D&D 5E What rules for older editions have DMs imported to their own 5e games?

[Jack Daniel]

One rule I back-port from 3rd to 1st is casters being allowed to memorize lower-level spells in higher level slots. It just makes sense.

 

[not-so-newguy]

The 10 minute turn during exploration (especially dungeons), except I call it "segment" to avoid confusion.

 

[dave2008]

Off the top of my head:

• death at 0 from 1e (at least that was how we played it)
• slow healing from 1e (1hp per week of rest)
• bloodied from 4e
• healing surges from 4e (actually a 4e house rule we call heroic surges that it is based on it)

 

[Shiroiken]

I've tried various stuff, but I've found it's just easier to take existing 5E stuff and modify them slightly with concepts from older edition rules, rather than a direct import. Most of it's exploration based.

So after some discussion about fireball with my players, I was curious to see whether anyone still DMed it the old way (i.e. filling out to 33510 cubic ft) so put a poll on reddit (and got flamed..)

This was throwing the baby out with the bathwater IMO. I agree that trying to break everything down into CF was a pain in the #$^, but there was a game balance reason for this (also the bouncing lighting bolts). Those two spells did the most damage for their spell levels by a considerable margin, but in a confined space (like the ever common dungeon) you had to be very careful when you used them. Once these downsides were removed in 3E, without adjusting their power level among other 3rd level spells, they were obviously the best choices. They became iconic because they were overpowered, which then led to them being overpowered again in 5E.

I think it might have been better to have it be 20 ft radius, with a minimum number of 5 ft squares. I spend about half an hour trying to figure out what a good minimum would be, but I'm not good enough at math. Basically enough to prevent dropping fireballs on the far wall of small rooms and in hallways is the idea.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Monster/template and racial parangon classes.

 

[Audiomancer]

All weapons do 1d6 damage
Weapon vs. armor type modifiers
Comeliness stat
THAC0

 

[cbwjm]

I bring in the bloodied condition, including things which trigger off it. The bloodied condition is already in 5e in features like the life cleric’s channel divinity and the champion fighter's regeneration.

I've created templates like soldier, artillery, and elite from 4e, as well as other templates.

I've expanded the swarm rules after looking at them in 4e.

I'd say most of my rules and such are just creature updates taken from 4e to make fights more interesting.

 

[LoganRan]

All weapons do 1d6 damage
Weapon vs. armor type modifiers
Comeliness stat
THAC0

<Insert "Not sure if serious" JPEG here>

(And this is coming from a pretty hard core "Old School" grognard...)

(Actually, I am quite certain you are not serious...but on the off chance you ARE serious, well, "Respect" because you have some cloud giant sized cajones, my friend.)

 

[overgeeked]

I've tried various stuff, but I've found it's just easier to take existing 5E stuff and modify them slightly with concepts from older edition rules, rather than a direct import. Most of it's exploration based.


This was throwing the baby out with the bathwater IMO. I agree that trying to break everything down into CF was a pain in the #$^, but there was a game balance reason for this (also the bouncing lighting bolts). Those two spells did the most damage for their spell levels by a considerable margin, but in a confined space (like the ever common dungeon) you had to be very careful when you used them. Once these downsides were removed in 3E, without adjusting their power level among other 3rd level spells, they were obviously the best choices. They became iconic because they were overpowered, which then led to them being overpowered again in 5E.

I think it might have been better to have it be 20 ft radius, with a minimum number of 5 ft squares. I spend about half an hour trying to figure out what a good minimum would be, but I'm not good enough at math. Basically enough to prevent dropping fireballs on the far wall of small rooms and in hallways is the idea.

You could just count squares. The 20ft radius of a fireball covers what…52-ish squares at 5ft each.

 

[Redwizard007]

Minions from 4e. So much easier to balance encounters with them.