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

[JJNW]

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!!!

Monster Conversion. https://opendungeons.com/adnd-monster-conversion/

 

[Celebrim]

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.

In general, it's not possible to convert from 1e/2e to 3e or later, because 1e/2e use gestalt multiclassing were as later systems use discrete mutli-classing.

For example, in 1e D&D a character can be 10th level thief and 9th level M-U and this works out to a roughly 11th level character. This means if you move to 3e (for example) you are converting to something like a 6th level rogue and 5th level wizard, which isn't even really a playable character and does nothing to capture the capabilities of the original character, so you probably then trying to ad hoc recreate the character as something like a 3rd level rogue, 3rd level wizard, and 5th level arcane trickster or some other PRC that tries to kludge the problems with discrete multiclassing and caster classes, and while this might get you closer you are still fundamentally playing a different character now that's lost some things and gained some others.

I don't think it's really possible to convert for 4e to 5e either, and converting 1e/2e to 5e is even harder than going from 1e/2e to 3e because 5e has such different notions of difficulty and challenge than 1e/2e/3e which are reasonably close on expected difficulty and really differ strongly only in their approaches to multiclassing. For example, converting a module from 1e/2e to 3e requires a bit of art, but it's likely that a 1e module for characters of level X converts to a 3e module for characters of the same level. It doesn't do that when converting to 5e.

 

[JJNW]

Ah, because of title threw me off similar title of tool. The tool is a tool for monster conversions. My bad, I saw conversion 1e, 2e, etc. and someone asked about a tool online.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

11 years later there's a bit more 5e material available, lol.

To use old modules, 1e and 2e modules can function with some minor conversion rules if you swap the AC and to hit bonuses (5e AC = 20 - 1/2e AC, 5e to-hit = 20 - 1e/2e THACO) and ad-hoc the difficulty of things like trap saves and skill-check-like stuff, but balance will be weird. A better way to use old modules is to take the basic structure and plot, then replace all NPC stat blocks with similar 5e stat blocks, adjust as needed, use the name and number of monsters to fight as an idea but make the encounter using 5/5.5 stat blocks and guidelines, and change traps and skill checks to use DCs and damage recommended in the 5/5.5 DMG. That lets you get the feel of an old module and saves time since you can directly reuse maps, NPC names and relations, plot, layout, challenges, etc, and the work you do is really more like rebalancing a modern mod to suit your particular party.

Also now there are a good number of conversion guides on DMsGuild that do the work of changing stat blocks and DCs around for you, so you can really run an old mod on the fly with just a printout/PDF of a guide handy to convert as you go.

 

[haakon1]

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

Goodman Games did this officially in a massive two volume Original Adventures Reincarnated set. It contained the original, the original converted to 5e, and additional material in 5e, plus material on real world history of the work.

I used it in running TOEE for a 3.5e campaign.

 

[haakon1]

My conversion notes, quick before going back to work.

I think AD&D 2e to 3e is the only edition change where I had an official conversion guide. It was a free PDF, focused on PC conversion.

For monsters across editions, look to Forgotten Realms wiki. If the monster existed in FR material, they’ll have compiled which sourcebooks it was in. Nearly everything that ever existed pre-4e has a version in d20/3x (3e, 3.5e, PF1).

I find 4e is generally the outlier, so I generally avoid 4e materials.

Everything else - Basic, OSR, AD&D, 2e, Quick Play 2e, 3e, PF1, SF, various d20 things, 5e, 5.5e - I’ve found pretty easy to convert to my 3.5e campaigns. 3x is right in the middle, between Old School and 5e. The missing link, as it were.

 

[JJNW]

Right, I should clarify - this is only for monster conversion, not full PC or module conversion. I've converted old adventure modules to other editions before and had them play well at the table, like I3 to 5e. Changed things as needed, especially encounters and DCs, but the core adventure still worked.