D&D 5E DM-Facing content to port into 5e from 3e/3.5+

[Xenolith234]

I find that much of the DM-facing content is lacking in 5e, and I think most would agree with me compared to prior editions. What content, tables, mechanics, etc., do you or would you find worth porting in from prior editions? I have a lot of the 3e/3.5 books, but never actually ended up playing it, so I don't have the history with the potential clunkiness of all of the interacting modifiers and such, but reading through the books is so inspiring for me and I find that there's so much content that got left on the cutting floor as editions progressed.

 

[Weiley31]

Lords of Madness (Aberration lore book), Draconomicon(Dragons), and Libris Mortis(Undead) are all top tier in regards to like lore/story stuff for said Monster Types.

 

[mellored]

You don't need to limit yourself to just 3.5
Pathfinder has a lot of good modules as well.

 

[Xenolith234]

You don't need to limit yourself to just 3.5
Pathfinder has a lot of good modules as well.

What mechanics or resources would you recommend?

 

[mellored]

What mechanics or resources would you recommend?

I never DM'd it, and only got to play intermittently. So I don't know the names of any.

But here was a poll someone did.
Tarondor’s Guide to Pathfinder Adventure Paths

 

[Micah Sweet]

I find that much of the DM-facing content is lacking in 5e, and I think most would agree with me compared to prior editions. What content, mechanics, etc., do you or would you find worth porting in from prior editions? I have a lot of the 3e/3.5 books, but never actually ended up playing it, so I don't have the history with the potential clunkiness of all of the interacting modifiers and such, but reading through the books is so inspiring for me and I find that there's so much content that got left on the cutting floor as editions progressed.

Mechanics-wise, Level Up is much better than for me for DM-content than any version of D&D 5e, which is a big part of why that's what I run. Lore-wise, I vastly prefer 2e's lore to any edition since, especially after WotC decided they didn't care about continuity anymore.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Lords of Madness (Aberration lore book), Draconomicon(Dragons), and Libris Mortis(Undead) are all top tier in regards to like lore/story stuff for said Monster Types.

True. Definitely stuff worth incorporating there from all three, and mostly lore-compatible with previous editions too. 3e had some decent lore.

 

[Stormonu]

What mechanics or resources would you recommend?

Honestly, I can't think of any mechanics from 3E that are superior to 5E's design. Lore is definitely worth carrying over, but 3E's mechanics were fiddly and ended up being a step too far in being simulationist. It made DMing past 6th level or so a drudgery and was one of the main reasons for the E6 movement (limiting advancement to 6th level) during its day.

It's worth raiding for spells, monsters, races and subclasses from the various classes & prestige classes - but they need conversion, not straight import. Same for modules, campaign worlds and the like - the story-side stuff from 3E and Pathfinder has some great stuff there, but I'd seriously leave any mechanics by the wayside.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Honestly, I can't think of any mechanics from 3E that are superior to 5E's design. Lore is definitely worth carrying over, but 3E's mechanics were fiddly and ended up being a step too far in being simulationist. It made DMing past 6th level or so a drudgery and was one of the main reasons for the E6 movement (limiting advancement to 6th level) during its day.

It's worth raiding for spells, monsters, races and subclasses from the various classes & prestige classes - but they need conversion, not straight import. Same for modules, campaign worlds and the like - the story-side stuff from 3E and Pathfinder has some great stuff there, but I'd seriously leave any mechanics by the wayside.

My preference is simulationist, so in many ways I liked 3e better. Their skill system in particular had granularity I find frustratingly missing in D&D 5e. Fortunately other 5e games have fixed this issue to my satisfaction.

 

[Xenolith234]

My preference is simulationist, so in many ways I liked 3e better. Their skill system in particular had granularity I find frustratingly missing in D&D 5e. Fortunately other 5e games have fixed this issue to my satisfaction.

For example, I was just looking through the weather table between 3.5, a5e, and 5e, and the one in 3.5 is just so much more dense with information and different options that I find to be more inspiring. And the encounter lists! So great.