If Gary Gygax were alive today...

... I'd want to ask him what his whole big issue was with magic-users using swords & such.  Srsly, why not?  Gandalf used a sword!  That always bugged me a little.

Also, why did alignments have *languages*??  That's just crazy - especially given how you'd spontaneously forget one lexicon/grammar and learn another if you started acting a little too chaotic to be truly 'lawful evil' part-way through a campaign. [shrugs]

Ah, who knows..  It seems heretical to say it somehow, but maybe I'd actually enjoy D&D4e...  Of course, I'm sure it has it's share of WTF rules as well. (?) 

:)

(It's nice there's a group/forum where I can get stuff like this off my chest without having to take a beating.)

Now that was something we could never get our heads around too. After a while we decided to allow magic users to use magical swords once they became a Wizard (11th level in AD&D 1st edition). 

We scrapped the alignment languages after a few years too. In fact we altered quite a few things to how we felt they should be. When we made any changes it was always a mutual decision taken amongst the core group of players at the time.

One thing we started doing towards the end was to allow first level characters maximum hit points rather than roll a die. Even with maximum hits it's still hard to survive at first level.

Did you ever use critical hit tables?

You get that stuff of your chest, it does you good! Have 100 experience points.

max hit points at first lv is a must especially for mages (wow a whole 4 hit points MAX) no crit hit tables if its a power quest double (or triple or quadruple) max damage if not roll one dice multiply by 2 (or 3 or 4 depending on the weapon) wizards can use swords...just not very well, if i had a mage who wanted to carry a sword he did so at his own peril...gandolf used a sword yes but it didint look like he used it very effectivly...what alignment languages?

Gandolf kicked ass!  Not like the return-of-the-king guy, maybe, but c'mon!  He was a Ranger!  ;-)

What edition did/do you play jpd303?  You've mentioned a couple of rules I've never heard on different occasions.  Alignment languages were a (strange) feature of the rules for AD&D.

Yes to max hit points at level one.  No to critical hits - at least not in the early days.  We were purists then - even as we shook our heads over things like magic-users 'forgetting' their spells as they were cast and the other stuff I mentioned above.