D&D 3E/3.5 Converting skill check DCs from 3.5 to 5e

[Ramius613]

I'm currently working on converting some adventures from old issues of Dungeon to 5e, and so far it's going pretty well. One question I have is are there any changes I should make to the DCs of skill checks (perception, knowledge, disarm, etc.)?

 

[AlmirEldignor]

Iirc, the DC's in 3e were waaay higher, especially at higher levels, just because of how many modifiers you got form all the different features and feats and skills and such. The highest DC usually used in 5e is 30, and I'm pretty sure I've seen some in 3e that were 40-something, so take that into consideration.

 

[Ezequielramone]

What I'd do if adapting something from 3rd ed is:
DC5 = (DC3-10)/2 + 10
e.g. if in 3rd ed you have a DC 24 then:
DC5 = (24-10)/2 + 10 = (14)/2 + 10 = 17
That seems good for me. My idea is to keep the base in 10, and after that, I assume that the variable factor in 3rd grows at a x2 rate compared to 5th ed's dc.
If that is a lot of work you can create an excel table. Or not, I'm doing one for you.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z4Xn2wkTIMMtll3LBVFXolYIBQI8UTCFFZXgJU1ncvI/edit?usp=sharing

 

[Xeviat]

3E DCs can be reigned in by changing the bonuses to simply advantage/disadvantage. Most of the base DCs don't crest 30. I was looking over the skills in 3E myself recently. I like the guidelines for DCs there over the blanket easy-medium-hard DCs of 4E and 5E.