Here's That Official Conversion Document You've Been Waiting For!

There's a short official conversion document on the official D&D website. "We’re sometimes asked for advice on converting things from previous editions of D&D to fifth edition. The following PDF, penned by Chris Sims, gives advice on converting characters and adventures, along with the elements that go into them, such as spells, monsters, and treasure." It's 4 pages long, and covers converting player characters, adventures, and treasure from various previous editions. (thanks to Terradave for the scoop).

As the introduction mentions, it is short (the treasure section is four paragraphs in length). As the document says, "Conversion of D&D material is more art than science. The aim of conversion is to arrive at something that feels like the older-edition version, rather than at an exact replication."

Click here for the official conversion document.

Some conversion examples include:

• 5E characters are two-thirds of 4E character levels.
• Modifiers less than +4 are ignored; those of +4 or more use a trait, proficiency, or advantage.
• Ability scores above 20 become 20.

Also of interest is a Monsters By Type list. "Sometimes you want to see a list of all monsters of a certain type. Perhaps you’re the DM building an undead-themed adventure, or you’re the player curious to know which elementals or fey your character can summon. The following PDF is for such times. It lists every monster from the Monster Manual by type and includes a creature’s challenge rating and any tags, such as shapechanger, that the creature might have."

The conversion document has been anxiously - and often impatiently! - awaited for a while now. Its long delay was apparently due to a key staff member being on jury duty (this is the same delay cited for any third party licensing stuff). Mike Mearls said back in March that it would be at least another 4 months (it was!)

There are also, of course, many fan-created conversion documents and tools.

[h=4]Original Post[/h]
Not sure if this is what people have been waiting for, but a 4 page conversion document has been posted for 5E. Quite general.

Also, monsters by type and compiled resources.

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/rules-references-october-2015

 

[Jhaelen]

Umm, does the document say anything at all about converting 4e monsters to 5e except "we suggest you wing it on the fly"?

 

[wrgerdbaad]

More than expected, casesam less than normally required. In any case, some guidelines for good conversion unit or the like.

 

[Plageman]

I ike the conversion document but I guess i'll a redux of it on an index card to be able to refer quickly.

For the nostalgics of previous editons I suggest check theses resources and think how unwieldly they were...
Basic D&D to AD&D 2E
AD&D 2E to D&D 3.0 conversion booklet
D&D 3.0 to D&D 3.5 conversion booklet
And remember than converting from 3.5 to PF isn't as straightforward as it seems, there is an 18 pages conversion guide too.

 

[Uchawi]

I guess WOTC has met their promise by providing the bare minimum. I will assume the same for anything in the future.

 

[CapnZapp]

Not sure if this is what people have been waiting for, but a 4 page conversion document has been posted for 5E. Quite general.

While this does what it says on the tin, and isn't actually useless...

It was most definitely not worth waiting for. If this was what jury duty delayed, allow me to laugh in their general direction.

If this is it, any hopes you might have had that WotC would support a 4e playing style with this edition are now utterly extinguished.

 

[CapnZapp]

More than half of the article is devoted to converting characters....something that I'm sure very few players will be making use of. It was placed first in the article which seems like it was given more importance than adventure conversion...strange.

Yeah if nothing else this is tragically late. Any character conversion guidelines needed to have been posted last year at this time to have any effect other than "see, we keep our promises".

 

[CapnZapp]

Sorry, Very weak. A token effort.

I'm genuinely sorry you expected more than the token effort.

 

[JEB]

Umm, does the document say anything at all about converting 4e monsters to 5e except "we suggest you wing it on the fly"?

Yeah, I also noticed that conversion details for 4E were the lightest. Which is funny, since that's the one that's hardest to convert...

The only details I saw were "the level of a fourth edition monster can determine the number of HD it has" and "fourth edition ability scores often need to be reduced".

Also funny: "Fourth edition adventures are usually amenable to quick conversion." Then they give us quick conversion rules for 1E/2E, and 3E, but not 4E...

 

[DEFCON 1]

At some point, maybe you will realize that, against all odds and contrary to all logic and sense and rationality and whatever other lofty words you wish to ascribe to your position, some people fundamentally prefer official material even when they can do it themselves. Perhaps they don't trust their own ability to do so impartially; perhaps they lack the time to do it themselves and find random internet advice too questionable, too unreliable, to make use of. Or a wide variety of other reasons.

Oh, I'll realize it all right. But I'll still shake my head at it. Cause I'm one of those people who puts a premium on logic, sense and rationality.

 

[halfling rogue]

I think it would be cool if someone (be it WotC or for anyone really) took an old module (from any or all past editions) and did a step by step walk through guiding folks through the conversion. I think it would go a long way in helping dummies and the inexperienced like me. The GeekDad site had a fantastic step-by-step article in using the DMG tables to roll up a random adventure. It was very specific to his own vision, but really helped me get a handle on how I could go about doing it myself. Something similar to that in converting old modules would be awesome.