Suord Planet RPG - B/X retroclone (I don't know what a retroclone actually is I'm just using the word because it feels like the right word to use )

So I tried sword world with some friends (I was gming) and after a session we realized it sucked terribly. The combat is incredibly repetitive and I think its meant to be the sort of game where the party grinds in if that makes sense. Because of this, I've decided to merge sword world and an older edition of dnd and run it in a setting thats original with inspiration from both.

The premise for the game itself is that the party will be explorers employed by the last remaining human kingdom after some tradegy wiped out most of humanity. They're rebuilding and so are asking adventurers to go out and create a map of the land so they can build outward. I'm thinking that they'll probably encounter lost villages and civilizations of other races and monsters. They could then shape the outcome by attempting diplomacy or fighting those they find and it should be pretty fun.

Some of the things I'm thinking about mechanically including are that I'll probably replace cleric with a less militant priest class which may or may not be npc only depending on how their spellcasting works (it my just be praying for miracles), I'd like to make wizards use mana points and make mana a larger part of wizardry and I'll try to develop a system for spell creation so players will actually be researching new spells instead of just using spells from the book, sword world has a grappler class that I'll port, and I'll need to add a bunch of races that players can interact with and potentially play as once they are on good terms with the kingdom.

If anyone here has any good (r-slurred) ideas they think it would be funny for me to include please feel free to suggest them.

!ttrpg !enemiesofkhaoskid