Ath'kethin
Elder Thing
5e is built around the archetype tack-on. Playing without them entirely leaves over half the game on the table.
Having restricted or predefined archetype choice seems a better avenue for what the OP is talking about, and as someone else mentioned Basic does that very handily. After all, each class (except maybe for the wizard) has a subclass directly mirroring the pre-WotC versions of the class. It's no coincidence that these are the locked-in subclasses used in Basic.
Rogue Comet realeased a similarsetup called Dungeonesque a ways back, too, and some people argued at the time that it made a better Basic D&D than the official version did.
So you could look into that too, but be aware that it is largely SRD content in a nostalgic repackaging. It does have some cool new twists, though.
Having restricted or predefined archetype choice seems a better avenue for what the OP is talking about, and as someone else mentioned Basic does that very handily. After all, each class (except maybe for the wizard) has a subclass directly mirroring the pre-WotC versions of the class. It's no coincidence that these are the locked-in subclasses used in Basic.
Rogue Comet realeased a similarsetup called Dungeonesque a ways back, too, and some people argued at the time that it made a better Basic D&D than the official version did.
So you could look into that too, but be aware that it is largely SRD content in a nostalgic repackaging. It does have some cool new twists, though.