Changing Character Class, Ability Determination & Explanations; Annotated

Volume I, pages 10-11

Changing Character Class: changing class was limited to humans. Why? Because “by the book” non-human player-characters were limited to one class. After a warning such changes are not recommended EGG goes on to state player-characters must have an unmodified minimum ability of 16 in the prime requisite of the new class. Rolling straight 3d6 yields a chance of ~ 4.6% of meeting this requirement, and that assumes the player did not choose his current class based on their highest score (a common method for choosing PC classes).

But there is still more. There are only three classes in total, two of whom cannot become the other. So Clerics (CL) and Magic-Users (MU) are restricted to each other. So a human Fighting-Men (FM) has, at best, a 5% chance of becoming either a CL or MU, ditto for CL or MU becoming a FM.

All in all, one must surmise changing class is somewhat restrictive. First, one is discouraged from doing so by the rules. It is difficult to qualify, the player must choose only one of four major races, and even then the player is likely restricted as to choice. Not recommended, indeed!

Determination of Abilities

This example does not mention 3 x 5 index cards (or index cards of any size), nor are index cards mentioned anywhere in the 3 volumes of OD&D. These were the traditional player-character records of early D&D players and it is often assumed the rules state outright to use them.

Another item of note is the lack of illustration for the altering of ability scores. The example character, Xylarthen the Magic-User, could have raised his Intelligence to 13 by lowering his Wisdom to 9 (as explained right below where the example appears). This would have been a fine place to highlight that rule.

This paragraph also mentions [p]rior to the character selection by players it is necessary for the referee to roll three six-sided dice in order to ... (emphasis added). The referee, not the player, rolled the dice for character generation.

Explanation of Abilities

The first three abilities listed: Strength, Intelligence, and Wisdom; are the prime requisites for each of the classes in the game.

This section has brief explanations of the various abilities and how to lower one ability to raise another. Rather than list the bonus or penalty associated with each score, these appear afterward. With, it should be noted, the exception of Charisma. Given the party sizes during those days, Charisma is much more important than the "dump stat" is became in later editions. In point of fact, an argument could be made Charisma is the most important statistic of all.

Bonuses and Penalties

There is no bonus delineated for high Strength or Wisdom in the rules. Strength states it will aid in opening traps and so on. Wisdom states it will act much as does that for intelligence. In both cases this is all the information the referee receives, calling to mind the inclusion of "imagination" under Recommended Equipment a few pages earlier!

Bonuses bestowed tend to be small. Charisma is the only ability score giving more than a +1 bonus or penalty. It also bears mention the bonus to experience granted by a high prime requisite are smaller than the penalties imposed by low scores.