Ironically he hates playing it because of all the extra rules, but loves creating characters because of all the extra rules. Writing that out I think I just realized if I take out BAB progression and replace it with proficiency bonuses and have multi attack rules just be 5e rules I think all his issues would evaporate.

I would be, but one of our friends has decided that 5e is the only system he wants to play, and we all love him too much to play without him. We don’t hate 5e, we just don’t love it.

Back in my day we got an extra attack at 6th, 11th, and 16th level, and each one was at a cumulative -5 penalty, AND WE LIKED IT!