Swords & Wizardry: No Stat Bonuses? No Min-Maxing.

One of the great things about Swords & Wizardry is possibly one of the things I initially disliked the game for. The game does not really have robust stat bonuses for ability scores. Fighters are the only ones who get STR bonuses to hit and damage. Other ability scores come into play with a single class only or some particular situation.

Other than that, 3d6 down the line is fine.

Compare that with today's games where an "18 in a prime stat is required to play," and I am tired of it. I don't care if my STR 16 cleric has no to-hit or damage bonus; just get me in a game away from the optimization crowd. If an 18 is required for a class to work correctly, put it in the rules somewhere, "If you pick this class, your prime attribute is 18, and two related secondary scores 16," and please stop the lie of being able to roll dice for ability scores.

This has even crept into B/X style games, where by default, every score matters and gives a bonus to this and that. That "we must be able to optimize" feeling has crept into some games, and it is impossible to root out or get under control; someone somewhere will say, "It isn't fair, they get a bonus, and I don't!"

The STR bonus for fighters in S&W is the class feature. No one else gets it. They aren't fighters.

Some B/X games have these weak and uninteresting fighters as a result, where the only real difference between a fighter and a cleric is a d8 vs. a d6 for weapon damage and a 5-10% of to-hit bonus. I would rather have someone who can fight and heal. And since that cleric gets the STR bonus anyway, what is a fighter's point? A few points of to-hit?

I will take the character who can bring people back from the dead if we have a choice - two of them.

And when this happens, fighters are the generic NPC hireling class that carries the torches.

I feel many of the things early D&D did to "make it fair" were not always good decisions. They made changes, too, to eliminate assassins and demons from the game for public relations reasons. Later versions of the fighter paled against the original game's design. Giving everyone ability score bonuses and creating bonus charts for ability scores opened the door for optimization, and linking that bonus to all sorts of activities started to remove role-playing from the game and turned it more into a gambling or odds game where high stats meant better success. AD&D really was the game that opened the door for stats and the bonuses they give you, and it got worse from there.

I like the early game where your choices matter more than your stats, skills, or anything on that character sheet.

Player skill matters.

Listening to the game master matters.

Your choices are more important than your character sheet.