1/ Rangers can either play the Revised Ranger, or use the PHB Ranger with the UA "Replacements" made into "Enhancements"
2/ 4 Elements Monks reduce ki cost of all disciplines by 1 ki, to a minimum of 1 ki, and gain 1 EE cantrip per archetype level
3/ Bonus Feat at level 1, and +1 to any 1 stat when you choose a feat over an ASI when your class gives you that choice.
4/ Crits maximize damage dice, and then roll the damage dice, and then add any static mods. (so a crit with a 1d4+4 dagger attack deals 4+1d4+4 damage)
5/ Assassin Rogues crit on any successful hit against a creature that is surprised, or who is unaware of the presence of the rogue. So, if the party rushes in, but the rogue is hidden, their first attack still works as if they'd surprised the target.
6/ Skill challenges. Similar to the 4e mechanic, count as level appropriate encounter in the odd occassion that I count up XP.
Often I'll pair up PCs and ask them to make a pair of rolls. So, I'll have two PCs make Survival and Perception checks to scout, 2 to make Stealth and Deception checks to leave misleading trails, 2 to decipher the weird archetecture of the wizard's tower with Riddle, Arcana, or Int (Mason's Tools), and have Success, Failure, Mixed Success, outcomes for each task based on whether both succeed, fail, or split results.
Other times, I'll use an initiative order and ask each PC in turn what they think they can contribute to the situation. WHen solving a puzzle room in order to operate the strange control room in the wizard's tower tonight, they found a central metal tube with a magical furnace heating a hydraulic fluid of some kind, leading to a "pipe dream" game style puzzle of levers and wheels that moved different parts of the tower depending on the flow of the fluid.
They had to:
decipher the coded language of the controls
figure out what the wheels, levers, and movable slats with instructive runes on a blackboard, all do
figure out the geography of the tower's multi-dimensional architecture as it relates to the controls
plot a safe path through the tower
align the moving parts of the tower using the control devices, according to the plotted course
figure out how to map the tower in such a way that the patrols of abominations that had infested the tower would be turned in circles and not find them
Bonus checks based on what they thought of and tried included
figure out the purpose of the device. turns out it isn't for defense, but a sort of magical multi-dimensional tiny house invention. Like when your stairs fold up and become bookshelves, and fold a different way to be a desk, and fold another way to be a couch, except with added dimensions where you turn a room clockwise and it's one room, but counterclockwise and it's another room, and if your rotate it all the way and then quarter turn the other way, it's a hallway. Packing an immense complex of rooms equal to several buildings into a relatively small tower.
Find an access panel underneath the magical furnace in the center of the room that with a successful theives tools check gave them essentially admin access to the system, and also netted the rogue some neat new tools that will let her better tinker with magical systems and devices, ie arcane thieves tools.
Give a floating Inspiration to the group to use on a type of check, such as "examining how part of the system works" or "determining how to align things to do what we want".
A complex challenge like this, which basically determines how hard the next leg of the adventure will be, is worth a major encounter/quest completion. They leveled up from the two challenges I've described, and a fight with a patrol of dolgaunts, dolgrims, and a chuul-drake, combined with a caper adventure I ran before this one, that was 90% skill challenge with some individual rounds of combat-as-contest.
7/ Flashbacks using Inspiration. Inspiration is given out a bit more freely. You begin the adventure with Inspiration, and regain it when you solve a problem, do something spectacular with a real chance of failure, or just wow the group. One use of Inspiration is as a "plot coupon", which must be used to enter a brief flashback where we figure out what you or someone else did before this moment that allows you to get out of a bad situation, had the tool you need for this moment, or otherwise have that movie/tv moment where we flash back to a scene that shows us why actually things aren't going pair shaped, and this turn of events needed to happen, or you have a solve for it, or you planned for it, or whatever.
Forgot! Handaxes are Finesse, all classes with Fighting Styles have access to all Fighting Styles, and I allow much more crafting and customised spells and feats than the standard game, and encourage going full pulp action with skill use.
1/ Rangers can either play the Revised Ranger, or use the PHB Ranger with the UA "Replacements" made into "Enhancements"
2/ 4 Elements Monks reduce ki cost of all disciplines by 1 ki, to a minimum of 1 ki, and gain 1 EE cantrip per archetype level
3/ Bonus Feat at level 1, and +1 to any 1 stat when you choose a feat over an ASI when your class gives you that choice.
4/ Crits maximize damage dice, and then roll the damage dice, and then add any static mods. (so a crit with a 1d4+4 dagger attack deals 4+1d4+4 damage)
5/ Assassin Rogues crit on any successful hit against a creature that is surprised, or who is unaware of the presence of the rogue. So, if the party rushes in, but the rogue is hidden, their first attack still works as if they'd surprised the target.
6/ Skill challenges. Similar to the 4e mechanic, count as level appropriate encounter in the odd occassion that I count up XP.
Often I'll pair up PCs and ask them to make a pair of rolls. So, I'll have two PCs make Survival and Perception checks to scout, 2 to make Stealth and Deception checks to leave misleading trails, 2 to decipher the weird archetecture of the wizard's tower with Riddle, Arcana, or Int (Mason's Tools), and have Success, Failure, Mixed Success, outcomes for each task based on whether both succeed, fail, or split results.
Other times, I'll use an initiative order and ask each PC in turn what they think they can contribute to the situation. WHen solving a puzzle room in order to operate the strange control room in the wizard's tower tonight, they found a central metal tube with a magical furnace heating a hydraulic fluid of some kind, leading to a "pipe dream" game style puzzle of levers and wheels that moved different parts of the tower depending on the flow of the fluid.
They had to:
decipher the coded language of the controls
figure out what the wheels, levers, and movable slats with instructive runes on a blackboard, all do
figure out the geography of the tower's multi-dimensional architecture as it relates to the controls
plot a safe path through the tower
align the moving parts of the tower using the control devices, according to the plotted course
figure out how to map the tower in such a way that the patrols of abominations that had infested the tower would be turned in circles and not find them
Bonus checks based on what they thought of and tried included
figure out the purpose of the device. turns out it isn't for defense, but a sort of magical multi-dimensional tiny house invention. Like when your stairs fold up and become bookshelves, and fold a different way to be a desk, and fold another way to be a couch, except with added dimensions where you turn a room clockwise and it's one room, but counterclockwise and it's another room, and if your rotate it all the way and then quarter turn the other way, it's a hallway. Packing an immense complex of rooms equal to several buildings into a relatively small tower.
Find an access panel underneath the magical furnace in the center of the room that with a successful theives tools check gave them essentially admin access to the system, and also netted the rogue some neat new tools that will let her better tinker with magical systems and devices, ie arcane thieves tools.
Give a floating Inspiration to the group to use on a type of check, such as "examining how part of the system works" or "determining how to align things to do what we want".
A complex challenge like this, which basically determines how hard the next leg of the adventure will be, is worth a major encounter/quest completion. They leveled up from the two challenges I've described, and a fight with a patrol of dolgaunts, dolgrims, and a chuul-drake, combined with a caper adventure I ran before this one, that was 90% skill challenge with some individual rounds of combat-as-contest.
7/ Flashbacks using Inspiration. Inspiration is given out a bit more freely. You begin the adventure with Inspiration, and regain it when you solve a problem, do something spectacular with a real chance of failure, or just wow the group. One use of Inspiration is as a "plot coupon", which must be used to enter a brief flashback where we figure out what you or someone else did before this moment that allows you to get out of a bad situation, had the tool you need for this moment, or otherwise have that movie/tv moment where we flash back to a scene that shows us why actually things aren't going pair shaped, and this turn of events needed to happen, or you have a solve for it, or you planned for it, or whatever.
Inspiration Pool: Inspiration points are a party resource - anyone can spend a point, with the party's agreement. Pool max size is 1 point per character.
4/ Crits maximize damage dice, and then roll the damage dice, and then add any static mods. (so a crit with a 1d4+4 dagger attack deals 4+1d4+4 damage)
Intelligence (speed of mind) for initiative and dividing Perception (what you see at a glance and normally a passive check, tho you can take an action to 'look around') and Investigation (What you find by searching, involving physical interaction, normally more than a single round to do) - for ex the Perception DC to spot a key under the doormat would be very high, the Investigation DC would be very low! Also Int bonus gives extra Tool Prof or language known (double cost for exotic).
This is to give Int some love and slightly de-power both Dex and the Perception proficiency
1) Monk get a wee bit more ki point. Wisdom modifier now adds with Ki. This give the monk a chance to either raise his dex or wisdom. Otherwise the choice was rather meh... 100% of the monks at my table were raising their dex. Now I see some of them raising wisdom instead.
2) HP are recovered only by spending HD.
But the real gem is for the DM and my players are well aware of that rule. Single encounter big bad guys
Add 1 feat/ASI per 4 CR (save the first four)
Add 1 legendary action per PC above 4.
Multiply HP by 1 +0.25 per PC above 4.
Add 1.5 AC (round up) per PC above 4.
Here is a modified lich my players defeated at 17th level in a previous campaign.
AC: 17 (natural armor + dex) Now 23 (+1.5 AC x 2 for players number, Staff of power and +1 ring. It could go up to 25 for one attack because of the shield guardian and I am not counting shield. Since shield was an at will power, it became and AC 28 and 30 for one attack)
HP: 135 (18d8 + 54) Now 238 for a 1.5 multiplier for number of players and tough feat (+36hp).
Spd: 30' (unchanged)
Stats: Unchanged (decided to use feats instead...)
Added: Warcaster, Elemental Adept Fire (that one was a surprise for my players), Tough.
Mage feature added: Shield and Mirror image at will (I counted that one as a feat)
Spell list was changed to reflect the added mage feature and feats.
Cantrips: Removed prestidigitation and added Fire Bolt. Rose number of cantrips to four and added Green Flame blade (players were dismayed by the lich going hand to hand with a staff...)
Level 1: Removed shield and added disguise self (Lich used it to appear human as she did in her life.)
Level 2: Removed Mirror image and added Misty step instead.
Legendary action Rose to 5 (again 6 players)
Lich was also using Staff Of Power And a Shield Guardian.
13th Age Mook rules work well. Because of the way bounded accuracy works you don't even need to have a special monster category.
This allows Fighters to wade through hordes of goblins at higher levels.
Mooks are weaker monsters that can be cut down in large numbers in a single turn. Damage is not tracked against single mooks, but against the entire mob of mooks you’re facing. If you roll damage against a mook and it is greater than the single mook’s hit points, then another mook takes the remainder. In this way, damage can cascade to multiple mooks, and a player can kill multiple in one turn, even if they’re not all directly within your attack range.
This gives a fairly good simulation of the 1e Fighter's ability to attack a number of 1hd monsters equal to their level. If the last part above bothers you just say the monster has to be within plausible range to take damage.
