I bet some people used it in Chainmail and OD&D, but that was barely the same spell, only increasing movement and doing so for dozens of men.  I'm sure it's of interest on a battle mat, but I'm also sure that the number of OD&D players is very small compared to later versions. 

B/X and BECMI have the most straight functional versions.  Double speed, double attacks.

AD&D 1e has this, but also adds aging.  How much aging was unspecified until the DMG came along.
AD&D 2e adds a bit of logic about initiative, limits the targets, and of course, keeps the aging. 
D&D 3.0 makes haste give an extra "partial action".  The aging is gone, and the "partial action" no longer doubles your attacks- it gives you one extra attack.  Suddenly it also doubles your spellcasting, and gives you like +4 to AC. It's the most broken spell in the game, and it defines the entire edition.
D&D 3.5 takes away all of that, making it be mostly an extra attack, and making it not stack with certain magic items.  Still a fine spell, and useful.
D&D 5e makes it by default affect one creature, require concentration,and gives one action with limited options. The most offensive is a single attack, which means for a lot of creatures it's up to 50% more damage.  It can't affect a second creature by upcasting as is nearly standard for the edition, however.  Much more importantly, when the spell ends the buffee can't take actions for a round- meaning that if the spell is disrupted immediately it might cost the team using it two actions (the caster and the target), and in any event the action economy is clearly nowhere near as great with this condition.

In AD&D, the aging feature makes this not a general purpose spell except for elves, who could still get good use out of it. In 5e, you'll generally get more damage out of bless or fairy fire or some other low level spell that helps out more than one person.

This leaves B/X, BECMI, and 3.X as the versions implementing this spell in a way that is definitely good and castable. 

How often does this get cast in your games?

When I was playing RPGA games of AD&D2e, that spell was the bane of my existence. I'd tend to play humans while the twinked out munchkins would play elves or other long-lived races who didn't care about aging. One long weekend of playing saw my character go from teenager to middle aged just from the casting of Haste at every combat encounter. After a session stopping argument, it was agreed that Magic Users with Haste would carry some live crickets with them who could absorb the Haste instead of the players who didn't want it.

Haste gets cast quite a bit in my 5e games.  It also gives you +2 ac and advantage on dex saves which can be very useful.  A crafty player can get a lot of use out of a free dash or disengage too.  Being able to move twice and still do your attack action can be a game-changer.

I played in a long Hyperborea campaign, and used Haste so much that the other players started asking to make saving throws against it so they'd stop aging.

It's been ages, but I DM'd 5e for a super-munchkin player once. I recall him finding a way to cast multiple spells per turn, but I think it was done via sorcery points rather than haste.

You can't cast multiple spells in a turn with haste.  You can with sorcery points using quicken spell. 

Quote from: jeff37923 on April 22, 2024, 01:59:41 AMAfter a session stopping argument, it was agreed that Magic Users with Haste would carry some live crickets with them who could absorb the Haste instead of the players who didn't want it.

This is actually an incredible tale. My players back in the day reacted by generally avoiding the spell unless it was a fight that they knew going in was going to be really tough, if anyone had thought of bringing ageable insects I bet it would have seen more use. 

Quote from: yosemitemike on April 22, 2024, 03:15:39 AMHaste gets cast quite a bit in my 5e games.  It also gives you +2 ac and advantage on dex saves which can be very useful.  A crafty player can get a lot of use out of a free dash or disengage too.  Being able to move twice and still do your attack action can be a game-changer.

The fact that the buff falls apart under pressure is why I see hesitancy.  Like it's a "wins more" thing to some degree, and every concentration spell gets directly compared to others, because they ultimately all cost the same resource.

Quote from: ForgottenF on April 22, 2024, 07:33:23 AMI played in a long Hyperborea campaign, and used Haste so much that the other players started asking to make saving throws against it so they'd stop aging.

I consider Hyperborea to have a good very good haste.  First, there's no races to whom "age is just a number" and can simply age themselves from 300 to 301 and think "500 more of those and I'll be worried", so the spell has the same cost for everyone, and second, it's not guaranteed to age you each casting, and the saving throw mechanics mean that by high level the spell can be cast with a decent shot of not aging anyone.  But that's still very funny.


As regards the two spell a round thing, outside of 3.0 haste doesn't do that.  In 5ed, a sorcerer can spend sorcery points to cast a spell as a bonus action, but there's another rule elsewhere stating that the action then can't be used for any spell that isn't a cantrip. Then Jeremy Crawford stated that the reason for this rule was to reduce the complexity of the turn, not to block double casting of spells for balance reasons, which isn't a ruling in any way but I guess some players now ask for this as a buff to their sorcerer.

Quote from: jeff37923 on April 22, 2024, 01:59:41 AMWhen I was playing RPGA games of AD&D2e, that spell was the bane of my existence. I'd tend to play humans while the twinked out munchkins would play elves or other long-lived races who didn't care about aging. One long weekend of playing saw my character go from teenager to middle aged just from the casting of Haste at every combat encounter. After a session stopping argument, it was agreed that Magic Users with Haste would carry some live crickets with them who could absorb the Haste instead of the players who didn't want it.

Lucky you! I was playing an AD&D monk that got hit with it and the system shock that came with it killed him.

Quote from: Exploderwizard on April 22, 2024, 03:31:47 PMLucky you! I was playing an AD&D monk that got hit with it and the system shock that came with it killed him.

AD&D Monks are immune to haste and slow starting at 5th level. This is more nerf than buff normally, as monks get a huge number of powerful unarmed attacks (this is their main job).  So either you were below 5th level or the DM forgot that you were not subject to it in the first place- either way, a tragedy!

Quote from: Venka on April 22, 2024, 04:09:53 PM

Quote from: Exploderwizard on April 22, 2024, 03:31:47 PMLucky you! I was playing an AD&D monk that got hit with it and the system shock that came with it killed him.

AD&D Monks are immune to haste and slow starting at 5th level. This is more nerf than buff normally, as monks get a huge number of powerful unarmed attacks (this is their main job).  So either you were below 5th level or the DM forgot that you were not subject to it in the first place- either way, a tragedy!

Level 4. We were a varied level party some of us coming to the campaign later. The thief was level 7 and almost died. Everyone else was fine.

Quote from: yosemitemike on April 22, 2024, 03:15:39 AMHaste gets cast quite a bit in my 5e games.  It also gives you +2 ac and advantage on dex saves which can be very useful.  A crafty player can get a lot of use out of a free dash or disengage too.  Being able to move twice and still do your attack action can be a game-changer.

Same, caster using Haste on a Paladin is disgustingly efficient. That Adv on Dex saves and +2 AC also worked well when I was the Cleric also buffing the Paladin with Warding Bond. After that and I use proper distancing, cover, and Dodge and watch the Paladin nova the biggest bad at the table in a round or two. Rest is mop up.

It's the defenses that people overlook that really saved our asses multiple times. The extra Smite just finished off a main course into a mere appetizer. That said a Fighter offers relentless forward pressure, whereas our groups did need rest over time.

(TMI, You technically can cast twice with the Fighter using their Action Surge class fearure (lv 2 & 17), and then their casting archetype. They are pretty much the only ones who can, last I played, due to that specific feature. So yes, you can double tap fireball on a big mob battle then mop up. Makes 5 minute Short Resting with that and Second Wind a bit overwhelming for my tastes, but keeps Fighters a continuous serious long-term threat. I prefer RAW book 1 hour SR, and let players decide, which they rarely take advantage of short-resters serious throughput advantage by party splitting.)

Quote from: Opaopajr on April 23, 2024, 02:10:17 AMMakes 5 minute Short Resting with that and Second Wind a bit overwhelming for my tastes, but keeps Fighters a continuous serious long-term threat. I prefer RAW book 1 hour SR, and let players decide, which they rarely take advantage of short-resters serious throughput advantage by party splitting.)

I've found 20 minute short rests to be a reasonable compromise between the 4e short rest (5 min) and the 5e short rest (1 hour). It's long enough you can't just take it anywhere (even with active monsters looking for you, any reasonably sized dungeon will have some room or another you could hide in for 5 minutes without being found), but not so long that players feel like they're "missing out" by taking one.

Honestly, the biggest mistake with 5e was in tuning the short rest abilities around the idea you'd only take one every other encounter instead of either tuning it so the short rest classes would recharge their stuff for every encounter, or tuning their stuff around daily resources as well.

I mean the resource decisions that 5e made are the root of a lot of people's complaints, because it's a bunch of mechanics that aren't easy to change that very much makes assumptions about how the game is played. It's pretty obvious that short rest powers cost triple what a long rest power would be, but outside of places like BG3 where there's literally a button you can use twice between long rests, it's not a fair demand to place upon a DM.  If your Worlds Without Number party plans a really tough ambush, executes it, and runs away, they will be out of daily resources or extremely low on them, and will have punched way above their weight, and that's fine.  That same situation in D&D 5e is a cakewalk if you have long rest resource dudes, because the game assumes some number of situations in an adventuring day, and replacing them with one encounter is totally not what the game is built around.

But I do think that should be another thread.  That thread would probably go pretty differently here than it would on reddit, heh.

Quote from: Venka on April 22, 2024, 01:51:07 AMI bet some people used it in Chainmail and OD&D, but that was barely the same spell, only increasing movement and doing so for dozens of men.  I'm sure it's of interest on a battle mat, but I'm also sure that the number of OD&D players is very small compared to later versions. 

B/X and BECMI have the most straight functional versions.  Double speed, double attacks.

AD&D 1e has this, but also adds aging.  How much aging was unspecified until the DMG came along.
AD&D 2e adds a bit of logic about initiative, limits the targets, and of course, keeps the aging. 
D&D 3.0 makes haste give an extra "partial action".  The aging is gone, and the "partial action" no longer doubles your attacks- it gives you one extra attack.  Suddenly it also doubles your spellcasting, and gives you like +4 to AC. It's the most broken spell in the game, and it defines the entire edition.
D&D 3.5 takes away all of that, making it be mostly an extra attack, and making it not stack with certain magic items.  Still a fine spell, and useful.
D&D 5e makes it by default affect one creature, require concentration,and gives one action with limited options. The most offensive is a single attack, which means for a lot of creatures it's up to 50% more damage.  It can't affect a second creature by upcasting as is nearly standard for the edition, however.  Much more importantly, when the spell ends the buffee can't take actions for a round- meaning that if the spell is disrupted immediately it might cost the team using it two actions (the caster and the target), and in any event the action economy is clearly nowhere near as great with this condition.

In AD&D, the aging feature makes this not a general purpose spell except for elves, who could still get good use out of it. In 5e, you'll generally get more damage out of bless or fairy fire or some other low level spell that helps out more than one person.

This leaves B/X, BECMI, and 3.X as the versions implementing this spell in a way that is definitely good and castable. 

How often does this get cast in your games?

Even for elves it's not great cause any unnatural aging causes system shock.

Quote from: jeff37923 on April 22, 2024, 01:59:41 AMWhen I was playing RPGA games of AD&D2e, that spell was the bane of my existence.

We accidentally aged the groups dwarf to death with Haste.

Quote from: Slambo on April 23, 2024, 05:37:18 PMEven for elves it's not great cause any unnatural aging causes system shock.

Yeah, this is one of those things people who complain about AD&D miss because they never played using all the rules. Want to polymorph your buddy into dragon? Sure, just don't complain when he fails his system shock with a 9 CON...most people did NOT use those rules though, and wondered why MUs were vastly overpowered. They're not whatsoever if you USE ALL THE RULES. Haste fucking sucks in AD&D if you use aging, but it's just like people complaining about Monopoly taking 5 hours to play when it really takes about 20 minutes if you use all the rules. Players whined about haste and polymorph and turning to stone and level drain, so these elements got continually nerfed, so much so that they essentially made D&D a joke of a game. I remember running like hell from wights or medusa when playing AD&D, but when I was in a 5th edition game it was incomprehensible that the party would do anything other than grind it out.

And I reread what I wrote and it's somewhat disjointed nonsense. Oh well, I blame the day drinking.