The choice of lattice action plays a crucial role in lattice simulations, controlling how the continuum limit is approached and how numerical simulations are performed. A very popular choice for the fermion action is the well-known O(a)-improved Wilson action, which has been successfully used in a wide range of applications. However, experience with this action has also revealed some of its limitations. These include the presence of small or even negative eigenvalues of the Dirac operator at intermediate lattice spacings due to the breaking of chiral symmetry, as well as discretization effects which in some cases have been found to be large when compared to alternative lattice discretizations. In this talk, I will discuss some modifications that can be applied to the action to address these complications, namely the use of smearing, an exponentiated clover term, and the inclusion of a dimension-six operator to remove O(a²) effects at tree level. I will then present some results obtained in the quenched approximation, that show the impact of these modifications on reducing discretization effects and the breaking of chiral symmetry.