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D&D 5E Converting Tomb of Horrors to 5E

Some conversion of ToH can be found on the web i saw a 3E one the other day. The D&D Next conversion from D213 is pretty good too if you can get your hand on it...:)

As it turns out, a cool guy I just met was kind enough to gift me a copy of Dungeon 213. I will try that, with minor tuning to support the final version of 5E. I have the AD&D module too, for comparison.
 

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The "minus max hp" death threshold makes the Dragon 213 Tomb a lot less deadly. I think, though am not totally certain, that it was written when a PC died at minus (Con score + level). As a result, if you run it now, PCs will often be knocked unconscious but rarely killed.

Also, the big bad guy at the end sorely needs a legendary template applied.

Thanks, I will take a look at the death threshold. I'm going to start with this version.
 

The best 4E conversion is the "RPGA" one. The book is something else.

The Dungeon article mentioned is also good, probably the best source.

Some conversions do touch on the 2E "return to" material, but its very easy to ignore that, impact is very small.

The original is your touchstone in any case...the thing about it is that it is so focused on player choice, versus mechanical issues, that it could be very easy to convert. Maybe too easy.

If you want deadly, set some default DCs. Have things like finding secret stuff work as per the module, but always assume minimal impact on the PCs part. Monsters require some conversion, though things like damage are almost in the ball park as is. When something kills you in the module, well, it kills you.

Think through how resting, ritual casting, and spells that can allow escape or bring aid work (this is very important with high level parties). The original module had some restrictions, including a demon gating in under certain circumstances.

Now, if you want to tone certain things down and be a little more formal in converting things, take a look at the 4E RPGA module and the recent dungeon one (and the 3E one doesn't hurt).

You can also just have some rules of thumb, instead of auto death, drop to 0 hp, for example, where appropriate.

Finally, for the big little skull, don't overdo it. The point is that it is deadly in a very horrible and straight forward way. Try to stay in the spirit of that, even if you don't want it to kill the whole party. Again, take a look at the conversions for this, though some of them add a little too much zazz at the cost of the real horror.

I like your advice about thinking through the impact of ritual casting and resting. I will do that. Also, the idea of dropping to 0 hp instead of death might be better. I'm not sure yet, but this is great food for thought. Thank you for the thoughtful response.
 

Now that the Monster Manual is out, the monster part of the Tomb is easy enough. After looking around a bit, I actually think that the DC's from the 4e version of the traps work fine, as long as you keep the damage/effect from the 3e or 2e version intact. I'm working on converting it now, so I'll see how that ends up.
 



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