D&D 3E/3.5 1e, 2e, 3/3.5e or 4e to 5e Conversion guidelines?

A lot has been said lately about how little new material is available for 5e and how WotC will not be publishing as much as some people may want. Also that the best option that we have is to rely on the material from previous editions by converting it "easily" to 5e (or to create your own, which is what the 5e´s DMG seems to be all about).

I haven't made any attempt to convert anything so I have no real reference about it. Without taking a deeper look it sounds more simple to convert from 3/3.5/4e to 5e because they are all d20 system and therefore more similar, requiring less conversion. Is this correct?

Are there any guidelines to convert from 1e, 2e, 3/3.5e or 4e to 5e? If this has been asked/answered before please point me in the right direction so I can find it.

Thanks in advance!!!

There's no sign of official conversion guidelines. IIRC, the last word we had was that they'd been delayed by at least 6 months due to jury duty... about 6 months ago.

I'm not aware of any unofficial guidelines, but several people have converted various things, and it does indeed to be mostly 'easily' - many things are simple substitutions with things of the same name, or refluffing existing monsters. And the DMG includes some fairly good guidelines for creating new monsters, magic items, subclasses, and the like, which should work equally well for converting old edition material.

You can start with this:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gwlJEh8hI63FzppPtbjpOeaxhbNuDENvWl4uowgq9RM/edit

psiconauta_retro said:

Are there any guidelines to convert from 1e, 2e, 3/3.5e or 4e to 5e? If this has been asked/answered before please point me in the right direction so I can find it.

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IMHO, you don't need any sort of precise formulae to convert to 5e. If an adventure has a monster, there's a chance it's already in 5e, if it's not, find a similar one - if necessary, build it from scratch, 5e monsters aren't like 3.x monsters. Same for items and whatever else, use the closest extant 5e analog.

For converting actual rules, of course, it gets much more problematic. 5e is fairly arbitrary in it's design, but...

1e/2e: AD&D stuff is usually pretty descriptive, it'll tell you exactly what the monster/item/class ability does in more or less natural (if a little quixotic) prose. Just go with that. where numbers come in, compare to something similar in 5e and ballpark it. (Though, personally, I've found that at low levels, you can run 1e monsters in 5e all but unmodified - you do have to invert AC, for instance.)

3.x/4e: Don't even bother trying to convert the numbers, use a close analog in 5e and don't try to use or re-create the earlier game version. 4e stuff, in particular, is loaded with keywords and precise rules jargon that, while perfectly clear in that context, won't make any sense in 5e. 3.x is still fairly natural-language, but it's voluminous and designed to interact with the whole system, and to have system mastery rewards and 'trap options' that make it a minefield for players (and even DMs) not familiar with it. So stick with the spirit of the source material, but use 5e-native stats for everything.

In general...

For OD&D, BX/BECMI/Cyclopedia, AD&D 1 or 2 ...

Characters keep class and level, and attributes. Hit points and abilities refigure.

Multiclass should probably convert as it did for 3E: highest plus half of each of the others for total levels, round up, then keep the proportions similar. So Fighter/Thief 8/5 wold be total 11 levels, probably 6 & 5. A 6/5/4 Th/F/MU would be 6+2.5+2=10.5 total - 4/4/3 is probably the best fit, but maybe 5/4/2, depending upon the build.

Monsters:
The above mentioned editions ballanced by total HD, with HD=TPL being the point where a death is well within the possibilities... but noting that TPL counted second and third classes as only half value... And anything between +1 and +4 as 1/2 a HD, with +5 to +8 being equal to a full HD.
So, some stable figures: The average party level is the midpoint of the stated level range, and the expected characters is 4 or the midpoint, whichever is more, provided that the expected characters isn't bigger than the maximum for the module. So, 3-7 characters of levels 5-9 would be 5 of 7th level... or 35 HD as the "deadly line." We also work the budget for 5@7th... 5 x 1700 = 8500. So, take the total HD of the encounter, divide by the total party level, and multiply the resulting fraction by 8500 to figure the budget, and use the closest thing to the item named, and get the Difficulty Value around there. (See the DMG or DMBR for how to multiply the XP value for number of badguys.)


That's a slow, but very close to best fit method, and for ones where most of the monsters and NPC's are represented in the MM and PHB, it's also going to preserve the relative difficulty.

If I came up with a fractional midpoint, say levels 5-10, that would be 7.5, so I'd average the 7th and 8th level XP values. Likewise for fractional player - just multiply by half.

Tony Vargas said:

IMHO, you don't need any sort of precise formulae to convert to 5e. If an adventure has a monster, there's a chance it's already in 5e, if it's not, find a similar one - if necessary, build it from scratch, 5e monsters aren't like 3.x monsters. Same for items and whatever else, use the closest extant 5e analog.

For converting actual rules, of course, it gets much more problematic. 5e is fairly arbitrary in it's design, but...

1e/2e: AD&D stuff is usually pretty descriptive, it'll tell you exactly what the monster/item/class ability does in more or less natural (if a little quixotic) prose. Just go with that. where numbers come in, compare to something similar in 5e and ballpark it. (Though, personally, I've found that at low levels, you can run 1e monsters in 5e all but unmodified - you do have to invert AC, for instance.)

3.x/4e: Don't even bother trying to convert the numbers, use a close analog in 5e and don't try to use or re-create the earlier game version. 4e stuff, in particular, is loaded with keywords and precise rules jargon that, while perfectly clear in that context, won't make any sense in 5e. 3.x is still fairly natural-language, but it's voluminous and designed to interact with the whole system, and to have system mastery rewards and 'trap options' that make it a minefield for players (and even DMs) not familiar with it. So stick with the spirit of the source material, but use 5e-native stats for everything.

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I second this. General rule of thumb: attempt to write a prose description of the monster or character in question. Do not fret overmuch about exact numbers, because exact numbers cannot translate. Instead, focus on (a) core concept in the more general "what effects do you achieve" way not the "specific named abilities" way, (b) any mechanics that have clear parallels (e.g. multiclassing is almost the same in 3e and 5e), and (c) approximate/relative position within the overall structure.

For characters in particular, part of this will always mean making a compromise between what you used to be able to do, what you want it to feel like, and what the 5e system allows. Some things are just impossible, I'm sure, though none come immediately to mind (probably most will be niche or broken 3e PrCs, or maybe certain 4e Warlock pacts). Some things are "possible," if you're willing to accept a heavy re-definition of what they are (the 4e Warlord or Avenger being examples), while others require less of a re-definition but still a perspective change (e.g. Shadowdancer is probably best modelled as a Shadow Monk). Some things are easier to do than they were in 3e, like the Eldritch Knight, though they often don't do exactly the same thing, either.

Always consider what you can refluff. An Oath of Vengeance Paladin might work well as an offense-oriented "Swordmage." A Valor Bard might be a better fit for your Hexblade than the Blade Pact Warlock is. Etc.

That said, though, it sounds like your questions revolve more around converting adventure material, DM-side stuff. Unfortunately, I'm not gonna be any help answering questions there; I'm no DM.

A lot of it depends on what you're trying to convert. If you just want to run previous edition adventures, the older editions are actually the easiest. You can pretty much convert an AD&D adventure just by using the 5e versions of monsters, traps, spells, and magic items, which means you can convert on the fly. 3e can work kinda like that, but it's a bit trickier. 4e doesn't have as many clear analogues, which is going to make it the hardest to convert.

Now, if you are talking about something more complex than converting an adventure, I just wouldn't recommend attempting to convert at all. Look at the concept of the thing and then recreate it using 5e framework.

Mistwell said:

You can start with this:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gwlJEh8hI63FzppPtbjpOeaxhbNuDENvWl4uowgq9RM/edit

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This looks great. I just quickly perused the BECMI document and I noticed that you may have overlooked that in Holmes stat-blocks sometimes include a Dex score. Keep on the Borderlands is an example.

I'm converting T1-4 (a bit ahead of the players) from the 1E compilation to 5E.

Monsters are being replaced with the 5E versions. Even numbers of monsters are being kept the same, though 9 Gnolls in the Moathouse Dungeon level was close to TPK. Other than that, the balance seems to be about right.

Minor NPC's can be taken from the section at the back of the DMG. Casters might need to be adjusted here and there (spell selection might need to be adjusted, for example), but again, what's out there is pretty good.

So far, I've found it to be fairly painless.

meomwt said:

I'm converting T1-4 (a bit ahead of the players) from the 1E compilation to 5E.

Monsters are being replaced with the 5E versions. Even numbers of monsters are being kept the same, though 9 Gnolls in the Moathouse Dungeon level was close to TPK. Other than that, the balance seems to be about right.

Minor NPC's can be taken from the section at the back of the DMG. Casters might need to be adjusted here and there (spell selection might need to be adjusted, for example), but again, what's out there is pretty good.

So far, I've found it to be fairly painless.

Click to expand...

I'm curious, how many PCs did you have in the party and what were their levels when they took on those nine gnolls?