For a very long time now many judges and players alike have
maintained the idea that, all things being equal when a wizard and a
fighter round the same corner in a dungeon pity the poor wizard because
he will never get his spell off in time! Since I usually always play
magic users in any given game this concept naturally had me worried.
Then, (and may they keep on sending out these great ideas) Eldritch
Wizardry came out and the magic users life was given another chance.

Within those pages is a short section on the melee round, and
“never has so few pages done so much for so many magic users.” I myself
upon first and second reading, just passed this section off as more
stuff to slow down a game, and went on to those magic items, (that are
truly deadly). After using the melee round chart in my game, I realized
that they have great potential for all the downtrodden and unarmored
arcane masters.

Take any given fighter with a dexterity of 15 and any given magic
user (able to cast lightning bolts and taking one) with a dexterity of 15
and make them round corners at the same time with 40 feet of space between,
now use the chart. Adjusting for dexterity gives us a zero. The
magic user does not have his spell ready and it is a third level spell, so
the chart says he has a minus two in getting it off and he was not surprised
so he falls under the minus 5/minus 1 section and gets the bolt
off in the fourth phase of the round, (and may the fighter not make his
magic saving throw)! The strong (and most likely vicious) fighter is
wearing plate mail, giving him a minus 6, and is using a large shield,
(because his type usually does) and gets a minus 3 for that. He was carrying
a torch so his weapon was not at hand or ready, but the chart does
not provide for penalties for drawing his weapon (which is not fair, but
thats life) and he was not surprised either, so has a minus 9 which puts
his turn in the fifth movement phase. Notice, that I am not even counting
the section on movement and its effect on turn segments, because it
is only a matter of a fraction of a phase and not worth bothering with.

After taking all things into consideration, that magic user is going
to blast the fighter to smithereens! Even if the fighter is not dead, let us
say that he is at least wounded 50%. The fighter gets his turn and
usually hits any given magic user. The next melee turn the magic user
does nothing but run (if he lives and is not wounded that 50%), and his
new dexterity score is in the 0/ plus four column. The fighter on the
other hand still has the minus 9, gets a plus 2 for his weapon in hand,
and now has that minus four because he is wounded. His new dexterity
rating is minus 11 which puts him on another scale and he strikes in the
sixth phase while our good friend the magic user is running like the
wind in the third phase!

Then we come up against those Conan types! The mighty fighter
that wears little or no armor, preferring speed and quickness in battle,
to the security of a metal “tin can”. It is possible to still come out on top
if the magic user is smart. We give the Conan in our example a dexterity
of 18, leather armor, and that large shield, (he likes to carry this around
because he doesn’t feel the weight). The magic user in this case will also
have a dexterity of 18, but all other things will be the same. The mighty
fighter now has a minus two for the leather, a minus three for the
shield, was holding that torch so has a zero for his weapon, and is not
surprised. Now he is moving in that fourth movement phase and ready
for an easy kill! The magic user, having fought Conan types before,
knows he has big troubles and cannot afford to let the fighter get
simultaneous chops, switches his tactics and uses a first level spell. This
gives him no minus’s of any type and he moves in the third movement
phase. The choice of spells is a tough one, because he can use the charm
person or the magic missile. The charm person is great, if it works, and
that is a big if! The magic missile spell is good, because the arrows have
a good chance of hitting the lightly armored fighter and if they wound
him past the 50% or 75% mark, that’s a plus for the magic user the next
round. Thought must be given to the number of arrows sent out. The
wizard type that sends more of those magic missiles should choose it
over the charm spell, but the little magic user should possibly favor the
charm spell.

In the second example, the magic user was a 13th level wizard and
he pitched the arrows with all of them hitting. The fighter didn’t seem
too bothered by them and slashed and hit the magic user. The next
round naturally the magic user ran for his life, but at least he made the
fighter bleed a little bit.