Max hit points at 1st level
Reading some of my 2e AD&D books today, namely the Complete Fighter's Handbook. I'm looking at it because it's where 2e's infamous kits first show up, and I'm wondering if I can steal from them as a way to make characters in A Dungeon Game a little more varied.
As I'm reading it I spotted this:
When you're creating single-class warrior characters, we recommend that you start all first-level warriors with the maximum number of hit points they can have at that level—don't even bother to roll the dice. In other words, if you have a first-level Fighter with a Constitution of 16, he'd start with 12 hit points instead of rolling his 1d10 and adding +2 for his Constitution adjustment.
All versions of D&D since 2e - 3rd, 4th, 5th, both editions of Pathfinder - give you a set number of hit points at first level rather than having you roll for them. With the exception of 4th edition this is all based on Hit Dice, and they give you the max value from your HD at first level (4e is just a static increase each level).
I have nothing to offer here other than "this is sort of interesting". It's fascinating to me that something that's become such a standard part of the modern game has its roots in a 2e splat book. In a lot of ways 2e really does mark the shift from what we now consider "old school" style games to the foundations of modern trad - an observation that is entirely unsurprising and basically common knowledge at this point, but I enjoy being able to find bits of the texts that I can point to as evidence to support the claim.