Here's That Official Conversion Document You've Been Waiting For!

There's a short official conversion document on the official D&D website. "We’re sometimes asked for advice on converting things from previous editions of D&D to fifth edition. The following PDF, penned by Chris Sims, gives advice on converting characters and adventures, along with the elements that go into them, such as spells, monsters, and treasure." It's 4 pages long, and covers converting player characters, adventures, and treasure from various previous editions. (thanks to Terradave for the scoop).

As the introduction mentions, it is short (the treasure section is four paragraphs in length). As the document says, "Conversion of D&D material is more art than science. The aim of conversion is to arrive at something that feels like the older-edition version, rather than at an exact replication."

Click here for the official conversion document.

Some conversion examples include:

• 5E characters are two-thirds of 4E character levels.
• Modifiers less than +4 are ignored; those of +4 or more use a trait, proficiency, or advantage.
• Ability scores above 20 become 20.

Also of interest is a Monsters By Type list. "Sometimes you want to see a list of all monsters of a certain type. Perhaps you’re the DM building an undead-themed adventure, or you’re the player curious to know which elementals or fey your character can summon. The following PDF is for such times. It lists every monster from the Monster Manual by type and includes a creature’s challenge rating and any tags, such as shapechanger, that the creature might have."

The conversion document has been anxiously - and often impatiently! - awaited for a while now. Its long delay was apparently due to a key staff member being on jury duty (this is the same delay cited for any third party licensing stuff). Mike Mearls said back in March that it would be at least another 4 months (it was!)

There are also, of course, many fan-created conversion documents and tools.

[h=4]Original Post[/h]
Not sure if this is what people have been waiting for, but a 4 page conversion document has been posted for 5E. Quite general.

Also, monsters by type and compiled resources.

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/rules-references-october-2015

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

The converted character can ALSO add their racial modifier. I am talking about the rolled stats, the base portion. They don't want you starting with more than 18 as a base stat. If you raise it outside of stat generation, such as through racial increases, that's fine (provided that part doesn't take it more than 20).

Not according to the conversion doc. You either port the ability scores over, or you regenerate the ability scores from scratch using Reassigning Ability Scores on page 2. There is no suggested method which equates to your suggestion of "port the scores over and then apply ability modifiers on top." That's part of why converting 18/00 to Str 20 makes more sense than converting to Str 18--both of them are ways to represent "the strongest possible (non-exotic) PC."

And you're too hung up on the 18/00 conversion--that's only a tiny piece of the picture. Str 19-25 are just as important, and so are other ability scores like Cha, at least if you're not doing the recreating-from-scratch thing. And far more important than converting PC ability scores is inferring monster ability scores.

 

[S'mon]

The converted character can ALSO add their racial modifier. I am talking about the rolled stats, the base portion. They don't want you starting with more than 18 as a base stat. If you raise it outside of stat generation, such as through racial increases, that's fine (provided that part doesn't take it more than 20).

AD&D character stats already have racial modifiers (which include caps/absence of caps), so it would be a really bad idea to double-dip by adding them again. I strongly recommend not doing that. A 1e STR 18/91 is the equivalent of a 5e STR 20, obviously you shouldn't then add on another +1 or +2 on
top.