dtgreene: Personally, I find that the D&D ruleset at really low levels isn't fun. Attacks miss too often, everything dies in one or two hits, and spellcasters can't cast spells most of the time.
Things get better once you gain a few levels, fighters get some THAC0 improvement, and mages get more spells per day.
Hickory: That *is* the fun. When you leave Candlekeep you're a fresh-faced 20 year old, with no formal combat training. You shouldn't be able to take on hardened bandits and tougher animals without dire danger. Though I agree about mages only having 1 spell at level 1 -- that's just ridiculous. I sometimes wish it was a mana based system or similar, rather than a per-rest system, which really sucks.
The danger isn't the problem (though there is the issue that games should get harder, not easier, as you progress). The problem is that, at low levels, way too many attacks miss. Consider that a level one character, regardless of class, needs a roll of 10 to hit AC 10. A fighter might be able to manage a +4 bonus from strength + specialization, but even then such a fighter will miss a target of AC 5 (entirely reasonable at level 1) half the time. That is way too much and is quite frustrating.
Keep in mind that my observation applies to both sides of the fight. In practice, combat goes for a while until someone gets lucky, which is not the way I like fights to play out.
High level battles play out better in this respect. Most physical attacks will hit, making battles more predictable and less frustrating. (This is, of course, ignoring things like magic and High Level Abilities, which keep things interesting.) In other words, progress is being constantly made in the battle, rather than both sides being at a stalemate for most of the fight until someone gets lucky and suddenly kills someone else.
To think of it differently, imagine if *every* attack were a save-ore-die. *That* is how AD&D feels like at level 1.
