D&D 2e Archives - Tribality

The Barbarian Class, Part Three

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 20:54:31 +0000

Welcome back to the History of the Barbarian, this time getting into the barbarian of D&D 3.0 and 3.5. Why did they drop the A? Because they finally admitted that the Accidental Death & Dismemberment wasn’t so Accidental – especially for the Improbably Large Axe class! Do you like d12s? I hope you like d12s, because this class is very much about that die size, in particular. Part One | Part Two | Part Three After writing Part Two, Friend of the […]

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The Barbarian Class, Part Two

Brandes Stoddard — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 15:51:09 +0000

In the first article of this series, I left out an important item: the Oriental Adventures barbarian class. My plan for this article is to cover it as briefly as possible, then move on to 2e’s Barbarian kit (from the Complete Fighter’s Handbook) and the Complete Barbarian’s Handbook. Just for completeness, I’ll also touch on the Berserker and Savage kits. I’m also covering the Amazon kit, even though… yikes, in 72-point font. Part One | Part Two Oriental Adventures 1e […]

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The Fighter Class, Part Four

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 12:00:52 +0000

After a few weeks of talking about other things, I’m ready to tackle the next stage of the fighter in D&D, which of course means Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, as well as the Complete Fighter’s Handbook, Player’s Option: Combat & Tactics, and Player’s Option: Skills & Powers. If that makes it sound like I have a lot to cover today… well, yeah. Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four Player’s Handbook The rules […]

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The Monk Class, Part Three

Brandes Stoddard — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 13:00:10 +0000

As we have another week without Unearthing any Arcana, I can at last return to our discussion of the monk class in D&D. Today I’m looking at AD&D, Second Edition, and like all even-numbered editions, the monk is not a core Player’s Handbook class. I’m not really sure why, except that it was always a dodgy fit and 2e, especially in the DMG and the Complete splatbooks, shows way more Eurocentrism than any edition before or after it. (The other editions are still Eurocentric, they’re just colored with Gygaxian naturalism, American meritocratic ideas, or other media influences to a greater degree.)

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The Delightful Oddity of Al-Qadim

Colin McLaughlin — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 12:00:15 +0000

Not so long ago, I wrote about one of my favorite 2nd editions settings, Planescape. Besides the wacky hijinks of the planes, it was the song of the sands that captured my interests. Not Dark Sun, that fantastical post-apocalyptic adventure wasteland, but Al-Qadim, the Land of Fate. Technically a sub-setting of Forgotten Realms, Al-Qadim has precious little in common with the core setting. In fact, most of the link is through the primordials, which are central to the setting’s past, […]

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Five 2nd Edition D&D Boxed Sets That Deserve 5th Edition Makeovers

A.A. Amirault — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 12:50:52 +0000

Back in the eighties and early nineties, TSR decided to release 2nd Edition material in boxed sets. In my opinion, these sets were top notch and provided exactly what most DMs needed: playgrounds. They provided just enough information to get an adventure or a campaign started and left more than enough blank spaces for the DM and players to fill in with their own ideas and material. There was usually a fully developed pre-fab adventure to introduce the PCs to […]

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The Bard Class, Part Two

Brandes Stoddard — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 14:00:17 +0000

This time out, I’ll be writing about the Bard of AD&D, Second Edition. The bard of OD&D started as a magical and thiefly dabbler, loremaster, and diplomat, and grew into a quite potent magic-user. The 1e bard is an end goal to be attained, and is the result of dabbling in fighting and a little light crime (the thief class, that is). It leads to druid spellcasting, hyper-fast leveling for a little while, and more lore/charm stuff. It’s a very potent […]

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