TheEvilDM wrote:I was just curious why I get flack sometimes.
It wouldn't surprise me if it is for 2 reasons (assuming a certain sort of player):
1. Physical Training: In 1E there are no skills (that I can think of anyway) that aren't O.C.C. skills (like Acrobatics/Tumbling) that raise physical stats. In 2E, you can stack stuff like that up if you wish. You also can't buy better Hand to Hand training with an extra skill slot to make your non-man of arms fight like a soldier (or whatever).
2. Restricted Spell Casting: In 2E, the P.P.E. system definitely boosted the casting ability of magic wielders. While I understand that the cost of spells does scale up for the upper level ones, there is a lot of utility in the levels 1-5 spells, and you start out being able to cast quite a number of those per day if you have the spell knowledge to do so. There is also the change to psionics being level based and unlocking as you progress in 1E to being able to choose the powers you want to have from the start.
I can definitely see someone being used to that sort of starting power not being excited about 1E.
As far as house rules, most of mine are fairly small, but there are a couple that might be worth mentioning.
First of all, I took pretty much all of the powers of the beastmaster class from the Yin-Sloth Jungles book and gave them to druids. They are mostly priest-like abilities that only work on animals, so I thought it fit. I haven't given them the animal companion, because druids already get the familiar anyway. It just seemed to me that druids needed a little something more, and that seemed to fit the theme. I don't use any of the classes from the Yin-Sloth book, so there aren't any beastmasters to complain about druids getting their toys.
I also wanted healers to be a bit more appealing to play and have a definite use in the world. First, I gave them psychic surgery as a level 5 ability, because it seems like an ability that they should have. I didn't take it away from the psionic list though. I also use permanent injury charts in my games, which get rolled on any time you get dropped below 0 hp. Those injuries (and accompanying attribute damage) can only be cured with psychic surgery, so you need a lvl 5 healer or lvl 6 mind mage to get that taken care of.