In reply to Dimitri (msg # 949):

Look at the Archer-Ranger in Best of Dragon IV.

The old Dragon magazines had some of the best "npc" classes --  my brother and his friend who DMed/led our group didn't like 2nd edition --  they used the 1st edition books, but supplemented liberally with all sorts of third party books, and Dragon magazines.  Many of those classes were open to we players in that campaign.

I have a 5e Tabaxi rogue/fighter who uses a shortbow.  20' climbing speed to get up the tree, currently +12 to hit, plus add that sneak attack bonus, soon extra attacks, has action surge, and then, can hide after the attack (+10 to stealth).

 I played an Archer as a PC, grossly overpowered as he got up in levels, but we were young enough to not overly care.  Given the bonuses by 7th level he was +11 to hit and +11 damage with 3 attacks a round.  This was only at the point blank range 0-50 feet, but I don't think many creatures lived long enough to engage the party in melee for more than a round or two.  I don't remember him drawing his sword very often.

Good to know when I need NPC's to challenge you guys at higher levels :)

LOL, yes, please stop giving the DM ideas!! :)

White Dwarf ran out a number of new classes in it's early days, seem to recall someone playing a Berserker.

We rolled 4d6 drop lowest in order bitd, seemed to have a lot of thief-based characters because people kept rolling high DEX and average everything else! We only started running munchkin high-level PCs once we saw the pre-generated PCs in the published TSR scenarios, particularly the G and D series. High levels, high ability scores, lots of magic items.

Some of the pregens in G1-3 lacked a little though, or perhaps they were just played better by others rather than our hack-and-slash approach (pre-UA days).
I mean, an elf F5/MU8 with 29hp? Dead in two combat rounds against a giant.
There's a F14 with 104hp. He has 17 Str and a +3 spear, so attacks twice/round for 1d6+4/1d8+4 damage. When I ran it the player kept rolling low and missing, and so the front-line tank got battered and wasn't the force he might have been.
By the time we got to the end of it and into the D series (which someone else ran) all the fighter classes had percentile strength and/or guantlets of ogre power, or girdles of giant strength.

We ran super-powered PCs against high-powered opponents, and there was too much carnage, too much mayhem, and too many magic items thrown about. And we loved it. After that we were a lot more sensible.

Oh, and I meant to make another point.

TSR pregens always had a high CON score, which must have been a feature of the original Greyhawk campaign (and beyond). Len Lakofka, on the other hand, wrote (in Footprints magazine, available via Dragonsfoot) of his Lendore campaign from the early-80s where they prioritised high DEX over CON - better not to get hit at all, than get hit and have lots of hit points. Which, inadvertently, was our approach too. CON was an afterthought for us.

I'm counting 11 up on the current map, 8 asleep.

Of the 11 up, 4 are entangled.

In reply to Dimitri (msg # 957):

7 loose then?

Probably 6.

Treakle still gets to attack and he'll likely flatten his.  Aleks might do the same to get it to 5.

We have a new player taking over Kinza folks :)

In reply to Hand of Destiny (msg # 960):

good thing we are preventing a coup de grace, then :)

Bold thing, Taya, to rush to the fore when the lizards throw their darts. All our damage has been from them. We'll get through this!

In reply to Epilo'josia (msg # 962):

Or die trying!

Tsk... these wine goblet-half empty guys...

But, yeah, that dying thing HAS happened before...

In reply to Epilo'josia (msg # 964):

I know, I died. Osric will NOT die though!

Only bold if you consider your position to be bold Epilo.

She's got all of one HP less than you, the same AC and is essentially crouched right next to you since she pulled to two held individuals to the ground.

In reply to Epilo'josia (msg # 962):

When your the hand you are dealt sucks, sometimes you have to bluff...that is what Taya is doing, out there looking like some long-haired Cuisinart of Death... well, she hopes that's what she looks like.

>Only one roll to hit from Inaya with the bow, could have had two.

No, there were two rolls...I rolled a 4 and a 10.

And here I expected to come back and find this was over, with all the sleep spells!

So someone cast a hold person, but we don't as yet have a visible/identifiable enemy caster on the battle field?

I have Kinza <waves>.  For now.  Hopefully Taya's prolongs my Kinza tenure a bit;-).

As far as introduction, I play in HoD's SF games and I had my Greyhawk grognard nostalgia scratched a bit with what I've been seeing about Goodman Games upcoming print of OAR#6 Temple of Elemental Evil.  Launched a lot of campaigns in the Village (or Hamlet) of Hommlet;-).

I've mostly run tabletop with pbp (or pbem and before that via pbm) being my outlet to play.  D&D largely has been Pathfinder 1e in recent years but Basic (Moldvay) and then AD&D were my gotos from elementary school until 2nd ed in '89.

Looking forward to see how this develops.

Taya's actually assuming poisoning...darts hit person, then person goes Stop, sounds like poison darts to her...but that's how a cheating gambler would do it.

I immediately assumed caster as well, but then I've had a Half-Orc die multiple times to Hold Person.

In reply to Kinza (msg # 970):

Welcome new Kinza!

Apologies, you are correct, for some reason my brain registered to hit and damage rolls

  I think I am just waiting on Korkas and Vanorin.  I didn't see an Initiative roll for Osric, not going to make much difference but just trying to get everyone in the habit of making all your dice rolls in one hit.  Also be aware that I tend to write the updates based on people's (IC) post so please make sure to put your dice rolls in your posts.
  With two thirds of the lizardmen already incapacitated by magic I don't expect this fight will last much longer :)