D&D 5E This Game Feels Like D&D 3.Xe

[iserith]

I'm putting together an upcoming campaign that will based on some D&D 3.Xe adventure materials. So I'm thinking what I might do is implement some house rules and other things to make it feel slightly more like D&D 3.Xe than a regular D&D 5e game. I certainly don't want it to play like D&D 3.Xe, but some small adjustments here and there would be nice to fit in with the feeling I'm going for and perhaps offer a sense of nostalgia for some players.

I came up with the following things so far:

• Races: Only the ones from the D&D 3.Xe PHB (human, dwarf, elf, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, halfling).
• Deities: Greyhawk deities as presented in D&D 3.Xe PHB.
• Alignment: Replacing Ideal with a statement regarding alignment pulled from the Basic Rules (e.g. "Neutral Good. I do the best I can to help others according to their needs..."). Clerics and paladins must match their deity's alignment - not technically a rule in D&D 3.Xe, but I want to play up mechanical aspect of alignment in certain ways. In social interaction challenges, characters with diametrically opposed alignment to the NPC have disadvantage on ability checks. Add more alignment requirements or benefits for magic items.
• Favored Weapons: Clerics and paladins get proficiency with their deity's favored weapons if they don't already have it.
• The Odd Reference: Look for opportunities to reference the D&D 3.Xe rules or quirky play experience in the fiction, sort of like Easter eggs (e.g. a kobold named Pun-Pun).

I'm not looking for any big changes to the rules at all, just minor little add-ons or variations to remind people who may have played D&D 3.Xe of the Before Times.

What else would you play up to make a D&D 5e game reference D&D 3.Xe in small ways?

 

[Parmandur]

Spend 15 minutes flipping through the PHB and DMG every time a grapple is attempted.

 

[Mannahnin]

What else would you play up to make a D&D 5e game reference D&D 3.Xe in small ways?

Not a small way, sorry, but I'd be tempted to make some sort of prestige classes, or perhaps tweak multiclassing so it worked a little bit more like prestige classes. ie: put some kind of additional prerequisite on it, but give it special flavor and maybe a little mechanical bump as well.

 

[Charlaquin]

Gotta have spiked chains (maybe mechanically a whip that does piercing damage.)

Allow buying and selling magic items if you don’t already.

Wands of Cure Wounds. Wands of Cure Wounds everywhere.

 

[Celebrim]

Gotta have spiked chains (maybe mechanically a whip that does piercing damage.)

Allow buying and selling magic items if you don’t already.

Wands of Cure Wounds. Wands of Cure Wounds everywhere.

Three things that weren't and aren't a feature of my 3.X game, albeit because of house rules.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm putting together an upcoming campaign that will based on some D&D 3.Xe adventure materials. So I'm thinking what I might do is implement some house rules and other things to make it feel slightly more like D&D 3.Xe than a regular D&D 5e game. I certainly don't want it to play like D&D 3.Xe, but some small adjustments here and there would be nice to fit in with the feeling I'm going for and perhaps offer a sense of nostalgia for some players.

I came up with the following things so far:

• Races: Only the ones from the D&D 3.Xe PHB (human, dwarf, elf, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, halfling).
• Deities: Greyhawk deities as presented in D&D 3.Xe PHB.
• Alignment: Replacing Ideal with a statement regarding alignment pulled from the Basic Rules (e.g. "Neutral Good. I do the best I can to help others according to their needs..."). Clerics and paladins must match their deity's alignment - not technically a rule in D&D 3.Xe, but I want to play up mechanical aspect of alignment in certain ways. In social interaction challenges, characters with diametrically opposed alignment to the NPC have disadvantage on ability checks. Add more alignment requirements or benefits for magic items.
• Favored Weapons: Clerics and paladins get proficiency with their deity's favored weapons if they don't already have it.
• The Odd Reference: Look for opportunities to reference the D&D 3.Xe rules or quirky play experience in the fiction, sort of like Easter eggs (e.g. a kobold named Pun-Pun).

I'm not looking for any big changes to the rules at all, just minor little add-ons or variations to remind people who may have played D&D 3.Xe of the Before Times.

What else would you play up to make a D&D 5e game reference D&D 3.Xe in small ways?

Tweak spells and class abilities to interact with alignment. Detect Evil, detects alignment evil, etc.

 

[J.Quondam]

Armor is covered in spikes.
Dire beasts are protected by weird bony growths and covered in spikes.
Weapons are cartoonishly oversized and covered in spikes.

Also, all clothing and other wearable items have lots of buckles... buckles that are covered in spikes.

 

[payn]

Axiomatic and archaic weaponry!

Crit ranges and damage multipliers with confirmed crits.

Maybe, probably, more trouble than its worth but break feats up mechanically and give them out more in bits.

 

[Charlaquin]

Oh, alternating 5’ and 10’ diagonals if you don’t use that already.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I remember there were a lot more triggers for Attacks of Opportunity.

 

[billd91]

What else would you play up to make a D&D 5e game reference D&D 3.Xe in small ways?

If I wanted to emphasize the "Back to the Dungeon" slogan, I'd play a lot of dungeon crawls.

I ran a lot of 3e games based on AD&D adventures that I had converted and I've done both AD&D and 3e adventures I've converted to 5e. And I have yet to find one that didn't really work because of the edition. So I have to say that I don't think there has to be loads of variance between editions whether 1e/2e, 3e, or 5e other than experienced through specific mechanical differences. If you approach your D&D editions based on a personal approach and style that doesn't focus on exploiting the differences between editions, then D&D can feel pretty consistent. For example, we didn't invest heavily in magic item creation or markets when we first started with 3e and so 3e didn't feel quite so different from 2e.

 

[Parmandur]

I remember there were a lot more triggers for Attacks of Opportunity.

Actually, leaning into.yhe optional combat rules in the 5E DMG is pretty much meant for the purposes of the OP.

 

[schneeland]

There were class skills and non-class skills, the latter requiring twice the skill points to raise. Assuming you don't want to port the whole skill systems, maybe think about a bonuses or penalties based on class and proficiency modifier.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Gotta have spiked chains (maybe mechanically a whip that does piercing damage.)

thats just good for any 5e game

 

[iserith]

Spend 15 minutes flipping through the PHB and DMG every time a grapple is attempted.

This might actually be a good excuse to go fix the Grappler feat.

Gotta have spiked chains (maybe mechanically a whip that does piercing damage.)

Allow buying and selling magic items if you don’t already.

Wands of Cure Wounds. Wands of Cure Wounds everywhere.

Thanks - will add spiked chains.

Buying and selling magic items definitely in already. I couldn't actually remember if that was a D&D 3.Xe thing.

I have a D&D 5e character named Wanda Curelight specifically because of that being so prolific in D&D 3.Xe.

Axiomatic and archaic weaponry!

Crit ranges and damage multipliers with confirmed crits.

Maybe, probably, more trouble than its worth but break feats up mechanically and give them out more in bits.

I'll think about playing with crits. I forgot about that. I don't love more dice rolls though so it would have to be something other than another roll to confirm.

Oh, alternating 5’ and 10’ diagonals if you don’t use that already.

Are you trying to get me killed?

 

[Parmandur]

@GMforPowergamers why the surprise face? That's the real 3.x experience. Seriously like 8% of every session was a group review of the grapple rules we had spent 8% of the last session hashing out.

 

[Stormonu]

Halflings are good looking and the elves are ugly (j/k).

With more emphasis on alignment ... only Lawful Good Paladins, Neutral Druids, Chaotic Barbarians and Lawful monks (for NPC's only?)

 

[iserith]

If I wanted to emphasize the "Back to the Dungeon" slogan, I'd play a lot of dungeon crawls.

I ran a lot of 3e games based on AD&D adventures that I had converted and I've done both AD&D and 3e adventures I've converted to 5e. And I have yet to find one that didn't really work because of the edition. So I have to say that I don't think there has to be loads of variance between editions whether 1e/2e, 3e, or 5e other than experienced through specific mechanical differences. If you approach your D&D editions based on a personal approach and style that doesn't focus on exploiting the differences between editions, then D&D can feel pretty consistent. For example, we didn't invest heavily in magic item creation or markets when we first started with 3e and so 3e didn't feel quite so different from 2e.

My experience is that the play experience between editions is very different and, when I've run them more or less the same, it doesn't work very well. Here I just plan on doing a regular D&D 5e game but have a few little nods to D&D 3.Xe for funsies.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

@GMforPowergamers why the surprise face? That's the real 3.x experience. Seriously like 8% of every session was a group review of the grapple rules we had spent 8% of the last session hashing out.

more of how quickly someone said it

 

[Cadence]

Encumbrance (serious on this one)
Negative hit points instead of death saves (maybe?)
+1 to +3 bonuses that randomly stack or don't stack for things that aren't good enough for getting Advantage/Disadvantage (semi-serious maybe?)