Not so long ago, in discussion with the bros, it came up how in AD&D 1e swords predominate over other magic weapons. Indeed, magic long swords predominate over other types of magic swords. And, only swords may be intelligent, thus entities on their own. Thus swords dominate in AD&D combat. This is I think unassailable. Patently obvious when the rules and random generation of treasure is taken into account.

When it comes to creating armies things change. The spear is both cheap and holds some advantages over swords due to their length and ability to be braced against charges. The spear is the king of the battlefield. But, in the dungeon, with space constraints and also often faced by magical creatures who can only be hit with magic weapons, well, the sword is the go-to weapon.

But, this discussion raised a question for me. What are the relative odds of finding a magic sword over a weapon a cleric might use? Are clerics disadvantaged here? There are more factors to take into account (like the mix of treasure types in the Monster Manual) so this analysis is incomplete, but I think it remains informative.

A random treasure generation method is included in the Dungeon Masters Guide, pages 120-125. It starts with determining whether a map or magic item was found. Then, random rolls direct further rolls on a variety of tables.

As one can see, there are several layers of nested tables which determine what item is found. Clerical weapons can be found on the Miscellaneous Weapons Table and the Rod, Staves, and Wands Table (i.e. Clerics can use some staffs). Swords on the other hand are not miscellaneous weapons, but have their own table. So, their are swords and then all other weapons, which seem fairly indicative of the place swords have in the game.

Without going into the details I worked my way through the tables and calculated the odds of finding a magical weapon that a cleric might use. This included both the miscellaneous weapons table and as I mentioned earlier the Rods, Staves, and Wands table. In short, if a cleric could bonk something with it, I included it. Now, I make no defense on doing this correctly. But I did my best without being anal about it. Anyone who wants to dispute my math feel free.

The conclusion I found is that there is a 15.1 percent odds of finding a magical clerical weapon. For swords the analysis shows a 30.9 percent odds of finding a magical sword. Basically 2:1 odds of find a sword over a clerical weapon. And, if the other weapons a fighter might use are includes, well, the fighter has a huge advantage over the cleric in finding some sort of magical weapon.

Now, there is no such thing as a typical party. But, a fairly humdrum mix of characters in a part of six might be: Three fighters, a magic user, a thief, and a cleric. So, generally, there tends to be fewer clerics in the game. I haven’t done the math for a fighter finding any type of magical weapon but it surely more than the 2:1 ratio of swords to clerical weapons. It’s probably somewhere between 3-6:1 at a guess. Fighters, can also use clerical weapons so are in competition with clerics for obtaining magical weapons. But, nonetheless, it sure looks like that if clerics in a party are represented by about 1 in 6 then, also, the random treasure generation method, gives if not even odds for finding a clerical weapon, something not so far from even odds as compared to the other members of party of characters. Yet again, there was more thought given to the AD&D random tables than at first meets the eye.