AD&D is more Dangerous than 5e, here's why..
Just hear me out here...
This one’s personal, folks. It all started with an argument at work—a friendly debate about how the old (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) is lame, while 5th Edition (5E), is much better. Naturally, I knew I had to prove my point (because, let’s face it, I’m right). So I crunched the numbers, created identical fighter characters for both systems, and put them to the test.
The results? No surprises here for you AD&D fans: 5E makes combat easy mode. Fighters in 5E hit more, hit harder, and level up faster, but that’s exactly why AD&D feels so much more rewarding. In AD&D, every hit is a victory, and every miss keeps the tension alive. It’s not just about rolling dice—it’s about survival, strategy, and earning your wins the hard way.
I know I’m preaching to the choir with you, my loyal audience, but this one’s still worth tuning in for. Let’s dive into the gritty details, break down the differences, and maybe throw a little shade at 5E while we’re at it.
If you’ve ever wanted hard evidence on why AD&D hits different (pun intended), this is the episode for you.
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Nice episode, and I have no issue with less episodes per week, the content is more important.
Regarding some of your analysis, whilst there seems to be an opinion that earlier versions of D&D were deadly because you often had random encounters you could not win, I can point to a lot of evidence in all editions to state to the contrary; all encourage the DM to balance encounters with party strength.
Certainly deadly encounters can be decided upon by player agency, like venturing into a lower dungeon level, or going to a known region where deadly monsters exist, or ignoring the "a lich lives here" sign.
But a completely random encounter - I don't think so?
Even with a balanced encounter, players would still have the need to avoid them, they may not want to waste resources on their way to a tougher encounter, or they may be low on health and resources from previous encounters, at least that's player agency at work.
The final question is "why"? As a player, if I spent a session just running away from "run or die" encounters for no possible xp or reward, what would be the point, hardly an exciting session?!
Hmm, video is listed as private (but the audio works.)