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Firstly, the physical components and layout. The book has an evocative image of post-battle looting of a temple with a statue with some damn fine gemstones for eyes. The black and white interior art is mostly quite good, with some nice pieces by Trampier and Sutherland, and invariably appropriate in context. As for the binding, it is possibly the best in the industry. Seriously, have a look at it. Those pages seem to be riveted to the spine. I've seen PHs survive months in the homes of cat-piss men, be used to attack fellow players frisbee-style, and as a hot-plate coaster and they still survive. They're a wonder of human engineering and contemporary game designers should take note. AD&D Players Handbooks will be dug up 10,000 years by alien archeologists.
The organisation of the text is largely workable, with a very good table of contents and listing of charts and tables. An index would have really made lives of many easier because the sheer quantity of rules. Basically the general organisation is Abilities, Races, Classes, Sundry (Alignment, Hit Points, Equipment, Hirelings and Henchmen), Spells, "The Adventure" (this is perhaps where Time, Distance and Monsters should have been included). Combat and Damage (Poison should have been here), Experience and the Appendices for Psionics, Bards, Alignment and Planes. In a nutshell, because the game is rules-heavy and game logic is not systematic (i.e., almost every case is a special case) the book often gives the appearance of being poorly organised when in reality it is quite good under the circumstances.
As a total aside the opening pages discuss the use of the term level, noting that the game uses level to reflect character power, dungeon depth, measure of spell difficulty, and a monster's potential threat. The original terms were apparently going to be, respecitively, rank, level, power and order. The game claims that the use of "level" for all criteria is not as confusing as it may appear. Twenty-five years later, The Order of the Stick made their disagreement; approval is given to their comments.
Ability scores range from 3-18 for PC humanoid 'races' and include Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution and Charisma. Various minimums and maximums are applicable for character race and class (e.g., maximum strength for a female elf is 16), although this only affects the non-human races. Different ability scores affect specific activities in very particular ways, for example a Constitution of 17 will provide +3 hit points per die, unless one is a Fighter or subclass in which case they'll receive +4. The same score will also give a 97% chance of system shock rolls and 98% chance in resurrection survival rolls. Further, Strength, of all abilities has the potential of "exceptional strength" expressed on a percentile on scores of 18, but only for Fighters and their subclasses.
Racial stock limits classes and levels. Only humans may be unlimited in level across all classes, but almost all classes can be unlimited in the Thief class, except Half-Orcs, who can be unlimited in the Assassin subclass. Only human and half-humans (Half-Elf, Half-Orc) may progress as Clerics as a PC profession, but NPC Clerics are available for all others, except Halflings whose moral and spiritual guidance come from the Druids. To say the least, some of the race and level restrictions make very little sense; Elves, the archetypal woodland sentient species, cannot be rangers or druids, but their half-elven cousins can. Races also affect ability scores, but one must confess even the greatest modifications (+1 or -1) are very mild.
Racial stock also provides a variety of abilities and restrictions. For example, Dwarves gain additional bonuses on their ability to resist magic based on their constitution and various underground engineering abilities. Elves get +1 with most swords and bows, strong immunity to sleep, charm and the paralysis of ghouls, the uncanny ability to find secret doors and bonuses to surprise. Half-orcs get pretty much nothing. No prizes for guessing which is the min-max race. This said, one ability that is fairly universal among all the non-human races is the ability to multiclass although humans gain the "dual classed" alternative. Apart from these instances, usually a character is restricted to one class for life.
Character classes are of four basic types (Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, and Thief) with additional subclasses (Druid; Paladin, Ranger; Illusionist; Assassin) and one special class, the martial-artist Monk. Classes have varying hit die per level to determine hit points (e.g., d10 for a Paladin, d4 for Magic-User), the basic capacity to absorb and avoid damage, different availability of weapons (e.g., no 'cutting edges' for Clerics) and armour (no armour at all for Magic Users). Accumulated experience points determines character level which varies according to class. Thus, 100 000 XP will be 7th level for a Cleric, 9th for a Druid and 8th for a Thief. Various abilities are linked to each Class at particular levels; for example a 7th level Druid becomes immune to the charms of woodland creatures. At "name level" the various Classes gain the ability to establish keeps, towers, monastaries and so forth as appropriate.
As the main personality feature of the game, outside racial and class stereotypes, alignment receives a fairly short discussion. Essentially the model follows universalitic approaches in morality, and relative approaches to social norms. Thus alignment is defined along a Good-Neutral-Evil axis and a Lawful-Neutral-Chaotic axis. Many classes are restricted in their alignment, for example, Paladins must be Lawful Good, whereas Druids must be Neutral-Neutral (or "True Neutral"). This is all fine, but the system as explained is designed not to be fluid except with associated and serious punishments to the character, which really should only be the case for certain classes (e.g., Paladins, Clerics, Assassins). Hit points are explained as the capacity to avoid damage, note is made of "racial" languages as well as class languages, alongside the ever-dependable "Common" tongue.
Character class determines starting money and available equipment, which is heavily weighted towards the martial arts and with a surprising emphasis on somewhat obscure pole arms. Armour defines an "armour class", a combination of armour and shield (e.g., chain mail plus shield = AC 4), and weapons will have differentiated penalties and bonuses against particular armour classes (e.g., a Battle Axe is -1 but a Two Handed Sword is +2). How the chainmail+shield combination equates with splint or banded mail, which is also AC 4, is not explained. Weapons also vary in damage against whether the opponent is small-medium or large. A distinction, but no prices, is provided for hirelings and henchmen.
Approximately half the book is taken up with spell descriptions. These are arranged by class (Cleric, Druid, Magic User, Illusionist) and level of power. Each spell must be memorised on a daily basis with the total distribution determined by class and rank. Each spell is differentiated by range, duration, area of effect, components (verbal, somatic and/or material), casting time and saving throw modifications. The spells themselves are usually appropriately powered, are interesting in their detail, and often refer to each other for additional game interest. Notably the subclasses (Druid, Illusionist) are somewhat relatively underpowered.
The last section of the rules proper deal with adventuring incidentals and player advice. This also includes notoriously improbable movement rates, combat procedures, damage, morale, the use of poisons, and plenty of material on risk/reward analysis. Finally there are three Appendices, including a Psionics system, which is notable for amusing modes of attack and defense remotely based on the Freudian trichotomy ("Id Insinuation", "Ego Whip"), and a rather unplayable "psychic strength point" system. The second Appendix describes Bards, a human or half-elven class that start as Fighters, become Thieves, and then finally Bards with Druid spells. The final section of the book includes an alignment graph (without systematic suggestions for use) and the planes of existence, including the rather evocative assignment of Earthly polytheistic pantheons within the AD&D alignment system.
There can be no doubt that there is plenty of nostalgia value for AD&D and respect for its success and influence on the roleplaying hobby; great pleasure can certainly be achieved by elder gamers engaging in play to this day. But an honest appraisal inevitably recognises the numerous warts on this old beast, especially the numerous and hefty arbitrary race and class restrictions that often make no sense whatsoever and the total lack of a consistent internal system ("every case is a special case"). Nevertheless, it is one of the better books in the AD&D series, with an interesting selection of spells (even if the general procedure is clunky and ugly), and for being quite complete in its implementation. Finally the good organisation and production quality of the handbook must be noted. Despite the poor substance rating, this is an extremely important contribution historical contribution to roleplaying games, and Mr. Gygax deserves praise for writing it; but 29 years later it really doesn't hold up - and this is a good thing.
