4th to 5th Edition Converters - What has been your experience?

[S'mon]

I don't see how PF doesn't work with exploration. It has numerous skills and other mechanics that can be of use in that pillar (or in interaction, for that matter).

Biggest issue with 3e/PF for me is the huge class imbalance - some characters have useful skills, others cn wield powerful magic, others get nothing, and are only useful in a standard 4-fights-a-day setup, if then.
This is equally an issue with the social pillar. 5e with its Bounded Accuracy, limited magic,
and easier access to skills does not have the 3e/PF issues.

 

[S'mon]

I think 4e gives you enough tools that what you 'skip to' can be a lot of different stuff too. I just think that in general you can get past a lot of 'noise' really well in 4e. Mentzer, for instance, just has no other way to handle it except you plod through each room and corridor. You can 'fudge it' and that can be fine at times, just not as natural and easy as in 4e.

Heh - recently in my Mentzer game a PC Thief infiltrated her great uncle's castle to
murder him (and his wife). I had no map of the castle, and had to improvise. I basically ran her d% Thief skill checks as a 4e skill challenge.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Biggest issue with 3e/PF for me is the huge class imbalance - some characters have useful skills, others cn wield powerful magic, others get nothing, and are only useful in a standard 4-fights-a-day setup, if then.
This is equally an issue with the social pillar. 5e with its Bounded Accuracy, limited magic,
and easier access to skills does not have the 3e/PF issues.

So it's not that the system can't handle all three pillars, just that it isn't balanced? OK, that's fair.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Heh - recently in my Mentzer game a PC Thief infiltrated her great uncle's castle to
murder him (and his wife). I had no map of the castle, and had to improvise. I basically ran her d% Thief skill checks as a 4e skill challenge.

Yeah, I think the lack of a really robust and consistent 'skill' system hurts you some there, but obviously you can apply the principles of more modern modes of play to older games. We added fate points and character facets to Boot Hill too, and it worked great.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Biggest issue with 3e/PF for me is the huge class imbalance - some characters have useful skills, others cn wield powerful magic, others get nothing, and are only useful in a standard 4-fights-a-day setup, if then.
This is equally an issue with the social pillar. 5e with its Bounded Accuracy, limited magic,
and easier access to skills does not have the 3e/PF issues.

Yeah, hard to disagree with. Many of the 3.x and PF classes are really just useless from a standpoint of seriously playing at the same level as full casters. The difference can be truly HUGE too. I mean, at low levels in 3.5 if your DM really puts the screws to the casters in terms of resources you can KINDA pretend that a bard or a monk is playing the same game you are. A fighter or a thief will do pretty well, for a while. Once you hit 7th level though there's simply no disguising the huge differences anymore though. The fighter or the thief will still contribute, though their roles become more peripheral at that point. But the monk, bard, or many of the non-casting/semi-casting classes in some of the other books (Samurai really springs to mind) are just beyond pathetic.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

I only recently picked up 5E. I wrote it off during the playtest as something I wasn't interested in, and only just now joined an AL game for geographic reasons(I was was going to be there either way and not playing was the worse option). It was my least favorite D&D before, and 3 sessions in it's still my least favorite D&D.

Reasons:

1. Not enough character customization
2. Combat is boring(more than any other edition), and I'm a combat first player
3. I don't care for the emphasis on DM empowerment, and more than that miss the player empowerment that is lacking in 5E
4. Bounded accuracy makes the game too random
5. The old school feel does nothing for me, and is even a net negative
6. The return of pixel bitching(it's happened at my table)
7. Return of the low level meatgrinder I was glad to be rid of
8. Tanking sucks compared to 4E(the defender role was my favorite)
9. I miss 4E-style optimization

I'm sure there's more but those are what come to mind past my bedtime.

 

[S'mon]

I only recently picked up 5E. I wrote it off during the playtest as something I wasn't interested in, and only just now joined an AL game for geographic reasons(I was was going to be there either way and not playing was the worse option). It was my least favorite D&D before, and 3 sessions in it's still my least favorite D&D.

Reasons:

1. Not enough character customization
2. Combat is boring(more than any other edition), and I'm a combat first player
3. I don't care for the emphasis on DM empowerment, and more than that miss the player empowerment that is lacking in 5E
4. Bounded accuracy makes the game too random
5. The old school feel does nothing for me, and is even a net negative
6. The return of pixel bitching(it's happened at my table)
7. Return of the low level meatgrinder I was glad to be rid of
8. Tanking sucks compared to 4E(the defender role was my favorite)
9. I miss 4E-style optimization

I'm sure there's more but those are what come to mind past my bedtime.

Yeah, I like it that the players like you have other games to play, and players like me have 5e to play. I find running 3e/PF especially a pain when I have players with your preferences. The increased variety is definitely a positive.

 

[S'mon]

I only recently picked up 5E. I wrote it off during the playtest as something I wasn't interested in, and only just now joined an AL game for geographic reasons(I was was going to be there either way and not playing was the worse option). It was my least favorite D&D before, and 3 sessions in it's still my least favorite D&D.

Reasons:

1. Not enough character customization
2. Combat is boring(more than any other edition), and I'm a combat first player
3. I don't care for the emphasis on DM empowerment, and more than that miss the player empowerment that is lacking in 5E
4. Bounded accuracy makes the game too random
5. The old school feel does nothing for me, and is even a net negative
6. The return of pixel bitching(it's happened at my table)
7. Return of the low level meatgrinder I was glad to be rid of
8. Tanking sucks compared to 4E(the defender role was my favorite)
9. I miss 4E-style optimization

I'm sure there's more but those are what come to mind past my bedtime.

Yeah, I like it that the players like you have other games to play, and players like me have 5e to play. I find running 3e/PF especially a pain when I have players with your preferences. The increased variety is definitely a positive.

 

[Obryn]

I only recently picked up 5E. I wrote it off during the playtest as something I wasn't interested in, and only just now joined an AL game for geographic reasons(I was was going to be there either way and not playing was the worse option). It was my least favorite D&D before, and 3 sessions in it's still my least favorite D&D.

Reasons:

1. Not enough character customization
2. Combat is boring(more than any other edition), and I'm a combat first player
3. I don't care for the emphasis on DM empowerment, and more than that miss the player empowerment that is lacking in 5E
4. Bounded accuracy makes the game too random
5. The old school feel does nothing for me, and is even a net negative
6. The return of pixel bitching(it's happened at my table)
7. Return of the low level meatgrinder I was glad to be rid of
8. Tanking sucks compared to 4E(the defender role was my favorite)
9. I miss 4E-style optimization

I'm sure there's more but those are what come to mind past my bedtime.

I mostly agree except for #5. And in my case, if I want oldschool, I'll run *oldschool* - BECMI/AD&D - or else run Dungeon Crawl Classics.

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[Nibelung]

The return of pixel bitching(it's happened at my table)

What is pixel bitching?