Question about converting/sourcing 4e for other editions

[Morlock]

4th edition is a mess to me, the way no other edition is. I freely admit not having learned anything about how 4e works, so this isn't a knock on 4e, just an honest assessment of how I relate to it. I can open a PHB or core rulebook from BECMI, 1e, 2e, 3e, or 5e, turn to the spell descriptions, and see enough I'm familiar with to sort of know what I'm looking at. The spells range from level 1 to level 9, for starters. But when I open a 4e book, I see level 22 utility prayers and such. To get a ballpark traditional level, do I multiply by 0.33, add one, then round down, or what?

Is there a good conversion doc somewhere?

 

[MwaO]

Basically, the way I'd look at 4e is that you take 4e level of X and that then equals X/2+3 in other editions. Then add +1 for Paragon and +1 for Epic. So a 1st level 4e PC is roughly a 3rd/4th level PC and a 30th level PC is about a 20th level PC.

Just be aware, though - 4e is not friendly to be used for other editions because it doesn't have a very open SRD/OGL...

 

[Morlock]

So a level 1 spell becomes a level 3 spell, a level 2 spell becomes a level 4 spell, etc? Wow.

ETA: nah, that wouldn't work. A 22nd level spell would become a 14th level spell, no such animal. I assume you mean divide by 2 after this to get spell levels? But then how would you get 9th level spells out of this? Maybe I should go back and look at the 4e books again. I don't remember seeing any 30th level spells, but if there were, dividing by 2 then adding 3 then dividing by two again would deliver a 9th level spell.

 

[MwaO]

So a level 1 spell becomes a level 3 spell, a level 2 spell becomes a level 4 spell, etc? Wow.

ETA: nah, that wouldn't work. A 22nd level spell would become a 14th level spell, no such animal. I assume you mean divide by 2 after this to get spell levels? But then how would you get 9th level spells out of this? Maybe I should go back and look at the 4e books again. I don't remember seeing any 30th level spells, but if there were, dividing by 2 then adding 3 then dividing by two again would deliver a 9th level spell.

A 22nd level ability is something that a 22nd level 4e PC would have. Who is approximately an X/2+5 level other edition PC - i.e. 11+5 or 16th level PC. And likely something that a 4e PC could use every combat encounter.

 

[Voadam]

4e the level of the powers are the PC level you get them at. At first you just keep adding powers. Later on you trade in weaker level ones to upgrade to higher level powers so the number of powers caps out but they keep being stronger.

In 4e levels go 1-30, 21-30 are similar to epic in 3e.

Note that 4e spells do a lot less than 3e spells, they are power wise equivalent to everybody else's equal level powers, so they are generally comparatively weaker than other edition high level spells.

Also at higher levels everybody does less damage than in say 3e/Pathfinder but with lots of monster hp leading to lots of quick combat rounds but no fight over quickly. I was just in a 17th level game last weekend and the heavy hitters (a warlock, a monk, and a barbarian) were hitting around 50 points of damage a round with occasional spikes for a crit doing up to 120 points. The end boss had over 1000 hp.

 

[MwaO]

Also at higher levels everybody does less damage than in say 3e/Pathfinder but with lots of monster hp leading to lots of quick combat rounds but no fight over quickly. I was just in a 17th level game last weekend and the heavy hitters (a warlock, a monk, and a barbarian) were hitting around 50 points of damage a round with occasional spikes for a crit doing up to 120 points. The end boss had over 1000 hp.

Depends on the level of optimization and how the DM adjusts to it. If the PCs are doing only 50/round, then the end boss shouldn't have over 1000 hp if it has any help. General goal should be to have 3-5 round fights.