I started playing AD&D way back in 1980, then eventually migrated to 2e, passed 3e, and went to 3.5e. For the most part beloved characters converted from one edition to the next.The most difficult thing was that old-style multi-class characters did not convert well.
Anyone who started with AD&D knows that you had to make your own rules for many things, and to house rule a lot. Most players like magic, especially arcane magic, but divine magic was second above the pure combat or stealth classes. It was what we enjoyed, and the various DMs in our group did make rulings to help the non-arcane characters keep up with them.
I never really got into Pathfinder at first, but did borrow some of the core class features for our 3.5e game.
Eventually a group of seven started a 4e game, and we found that the only things that converted well from 3.5e to 4e was the character name and alignment. I played an eladrin wizard, because that is what I did best, and wanted to play something familiar to start out with. The only spells I could use for for free were combat spells, all the interesting stuff was cost prohibitive. Around sixth level we decided to price scrolls and spells in silver rather than gold, and it was a whole new game, fun again. We ended our campaign at 13th level, but I would have wanted to play more. The others did not. And none of us liked WotC's core book a month concept.
I took some time off from gaming (other than 12 sessions of PF, but the DMing was poor), then some friends were real excited about 5e. Many liked it, but for me the magic was gone, figuratively and literally. I played the first half of HotDQ through the book, and was bored. My wizard was impotent and boring, so I switched to a fighter. Again I was severely under-impressed.
I had what six very old characters, four from AD&D and two from 2e that I converted to Pathfinder at 12th level. Yes, it was tedious, but I learned the system. I joined a Pathfinder game and am playing a cleric, and I really like all the options. I will stick with this.
