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Converting Older Edition Adventures to 5E
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<blockquote data-quote="DaveDash" data-source="post: 6546693" data-attributes="member: 6786202"><p>I'm converting two adventures from 3.x - <em>City of the Spider Queen</em> and <em>Red Hand of Doom</em>.</p><p></p><p><strong>City of the Spider Queen</strong> is a higher level (10-18) adventure set in the FR:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lots of high level monsters that do not have a match in the 5e monsters manual. 5e monsters manual lacks high CR critters.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lots of FR specific stuff that doesn't have any equivalent in 5e.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lots of magical traps that are much easier to bypass in 5e due to detect magic as a ritual.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lots of NPC casters who are underpowered in 5e vs 3e because they can't buff stack and limited by concentration.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Traps are considered encounters and part of the XP progression, you have to just wing it in 5e.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lots of monsters with class levels, harder to figure out what that means in terms of CR and encounter difficulty in 5e.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Large encounters with numbers are very different in 5e, even against a higher level party numbers can only be made up with very low CR critters. If 3e asks for 5xCR5 and a couple of CR8's you're going to go way above deadly, the 5e "equivalent" is like 5xCR2 and 1xCR6.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Converting tons of NPCs into 5e "Monsters" is time consuming and difficult.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lack of templates, you have to reverse engineer a lot of things in 5e instead.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spells are not so much of a problem, 3e had a lot of permanent illusions and such that don't have an equivalent in 5e. Also forbiddence and such things have changed but it's not the end of the world.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Level progression in 5e is quite fast between level 11-16, so my party will actually reach 20th level by the end of this, even though the module is designed for level 10-18. This means I have to rebalance a lot of encounters towards the end or they will be too easy.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lots of magic items etc per every encounter. Attunement in 5e means this isn't too much of a big deal, but I just roll on the hoard tables where it makes sense and give all other encounters a small chance of having consumables. I don't even bother converting 1:1 magic items 3e to 5e. Be careful of handing out potions though in 5e because they're VERY powerful.</li> </ul><p></p><p>I spend HOURS converting this each week, because there is simply so much content missing from 5e that 3e + FR had, and the way encounters are built now is completely different. Basically, higher level FR specific stuff is a PITA. Part of that is also making maps for it (for roll20), since the maps provided online via WoTCs website are pretty meh.</p><p></p><p><strong>Red Hand of Doom</strong> on the other hand is easier. It's lower level, much more "plug and play" type monsters, not FR specific, and less spell caster/NPC heavy. It's still a bit of work but no where near as much.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DaveDash, post: 6546693, member: 6786202"] I'm converting two adventures from 3.x - [I]City of the Spider Queen[/I] and [I]Red Hand of Doom[/I]. [B]City of the Spider Queen[/B] is a higher level (10-18) adventure set in the FR: [LIST] [*]Lots of high level monsters that do not have a match in the 5e monsters manual. 5e monsters manual lacks high CR critters. [*]Lots of FR specific stuff that doesn't have any equivalent in 5e. [*]Lots of magical traps that are much easier to bypass in 5e due to detect magic as a ritual. [*]Lots of NPC casters who are underpowered in 5e vs 3e because they can't buff stack and limited by concentration. [*]Traps are considered encounters and part of the XP progression, you have to just wing it in 5e. [*]Lots of monsters with class levels, harder to figure out what that means in terms of CR and encounter difficulty in 5e. [*]Large encounters with numbers are very different in 5e, even against a higher level party numbers can only be made up with very low CR critters. If 3e asks for 5xCR5 and a couple of CR8's you're going to go way above deadly, the 5e "equivalent" is like 5xCR2 and 1xCR6. [*]Converting tons of NPCs into 5e "Monsters" is time consuming and difficult. [*]Lack of templates, you have to reverse engineer a lot of things in 5e instead. [*]Spells are not so much of a problem, 3e had a lot of permanent illusions and such that don't have an equivalent in 5e. Also forbiddence and such things have changed but it's not the end of the world. [*]Level progression in 5e is quite fast between level 11-16, so my party will actually reach 20th level by the end of this, even though the module is designed for level 10-18. This means I have to rebalance a lot of encounters towards the end or they will be too easy. [*]Lots of magic items etc per every encounter. Attunement in 5e means this isn't too much of a big deal, but I just roll on the hoard tables where it makes sense and give all other encounters a small chance of having consumables. I don't even bother converting 1:1 magic items 3e to 5e. Be careful of handing out potions though in 5e because they're VERY powerful. [/LIST] I spend HOURS converting this each week, because there is simply so much content missing from 5e that 3e + FR had, and the way encounters are built now is completely different. Basically, higher level FR specific stuff is a PITA. Part of that is also making maps for it (for roll20), since the maps provided online via WoTCs website are pretty meh. [B]Red Hand of Doom[/B] on the other hand is easier. It's lower level, much more "plug and play" type monsters, not FR specific, and less spell caster/NPC heavy. It's still a bit of work but no where near as much. [/QUOTE]
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