Probitates

Another description of critical skills for a knight.

1. Be a brilliant horseman; be able to pick things off the ground, know and perform all the gaits and have full control over his mount...which would be a stallion.
2. Be good at swimming and diving; swimming proficiently enough that he can manoeuvre in water
3. Be good at archery (bows and crossbows) and later on firearms. A common myth is that knights disdained such things in warfare, but the Septem Probitates explicitly mentions that these may be used against Princes and Dukes.
4. Be fast at climbing ladders, both wooden and rope.
5. Be honourable in the tournament. This mostly refers to tilting or in modern parlance, jousting. A knight was expected both to good at this as well as very honest.
6. The part that most people expect: good at wrestling and fighting, but also included in this virtue is to excel at the long jump (beat others) and with using either leg.
7. The last virtue is mostly about social interaction.
   • He needs to know how to serve at the table. In particular this meant to carve and serve meat for the ladies and know all the other table etiquette which was pretty exhaustive; they had very strict rules which will probably come as a surprise to many, and
   • He needs to know how to dance. This doesn't mean the bump and grind of today's so-called dancing either, and
   • He needs to know how to play boardgames which is those days mainly meant chess, draughts and tables (backgammon), and
   • And the caveat of anything else that is proper.

Stolen from here:
http://www.swordsmanship.co.nz/faq.html

AD&D Spells -- Level I MU

Here is my assessment of level I MU spells. First, Nazim's poll results. There were about 108 voters on this poll. For 9/10 folks to think something rocks, it needs to have more than 97 votes. For fewer than 1/10 to think its ever useful, then it needs to have 11 votes or less. To be in the top 20%, it needs 86+ votes. I've highlighted those extremes in blue and red respectively for you below.

10 Best Level I MU Spells. According to you. Affect Normal Fires (Alteration) 1% [ 6 ] Alarm (Evocation) 0% [ 2 ] Armor (Conjuration) 5% [ 52 ] x Burning Hands (Alteration) 2% [ 25 ] Charm Person (Enchantment/Charm) 8% [ 88 ] x Comprehend Languages (Alteration) 3% [ 28 ] Uncomprehensible Languages (Alteratio) 0% [ 0 ] Dancing Lights (Alteration) 0% [ 4 ] Detect Magic (Divination) 6% [ 69 ] Enlarge (Alteration) 3% [ 30 ] Shrink (Alteration) 2% [ 17 ] Erase (Alteration) 0% [ 0 ] Feather Fall (Alteration) 5% [ 53 ] x Find Familiar (Conjuration/Summoning) 3% [ 32 ] x Firewater (Alteration) 0% [ 1 ] Friends (Enchantment/Charm) 0% [ 4 ] Grease (Evocation) 2% [ 23 ] x Hold Portal (Alteration) 1% [ 15 ] Identify (Divination) 4% [ 47 ] Jump (Alteration) 0% [ 2 ] Light (Alteration) 4% [ 40 ] Magic Missile 8% [ 89 ] x Melt (Alteration) 0% [ 1 ] Mending (Alteration) 1% [ 9 ] Message (Alteration) 0% [ 2 ] Mount (Conjuration/Summoning) 1% [ 8 ] x Nystuls' Magic Aura (Illusion/Phantasm) 0% [ 2 ] Precipitation (Alteration) 0% [ 1 ] Protection From Evil (Abjuration) 5% [ 51 ] x Protectino From Good (Abjuration) 0% [ 1 ] Push (Conjuration/Summoning) 0% [ 3 ] Read Magic 5% [ 56 ] Unreadable Magic (Divination) 0% [ 0 ] Run (Enchantment) 0% [ 2 ] Shield (Evocation) 6% [ 65 ] Shocking Grasp (Alteration) 1% [ 13 ] Sleep 10% [ 105 ] x Spider Climb (Alteration) 3% [ 33 ] Taunt (Enchantment) 0% [ 3 ] Tensers' Floating Disc (Evocation) 2% [ 20 ] Unseen Servant (Conjuration/Summoning) 6% [ 65 ] x Ventriloquism (Illusion/Phantasm) 0% [ 4 ] Wizard Mark (Alteration) 0% [ 1 ] Write (Evocation) 1% [ 14 ] You may select up to 10 options Total votes : 1086

This quick numerical analysis suggests the following categories.

STANDARD
Armor (Conjuration)
Burning Hands
Comprehend Languages -- Suggest making underpowered
Detect Magic
Enlarge/Shrink
Featherfall
Find Familiar
Grease
Hold Portal
Identify
Light
Pro Evil
Read Magic -- Suggest making underpowered
Shield
Shocking Grasp
Spider Climb
Tenser's Floating Disk
Unseen Servant
Write

HIGH POWERED LEVEL I SPELLS
Charm Person
Sleep
Magic Missile

LOWER POWERED LEVEL I SPELLS
Affect Normal Fires
Alarm
Uncomprehensible Languages
Dancing Lights
Erase
Firewater
Friends
Jump
Melt
Mending
Message
Mount -- Suggest making standard powered
Nystul's Magic Aura
Precipitation
Pro Good
Push
Unreadable Magic
Run
Taunt
Ventriliquism
Wizard Mark

My first problem is that there are too many spells. There's a lot of crap there I think and its hard to remember.

In any event, I think the top three picks are good candidates for over poweredness. Magic Missile is a staple for mid and higher level characters, who often fill their slots with nothing but magic missile to be gatling guns. Sleep is a nuke. Charm Person is often spammed. I'd slap a material component on them.

There are a lot of underpowered spells. I would move read magic and comprehend languages down to underpowered to pair them up with their weak reversals (or vice versa). I would move Mount up to the standard power because I find it to be very versatile and handy. I think you'd be safe making all those Underpowered spells level 0 cantrips, however.