Bringing Back Old Monster Traits

[Sparky McDibben]

Man, so in my last game I (on something of a whim) created a skeleton T-Rex. To make it more interesting, I gave it a Swallow attack and decided that once it had a hero swallowed, the hero would have to make Con saves at the top of the round each round, or lose a level (they're level 12). I also said that if a PC was dropped to level zero, they immediately came back as a vampire. I mean, I made a few other changes, too, buffing damage, hit points, and AC. All the classics.

Now, the good news is that the bard made their saves (due to the grace of the druid's Lucky feat). The other good news is that there was some definite sphincter-tightening going on at the table. Turns out that maybe the days of lasting consequences aren't gone yet (or I am just insanely lucky in how cool my group is).

Also, pro tip: if you want the villain to monologue and escape, project image is the spell to go to. I got to RP this illusion of the necromancer yelling his head off when the ranger / cleric turned his T-Rex and sent it charging through a waterfall and off a cliff (T-Rex couldn't stop in time).

What old school abilities do you bring back when you have to establish stakes?

[Theodoxus]

Not necessarily as a 'stakes', but I'm looking at bringing back various things from 3rd Edition, including additional magic weapon features (I particularly miss Brilliant Energy (which I think fits the Soulknife quite well) and Energy Burst for crit fishing builds). I'm also thinking of bringing back the crit range and crit multipliers, though with how 5E deals crit damage, it might be a little crazy (at least the multipliers) but then I'm also using a damage reduction style for armor, so maybe not as bad.

What I really like is how 5E frees up magic weapon types without having to have numerical bonuses, so adding new types doesn't affect bounded accuracy outside of applying damage to resistant creatures.

it also lets things like Brilliant Energy be something less than Legendary if there's no bonus to hit/dam associated with it.