 2E AD&D

• Any new ideas or campaign settings not updated from old rules
• New races and classes require work to convert to old system
• Simple level up system offers less customization
• Unbalanced character classes
• Over powered multi-class rules allow for serious power gaming

Third edition/3.5 Dungeons & Dragons

I will be honest, I was trepidatious when I heard a new edition was coming out. I did not and still am really not fond of change. I did not want to have to learn new rules. I did not want to have to buy new books. The change to fighting with two weapons and multiclassing really made me frustrated. But the group said it was making the change and I had to go along with it. I am glad I did as I found that it offered so much more than the previous edition. The in-depth character creation allowed for more choices in what people call character builds that were not just what skills or weapon does your fighter use.

Pros of 3E/3.5 D&D

• Feats allow for better customization
• Feats make the human choice equally appealing compared to non-human races
• Stat bumps every four levels made getting better more achievable
• New classes, races and campaign settings

Cons of 3E/3.5 D&D

• Equivalent Character Level made some race choices not possible in many campaigns
• Unbalanced monsters and class features
• Certain combinations made for devastating effectiveness
• Contradictory rules in core books

Fourth edition/3.5 Dungeons & Dragons

Again a switch in editions came and I was again hesitant to want to buy a new set of books. I looked over at my shelf. We had started gaming regularly at my place by this time and I see the massive stack of unused second edition books and the almost equally massive stack of third edition books and I cringed. I did not want to buy more.

And in fact I did not. I was unwilling to walk down that financial road at the time 4E D&D came out. It was what I played the least of out of all the editions of D&D. We played for maybe a year to 18 months before we felt the desire to move on.

While I enjoyed playing the game, I can enjoy any roleplaying game. It is more about the roleplaying to me than the combat rule system, and there was something about 4E that made it feel more like a miniature war game or a video game played at the gaming table than a typical role playing game. I know many gamers and role players out there really like 4E and many hate it. I am not here to judge, just offer up my opinions.

Pros of 4E D&D

• At-will powers solved the spellcasters’ problem of running out of spells
• New races added extra appeal
• Tactical rules allowed for players to control the battlefield and change the scope of the game
• Simplified multiclass rules

Cons of 4E D&D

• Class designator of roles made it seem generic and more like an Massive Multiplayer Online Game
• Tactical rule layout made it more about the combat then the actual roleplaying
• Did not feel like D&D

Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons

We move into the current rule system. Not having purchased much in the way of gaming books over the last couple of years I was almost eager to buy gaming books again as the launch of 5E D&D was announced. After reading through the core and seeing the best of each edition all mixed together I really applaud the writers of 5E.

I am not going to go through the pros and cons of 5E as it has only been a few months of play at this point. I do not yet feel as if I could do so fairly. But let’s look at what 5E D&D incorporated from each of the previous editions.

From 2E AD&D

• Magic items are not number crunches and have bonus limitations
• Lower ability score tiers

From 3E/3.5 D&D

• Feats are different but they still massively change a character
• Ability score increases are still around

From 4E D&D

• Tactical movement still present in abilities and spells – it’s just given in dimensions instead of squares

There is my take on it. I hope you like it. If you agree or disagree feel free to add comments below. Did I miss something? Feel free to add that as well.

Until next time, stay nerdy my friend!