General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
I was not sure which forum was best to post this in, which usually means the General forum.
I am considering picking up one of the Paizo-written adventure paths, and converting it to 4e. I am aware some were already converted to AP, but for the purposes of this poll assume I'd be doing it from scratch.
I am looking for which is, in your opinion, the best Adventure Path overall. And, I am looking for your choice to be influenced at least a bit by considering how hard it would be to convert to 4e.
I'm up to The third module in savage tides, and I gotta tell ya it's a breeze to convert. Plus having played through it in 3.5 besides the horrid Level 13+ combats the game was fun as can be. The only trouble I was having is fitting all 30 levels into it. I'd recommend having a pre adventure and getting the party to level 3-5 then starting but that's just me! Or heavily adding stuff in Sassarine. Take a look at how WOTBS did it's first adventure for 4e. There are plenty of great ideas on non combat encounters there, that you could use to pad the levels instead of pre.
I'm up to The third module in savage tides, and I gotta tell ya it's a breeze to convert. Plus having played through it in 3.5 besides the horrid Level 13+ combats the game was fun as can be. The only trouble I was having is fitting all 30 levels into it. I'd recommend having a pre adventure and getting the party to level 3-5 then starting but that's just me! Or heavily adding stuff in Sassarine. Take a look at how WOTBS did it's first adventure for 4e. There are plenty of great ideas on non combat encounters there, that you could use to pad the levels instead of pre.
I don't feel the need to take it to all 30 levels. Whatever level it would naturally get a 4e group to, that would be fine.
The end battle is against Demigorgon himself which i belive is a level 34 Solo controller... So you would probably want them to be 30 for that reason alone
I am halfway through with Age of Worms. Almost everything is easy to convert, except for thee arena battles in Champion's belt. These need to be done differently. Players going nova with Dailies and action points makes for short encounters.
__________________ "The best advice I ever got was from an elephant trainer in the jungle outside Bangalore. I was doing a hike through the jungle as a tourist. I saw these large elephants tethered to a small stake. I asked him, 'How can you keep such a large elephant tied to such a small stake?' He said, 'When the elephants are small, they try to pull out the stake, and they fail. When they grow large, they never try to pull out the stake again.' That parable reminds me that we have to go for what we think we're fully capable of, not limit ourselves by what we've been in the past." -Vivek Paul
I know nothing of 4e, so really can't say what would be easy. Some rooms in all the paths I have seen are small, some monsters are not ment to be minions and others will need minions put in them.
I myself love STAP just love it. But many of the dungeon like are's are small not sure how to handle that without expanding the map or using the small area.
A goos point with this one is most of the monsters are in 4e in one way or another. However finding all the mags can be hard.
As for more recent paths. I have no dming knowledge of RotRL but am playing in it. CotCT is fun, but again has the small area's and a few new critters to convert.
I hope some experienced 4e players can help you out with this. But myself I would go with a newer path as they are easy to get.
Oh another note there is a guy converting legacy of fire over on the paizo boards. It might be worth looking into
__________________ Remember kids whisky will not put out flaming mages ,but it will confuse the deathknight
"The Soul of D&D? It's rolling a natural 20 when you're down to 3 hit points and the cleric's on the floor and you're staring that sunnavabitch bugbear right in his bloodshot eye and holding the line just long enough to let the wizard unleash a fireball at the guards who are on their way, because they're all that stands between you, the Foozle and Glory." - WizarDru
Thank you Gary Gygax, for everything.
"Rock on, Paizo, for you rock mightily".- dragonlordofpoondari
Last edited by Hunter In Darkness; 10th June 2009 at 12:02 AM..
Council of Thieves won't be hitting until around August. All we really know for sure is that it's set in Cheliax(nation ruled by a regime of devil-worshippers) and that it's an urban campaign that will stay in or around its city for the entirety of the AP.
Legacy of Fire has two more installments to go, but its high fantasy leanings(compared to the grittier paths that went before it) and the nature of the villains(lots and lots and lots of gnolls(and genies)) might make it easier to fit into the 4E ruleset. IIRC, someone actually started working on a conversion on the Paizo forums and may have started up a blog for it.
A goos point with this one is most of the monsters are in 4e in one way or another. However finding all the mags can be hard.
All monsters published in any source by WotC are searchable through the D&D Compendium. You don't need to hunt through the magazines to find them. The compendium will give you their stats and a link to the source they appear in.
EDIT: Or were you talking about the magazines STAP originally appeared in?
__________________ Tales from the Rusty Dragon - A 4th Edition Conversion Blog Covering Paizo's Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path
I am halfway through with Age of Worms. Almost everything is easy to convert, except for thee arena battles in Champion's belt. These need to be done differently. Players going nova with Dailies and action points makes for short encounters.
I converted Age of Worms and actually made the big group champion's belt fight a skill challenge instead. It worked great and the players loved it.
There's a 4e Rise of the Runelords conversion going, and it looks good, and I am considering a Legacy of Fire conversion myself (with blog), but we'll see.
I am already running Scales of War, and I am considering WotBS for a VTT game.
__________________ Game on, gang! Ptolus #16 (with customized, personalized sig from Monte. Awesomesauce.), Rappan Athuk Reloaded #37 (Another Awesomesauce, the Necromancer way.)
Try to not let failure to use technical language properly get in the way of getting to the real point under discussion. - Umbran
Characters & Games
Books currently in play: Dungeon & Dragon Magazine (*Scales of War AP*), WOTC 4e Core and Supplemental books
Current Campaign: Scales of War - Lost Mines of Karak -- Kodirgo, Minotaur Barbarian 6; Vondal, Dwarf Cleric 6; Karithul, Gnome Bard 6; Marshaun, Elf Druid 6
One good metric to consider is whether an AP requires flying/water breathing/plane shifting, or other forms of high level magic. Keep them in mind, since access to these kinds of effects are far more constrained within 4E than in 3E ... an adventure expecting all of the party to fly at an early level, frex, would be pretty much impossible for 4E chars.
Sorry I can't recommend an AP for conversion though, since I've only DM'd (and read) Shackled City, and only played through half of AoW ...
All monsters published in any source by WotC are searchable through the D&D Compendium. You don't need to hunt through the magazines to find them. The compendium will give you their stats and a link to the source they appear in.
EDIT: Or were you talking about the magazines STAP originally appeared in?
Yep was talking about the now out of print mags, although I think the PDF are still available at paizo, but as I find PDF's useless for me I forgot.
But most if not all of Staps monsters should now be in one of the 4e books. I dont have them so cant say for sure
__________________ Remember kids whisky will not put out flaming mages ,but it will confuse the deathknight
"The Soul of D&D? It's rolling a natural 20 when you're down to 3 hit points and the cleric's on the floor and you're staring that sunnavabitch bugbear right in his bloodshot eye and holding the line just long enough to let the wizard unleash a fireball at the guards who are on their way, because they're all that stands between you, the Foozle and Glory." - WizarDru
Thank you Gary Gygax, for everything.
"Rock on, Paizo, for you rock mightily".- dragonlordofpoondari
I say you mean Dannager's runelord one. He has it linked in his sig
__________________ Remember kids whisky will not put out flaming mages ,but it will confuse the deathknight
"The Soul of D&D? It's rolling a natural 20 when you're down to 3 hit points and the cleric's on the floor and you're staring that sunnavabitch bugbear right in his bloodshot eye and holding the line just long enough to let the wizard unleash a fireball at the guards who are on their way, because they're all that stands between you, the Foozle and Glory." - WizarDru
Thank you Gary Gygax, for everything.
"Rock on, Paizo, for you rock mightily".- dragonlordofpoondari
Yeah am running legacy right now with pathfinder rules and it's well written and very cool. I really cant see any issue with converting part 1. Far as I have read so far.
A few fights would work out great with the 4e minion rules I would think. That ones current, fun...and Gnolls...and genie war...I mean come on...gnolls. Really what more do ya need
__________________ Remember kids whisky will not put out flaming mages ,but it will confuse the deathknight
"The Soul of D&D? It's rolling a natural 20 when you're down to 3 hit points and the cleric's on the floor and you're staring that sunnavabitch bugbear right in his bloodshot eye and holding the line just long enough to let the wizard unleash a fireball at the guards who are on their way, because they're all that stands between you, the Foozle and Glory." - WizarDru
Thank you Gary Gygax, for everything.
"Rock on, Paizo, for you rock mightily".- dragonlordofpoondari
Yep was talking about the now out of print mags, although I think the PDF are still available at paizo, but as I find PDF's useless for me I forgot.
But most if not all of Staps monsters should now be in one of the 4e books. I dont have them so cant say for sure
95+% are And as far as the rooms, I've found I just change the scale from 1=5 to 1=ten. On the smaller ones. The biggest problem is the ship fight's however we go to multi level terrain for that. ON the deck no markers, Rigging Level 1 1 marker Top rigging 2, and for the Crows nest 3
I'm up to The third module in savage tides, and I gotta tell ya it's a breeze to convert. Plus having played through it in 3.5 besides the horrid Level 13+ combats the game was fun as can be. The only trouble I was having is fitting all 30 levels into it. I'd recommend having a pre adventure and getting the party to level 3-5 then starting but that's just me! Or heavily adding stuff in Sassarine. Take a look at how WOTBS did it's first adventure for 4e. There are plenty of great ideas on non combat encounters there, that you could use to pad the levels instead of pre.
I too am running a 4E conversion of Savage Tide. My plan is to end it at around the battle of Farshore, so no level 30 AP for me. I am done with those uber-long adventure paths.
It's mega easy to convert stuff to 4E I am finding... spending the bulk of my time redesigning encounter areas to make them better fit the 4E playstyle, and creating monsters which is a lot of fun. Rhagodessa was a snap to make and the players really hate them.
I too am running a 4E conversion of Savage Tide. My plan is to end it at around the battle of Farshore, so no level 30 AP for me. I am done with those uber-long adventure paths.
It's mega easy to convert stuff to 4E I am finding... spending the bulk of my time redesigning encounter areas to make them better fit the 4E playstyle, and creating monsters which is a lot of fun. Rhagodessa was a snap to make and the players really hate them.
Are you finding the adventure is playing out well?