Half the guys in our group never played an MU, for the reasons cited by the OP. Low-level MUs were just too fragile for players who wanted to wade into the fray and hack down some bad guys.

For other players, though, MUs represented tremendous challenge and opportunity.

It's tough keeping them alive at low levels, and it's tough thinking of useful things for them to do once their spells are exhausted. But it's very rewarding to make it past those low levels (rewarding both in play satisfaction, and in eventual MU power).

And as others have noted, we made MUs the go-to PCs for background knowledge. So the MU would roll to figure out the ancient inscriptions, or to see if he knew anything about the legendary lizard-king.

And the players who played MUs always took it on themselves to figure out puzzles and devise tricks ("maybe if we give the potion of flying to my familiar, then pour oil down the stairs..."). Of course, anyone could do that sort of thing. But the sorts of players who liked to be the brains behind the party tended to choose MUs.

I can see how Moldvay MUs aren't very attractive if you play the game as a series of tactical combats governed by a strict rules set. But for a looser game, with lots of player (rather than PC) challenge, and DM disretion, they were very satisfying for a certain kind of player.

My first and longest running character was a Red Box Basic MU with 16 Int, switched over to AD&D, and went all the way to 15th level.  Due to a wish, he had 16th level spell casting ability.  Immense fun, including a bit of solo adventure with an Apparatus of Kwalish.

These days, I rather prefer thieves, but I wouldn't mind a low level olde school MU again.  Oddly, I never really wanted to play a fighter-type.  I think I ran a paladin for a while, but that was about it.

Quote from: Silverlion;252369A first level mage with SLEEP, is a very potent ally against groups of low level enemies.

Once...

Seanchai

Didn't clerics have no spells at all at level 1?

Quote from: Seanchai;252650Once...

Seanchai

How many more fights were your first level fighters good for?

Quote from: Soylent Green;252656Didn't clerics have no spells at all at level 1?

Indeed!  They're awesome second-line fighters and undead wards, though.  Being able to make a gaggle of skeletons and zombies run away is a big plus in the traditional dungeon game.

The character i remember the fondest got to 12th level as a Magic User. I remember well his running away, clouting orcs with frying pans, skiing down hills on shields to avoid enemies and throwing meat from his iron rations to stave off hungry wolves, at low level. Thing is, he started at 3rd level due to the death of a previous character. It was challenging enough to survive as a 3rd level MU. I never took one from 1st to high level. 3rd to 12th was cool though!

Quote from: KenHR;252657How many more fights were your first level fighters good for?

That's a good point. But I think the Magic User wasn't fun because his participation was limited, whereas as a Fighter could swing his sword all day long.

I agree with what others are saying about the rewards of living through harrowing times to become more powerful. But, to my mind, the situation was much more harrowing for the Magic User than it was the other classes. There's facing setbacks and obstacles, then there's having setbacks heaped upon you and facing obstacle after obstacle.

Seanchai

Quote from: Haffrung;252570And the players who played MUs always took it on themselves to figure out puzzles and devise tricks ("maybe if we give the potion of flying to my familiar, then pour oil down the stairs..."). Of course, anyone could do that sort of thing. But the sorts of players who liked to be the brains behind the party tended to choose MUs.

This is a very interesting insight. And it also suggests another factor that's been hinted at. See, "balance" in terms of "appropriate challenge" or "screen time" or what-have-you can always be achieved on a character-by-character basis, by means of things like tailoring adventures and allowing players to guide the action--what they take on, and how they do it. With enough flexibility, a party of all clerics, say, is playable, either because the DM will give them appropriate scenarios or they'll seek out appropriate activities. Same with a party of two PCs, or a party of ten.

But even within a party, "balance" can be achieved by means of the social nature of the game. Just as people have been saying, if you back off playing a string of combat encounters, focus more on the expedition and exploration, and work out "screen time" issues between the players (mostly) and the DM, then everyone will get to participate.

You might even say that the choice of class on an individual and group level can be part of the flexible response to group interactions. E.g., if you're somewhat marginalized socially within the group, and you want to have more of an impact on the game, then you ought to pick a class that has more generalized mechanical oomph. Talkative players might naturally gravitate toward character classes that are more specialized--or at least they won't shy away from them as much.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. On one hand it's unfortunate if you always wanted to play a MU but you wound up being a wallflower. A tempting solution is to just make the MU into a different kind of fighter, but it's also possible to reexamine the game and bring the social issues to the fore--more or less the idea of Cheetoism as opposed to social-engineering-via-rules.

Of course in the real world the social-vs.-rules is a continuum or even a kind of dialectic, with rules affecting social relations through play, and social relations leading to houseruling through play.

Quote from: Seanchai;252672That's a good point. But I think the Magic User wasn't fun because his participation was limited, whereas as a Fighter could swing his sword all day long.

I agree with what others are saying about the rewards of living through harrowing times to become more powerful. But, to my mind, the situation was much more harrowing for the Magic User than it was the other classes. There's facing setbacks and obstacles, then there's having setbacks heaped upon you and facing obstacle after obstacle.

Seanchai

I can understand why some people wouldn't think a low level MU was any fun, too, especially considering "design intent" vs. "how the game was actually played when 10 year old kids got their hands on the red box," which many folks here are touching upon.

I think it's worth pointing out that the MU could always provide missile support (thrown daggers, or darts in AD&D) with a chance of hitting pretty much equal to the other classes, so they weren't completely useless in combat.  Very specialized in combat situations, yes, but not useless.

Interestingly, the LotFP blog has a mirror reading of the effectiveness of D&D's base classes here.

Unless your players feel useless if they aren't combat monsters, than MU's are the most versatile class in BD&D.
 
Imagine all the things you could do with a grease spell. You could slide heavy statue into a doorway, trip-up an annoying Noble during an important social event, grease your fighter up so the Giant can't grab him, fix a squeaky cart (so you can sneak it into a dragon's lair)...
 
The MU is the domain of the creative player. He's not the rocket-launcher he is in later additions (but watch out when and if he gets fireball!) and a good MU will constantly be thinking outside the box.

Quote from: KrakaJak;252758The MU is the domain of the creative player. He's not the rocket-launcher he is in later additions (but watch out when and if he gets fireball!) and a good MU will constantly be thinking outside the box.

Yep. MUs are the best class by far outside the combat encounter. That's why my players who like to think outside the box usually take MUs; they just love thinking of cool ways to use levitation, change self, enlarge, clairovoyance, dimension door, water breathing, etc.

I completely agree with KrakaJak's and Haffrung's posts.

Just because you have one spell, doesn't make a PC useless after that. You could still carry stuff, throw stuff, think up solutions to stuff. Heck, I often had more fun with a MU in D&D simply because it allowed me to do the stuff that the fighter playing types didn't care for--which is think of new ways around problems rather than hacking through them...

Plus it really isn't a long way to 2nd level or 3rd...

The thing none of this none-spellcasting stuff addresses is that none of that is playing a Magic-User. If I play a class called a 'Magic-User', then I expect that my character will get by in the game by using magic. Not by, say, throwing darts.