D&D 5E (2014) What would 5E be like if the playtest's modularity promise was kept?

[FrogReaver]

I've found another Necromancer!

 

[GreyLord]

I've found another Necromancer!

It's not as old a Rising as others have been.

Too continue the trend of Raising the Dead though...

It shouldn't have been too hard to actually make 5e modular, it was a choice to decide not to do that.

They were too married to Bounded Accuracy and Continuous HP to make it happen.

If they had not been so set on forcing that to be the only true way, modularity would have been ridiculously simple with 5e.

It would have probably added in 100 or so pages of rules. With a lot of the sections you add in OPTIONAL rules. These are rules that you can either implement with or to replace existing rules. Other editions have had them (2e actually had a lot of them in sidebars and such, for example the way XP is given out had several optional ideas in the 2e core books).

So, instead of doing something where you have a proficiency bonus like 5e, you have a rule where you can change it to add a compatible THAC0 increase (such as in 1e or 2e, but probably more following 2e's method as it's simpler, shorter, and more mathematically easy for people to understand) if one wants to utilize an AD&D method, or include BAB tables as an option for those who want a 3e style.

This would also necessitate skill options (as Proficiency bonus is no longer a thing) which you could either do as the optional 3e method (each skill is it's max level as per the UA option, reduces skills you have, but they are always at their maximum), or make it so that you give a brief summary of 3e's method of doing things, but with 5e's more limited list.

This would also necessitate a change for how Armor is handled in regards to AD&D compatibility (no bounded accuracy for that either, and no limitations on AC bonuses), and with 3e you could keep the slight modifications but also with no bounded accuracy.

You would have some rather lengthy sidebars for some of these items, but if it were modular you could take out a portion of 5e and replace it with the ideas for compatibility with another older rules set.

You can still do this with 5e (as you could with any of the editions), but having these options could make a standard for how to do so, make it easier on the DM (because it's been all pre-done for you), and overall be an easier method.

I actually had this as part of the idea of how to do things with the document Old School, which has the compatibility with 5e built in for OD&D, BECMI, and AD&D.

5e Old School

Currently, though, with just the rulebooks as printed, I feel Castles and Crusades is the easiest version of the game to be compatible with various editions of D&D (only 4e gives me difficulty with compatibility, otherwise it is surprisingly compatible with OD&D - 5e). If they were truly going for compatibility with a more minimalist approach, I expect it would have turned out something very similar to C&C.