Dungeons & Dragons has changed a great deal sinceꦇ its creation, which has been helped by the numerous different writers who have learnt from the mistakes of their predecessors and have managed to improve the game with each new iteration of the rules.
One of the biggest changes to Dungeons & Dragons has come in the form of the character classes, w❀hich have had their abilities altered many times over the years. The basic class/party structure of the melee tank, the healer/buffer, the sneaky one, and♚ the frail wizard has remained a constant throughout the series, but the exact nature of each class' powers has changed with each edition.
The current edition of Dungeons & Dragons has done well at keeping the game balanced while making all of the classes feel distinct, but the same isn't true of the older versions of the classes, which were tough in terms of game balance and how little sense they actually made. We are here today to see how the iconic Dungeons & Dragons classes have chang๊ed since their inception - from the strange restrictions on the weapons used by holy men, to the lost power of th🎐e bard class.
Here are Twenty Ways Iconic Dungeons & Dragons Classes Used To Be Totally Different!
20 ♏ Clerics Were Banned Froꦉm Using Edged Weapons
Clerics represent the middle-ground between armored warriors and spellcasters, due to the fact that their magic isn't as complex as the kind performed by mages, which gives themꩲ the time to train i𒊎n martial skills.
One of the most bizarre class restrictions in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was the fact that clerics could only use bludgꦉeoning weapons. This is due to the fact that they are supposed to be reluctant to cause violence. This restriction makes sense for priests of good gods, but clerics of the gods of gore are also bound by the same rules.
19 ꦡ ❀ Fighters Only Had One Special Ability
The term "fighter" might be the broadest definition of a character class in Dungeons & Dragons, as there are so many different professions that༺ could fall under that 🍃banner.
The version of the fighter class in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons someh♍ow managed to be uniform, as they only possessed one unique ability and that was weapon specialization, which gave them some extra combat modifiers when using a specificℱ kind of weapon. This meant that every other class in the game received more abilities than the fighter.
The third edition of Dungeons & Dragons overhauled✃ fighters so that they gained more feats than any other class🧜, making them the most versatile class in the game.
18 Humans Were 💯The Only Class That Could Become Paladins
Paladins receive some of the best abilities in Dungeons & Dragons but they were balanced out by the fact that they had to strictly adhe꧒re to the lawful good alignment. If you received so much as a parking ticket (presumably for your mount) then a vindictive DM c🃏ould steal all your powers away.
One of the strangest restrictions on paladins in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was that only humans could take up the𝕴 class. It never made sense why the more lawfully inclined dwarves couldn't also take up the cause, as they generally make for superior paladins.
17 Elves Couldn't Be Druids ⛎
The druid class has always been proble🌳matic, due to being overstuffed in terms of their abilities, as they were full spellcasters with a range of class features, who also received animal ไcompanions and could also hold their own in a fight.
The power of a druid is tied to nature, so you wo🌄uld think that the tree-hugging races would be perfect for the class.
In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, only humans and half-elves could become druids. This meant that elves, the most nature-loving race in game, couldn't become the c෴hampions of the wilderness.
16 𒉰 The Demihuman Races Were Once Classes 🅘
The first two choices that most players make when creating their character is determining the combination of class and race that they want to use. The recent editions of Dungeons & Dragons have made it possible for many bizarre ෴combinations to be used in the ga🎉me.
In the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, the demihumans had their race as ཧtheir class. This meant th🐼at you could have a party made up of a human fighter, a human magic-user, and an elf... just an elf.
The dwarves, elves, and halflings used their race as their class and could gain levels in being a dwarf, elf, or halflinᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚg.
15 Paladins Once Had A Limit On The Number Of Magic Items They Could Use & They Had To Pay A Tithe 𒊎 ไ
The creators of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons really had it in for paladins, as they were weighed down with numerous restrictions in order to gaꦇin their powers.
A paladin in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons had to be a human of lawful good alignment with a Charisma stat of at least 17. The paladins were further penalized by being limited in the number of magic items they could carry, with ten being the total amount that they could own. They could not own more than one magical suit of armor or shield a♕nd were limited to four magical weapons.
Paladins also had to give 10% of their total wealth to charity or to their church at a👍ll times.
14 🔯 Monks Could Talk To Animals & Plants 🌳
Monks were one of the original classes in the first Player's Handbook, but they were absent from the basic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules.
The monks would return in the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons as martial arts masters who possessed quite a few unique cla𓄧ss features.
The original monks that appeared in the first Player's Handbook received some unusual abilities, such as the ability to ta🐟lk with animals and plants. These powers are the same as the ones gained by druids, yet it makes no sense why monks would acquire them.
13 👍 Bards Had A Chance Of Identifying Magic Items From Sight ✅
The acquisition of magic items is one of the most satisfying parts of a Dungeons & Dragons adventure, bu🔯t it's followed with the frustrating (and often expensive) prospect of actually identifying the powers that the items possess.
In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, bards had a chance of being able to determine the bas✤ic functions of any magic item by examining them. The chance for this ability to succeed was 5% time their number of bard levels, which means that it didn't take long for bards to quickly know everything about magic items.
12 🍌 The Warrior Classes Received Free Followers
In the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons, there was a feat called Leadership that could be only taken with the express permission of the dungeon master. Leadership granted the character a few NPC companions who were attrac🃏ted by their heroic deeds.
In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the warrior classes (fighters, rangers, paladins) received free followers whenever they reached a c🍰ertain level, regardless of their prior reputation.
It was also possible for bards and t🏅hieves to acquire followers as they leveled up, though these usually weren't as reputable as the soldiers attracted by the martial charaﷺcters.
11 Specialist Wizards Could Be 🔜Banned From Using Multiple Schools
In the current edition of Dungeons & Dragons, a wizard will choose their Arcane Tradition when they reach level two, which usually means picking a school of magic to focus on. The schools of𝓀 magic will offer several different advantages to the wizards who study them.
In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, it was far riskier to become a specialist wizard, as it meant being totally restricted from the opposition school, or even multiple schools at once. The benefit of becoming a specialist was that you could cast more spells from you chose school every day, but this advantage became less useful as you grew more powerful, as the loss of different spells outstripped the paltry few extra spe♕lls you could use.