Hacking 2e: Skills and the Nonweapon Proficiency System – Part 2 (Background and Knowledge)

Last time I opined about the varied skills systems in AD&D 2e and discussed how to bundle them into a single system. The takeaway was that every check outside of Ability Checks and Saving Throws could be considered a Skill Check, broken up into universal skills, class/demihuman skills, and selectable skills. The latter will be my focus for this post, as I work to modify the Nonweapon Proficiencies to function properly in this hack.

Hacking 2e: Skills and the Nonweapon Proficiency System – Part 1

Skills are often paraded as a dividing line between old-school play and the modern implementation of D&D. 2nd Edition sits on this line, providing an optional system of skills that encompass everything from trade skills and areas of study to proto-3e feats. These skills were titled ‘Nonweapon Proficiencies’, as they were the non-weapon version of the weapon proficiencies, though the only conclusion I can make as to why they weren’t just called ‘skills’ is likely because a) they didn’t want a skill system even thought they made one anyway, and b) they didn’t want to conflate it with the skill system they already had in the Thief class.

Well, let’s ruin that completely by smashing them into one system.

Hacking 2e: Half-Elves

Half-elves have had quite the time these past few years. They’ve been saddled with a variety of meanings, from being held up as a representation of lived experiences to being labeled ‘inherently racist.’ The latter opinion was that of Wizards of the Coast, who fully banished the Half-elf and the Half-orc in 2024. The online response to this has its own spectrum, ranging from ‘Hasbro erased my identity’ to ‘Pathfinder did it better’. This is a lot of baggage just because some guy in the 1970s wanted to play Elrond.

Hacking 2e: Halflings

The 2e Halfling is a smash-up of the Dwarf and Elf, pulling traits from both, with a few weird exceptions based on racial subtypes.

These subtypes represent the only instance in the PHB where a demihuman has different traits based on their ancestry within their race. This wasn’t a foreign concept by 1989 – Unearthed Arcana had provided unique subtype abilities years earlier – but it’s interesting for being the only place this occurs in the core book, and that only one of the three subtypes (Stout) gets any real benefit. This idea would be expanded later within the glut of 2e splatbooks, but it wouldn’t see primetime again until 5e.

The implementation in 2e is rather fiddly. It’s a die roll to determine if your Halfling has “any Stoutish blood”, which gets you either full or half infravision, and some limited underground data as per the Dwarven trait. Overall, the chances of getting this are a little better than a third, and the traits only make sense for this Dwarf-like type of Halfling. I’m in favor of scrapping the whole bit. As such, I’ll skip these as I break down the Halfling.

Hacking 2e: Gnomes

The Gnome is an odd addition. Prior to 1e AD&D, they only appear as a monster, but in 1978 they suddenly show up as playable. As far as I can tell, this occurred only because Gygax was tired of seeing the other demihumans all the time and he liked Gnomes. Fair enough. Based on this alone, they’ve remained in the PHB of every edition up to the present day (excluding 4e, because of course it was different).

Personally, I’m not a fan of the little buggers. They’re mechanically derivative, and (at least in base 2e) they are not the tinker/inventor-type weirdos which makes them so unique in other media. By the book, they’re just weaker Dwarves with limited magical ability. As such, this should be fairly short work (that pun just showed up, I had nothing to do with it).