From: ts2a+@andrew.cmu.edu (Thomas Omar Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: AD&D: Problems with 1st ed. Bard
Date: 7 Apr 92 00:55:04 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.AdsD=cG00VB1IAhUce
Organization: Senior, Mathematics, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Ok, lets look at the character point by point.

>This guy is running a Bard, using the 1st edition rules.  Here's the
>first problem:  Every other character in the game is using 2nd edition
>rules -- should I make this guy change his character to 2nd ed., too?

I wouldn't.  The second edition bard is very different from the first
edition bard in both abilities and effect.

>This guy has acheived Bard
>status, but is also an MU, so he's also got spells and a Foo-Dog familiar,
>which makes him _really_ powerful.  Is he allowed to be a mage like this?

I'd allow it if he started as a mage, then went to fighter, and obeyed
all rules for dual class.  The problem is the foo dog familiar.  A
familiar should never be that powerful.  If you let a character have a
familiar of exceptional power, the character will make quantum leaps in
power too.

>Also, I just noticed a couple of other things.  For one, he was supposed
>to start training as a Druid when he official became a Bard -- he hasn't
>been doing this.

Well, he joins a druidic school, but he is not trying to become a druid,
he's becoming a bard.

>Also, when you change classes to be a Bard (from fighter
>to thief, from thief to Bard/Druid) you keep the previous class abilities,
>but you aren't supposed to continue gaining experience for those previous
>classes, are you?  He's still running the character as Fighter/Thief/Bard,
>and is dividing his experience so that all classes gain.  And this on top
>of the mage class.....

Here he's wrong.  He is a bard, and only receives experience in the Bard
class.  Once you switch, the level in fighter and thief is locked.

>One more thing:  1st edition Bards are always supposed to be Neutral
>alignment - says so on page 117, just in case you want to check.....He
>was neutral, I think.....but a few months ago he changed his alignment
>to Chaotic Good so that he could get a good, i.e. powerful, familiar.
>The other stuff I'm not sure of, but this has _got_ to be against _any_
>DM's rules.....isn't it?

My recollection was that one part of their alignment had to be neutral
(neutral good is ok, chaotic good isn't).  Also remember if you
voluntarily shift alignment, you lose 1 level per shift.  If he shifted
from neutral to CG, he should have lost 2 levels.  And I would probably
not allow an alignment shift because "I want a big nasty familiar". 
Alignment is an integral part of a persons ethical system, and should
not alter on a whim.

>Is it just me, or has this character gotten totally, rediculously out of
>hand?
>
>PLEASE -- Email me with any ideas you have as to what to do with this guy.
>The only solution I can see is to kill him.....but I don't want to be
>totally unfair!  Can anyone help me out with this?

Well, it sounds like he's getting out of hand.  My suggestion would be
instead of killing him, toast the foo dog.  The loss in both power and
HP should bring him in line.  And don't let him have another familiar
for a while.  And make him be only a bard for X.P.  Or better yet, make
him lose his bardic abilities for the switch, then offer him a choice. 
He can lose the bardic abilities and have the foo dog, reverting to
thief, or he can remain a bard and lose the foo dog.  This should help
solve the problem.

					Tom the non hacker
					Read my lips, no second term
					Buchanan in 92!