D&D 5E Converting 3.xE adventures to 5E

[S'mon]

This is good advice, but like a mad man I want to make the advice super ultra clear:

Begin by having ZERO magic items. Then add back a select few, obviously keeping the most colorful, fun items.

That works much better and is much less work than considering each and every +1 Longsword in the old module. The hard truth is: they should probably ALL go.

So far in my Shattered Star conversion I've kept all the +1 weapons - 4 in 12 sessions,
2 of those 4 just last session. It's not been a problem. I guess when we get to the point that there are squads of 12 mook Fighters, with 12 +1 longswords, I'll be cutting it.

It's much higher magic than my Wilderlands sandbox, but the 5e ruleset doesn't seem to mind.

 

[CapnZapp]

In practice, design the trap like you want it to work,and provide means for the PCs to gather enough information to make avoiding or disabling the trap easier if they make the effort to do so.

You could have a complex mechanism that operates a two part trap. Just walking in it may take a little extra time for the PCs to figure out that they are dealing with a two part trap. Start with fairly high DCs and reduce the difficulty as players put more effort into figuring things out. This leaves players with options. Either engage with the setting and spend a bit of time to gain an easier check or just skill check their way through with a more difficult check.



Tons of bland skill checks are boring. It helps when traps fit in with the setting. An ancient tomb that the PCs just opened might have many deadly traps but few monsters except undead.

The types of traps can be important too. A big bad might have a trap at the entrance to the hideout, but since not all of his flunkies are as bright as the boss a death or severe injury type of trap might not be the best idea. A simple alarm trap will do the trick. That way when a dumb minion triggers it by accident (and they will!) there won't be any mess to clean up.

As far as pace goes, in exploration game the players largely control pace. If they want to go slow and be cautious or run through without a care its up to them.

I think my summary of traps is:

Traps can be memorable if you spend enough time on them. Sadly, I'd rather spend that time elsewhere. Thus, no traps are better than bad traps.