Magic Resistance

Castles & Crusades (C&C) system preserves the original magic resistance mechanic from AD&D, which is a much-needed check on caster power and a big buff for martial classes. Many games forget this or throw it out, but this feels like a critical balance, and quality of life improvement Gygax made with AD&D that not many games implement, want to admit exists, or even recognize.

Yes, it is a pain for your spell to fizzle, but some highly-magical monsters should be that way, so that fighter in your party has a vital role. But magic resistance was one of the first real advancements made to the D&D game when it went to AD&D, at least for us. And yes, we hated it when it happened too, but we realized why since unlimited magic all but destroyed our earlier campaigns.

Magic that always works and never fails does many terrible things. It blows out the game balance at high levels in favor of casters, making the game not fun for many classes and players. It creates an entitled caster syndrome where expectations on what spells can do get unchecked, and when enemies use these, it gets equally frustrating for enemies to do all and be-all. And it makes the game boring for martial classes as they sit in the back of the party and do nothing while the party's mages carry most of the burden, and you inevitably get the 15-minute adventuring day creeping back into the game.

We need to rest and recharge our spells!

And the fighter is sitting there with an unused bag of heal potions and wondering why.

And worst of all, magic that always works is not magic. It is a superpower. The mystery is gone. The uncertainty is gone. The nature of some things being "more magic" and resistant to this power is gone. While I love spell failure, unexpected failure results, and corruption systems - magic resistance is the other side of the coin.

And worst of all, unchecked magic marginalizes your boss monsters. Do you get a demon lord or Timiat showing up? If you are a caster, you will know not many of your spells will even work, and you get afraid. Even a ghost at lower levels is like that. Suddenly, you need that dwarf fighter with a magic sword and shield to hold the line, and you hope your next spell does not bounce off. Martial damage is always the great equalizer.

Many AD&D-like B/X games get this horribly wrong by using save mechanics or ignoring magic resistance entirely as "too much of a hassle." While Labyrinth Lord and Old School Essentials have that mixed AD&D and D&D feeling, I feel they miss the mark regarding the magic resistance game. A simple saving throw or save versus magic bonus is not enough. When a mage one-shot-kills the demon lord Orcus with a powerful spell or uses a wish to send him away - the referee will have to fudge why it doesn't work or allow it - and the game feels broken.

A game with magic resistance? The reason why that spell fails is written into the game. You accept that price for being a mage with near-unlimited power. Creatures "like you" with a high level of magic gain an innate resistance to your abilities. There is uncertainty here. This is why we have parties and martial characters. This is why you make friends. Does it feel bad for your epic, movie-climax, game-changing spell to fail? Yes. So bad many players move to other games where magic becomes never-fail superpowers.

And this is a problem I have with a lot of the newer D&D-style games, and it is a problem with D&D 4E. Magic is a superpower to give classes all sorts of remarkable abilities at zero cost. They just work. Everyone has magic superpowers. Spells always hit and deliver damage. Any attack can be enhanced by magic. Monsters have zero chance (beyond an average save in most games) to resist spell effects, and saves typically do not apply to magic-enhanced attack damage.

Everything feels like a superhero MMO after a while. The mystery is gone. The uncertainty is gone.  The danger is gone. Spellcasters become gods, and martial classes must be buffed to be viable. Your class build gets rated on damage per turn. At this point, just play a video game because there is little difference.

But for a game to be like AD&D, I feel you need that Gygaxian magic resistance mechanic and check on unlimited caster power. As a martial character, I need to know there will be a time when the casters need me when everything else fails.

Other games besides Castles & Crusades that recognize this are the great Adventures Dark & Deep (ADaD), OSRIC, Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS), and For Gold & Glory (FG&G). I like Castles & Crusades for being the easiest to play and most accessible out of this group, and the most like the generic AD&D experience I grew up with. ACKS feels tied to a specific type of world and campaign setting but is also a simpler alternative. FG&G is a 2nd edition retro-clone but has the magic resistance mechanic. OSRIC and ADaD are the full-complex 1e clones that give you that total hit.

Castles & Crusades keeps things simple like a B/X but preserves the great AD&D mechanics I like in a game delivering a classic experience. This is the game out of all of these, which requires the slightest reference, simplifies all the extra class features and skills away, and supports a core mechanic that works very well on the table for a wide variety of situations that come up during play. It also feels like 5E and has instant familiarity and a modern feel while staying true to retro roots and design mechanics.