AD&D 2e: Making Warriors Tough Enough

Fighters are notorious for being weaker than those classes that cast magic (which in AD&D 2e is every class except Thieves). Modern games (such as D&D 4e and D&D 5e) have taken the approach of making casters less powerful in order to make them comparable to fighters. However back in AD&D 2e there were attempts to make fighters more powerful.

These benefits were:

• Faster XP Table
• Weapon Specialisation
• An extra +1, +2 or +3 HP each level for Constitution scores of 17 or higher.
• Using Method 6 from the Player's Handbook to generate ability scores (recommended in the Complete Fighter's Handbook).

For me a faster XP table, Weapon Specialisation and bonus HP for High Constitution scores are all familiar ways in which to allow  fighters to be more powerful. However having an alternative ability score generation method is unintuitive. I often think of old school character creation as being:

• Roll ability scores.
• Choose a race.
• Based on the previous two choices now choose a class.

This is because if you rolled really well you suddenly became eligible to play a Paladin and so if you could, you often would choose the Paladin. This can't be done if you're deciding class and then rolling ability scores.

As such, I'd rather look at the effect of Method 6 on generation ability scores vs the standard way.

In the standard method you roll 3d6 6 times and assign to an ability score. This will result in an array similar to: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.

Method 6 has you start with an 8 in each ability score and then roll 7d6. You then assign the dice to the ability score of your choice. This will result in a spread similar to: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17. In order to get a similar (although not identical) I'd rather have all characters generate ability scores via 3d6 but give fighters the following ability:


Exceptional Body: Fighters roll 2d4 and can add each die to the ability score of their choice so long as it does not increase the score higher than 19 (the die can be added to the same score or different scores).

This will create an array very similar spread to start with 8 and add 7d6 to your scores. But it keeps the bonus in the class level and so fighters can use the same ability score generation method as other classes.