[conversion woes] SO MANY ITEMS

[Ancalagon]

Hello

Some of you may know that I'm converting and running the 2nd ed adventure "the Gates of Firestorm Peak" in my 5e campaign.

I felt that converting would be fairly easy, and it's not been too bad although you have to be careful since some of the things that worked in 2nd ed work differently in 5e (hordes of small monsters for example).

One thing I didn't expect was the *ridiculous* amount of magical items 2nd ed adventures had. Now, keep in mind this is not a small module - it's 96 pages long, and the dungeon has about 125 rooms. But still, check this list out:

Broadsword +2, +3 vs goblin, orcs and regenerators
Dagger +2, +4 vs trolls
12 arrows +2
2 potions of extra healing
Wistle that animates dead 1/week
Bracers of AC 3
Warhammer +3
Cloak of earthstriding (pass through 1000 feet earth or stone/day)
5 potions of extra healing
Brooch of shielding
+3 battle axe (ast cure serious wounds 3/day)
+3 chainmail of feather falling
Ring of protection +1
+2 battle axe
+1 chain mail
Wand of negation
Tome of clear thoughts
Goat of Terror (figurine of wondrous power)
+2 battle axe, venomous
+1 chain mail (spiderwalk 3/day)
+3 longsword of blood drinking (+ damage increases up to + 6 as you do damage in battle)
Wand of magic missile
+2 greatsword
Potion of fire breathing
3 potions of diminution
Cloak of displacement
Gloves of impact (melee attacks with fists or weapon do +1d6 damage)
Potion of spider climb
3 potions of extra healing
Figurine that casts burning hand as 10th level caster (1d3+20 dmg)
Ring of Infravision
Ring of Djinn summoning (limited use as Djinn only does a single thing)
+ 3 longsword, wounding vs undead
Tome of understanding
Black Ring (evil item that can kill others but may also kill wielder)
Ring of protection +2
Staff of Striking
Wand of lightning (13 charges)
+ 2 dagger (dimention door once a day) AND natural AC of 2 (!)
Robe of the Archmagi
Wand of light
4 potions of healing
eyes of humanoid and monster charming

Now in 2nd ed + on weapons etc went up to +5, not +3 (so that +3 warhammer would be a +2 for example) but... this seems like a staggering amount of loot :O

Edit: I bolded the really powerful ones - remember, this is for characters level 6-8...

 

[Azzy]

Hello

Some of you may know that I'm converting and running the 2nd ed adventure "the Gates of Firestorm Peak" in my 5e campaign.

I felt that converting would be fairly easy, and it's not been too bad although you have to be careful since some of the things that worked in 2nd ed work differently in 5e (hordes of small monsters for example).

One thing I didn't expect was the *ridiculous* amount of magical items 2nd ed adventures had. Now, keep in mind this is not a small module - it's 96 pages long, and the dungeon has about 125 rooms. But still, check this list out:

Broadsword +2, +3 vs goblin, orcs and regenerators
Dagger +2, +4 vs trolls
12 arrows +2
2 potions of extra healing
Wistle that animates dead 1/week
Bracers of AC 3
Warhammer +3
Cloak of earthstriding (pass through 1000 feet earth or stone/day)
5 potions of extra healing
Brooch of shielding
+3 battle axe (ast cure serious wounds 3/day)
+3 chainmail of feather falling
Ring of protection +1
+2 battle axe
+1 chain mail
Wand of negation
Tome of clear thoughts
Goat of Terror (figurine of wondrous power)
+2 battle axe, venomous
+1 chain mail (spiderwalk 3/day)
+3 longsword of blood drinking (+ damage increases up to + 3 as you do damage in battle)
Wand of magic missile
+2 greatsword
Potion of fire breathing
3 potions of diminution
Cloak of displacement
Gloves of impact (melee attacks with fists or weapon do +1d6 damage)
Potion of spider climb
3 potions of extra healing
Figurine that casts burning hand as 10th level caster (1d3+20 dmg)
Ring of Infravision
Ring of Djinn summoning (limited use as Djinn only does a single thing)
+ 3 longsword, wounding vs undead
Tome of understanding
Black Ring (evil item that can kill others but may also kill wielder)
Ring of protection +2
Staff of Striking
Wand of lightning (13 charges)
+ 2 dagger (dimention door once a day) AND natural AC of 2 (!)
Robe of the Archmagi
Wand of light
4 potions of healing
eyes of humanoid and monster charming

Now in 2nd ed + on weapons etc went up to +5, not +3 (so that +3 warhammer would be a +2 for example) but... this seems like a staggering amount of loot :O

Yeah, that's a bit loot-heavy. [emoji1]

 

[iserith]

When I'm converting an old module, I ignore the treasure except for anything plot-relevant. I prefer to do random treasure anyway and tend to put it behind an exploration challenge rather than have it be the reward for overcoming a combat challenge. Sometimes I will include specific treasure that isn't necessarily plot-relevant, but that can be of use in the adventure location so the payoff for its discovery is sooner rather than later. So it's worth scanning the list for stuff like this in my view.

 

[Schmoe]

Yeah, earlier modules were kind of like loot piñatas. I think it went hand in hand with things like gray oozes, black puddings, and making item saving throws when you fail a save. I'm still playing 3rd edition, but I've gotten in the habit of tossing out a lot of the treasure when I do conversions.

That being said, it is less if you consider that the PCs aren't usually expected to find it all, and there are a lot of expendables on the list. Still, that does seem pretty generous

 

[pogre]

Wow! That is a ton of stuff.

I would throw it all out except the potions.

 

[Coroc]

Just throw it all out. Let the Party find +1 or equivalent stuff at 5th, +2 at 10th and +3 at15th Level, and y you won't break a Thing.
Of course let them find some potions, one shot items or such in between. It also does not hurt if one of the Players (preferably a fighter when it Comes to weapon or armor) has Access to a higher "Tier" of Equipment at an earlier Level.

To prevent mounty haul situations introduce intelligent encumbrance rules: No golfbag of Magic swords.

A Player can (alongside sleeping bag and provisions) carry 1 Long weapon or a weapon and a shield, one medium wepon and some dagger or three strapped to his Body. additionally, if you want to be nice, he can carry a bow or crossbow on his back. He can carry 1 armor too. And that is it. Basta. Finito.
If a Player does not like it, and insists on roleplaying a pack mule, give him disadvantage on everything in a combat scenario unless he states how he creatively drops part of his stuff (1-2 Actions) and what. Of course that stuff is lost, if the Party has to flee.

 

[Rossbert]

A Player can (alongside sleeping bag and provisions) carry 1 Long weapon or a weapon and a shield, one medium wepon and some dagger or three strapped to his Body. additionally, if you want to be nice, he can carry a bow or crossbow on his back. He can carry 1 armor too. And that is it. Basta. Finito.
If a Player does not like it, and insists on roleplaying a pack mule, give him disadvantage on everything in a combat scenario unless he states how he creatively drops part of his stuff (1-2 Actions) and what. Of course that stuff is lost, if the Party has to flee.

My paranoid wizard disagrees a little, but his paranoia armory is a bit of his quirk. Last I checked he has a short sword on each hip, a longbow and quiver on his back (on the side of the backpack), a bandolier across his chest with a wand, three daggers and a potion, a dagger sorta hidden in his boot (so the guards have something to find in a search), and finally a dagger and a crystal hidden in the folds of his shirt/vest/cloak. He also has thieve's tools strapped to his thigh.

His storage gear consists of the bandolier, a backpack and three or four pouches, only two of which are currently in use (one for money and one for spare potions and small trinkets.)

He may have rolled with a thieve's guild once and developed some unhealthy issues.

Though my final count is 1 long, 2 medium, 8 small and the toolkit and quiver that he would be carrying outside of his adventuring gear (mostly just the one big backpack).

I guess that isn't so far off from your count.

I would argue that you can get probably 2 non-heavy weapons on the hips, with a heavy and a shield on the back (maybe 2 mediums instead of the heavy a la Leonardo or Deadpool) and as many "small" weapons as you can reasonably justify (belts can hold a lot).

I might personally allow something outside of that if they can offer an interesting or reasonable storage solution, the two blades on one hip style shown by most portrayals of most samurai comes to mind, but then I might limit what the other hip can hold due to clutter/bulk.

 

[Coroc]

[MENTION=6922357]Rossbert[/MENTION] well at least it is nothing really bulky amongst your wizards stuff, so as a DM i would tolerate this.
You know, my encumbrance houserule combines weight and bulkyness. It is more about e.g. a character with Str20, of course considering the weight he can carry an extra suit of armor around, but considering the bulkyness he cannot at least if he is doing a dungeon crawl or any Mission other than moving his household.
Or e.g. a Charakter wants to carry 2 halberds / greatswords or such and states one is strapped to his back. Yea you guessed it, here Comes the dexterity check (with disadvantage) on every door or narrow area in the dungeon, and in combat Situation of course rule packmule applies.

Long weapons (even Long bows) cannot easily be carried around in any other way than Holding it in one Hand (leaning on the shoulder eventually.

 

[Rossbert]

To the mainish point.

A lot of people go that route where even if by the rules you carry it, you might still be asked to explain where you put it all (and backpacks only have one item within easy reach usually).

Those item lists are why carts, floating discs, bags of holdin, armies of hirelings and followers were n common use in older editions.

Part of the reason for the lists was that in older editions XP gained was entirely depends on the GP value of the loot found. Without a huge list of rewards, you couldn't gain the later levels.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

That is quite the haul. I think in past editions, character advancement was very much tied to magic item accrual. Heck, there were more monsters that were immune to magic items back then, and then there were monsters you needed weapons with even more plusses to fight.

One of my favorite stories from Dragon is about the paladin facing down a demon, using a magical dagger because that was the only weapon he had that could injure it.

When I ran Glacial Rift of the Frost Jarl as an insert to Out of the Abyss, it also had a ton of magic items, some of which I kept and some I removed.