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Message: <blockquote data-quote="touc" data-source="post: 8496951" data-attributes="member: 19270">To keep this from turning into an edition war, I think you're asking for suggestions, not to be convinced 5E is better/worse than AD&D.First, the baseline of what "old school" means for me: (1) coming up with crazy stuff that wasn't covered by the rules and (2) bragging rights if you could get a character to survive to higher levels because it was lethal (lots of instant kill, level drain, low hit points, etc.) Characters didn't start out as some might see 5E: superheroes with super stats who don't die easily, heal overnight, and ignore realistic facets of the game like hunger and encumbrance.Second, what does 5E offer that feels "old school" for when I begin tailoring my rules?  <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The most important Rule continues to be that the rules are guidelines.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Exhaustion, including for not eating/drinking.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Optional encumbrance rule. If you take that and tweak it to a slot-based system, it works really really well and realistically with little math involved. Attached as PDF.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Undead drain. If you take away the saving throw, life drain undead become really scary without the hatred your players have for old-school level drains.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Low level monsters remain a very viable threat (thanks to Bounded Accuracy)</li> </ul>Third, what should I tweak?Well, [USER=6987520]@DND_Reborn[/USER] got a good start. Consider:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Slow down advancement. Triple the XP requirements or use milestones (e.g. there's 3 threats to the PC's barony, and once they clear a threat and complete a side quest, they get +1 level).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Vitality system, treat HP for PCs as an abstract, not real damage. You're running out of luck, getting tired, etc. I use a homebrew system where at 0hp, real damage accrues until lethal and is very hard to heal. This solves the healing overnight issue and matches the "second wind" nature of hit points. The fighter isn't regenerating. He's shedding that feeling of tired. But a character at 0hp took real damage to their body, and they might die with the next hit. Even if they don't, it'll take some time or powerful magic to restore.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Modify monsters as above for undead drain. Feel free to bring back golem immunity. If you like magic resistance, go for it. Nothing says you can't, just make sure you share and discuss with your players why you're doing what you're doing. I personally think many monsters are boring, and there's been a LOT of work done on these forums to give all monsters a special ability or two to spice up combat. I also have buffed up outerplanar creatures, given them more spells, and for the really nasty ones like a demon lord, ranked their immunities (e.g. Orcus might have immune normal weapons, resistant to magical ones of less than +3, immune to spells 3rd level and lower unless he wants to be affected).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Role, not roll, play. Don't use skills unless the outcome is purely uncertain. Consider capping success (e.g. only a proficient character can succeed on a DC20 or higher check).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Traps, only rogues. Anyone with a kit can disable a trap now. You could say "any trap DC15 or higher can only be disabled by a rogue" and/or "only magical traps can be spotted/disabled by a rogue." That's what they're trained for.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Facing rules. Rogues suck in combat unless they can sneak attack, but you could rule if you use minis that they must attack from the rear 90 degrees to get it. Personally, I wouldn't. Rogues suck without it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Limit cantrips. They're designed to allow casters to always contribute, but an archer can run out of arrows and a caster cannot run out of cantrips. So, perhaps limit it to # per day = casting modifier, let them renew this after a Short Rest.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cap ability scores. D&D already caps it at 20, but if you feel that's too much, cap at 18. This will weaken casters as martial characters can get magical weapons to offset the numbers, but casters don't have much to make their spells harder to save against.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Survival. Enforce the rules, player honesty on tracking their rations because that's way too much of a hassle for the DM to do it. I'd bump food requirements to 4 pounds per medium, 2 per small, for realism. Makes carrying rations difficult and understanding why pack animals, hirelings, wagons, etc. were a major part of adventuring. Remove the starvation loophole (where a high CON character can by the rules eat only once a week). After low levels, I would use sparingly because running survival (I ran Dark Sun 5E and a wilderness campaign recently) is a mini-game, and it gets old to do it repeatedly, like running the same dungeon over and over.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cap HP advancement for PCs. It'll make for a more lethal game if you do it, but at 9th level AD&D stopped adding dice. Add your CON modifier, minimum 1? Less hit points means PCs might be more creative in avoiding death, so as always make sure your players are cool and understand there's a purpose to make the game more fun this way.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magic items. Make them even cooler (e.g. legacy weapons from 3rd edition or perhaps all items are sentient in your world in some way), but hand out permanent items like weapons, wands, staves sparingly because thanks to the math, they're a big deal now. Old school handed out a lot of magic because it lacked bounded accuracy.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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