Old-School D&D

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Harbourboy, I think if you want real old-school you have to go back to the original handful of loose sheets that were an adaption (I think) of the Chainmail wargaming rules.

EGG and his mate (who is now forgotten) put together something that allowed single characters to play. It's a shame really that EGG had a stranglehold on the game so long. He was obsessed by what was, and was not, official. For ages it stopped the game evolving.

 

I'm with stormhand -- before 2nd Ed there was AD&D. The books were written in the late 70's. I think that was the first game to require three rule books to play. Monks were first introduced in AD&D -- and really haven't changed much. The two biggest changes when shifting to second edition were bards and rangers (plus weapon specialization).

The original bards were awesome -- triple class characters, basically a fighter/thief/druid with a few additional abilities thrown in. They were good at everything -- a one person army (better than the FMT).

The ranger was simply the best fighter you could have -- started with 2d8 hitpoints and got 1d8 per level (plus fighter con bonuses) through 10th level. Against humanoids and giant class monsters the ranger did 1 additional point of damage per level. By 8th level a ranger could mow through giants and ogres with ease. They really castrated the ranger with 2nd ed. rules -- favored enemy, bah.

I still like 2nd ed. rules better than 3rd edition. Although IWD2 was fun (Half-orc Barbarian/Cleric, what a fun build), I'm still reserving judgement while playing PoRMD, ToEE, NWN, ....

Edit: Oh, yeah.... the assassin was in AD&D. Half-orcs could be cleric/assassins and fighter/assassins -- THAT was fun.