Reason #1 1st Ed DnFnD Rules - Bards

Bards are the quintessential fantasy role playing characters. They are the ones who tell the stories. They write the songs that make the XP ring. In a way, the players playing DnFnD are bards.

I'm not suggesting you sing at your games, but you know what I mean. And why rule singing out? It's a heck of a way to liven up a session. Not recommended in apartment complexes with thin walls...

As stated in Appendix II of the PHB, in 1st Edition DnFnD, bards must acquire five levels as fighters first, then move on to thief for three levels, before finally ending up in druidic study as bards. Bards align themselves with a college, an important distinction for a bard. As they level, bards have increased likelihood to be steeped in relevant legend and lore because they have experiences and because of their tutelage. This trajectory, though it may seem to unbalance them, steeps them in so much history. Who needs all the classes to have the same rates and measures of advancement?

The 1st Edition PHB doesn't set rigid skills such as inspire courage and its ilk in later editions of DnFnD. This leaves the effects of a bard's music and poetry up the DM, which to me truly makes this class a one-of-a-kind asset to anyone's campaign world. What better way to introduce facts, rumors, and outright lies and slander to a night at the inn...

Given the above requirements, let's consider this breadth of character for a second. When you're forced to demonstrate skills in two other fields before you take on a third, what does it mean? It means you have a depth that others who only participate in a single field usually do not. How many great programmers started their careers as physicists, chemists, and engineers? How many great writers had day jobs. Kafka was a machinist while writing extremely imaginative, literary tales.

Bards, as the arbiters of what is worth retaining in an oral tradition, need to have open minds, minds honed over multiple previous lives. For this is the only way that anyone can truly speak from experience about a great many things. Their empathy for others is what makes them and their stories great.

So, bards should be required to take on other fields before becoming known by their stagenames. What does a 1st level 3.5 bard have to say about the world? Nothing!

The 1st Edition PHB may be considered a bit narrow-minded, requiring bards to specifically have levels of fighter and thief, but those two professions are also at the heart of just about every great novel or folk song there is. So there is something to be said for this requirement.

For my players, levels of cleric would also suffice, but I like to take a tip from the PHB and require levels of fighter or thief before characters can become priests; it is through their initial adventures that they hear the call of a higher power in the first place (What does a 1st level 3.5 cleric have to offer their deity? Nothing!) I prefer many such important life decisions to be played out in-game.

But that is another story.

Image: Lute playing jester, one leg behind his neck
Anton Möller der Ältere, 1605, Königsberg 1563/65 - 1611 Danzig
pen-and-ink drawing, 23,9 x 17,6 cm, Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, Germany

Inspiration

Something about the Tower of Gygax at GENCON 2009 thrilled me. I hadn't had a feeling of "just play and ignore the rules" in a long time. You know, that feeling where every second of an experience is enjoyable. Well, with the exception of having to wait to play...

Maybe it was the high-quality DMing (which in the Night Shift was beyond excellent), but I think there was something else at play. Another contributing factor that led me to enjoying that game was that it was based on the 1st Edition rules, which to me is (pretty much, at least to me) the original DND.

No, DNFND.

That game that makes you really think anything is possible, and even probable. Before Spelljammer. Before Dark Sun. Before feats, prestige classes, and even skills as we know them. Before weapon specialization and weapon speeds. Before minor actions. When casting haste actually aged your character.

Okay, so there is THAC0, which seems at first to be a hair-brained idea of a character's combat effectiveness. Actually, it makes the to-hit calculations simple. No adding a bonus if someone has used a daily power to buff those within 5 squares. No squares (necessarily).

Things we just simpler in those rules. Only thieves (not rogues) and monks could hide in shadows. Saving throws weren't tied to abilities. And bards were strange conglomerations of fighters, magic-users (not wizards or sorcerers), and thieves. Everyone needed different amounts of XP based on their classes; magic-users required more XP to advance in level, so they stayed frail and difficult to level for a long time. Everyone needed a party; there were no min-max characters because no class could do everything, and multi-classing was painful. So there was no need to define strikers and leaders.

These are a few things I find interesting about the game, but I forget the rest. Inspired by my GENCON experience, I have recently unearthed my old copies of a few of the 1st Edition sourcebooks, and bought a very nice copy of the Player's Handbook (replacing an aged copy) for $6 at my local used bookstore so I can research the old game and report on it.

I hope to take a moment every now and again and note elements I like (and those I don't like so much) about good ole 1st Edition (Advanced) Dungeons and Dragons.

Yep, DNFND.