5e D&D Rules Variants That Give My Game a More Old School Feel

I make no secret of the fact I enjoy older D&D editions – anyone who has listened to Brandes Stoddard and I discuss D&D for hours on Edition Wars knows this to be true. However, I still play a ton of 5e D&D and I do believe it is a solid system. Recently, some friends asked me exactly what I do to make 5e play the way I want it to play. This post will enumerate the main variants and house-rules I use at the table to make my 5e play more like my preferred old-school games (Castles & Crusades and 1e AD&D). If you are wondering what I am talking about when I say “Old School Feel” take a look at Matt Finch’s excellent Quick Primer for Old School Gaming. It’s a great FREE resource that explains the differences between the playstyles and expectations of old school games and modern games.

Healing and Rest

I do NOT use the gritty rest rules from the 5e DMG. Those are very popular, but combined with my healing rules they extend the required downtime into a period too long to justify. Instead, I use the following combination of changes to the healing rules:

1. Long Rest: When PCs in my game take a long rest they do NOT regain full hit points. Instead, they must spend HD just as they do during short rests.
2. CON Bonus: When Hit Dice are spent to heal during a rest, the PC’s CON bonus is NOT added to the HP regained.
3. Healing Resources: The Healer’s Kit Dependency optional rules from the DMG (page 266) are in effect. This means a character can’t spend any Hit Dice until someone expends one use of a healer’s kit to bandage and treat the character’s wounds. These kits are readily available in towns and villages, but they are a resource that must be managed.
4. HP Determination: At 1st level, PCs get max HP + CON bonus. Every level thereafter requires a roll of your class HD to determine how many HP are gained. No CON bonus is added to the roll. A 1 can be re-rolled once.
5. Death Saving Throws: Normally death save successes/failures reset to zero when you regain any hit points or become stable. In my game that is not the case. Death save failures reset after a long rest.

Exhaustion

Exhaustion is a spiral of hardship for the PCs and it is the perfect tool to keep them on their toes and cognizant of conditions, environmental threats, and bodily fatigue. Among the many things that can cause exhaustion to overtake the PCs are: spending more than 4 hours outside in harsh environments, travelling too fast without rest, running out of food, and many other conditions or specific events that may occur in the game. Along with those, I also dole out levels of exhaustion for the following:

1. When a PC takes a critical hit in combat
2. When a PC drops to 0 hit points (but isn’t killed outright)
3. When a PC fails a death saving throw by 5 or more

Combat Rules Variants

Massive Damage: I use the massive damage rules variant delineated on page 273 of the 5e DMG. When a creature takes damage from a single source equal to or greater than half its hit point maximum, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or suffer a random effect determined by a roll on the System Shock table. For example, a creature that has a hit point maximum of 30 must make that Constitution save if it takes 15 damage or more from a single source. Here is the System Shock table:

Roll (1d10)	Massive Damage/System Shock Effect
1	The creature drops to 0 hit points.
2-3	The creature drops to 0 hit points but is stable.
4-5	The creature is stunned until the end of its next turn.
6-7	The creature can’t take reactions and has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the end of its next turn.
8-10	The creature can’t take reactions until the end of its next turn.

Cleaving: Another variant I use from the 5e DMG (page 272) is called Cleaving Through Creatures. I have modified this to make for a more cinematic game in which the melee fighter/tank can shine if the party is fighting a large group of creatures with more than 4 combatants per PC. If the majority of them are 3 or more CR lower than the PC’s level, when a melee attack reduces a creature to 0 hit points, any excess damage from that attack might carry over to another creature nearby. The attacker targets another creature within reach and, if the original attack roll can hit it, applies any remaining damage to it. If that creature likewise reduced to 0 hit points, repeat this process, carrying over the remaining damage until there are no targets in melee range, or until the damage carried over fails to reduce a creature to 0 hit points.

Firing into Melee: Targeting an opponent who is in melee with an ally is dangerous. If you miss, you have a chance to hit an ally. Make another attack roll and if it hits the AC of an ally engaged in melee with the original target, the attack hits the ally. Roll damage as normal.  

Fear Effects: I feel the fear effect in 5e is weak. Therefore, I use a modified form of the frightened condition from PHB Appendix A. The condition as written states that a frightened creature has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while the source of its fear is within line of sight. The creature can’t willingly move closer to the source of its fear. Sometimes when the frightened condition is imposed by a creature, it includes the sentence: “On its turn a frightened creature must use its movement to move away from the source of its fear until the source is no longer in line of sight.” In my games, that last sentence applies to all frightened individuals, with the following addendum: “Once the source is not in line of sight and cannot be heard by the afflicted creature, a new saving throw against fear can be attempted.” This means the affected individual cannot make a save until they are out of BOTH line of sight AND earshot. These two small changes make terrifying creatures even more terrifying because the PC cannot simply turn their back or move 5 feet and hide behind a pillar and suddenly get over their fear 6 seconds later. Instead, they MUST move farther away before they can even attempt another save. Demons, Devils, and Dragons just got a lot more frightening!

Morale Rules: I use morale rules modified from the optional ones on DMG page 273, briefly; A creature fighting the PCs might flee under certain circumstances. Those circumstances include but are not limited to being bloodied, having the leader of their group killed, and having half their group die in battle. The morale check is a Wisdom saving throw with a DC based on the creature and situation. A failed save leads to the creature/group attempting to flee. In general, PCs are NOT subject to the morale roll. Here is a sample morale reaction table; I use this one for goblins which have a low morale score, and therefore high WIS save DC because they are generally cowardly. If the Goblins fail their WIS save, I roll 2d6 and consult the following table:

Roll 2d6	Effect / Resultant Behavior
2	Goblins stay and fight, against all odds
3-4	Goblins retreat after attacking one last time
5-8	Goblins flee, but ranged attackers try to cover others as they go
9-11	Goblins flee in terror, without worrying about their comrades’ fate
12	Goblins drop weapons and surrender, begging for their lives

Adventuring Variants

Dice/Spell Effect/Ability Stacking: Only one die can be added to any given d20 roll. This means no stacking of Bless, Bardic Inspiration, and whatever else the party can muster, onto a single roll.

Identification of Magical Items: The 5e ID rules as written are NOT used – they take all the fun and mystery out of magical items. “Here, just hold this in your hand and think about it for an hour and suddenly you know everything about it!” That’s just… no. Instead, in my game there are three ways to identify a magic item. The expensive way is to find a sage/wizard/hireling who can cast identify for the PCs as a service. Once a spellcasting PC is high enough level, of course they can choose to prepare and cast the spell themselves (FYI: the Identify spell cannot be cast as a ritual in my game). In lieu of casting the spell, the party can find out what an item is/does via learning about the item through use of said item, as follows:

1. Potions: PCs can taste the potion and try to get a hint of what its effects will be. It will not be determined with 100% surety unless they have had that type of potion before (in which case the taste would be recognized). It is possible to suffer side effects from tasting different potions.
2. Magic Weapons/Armor: A PC has to use it/wear it for at least 24 hours and/or have its effect triggered by the appropriate situation in-game to find out what it does.
3. Magic Casting Item (rod/staff/wand): Must be used by a PC and they cannot tell how many charges it has left if it is a charged item.
4. Non-Wearable Magic Item: Must use it or do some research (in-game via a sage or library) otherwise there is no way to tell just by holding it.
5. Wearable Magic Item (bracelet/ring/necklace/etc): Same as weapons/armor – PC has to put it on and use it or have its effect triggered by the situation (i.e. if it is a ring of protection, the first time the PC gets hit, they will realize it gave them a +1 to AC).

Spell Components: Spell components are very important to wizards and other casters. I assume that many of the basically gatherable items are within easy acquisition (i.e. sand, a feather, string, dirt, gold coin, incense, sumac leaf, etc). However, other items must be actively sought or gathered any time the caster gets a chance (pearls, ruby dust, piece of tentacle from a giant octopus, etc) and so will not necessarily be readily available. Diamonds, rare pearls, high cost gems, and highly decorative bowls worth a large amount of GP are not so easily found. A spell focus does not automatically negate the need for a spell component.

Sleeping: While sleeping, PCs remove their armor unless otherwise stated. If on watch, I assume a PC donned their armor and their weapon is at the ready. A PC who sleeps with armor on must succeed on a DC 12 CON saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion. A PC taking a second long rest wearing armor rolls with disadvantage (even if they succeeded on the first check).

Casting Spells from a Scroll: Casting a spell from a scroll can be dangerous. Arcane casters can cast a spell that is not in their spell-book from a scroll automatically. If the PC does not already know spells of the level of the spell scroll, they must make an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10 + the spell’s level. Failure of this check doesn’t necessarily mean that the spell does not go off, but it may have some side effects. Because those trained in arcana can read magic, it is theoretically possible for a non-caster to decipher and read a spell scroll. In this case, the Intelligence (Arcana) check is made with disadvantage.

Changes to Spells: Damage dealing cantrips do NOT do more damage as a PC levels up to 5th, 11th, etc. The spells Guidance and Healing Spirit do not exist on any caster’s spell-list.

Experience Points

Yes, I count, track, and award experience points instead of doing milestone leveling. No, it is not an accounting nightmare. No I do not get bored with it. Yes, I think it actually helps players visualize their progress better than random milestone awards when the DM feels like it. I know, I know, milestones aren’t just randomly allocated and they are not just when the DM remembers to level the party up… I know that many published 5e adventures include guidelines for when to level up the party based on quest completion and progress toward larger goals. So what? I still don’t like it and, for me, awarding and tracking XP is a part of the game I like, so I don’t want to get rid of it. And yeah, I’ve been known to award XP for GP in 5e. Yes, it works just fine.

Want a PDF of my full house-rules document?

That is, this PDF contains more than what is in this post. Ask and ye shall receive… here you go: DMSamuel’s 5e House-Rules.

They are surely not to everyone’s taste and I know for a fact that some PCs do not like the restrictions and limits on character creation. Also note that I am going for an older-school feel and that means it is more than just rules variants – it is…

1. Fewer dice rolls for task resolution
2. Descriptions that telegraph danger for the players and their PCs
3. Traps where finding it is only half the battle – the other(larger/more important) half is figuring out how to disarm, avoid, or otherwise overcome it
4. Lots of instances of me saying “Just tell me what you/your PC is trying to do” and “The answer is not on your character sheet.”

If you have read this far, thank you so much. I appreciate you!
Until Next Time, I wish you good gaming!
~DMSamuel