Is still available on Amazon and the likes. Is it of any use for newer editions as a source book and worth the cost?
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Also available on DriveThruRPG.com as PDF download. I haven't seen AD&D2 being played for a while, so what would be value of these books/PDFs for D&D5?
Ehhh... not much? It's a lot of highly specific rules, the equivalent of the D&D3e Prestige Classes but in reverse (taken at first level rather than later on), with some lore but it's all the same lore that you'd already know from D&D stuff. Elves trance instead of sleeping. Elves live in grand cities sculpted to fit into nature rather than take it over. That sort of thing.
You want fun books, pick up the setting stuff. Planescape, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Dragonlance...
Frankly, the thing I hate the MOST about the race/class restrictions is that it punishes role-players and enables power gamers. Pretty it up however you like, instead of making humans a valid choice he decided to nerf everyone else endgame, and the dual-class BS just means that the powergamer endplan (if the DM has banned psionics like he should have) is "Level 1 Fighter, then over to Wizard for 20 levels." It shows a lack of imagination, which is pretty lame for a game
based in imagination.
Tigershark... you're a 2e grognard. I get that. But D&D2e is excessively complicated; the fact that you've adapted and internalized the rules doesn't change that.
1) It has four different core mechanics that I can think of off the top of my head (THAC0, percentage rolls for thief skills, nonadjusted d20 rolls for saving throws/turn checks/other things I'm not remembering, nonweapon proficiencies roll under attribute) and makes no attempt to reconcile them.
2) It has a convoluted XP system that punishes people who WANT to play elves and dwarves and is open to abuse by power gamers. The fact that most of the rewards are based around killing and getting loot only adds to the problem.
3) It has flawed class balance, with early on casters being pathetically weak but by the endgame being exponentially stronger than everyone else. (no, 3e didn't fix that entirely, and 4e's attempt was more horrible, but 5e's got it right).
I'm also a little annoyed at your trotting out of a complicated and hypothetical situation from an
expansion and declaring that it somehow makes the core system of "Roll d20, add your bonus, subtract penalties, if the result equals the target number you succeed" worse than THAC0. The main benefit of the d20 system is that it uses the d20 for
everything in
exactly the same way: saving throws, skills, turning, hitting, everything. That simplicity allows for much more complicated ideas stacked on top of it.
So onto other things; I'm soliciting suggestions for this campaign idea.
The campaign is essentially post-apocalyptic: the bad guys have WON. Order, the evil god of unchanging eternity, has devoured the pantheon of old and established Itself as sole deity; his servants led hordes of undead, hobgoblins, yuan-ti, and more chaotic monsters that overran the civilized world, driving the elves, halflings, dwarves, and humans into isolated pockets hidden from their eyes.
However, there is an opportunity: As Order turned Its eyes to seeing which of his servants deserve to be the only beings on Its plane (setting them to war with one another), Chaos stole the shards of the old gods from It and scattered them across the land. Finding them, reuniting them with goodly mortals to worship them, and gradually bringing them back to power would let them challenge Order and allow the players to lead an army to throw back the darkness of tyranny and let freedom come again...
or some such nonsense. ;D
Any thoughts?