Pathfinder 1E Expedition to Castle Ravenloft in Pathfinder

tylermalan · Jan 15, 2011

What's up, Pathfinder peoples. My group is finally tired of 4E and are considering playing Pathfinder. I've run Expedition to Castle Ravenloft for 3.5E twice in the past, and this group wants to play it. I'm wondering if there are any thoughts about playing that adventure with the Pathfinder rules. Would it be difficult? In particular, I've heard that Pathfinder changed the turning undead rules, and since there is a lot of undead that would be important.

Volaran · Jan 15, 2011

By default, clerics get 'channeling' of positive or negative energy, rather than turn/rebuke/command.

For a cleric channeling positive energy, this allows them to heal allies within a 30 foot radius of the cleric for 1d6hp/2 cleric levels. Alternately, they can deal damage to undead equal to 1d6/2 cleric levels with a Fort DC of 10+ the cleric's charisma bonus + 1/2 the cleric's level. Paladins and Oracles of the Life mystery also have access to this ability.

Clerics who channel negative energy can harm living creatures or heal undead in a similar manner.

Standard 3.5 turning and rebuking are still available as feats, dependent on having the proper kind of channeling.

So, parties with clerics do tend to have a bit more staying power than their 3.5 counterparts, and direct damage to undead can certainly be useful, though I have seen a fair amount of Pathfinder clerics take the Turn Undead feat in undead-heavy campaigns.

Paladins also have an increased Smite ability that is particularly effective against undead, so that is something to consider as well.

Pathfinder has also increased the power of undead in some ways. You may wish to take a look at the monster section of the PRD and compare specific undead from the adventure to their Pathfinder counterparts.

In general, a Pathfinder party will be slightly stronger than a 3.5 party, so if you intend to use the adventure as written with some ad-hoc Pathfinder conversion, you may wish to slow level progression. If you're interested in a full-on conversion of the adventure, then the baddies may scale a bit better with the PCs.

Oh, and if you're considering placing the adventure somewhere in the Pathfinder/Golarion setting, I would highly suggest Ustalav.

tylermalan · Jan 16, 2011

Undead are MORE powerful in Pathfinder? Do a lot of them still possess their level/ability draining powers?

Psychotic Jim · Jan 16, 2011

tylermalan said:
Undead are MORE powerful in Pathfinder? Do a lot of them still possess their level/ability draining powers?

The changes to undead can be summed up thusly:
-d8 racial HD but Cha mod to hp (zombies and skeletons have 10 cha now instead of 1) and no change to any class level HD
-cha mod to fort
-Medium BAB progression for Undead racial Hit Dice
-No longer immune to sneak attack (aside from incorporeal undead)
-Turning Resistance is now called Channeling Reistance and is a bonus on the undead's will save vs. channeling based effects

tylermalan · Jan 16, 2011

That doesn't seem that much better. Did they have d6 racial HD before or something? And is channeling resistance stronger than what turning resistance used to be?

gamerprinter · Jan 16, 2011

Its probably worth looking at the PRD for changes to vampire, to see if any of the base vampire abilities are different to 3.5 vampire. Since the PCs get beefed up a bit with Pathfinder, it might be worth beefing up Strahd a bit as well.

Excuse the threadjack, but I'm developing a setting and mini-arc set in feudal Japan inspired horror setting called Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story - kind of a cross between Oriental Adventuers and Ravenloft and the first adventure and setting material should be available by the early February. Two more adventures will follow, with a hardbound print compilation in the summer. There are plans for gazetteers and a larger full AP later in the year. Kaidan is an imprint under Rite Publishing who is a print partner with Cubical 7. There's also going to be bonus PC race books and class books, all as PDFs, that will be included in the final print compilation. It for a party of four 5th level characters, reaching 8th level at end of mini-arc, consisting of standard 'gaijin' (non Japanese) player characters escorting a merchant to an exotic land.

Thought you might be interested - end threadjack.

I'd love to run Expedition to Castle Ravenloft for PF, if I had time! Good idea though.

Scott DeWar · Jan 16, 2011

Either the PRD or the Pathfinder_OGC will suffice for information. If you go to the piazo sight and get the srd pdf of the pfrpg (OGL), you can do this all off line. Look up the monsters that are used, and compare them. I try not to look at the monster for the most part, due to the fact that I am a player. I myself will soon be starting a game here soon so I too will have to review the monsters.

Remember that one of the aspects of Pathfinder RPG is the backward compatability of the system.

tylermalan · Jan 18, 2011

Thanks a lot guys! I'll take a look at the SRD for PFRPG and see how well it translates. Are the monsters, as a whole (not just undead) in Pathfinder way different?

And, the most important question on my mind: what is the CR of an ogre?