One common complaint I have heard from players online about “Old School” D&D being better than “5e” is how spells don’t make sense anymore, and a great example of this is the “Hold Person” Spell.
I will copy the text below converting the time scale to regular time (Seconds, minutes hours etc)
In BECMI the Hold Person Spell is 3rd level and lasts 15 minutes (900 seconds), (1 saving throw at the beginning)
In 1st 2nd Edition (AD&D), the Hold Person Spell is 3rd level and lasts 2 minutes per level of the caster. (10~40 minutes &1 saving throw at the beginning).
In 5th Edition, the Hold Person Spell is 2nd level and lasts Up to 1 minute, and every 6 seconds they victim gets a saving throw.
In “Old School” Time moved Slower.
In BECMI: a round was 10 seconds, a turn was 10 minutes.
In 1st & 2nd Edition: a segment was 6 seconds, a round was 1 minute, a turn was 10 minutes,
In 5th Edition: a round is 6 seconds, there is no turns or segments.
My Solution is below in an Article Written by De’Ath.
A Brief History of Magic in Mystara
Millenia ago, before the Great Rain of Fire, before even Blackmoor, there was a council of “Magic-Users” lead by Gygax the Greyhawk. There were many in this council, but he is the one I will be focusing on in this paper.
Gygax the Greyhawk was the original scholar of Magic. Where he came from, is unknown, but many theorize that he entered Mystara from another world, through a Gate. Gygax studied the ebbs and flows of this cosmic energy and learned how to manipulate it. Some say he traveled to many different worlds, like the mythical worlds of Oerth, Faerun, Earth, or Alphatia Prime, to learn magics from those worlds. Others say he traveled the planes, to learn magics.
Gygax knew that magic was dangerous, and he sought ways to control it. He knew that patience was the key to proper spellcasting. He started the first school of magic to train people he deemed ready to be initiated into the ways of magic. He wrote a great many spell books on the subject.
His disciples went out into the world and trained more of their magic users. They knew from their master that there was no short-cut to power. If a magic user did not understand what you were doing, it may be fatal to them, or to everyone nearby. You see this was before the first Warlock or Sorcerer were discovered in the world, and so there was no other ways to use magic outside of the divine immortals.
Gygax had warned his students about worlds and nations destroyed by uncontrolled use of magics, so they were very careful of who they would teach. His philosophy was to be respectful to the magics and take patience with the energies, not all agreed with him, and he had many enemies that arose from his own students.
Over the millennia however, as magic-users began to feel more comfortable using magics, some things changed. Some of the earliest people who failed to enter the magic schools, began to make deals with other worldly powers, and some people began to develop magical abilities from birth.
The head of the Arcane School in Carcosa city, one Hasbro; the Wizard of the Coast, began to worry that his students would not be able to “Keep Up” with the new threats of the world. More magic-Users were entering adventurous lives styles and needed to work with fast paced rogues and warriors, and they needed to keep up with these new Warlocks and Sorcerers. So, Hasbro began to experiment with speeding up the spells he had been taught to take so slowly before.
The Wizard of the Coast began to speed up spell casting, but by doing so he was losing the full potency of some spells, and others he just could not speed up. His solution was to stop teaching those spells.
Hasbro’s Schools of Magic became the main-stream study method in the world, even after his fair city was crushed by the demonic powers of evil sorcerers and their patrons. His students stopped calling themselves “Magic-Users” as now there was many ways to access magic. Instead, they called themselves “Wizards” in honor of their Teacher and the School.
The Wizard’s spell books continued to be reprinted and trained from all the way until Blackmoor, when Technomancy, a new form of magical Technology emerged for a couple of centuries. This more scientific approach to magic use became mainstream for a long time, but ultimately was unstable, and many believe it was the cause of the Great Rain of Fire. So, Technomancy was lost to the world, as were the oldest of the magic schools in the world, the Magic-Users of the GreyHawk. The ones that still taught the ways of the Greyhawk and his council.
Fortunately, The Schools of Hasbro and his students survived both cataclysms, due to their quick thinking and adaptability. And Wizards have become more and more common as the centuries passed. Many of the Wizard’s schools have broken off into their own studies: Abjurers, Conjurers, Diviners, Enchanters, Evokers, Illusionists, Necromancers, Transmuters, and others.
Glantri has their own school of Dragon Magics, Witchcraft, Hedgemagery, Alchemists, Rune Casters, and other more secret sects.
Alphatia had their Elementalists with Air Wizards, Earth Wizards, Fire Wizards, Water Wizards. However, not all of these schools were as equally acceptable, and neither Alphatian nor Glanti magical schools stemmed from either the GreyHawk nor Wizard’s Spell schools. They came from off world, from one of the many worlds Gygax the Greyhawk visited in the distant past. They too seem to have suffered in the speeding up of magical use, and I have read that this may have lead to their exile from their worlds.
I present the only copy of Gygax’ the Greyhwak’s Spellbook known to exist in the world, as discovered by the Gnomish Scholar, Zeb and his research Partner, the Faenare named Allston.
I know this doesn’t read like De’Ath, I will edit tomorrow to sound more like him.
Baldwin Games 
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