Magical World

In a warrior-oriented campaign where magic exists at the normal AD&D® game limits, magic is considered a scary thing which normal people don't appreciate at all. Most wizards encountered in the campaign will be villains. The ones who are friends of the PCs are mostly low-powered (low-level).

This follows the pattern of many sword-and-sorcery fiction series, where each story's resolution comes down to a contest between the hero and his fighting prowess vs. a dastardly wizard or magical creature and his spells.

In such a campaign, the DM will have to decide whether any player-character can be a multi-class or dual-class hero with Wizard or Priest spells. It's all right to have Ranger and Paladin characters, as they only acquire their spells slowly, and after many experience levels . . . but the more magically potent wizards and priests pose a bigger problem. Their magic is too handy and too dependable; the DM has to make his magical villains even more powerful in order to cope. In a campaign where PCs can't be priests or wizards, a much lower-level magical villain will be much more effective against them.

For these reasons, if you're going to try running a warrior-oriented campaign for the first time, we recommend that you not allow PCs to be priests or wizards. You can always choose to add the option later on . . . but if you find that you like the non-magical warrior arrangement, it's not so easy to remove the PCs' magical abilities from a campaign where you've already allowed them.

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