Okay, I'm curious, who actually used these? It seemed like such a good deal being a triple class Elf until you realized you barely made it out of the single digit levels with these limits in place. If you didn't use them, did you house rule something similar? And what about the racial restrictions? I mean, come on, no Dwarven rangers?
Honestly, I switched the rules. IIRC, elves and other demihumans had to multiclass while humans had to dual class. This never made any sense to me as it would seem that humans would be more likely to pick up many skills over a short life while a long lived demi-human would more likely switch careers after much boredom over the period of a long life. I found this worked out much better but, honestly, when I played we hardly ever had anyone trying that option. We weren't as serious gamers "back in the day" but I became much more serious about my gaming in my mid-twenties.
I use them in AD&D 2nd edition but in 1997 a player of mine pushed me, as the DM, to lessen the XP amount needed to pass from one level to the next. The deal found brought us far away: now when I run the game all level restriction set the maximum level at which saving throws and hit point maximum can advance. Another home rule says: no dwarf can be Ranger, Mage, Bard or whatever unless he is single classed and hardly helped in such path by his family, friend, clan or the group he is starting from. Usually this result in bizarre, strange, queer, rummy, outlandish, quaint, odd and/or antic (yes, I did a copy/paste from an online vocabulary) background that are quickly trashed with a benevolent laugh, from the proposer too.
My home rule was that once you reached your level cap you had to find someone to teach you. In short I took the level limits as what your homeland could offer. So characters had to find teachers in far distant lands to get each level after the cap. No teacher/school cold give you more then one level. So with each leave you had to trek far away from wherever you are. It ended up costing each player about 150% more in experience points (they had to pay all experience points over the bottom of the new level's) and with travel they ended up being half way past the start of the level they were going for when they found training at the end of the cross country trips. However no one was ever higher then 13th level in any multiclass.
used the restrictions all the time as guidelines. but i play mostly Original D&D (1974 version). if you wanted to write up a Dwarven ranger class and submit it for the referee to make a ruling on you were always welcome.
The last time I ran, I kept the racial class restriction, dropped the demi-human level limits, dropped the XP bonus for Prime Req, and gave humans a flat 10% XP bonus. Next time I run, the rule is: all PCs are human, shut up about it already. I'm thinking of allowing humans to multi-class in this case, and award single classed characters a 10% XP bonus, while putting a 10% penalty on those who multi-class. I want elves in my game to be like the elves in Anderson's "The Broken Sword". I don't think that will work well for PCs. Likewise, I want the Dwarves to be really xenophobic, also not a good fit for PCs.
This is so...I've been considering doing the same with my upcoming game. It may turn into a world-shaking long-term campaign in which case I might let later characters be demi-human or what have you. But I'm seriously considering this first pass being humans only. I like the XP ideas...
I adhere to racial restrictions to class, with some exceptions. I mean, give me a good reason a halfling would become a cavalier and sure, I'll consider it. Level limits due to race are usually ignored. I leave that up to the player, if he wishes to retire the character at that level. My games, you see, tend to take a long time to level. I don't usually encourage multi-classed characters but they filter in. Things like a dwarven MU/Illusionist would be right out in my game.
I kept to the restrictions as written when playing with my dad. Melf was stuck at 9/11 for awhile. I finally found some items to raise my stats and then found a couple ioun stones. But it wasn't easy! as a DM I usually stuck to the rules unless it was a short adventure and somebody brought in a character from another campaign- then I just used my judgment. As DM its your game to have fun with as your crew sees fit- right?
