Pathfinder 1E how do you do? (3.5 material)

[Ezequielramone]

since I have tons of 3.5 material. I was wondering. how do you adapt it?
do you use spells and feasts straight?
monsters.... I see many approachs here....
- use the monster the way it is. do you change the cr? how much?
- do you add feats and +2 to everything?
- do you check every HD and bonuses as when you create a new monster?

what do you do with npcs? do you adapt the class to a new pf version or think don't worth?
do you use base and/or prestige Classes that don't exist in pf? do you adapt them?

 

[Wicht]

When running adventures prewritten with 3.5 (such as I am currently doing with the Crimson Throne AP) I tend to use monsters and traps straight. You could toughen em up, but its a lot of work for little compensation. The main difference in my experience, forcing on the fly changes, is poison and disease write-ups. I calculate CMD and CMB in my head as needed.

Spells I use with Pathfinder rules, and if its an issue with a spell that no longer exists, I just pick the closest one to it.

When porting over a monster into an adventure of my own creation, I will take the time to modify them appropriately for the intended CR if the creature has not been upgraded by someone else (though a lot of them have already been ported somewhere so the work is already done.)

 

[billd91]

When running adventures prewritten with 3.5 (such as I am currently doing with the Crimson Throne AP) I tend to use monsters and traps straight. You could toughen em up, but its a lot of work for little compensation. The main difference in my experience, forcing on the fly changes, is poison and disease write-ups. I calculate CMD and CMB in my head as needed.

It has been my experience that this works well enough - and in either direction having used PF adventures in a 3.5 game. I tend to do a bit more prep in general, though, and so convert monsters a little more completely most of the time. For example, I usually build a word processor document with the stat blocks so I can print them for use in the game and write notes, conditions, damage, and so on right on the paper. When I do this, if it's a 3.5 adventure, I'll copy the stat block from the PF version of the monster if it appears in a Bestiary. If not, I'll use the 3.5 stats but write in the CMB, CMD, and perception/stealth mods instead of the separate skills of spot/listen, hide/move silently. I usually don't convert anything else.

 

[Wicht]

It has been my experience that this works well enough - and in either direction having used PF adventures in a 3.5 game. I tend to do a bit more prep in general, though, and so convert monsters a little more completely most of the time. For example, I usually build a word processor document with the stat blocks so I can print them for use in the game and write notes, conditions, damage, and so on right on the paper. When I do this, if it's a 3.5 adventure, I'll copy the stat block from the PF version of the monster if it appears in a Bestiary. If not, I'll use the 3.5 stats but write in the CMB, CMD, and perception/stealth mods instead of the separate skills of spot/listen, hide/move silently. I usually don't convert anything else.

I guess I could clarify that if the monster is not statted up, but is in the Bestiary, I also just use the Bestiary. But for big bosses and pre-written stat blocks, the differences, such as they would be, are usually not worth bothering about.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I file off the WotC trademark numbers* and use them mostly as-is.










* Shhhhhh....

 

[delericho]

I've never used 3.5e material with Pathfinder (or, indeed played Pathfinder at all), but I have occasionally done the reverse. When doing so, I just used the monsters as-is, and they worked fine.

Two caveats to that, though: firstly, I ony consider CR to be the loosest of measures, so basically ignored that value when eyeballing the balance of the encounter; secondly, I don't award XP for monsters killed (instead granting a level every 3 sessions), so wasn't worried about getting that 'right' either.

 

[Dog Moon]

My group pretty much tends to ignore anything 3.5, especially now that Pathfinder has enough junk that added to 3.5 just makes a ridiculous amount of junk.

That said, occasionally someone has a favorite 3.5 feat that they'll port into Pathfinder with proper approval. [Most of them fit in fine so there is no need to change them, though I'm sure here and there an off feat will pop up that doesn't quite work well and would need to be changed, but so far we haven't run into that]. Otherwise, the only thing we do occasionally is I will run a 3.5 adventure if I happen to have one, like I just recently ran Crucible of Chaos from Paizo because I liked the location. Most of the stuff in there is also in Pathfinder and I tend to just go with the Pathfinder version if there is one. If not... I just use the stats of the monsters and eyeball if something needs to be changed or if I suddenly need to figure out with the creature's CMB/CMD is.

Otherwise, our group has gotten rid of most of our 3.5 books and material except for those few books we really like and want to keep. [For instance a couple of us still have 2e stuff because even though we can't use the stats for that, we still like the fluff on some of the books].

 

[Voadam]

since I have tons of 3.5 material. I was wondering. how do you adapt it?
do you use spells and feasts straight?
monsters.... I see many approachs here....
- use the monster the way it is. do you change the cr? how much?
- do you add feats and +2 to everything?
- do you check every HD and bonuses as when you create a new monster?

what do you do with npcs? do you adapt the class to a new pf version or think don't worth?
do you use base and/or prestige Classes that don't exist in pf? do you adapt them?

Player material like spells and feats and classes I treat as options that need to be reviewed before approving for use by a player.

I've used 3e modules and monsters in my pathfinder games.

For monsters and NPCs I sometimes use the pathfinder equivalents (particularly for core out of the book monsters). Sometimes I use the d20 version with pathfinder equivalents for certain things (feats and spells and monster type traits). Sometimes I use the d20 version straight even when it is different from the pathfinder versions (statted out NPC sorcerers without bloodlines). Usually I just need to be ready to figure out a CMB/D if it comes up, decide whether to convert poison, and add hp to certain undead to use stuff straight from the d20 versions without sweating little things like the exact number of feats or skills.

As a DM ease of prep and use is a high priority.