Sword of Spirit
Legend
A few months ago Mike Mearls said such rules would be in the DMG. Therefore we can hope they will show up in the Unearthed Arcana articles, and keep bugging them about it if they don't.
D&D 5E How to emulate older editions of D&D using 5e.
- Thread starter Remathilis
- Start date
A few months ago Mike Mearls said such rules would be in the DMG. Therefore we can hope they will show up in the Unearthed Arcana articles, and keep bugging them about it if they don't.
Olaf the Stout
Hero
1E - Character classes are restricted to Cleric, the Fighting man, and the Magic-User. Races are restricted to Human, Dwarf, Elf and Halfling. Alignment is reduced to Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic. Stats are rolled 3d6 in order. Further limit class choice depending on how low or how high particular stats are. Severely limit multiclassing.
All adventures must feature a dungeon of some sort. All dungeons must have at least 4 traps whose placement make absolutely no sense whatsoever. There must be at least 2 rooms in the dungeon which feature a creature so large that it's not possible for the creature to fit said room, much less leave it. DM's must kill at least one PC in a completely arbitrary manner at least once per session or lose their DM licence.
2E - Leave all stats the same, except for Strength, which is now has a massive disparity between ST18 and ST19, with a percentile system used to determine just how exceptional a character's strength is. Don't worry, players will somehow never roll below 18/90 for exceptional strength anyway. Make multiclassing work different for humans and demihumans, just because. Limit the maximum level demihumans can reach, because humans are awesome. Combine feats and skills into one group, called Non-Weapon Proficiencies. Ties the use of these abilities to characters stats so they are often useless unless you have a high stat for a particular Non-Weapon Proficiency.
All PCs must take a sub-class called a kit. One PC in the party must have a kit from the Complete Book of Broken Munchikin Elves. Reverse armour class so that the lower your AC, the harder it is to hit you. Arbitrarily limit AC to -10. Increase the number of save categories from 3 to 6. Change the save category names to something completely random and arbitrary. Severely limit hit point increases once PCs reach 10th level. Vary up the need to roll high or low for different rolls, just to make things more interesting. Make sure all sub-systems have their own unique table or mechanic. If it has multiple tables, so much the better Include a long list of wacky things that can happen on a critical hit.
3E - Introduce a rule that all players must have 5 different character classes by the time they reach 10th level, one of which must be an obscure Prestige Class from a splatbook. Triple the number of skill categories, including two different skills to move about stealthily. Severely restrict the number of skill points many classes get, just so they can fully understand how useless they are out of combat. Outright restrict classes from some of these skills and make half of them cost twice as many skill points as normal, just to rub it in.
All monsters CR10 or higher must have at least 6 different abilities, one of which must work the same as a spell that requires you to reference two other spells in order to see how it actually works. Half of the abilities should be completely irrelevant to combat and/or useless when used against PC's of a level equal to their CR. Golf bags are given to all fighters above 8th level to carry around the different weapons required to overcome the various damage resistances of different monsters. Sessions automatically end when Mordenkainen's Disjunction is cast so that players can spend 3 hours rewriting their character sheets to adjust for the magic items that were destroyed/crying over the GP value of the items they lost.
4E - Triple the number of hit points all characters start with so there is no chance of death at 1st level. Give all players at least 3 chances before they really, truly die. All classes are given the same sorts of powers with long-winded fancy names that they can use with differing frequency. Make sure all of these powers are exactly the same so that all classes are balanced. Just change the power names and fluff so they look different. Fighters lauch fiery ripostes, Wizards launch fireballs, Bards lauch burning melodies, etc.
Remove all spells from the game that don't directly relate to combat. They aren't needed any more. Allow characters to save against spell effects every single round. PC's get an action point to spend each combat to do cool stuff, because doing cool stuff is cool, especially if that cool thing has a fancy name.
All characters can magically make some of their wounds go away multiple times a day after having a quick chance to think about what just happened. Players submit shopping lists to their DMs of what magic items should be "found" by their characters in the next adventure.
All adventures must feature a dungeon of some sort. All dungeons must have at least 4 traps whose placement make absolutely no sense whatsoever. There must be at least 2 rooms in the dungeon which feature a creature so large that it's not possible for the creature to fit said room, much less leave it. DM's must kill at least one PC in a completely arbitrary manner at least once per session or lose their DM licence.
2E - Leave all stats the same, except for Strength, which is now has a massive disparity between ST18 and ST19, with a percentile system used to determine just how exceptional a character's strength is. Don't worry, players will somehow never roll below 18/90 for exceptional strength anyway. Make multiclassing work different for humans and demihumans, just because. Limit the maximum level demihumans can reach, because humans are awesome. Combine feats and skills into one group, called Non-Weapon Proficiencies. Ties the use of these abilities to characters stats so they are often useless unless you have a high stat for a particular Non-Weapon Proficiency.
All PCs must take a sub-class called a kit. One PC in the party must have a kit from the Complete Book of Broken Munchikin Elves. Reverse armour class so that the lower your AC, the harder it is to hit you. Arbitrarily limit AC to -10. Increase the number of save categories from 3 to 6. Change the save category names to something completely random and arbitrary. Severely limit hit point increases once PCs reach 10th level. Vary up the need to roll high or low for different rolls, just to make things more interesting. Make sure all sub-systems have their own unique table or mechanic. If it has multiple tables, so much the better Include a long list of wacky things that can happen on a critical hit.
3E - Introduce a rule that all players must have 5 different character classes by the time they reach 10th level, one of which must be an obscure Prestige Class from a splatbook. Triple the number of skill categories, including two different skills to move about stealthily. Severely restrict the number of skill points many classes get, just so they can fully understand how useless they are out of combat. Outright restrict classes from some of these skills and make half of them cost twice as many skill points as normal, just to rub it in.
All monsters CR10 or higher must have at least 6 different abilities, one of which must work the same as a spell that requires you to reference two other spells in order to see how it actually works. Half of the abilities should be completely irrelevant to combat and/or useless when used against PC's of a level equal to their CR. Golf bags are given to all fighters above 8th level to carry around the different weapons required to overcome the various damage resistances of different monsters. Sessions automatically end when Mordenkainen's Disjunction is cast so that players can spend 3 hours rewriting their character sheets to adjust for the magic items that were destroyed/crying over the GP value of the items they lost.
4E - Triple the number of hit points all characters start with so there is no chance of death at 1st level. Give all players at least 3 chances before they really, truly die. All classes are given the same sorts of powers with long-winded fancy names that they can use with differing frequency. Make sure all of these powers are exactly the same so that all classes are balanced. Just change the power names and fluff so they look different. Fighters lauch fiery ripostes, Wizards launch fireballs, Bards lauch burning melodies, etc.
Remove all spells from the game that don't directly relate to combat. They aren't needed any more. Allow characters to save against spell effects every single round. PC's get an action point to spend each combat to do cool stuff, because doing cool stuff is cool, especially if that cool thing has a fancy name.
All characters can magically make some of their wounds go away multiple times a day after having a quick chance to think about what just happened. Players submit shopping lists to their DMs of what magic items should be "found" by their characters in the next adventure.
aramis erak
Legend
While technically, you're correct, the standard nomeclature is Original Edition, or OE, sometimes 0E (zero-Ed)...
as 1E is usually used for AD&D 1E, the 3rd edition of D&D published.
And the OE classes with supplements include Cleric, Paladin, Thief, Monk, Assassin, and Druid.
The second D&D edition was Holmes, and it even predates AD&D, but you've made the classic confounding of Listing AD&D 2E as 2nd Ed; that is common but inaccurate.
Holmes basic classes are Cleric, Fighter, Thief, Wizard, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling. Elf (a fighter-wizard multiclass), Dwarf (a fighter), halfling is a fighter.
AD&D 1E is Assassin, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Thief, and Wizard with Bard requiring dual-classing twice (fighter between 5-7 levels, into thief for 5-8 levels, thief into bard)...
Oh, and Mentzer, Moldvay are Cleric, Fighter, Thief, Wizard, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, with high level characters allowed to transition Cleric-to-Druid, Fighter-to-Paladin, Fighter-to-Avenger. Cyclopedia adds "Mystic" (which is a monk). The Gaz line adds 3 prestige classes, "Ranger" (which is actually the same as elf, but is human), Dwarf Cleric (Fighter-cleric), Elf Treekeeper (Fighter-Mage with some clerical spells), Merchant ("secondary class" - equivalent to a 3E Prestige class), Sailor (secondary); adding the PC series adds about 100 additional racial classes; adding the HWR series adds another 30 or so.
Olaf the Stout
Hero
I'm sure you're right about the classes. However, you do realise that my post was a (somewhat poor) attempt at poking fun at all the previous editions of D&D? 
Li Shenron
Legend
Possibles:
1) some people just don't have older edition books and don't want to buy them
2) you may want some features of older editions but not all, while you may want some other features of 5e, and it is probably easier to adapt 5e to older editions than viceversa
3) you may have some players who want an older edition feel for their PCs only, but not all of them, and still be able to play together
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
One way to further emulate 1e would be to make treasure - particularly magic items - very much an easy come, easy go sort of thing. You can find lots of stuff while adventuring but you risk losing it just as fast due to fumbles, fireballs, etc. And use cursed items liberally.
Also, is there a training option for level-up in the 5e DMG? (with Yule approaching I'm on moratorium on buying things for myself) If yes, using that'll help with the 1e feel too.
Lanefan
Also, is there a training option for level-up in the 5e DMG? (with Yule approaching I'm on moratorium on buying things for myself) If yes, using that'll help with the 1e feel too.
Lanefan
I'm sure you're right about the classes. However, you do realise that my post was a (somewhat poor) attempt at poking fun at all the previous editions of D&D?
It's the edition warring post to end all edition warring posts.
I never played 3e or 4e so it's nice to see where some of the 5e things (that mildly bother me) came from.
thalmin
Retired game store owner
How to combine Loyalty with Morale
Determine Loyalty score as per DMG page 93. Use points above or below Loyalty Score 10 as modifiers to morale roll (Morale on page 273), or don't roll and use the Score as the roll.
Hriston
Dungeon Master of Middle-earth (He/him)
Great idea! Thanks.
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