D&D General Mechanics you DO want to see return

[Sacrosanct]

A spin off of the other thread about mechanics you don’t ever want to see again, but the opposite. This is about mechanics that went away in the current edition that you’d like to see return.
Disclaimer: this is personal preference folks. Let’s try to keep the “what!? You want that godawful rule back? What’s wrong with you!?” Responses to a minimum please. Accusing others of bad wrong fun never ends well.

For me, as an old school player, I’d like to see the following come back:

• racial ability penalties. If you want an 18 str PC that is 3 feet tall and weighs as much as my toddler, that’s what magic items are for. Demihumans get other benefits that offset that
• level drain. Make players afraid of undead again
• save or die (or really, really suck). No one bothers with neutralize poison spells or scrolls anymore, and deadly poison as been the staple of adventure exploration stories for over 100 years.
• spell interruption. Everyone complains about how casters are too OP. Well, if they take damage before they get their spell off, it should have a good chance of fizzling. Not just for concentration.
• stronghold and follower rules
• morale rules
• how oozes and slimes and molds used to be

 

[Li Shenron]

This is difficult for me... I am not particularly married to game mechanics, but I wouldn't mind to see something scary like level drain come back, as long as it's designed better than in the past however... typically the problem in past edition was that level drain mechanics are always too complicated and painful to track, while at the same time they are too easy to get rid of.

More generally however, I believe that 5e is better suited than any previous editions for handling ability drain or ability damage effects. That's because the typical action resolution mechanics of 5e is always d20 + ability modifier + proficiency bonus (unlike for example 3e where you typically get many other modifiers), and this is so simple that you don't really need to pre-calculate your bonuses for everything. I know that most players still do it because they're used to doing it for decades, but it is not necessary anymore in 5e to write down your total bonus for every single skill or saving throw, when the bonus is always just the ability modifier + proficiency! All you need to do is check if you are proficient or not.

I know you can play the game like that without pre-calculations because I've been doing it with my 7yo kids, using our own customized character sheets where there is no room for pre-calculating skill bonuses (Quickstart 5e character sheet (beginner friendly)). We still pre-calculate weapon attacks and AC because those are used all the time in combat, but not skills and saves.

With that in mind, it should be a piece of cake to handle ability damage, you just write down your temporary ability score and bonus next to the "normal" score, and use the temporary value on the fly when making a roll.

 

[Shiroiken]

In general, I don't see a lot of older mechanics I'd want to see return, but there are a few. All of them have downsides to incorporate into 5E, however.

• Non-linear ability score modifier
  • I'd like to use the BECMI chart, but I also know that this would mess with the ASI benefit
• Racial Penalties/Caps
  • Return human to +0 across the board, with maybe an extra skill
  • Non-humans get various benefits, but also penalties to balance them out
• Gestalt Multi-classing
  • Current system puts a lot of character concepts at a disadvantage
  • I HATE the fact that a 1 level dip is the optimal form of multiclassing in many cases

 

[Doc_Klueless]

I'd like to see the return of the Fortitude, Reflex, Will saves again. I really liked that application. Not too much I'd like to see return beyond that.

 

[Sadras]

• return to an older version of immunity/resistance for certain monsters (i.e. skeletons take half damage from piercing etc);
• racial, age and gender-based racial caps/penalties (abilities between genders should be balanced);
• use of the terms demihuman, baatezu and tanar'ri ;
• spell interruption, spell failure;
• stronghold/retainers/henchmen/follower rules;
• morale system;
• protection scrolls and rituals.

 

[DND_Reborn]

A lot of things people have already said, but to reiterate and add a few:

Different proficiency/ progression for different things, no universal bonus
Proficiency bonuses more dependent on level, not ability scores
Racial penalties/limited below 18
Capped ability scores at 18
Non-linear ability score bonuses
More variable casting times
Casting/spell interruption
Non-dipping multiclassing
Saves at different progressions
Aging effects
Ability/level drain
Save or die rolls

And... I am sure there is more.

EDIT: remove BA or at least expand it to a limit of 40 instead of 30. 30 leads to things being too tight and not enough variation.

In that light, also scaling/escalating AC not bloated HP.

 

[jasper]

Aging affects.
Level drain could be lose your proficiency and bonus till you gain a level.
No feats
Morale
stronghold/retainers/henchmen/follower rules;
save or die on a few spells effects.
EVERYONE WHO pLAYES d&d SenDS me $5.

 

[Oofta]

I'm almost surprised nobody has brought up THAC0 yet.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I'm almost surprised nobody has brought up THAC0 yet.

LOL I thought about it, but adding or subtracting, it really doesn't matter since it is all linear anyway.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

A spin off of the other thread about mechanics you don’t ever want to see again, but the opposite. This is about mechanics that went away in the current edition that you’d like to see return.
Disclaimer: this is personal preference folks. Let’s try to keep the “what!? You want that godawful rule back? What’s wrong with you!?” Responses to a minimum please. Accusing others of bad wrong fun never ends well.

For me, as an old school player, I’d like to see the following come back:

• racial ability penalties. If you want an 18 str PC that is 3 feet tall and weighs as much as my toddler, that’s what magic items are for. Demihumans get other benefits that offset that
• level drain. Make players afraid of undead again
• save or die (or really, really suck). No one bothers with neutralize poison spells or scrolls anymore, and deadly poison as been the staple of adventure exploration stories for over 100 years.
• spell interruption. Everyone complains about how casters are too OP. Well, if they take damage before they get their spell off, it should have a good chance of fizzling. Not just for concentration.
• stronghold and follower rules
• morale rules
• how oozes and slimes and molds used to be

Morale and oozes/slimes make sense, and strongholds will probably reappear before 5E is done.

Everything else is gone for a reason and won't be back outside optional rules. Plus 5E does have racial penalties, they're just rarer. And the idea that a Halfling with 18 STR is dumb but 16 STR is fine is hilariously bananas.

That said, what I want most is almost as silly - 2E-style multiclassing.

It'd be a huge effort to get right, but 4E showed a way, and I think it could be done.

Also I think some of you guys really need to go play OSR games!