Lots and Lots of Spells Converted to 5e

[the Jester]

Hello!

I posted an early, much smaller version of this some time ago. This is bigger and has a bunch more spells from every edition from 1e through 4e that didn't make it into the PH, converted into 5e terms. Enjoy!

(For the record, it's called the Spellbinder because the original 2e version was a bunch of spells... in a binder. Nowadays I get it coil bound, but the name still sticks.)

 

[Fragsie]

There's some awesome stuff in here, next time I play a spellcaster I'm definitely going to be raiding this bad boy!

One thing: I'm assuming you wrote this before reading the elemental evil player's companion? I believe that some of these spells (absorb elements for definite) are in that book, it may be interesting to see how WotC 5th-ified these spells compared with how you did.

 

[the Jester]

There's some awesome stuff in here, next time I play a spellcaster I'm definitely going to be raiding this bad boy!

One thing: I'm assuming you wrote this before reading the elemental evil player's companion? I believe that some of these spells (absorb elements for definite) are in that book, it may be interesting to see how WotC 5th-ified these spells compared with how you did.

Oh, I forgot- I actually copied a few spells over from the EEC into that document (the ones I fancy, basically). Credit where credit is due- those ain't my conversions.

That said, there were one or two of those spells that I did convert before the EEC rolled out and I'm not 100% certain that I re-converted all of them, so there might be a difference or two in there.

 

[FowlJ]

I've not read nearly the whole document yet (there certainly are lots and lots of spells!), but a couple notes so far, mainly on the way your converted spells work compared to the way the official 5e spells tend to:

- A couple spells say that they effect a certain number of hit dice, when comparable spells in 5e (like sleep) normally just use hitpoints - design choice or no?

- 5e also tends to combine many of the spells that had separate but similar versions previously, like the various good/evil spells and the cure wounds spells - I'm not sure how many of those you've converted, but purely in the ones I've read already there is, for instance, Baleful/Benign Transposition, which are a little different from each other, but still do basically the same thing. I'd personally lean towards just having 'Transposition'.

I love a lot of these so far though, really well done.

 

[the Jester]

I've not read nearly the whole document yet (there certainly are lots and lots of spells!), but a couple notes so far, mainly on the way your converted spells work compared to the way the official 5e spells tend to:

- A couple spells say that they effect a certain number of hit dice, when comparable spells in 5e (like sleep) normally just use hitpoints - design choice or no?

- 5e also tends to combine many of the spells that had separate but similar versions previously, like the various good/evil spells and the cure wounds spells - I'm not sure how many of those you've converted, but purely in the ones I've read already there is, for instance, Baleful/Benign Transposition, which are a little different from each other, but still do basically the same thing. I'd personally lean towards just having 'Transposition'.

I love a lot of these so far though, really well done.

Thanks for the feedback!

The Hit Dice thing- I would have to look at a spell or two to tell you what I was thinking. Can you give me an example?

I actually combined several spells together in a few places, too. Benign and baleful transposition were originally different levels, and I converted them at different times. If I'd done 'em together, I might very well have made them variants on a single spell, like you suggest. Hmm. I might revise that at some point, but a pc already has access to one of them, so I am reluctant to change it now.

 

[FowlJ]

Thanks for the feedback!

The Hit Dice thing- I would have to look at a spell or two to tell you what I was thinking. Can you give me an example?

I actually combined several spells together in a few places, too. Benign and baleful transposition were originally different levels, and I converted them at different times. If I'd done 'em together, I might very well have made them variants on a single spell, like you suggest. Hmm. I might revise that at some point, but a pc already has access to one of them, so I am reluctant to change it now.

Well, having done ctrl-f to find them again, there aren't actually that many in the document, but, for instance, Alter Reality lets you create up to 30HD of creatures (none higher than CR5), and Animal Trance affects 3d6HD worth of creatures. There's also one much further down (Stygian Oblivion I think it was called?) that affects creatures with 16+HD differently than weaker creatures. Of those, Alter Reality makes sense to not use HP, but still worth noting probably.

 

[the Jester]

Well, having done ctrl-f to find them again, there aren't actually that many in the document, but, for instance, Alter Reality lets you create up to 30HD of creatures (none higher than CR5), and Animal Trance affects 3d6HD worth of creatures. There's also one much further down (Stygian Oblivion I think it was called?) that affects creatures with 16+HD differently than weaker creatures. Of those, Alter Reality makes sense to not use HP, but still worth noting probably.

Thanks- I'll take a look at them. I know alter reality is a holdover from my 3e conversion, and animal trance is a conversion of an old-edition spell (snake charm originally), but probably would work better using hps.

 

[Winterthorn]

Wow! Well done! I recognize some of them right away That must have been a lot of work!! Thank you for sharing; I have downloaded a copy... feedback to come after I've taken some the converted spells for a ride (i.e. let my players use some, lol)

 

[Bennet Hoenheim]

Thanks for your time doing this! great stuff

 

[Neyd]

First off thank you for your hard work.
There are definitely a lot of spells in there that I missed in some capacity or other. Solid work all around, nothing screams 'broken' or 'OP' to me thus far.

Two points of feedback:
1) In your summon monster list there are some homebrewed creatures. I recognized those from reading through their entries on here a while back, but others might get confused. I think it would be a good idea to mark said monsters and tell people who are interested in using them, where they could find the corresponding profiles.
2) The spell 'divine castigation' is, in and of itself, okay. But combined with the "Tunnel Fighter" fighting style from the new unearthed arcana (Underdark) article it becomes a little bit too good in my opinion. While I realize that not every table is going to run into this issue (DM rulings and all that), I would love to see a more elegant solution. Perhaps making the spell duration depend on concentration could fix this problem. Or perhaps I am just being a bit over cautious here.

Any way great work

EDIT:
3) The spell 'dispel exhaustion' is worded somewhat strange in places.
"In addition, the target gains abonus action each round that it can use to move half its speed." Is this another option on HOW to use a bonus action, or is this supposed to be an ADDITIONAL bonus action? If so, then could this additional bonus action be used for other stuff (flurry of blows, cunning action etc.)
"When the spell expires, each target loses its remaining temporary hit points, if any, and its exhaustion returns to its previous level." I suppose by exhastion returning to its previous level it is intended to regain any previously aquired exhastion levels PLUS the ones gained during the duration of the spell right? If I were, for example a Beserker and had 2 levels of exhaustion when my party bard puts this spell on me, my exhaustion would temporarily vanish. If I were to then enter frenzy for, say two times during the spell and thus gain 2 new levels of exhaustion. Would I return to my previous exhaustion level of 2 (and basically stay the same) after the spell expires or would I regain those two levels, thus having a total of 4 levels of exhaustion?

I know this might come across as nitpicking, but I seriously just want to know how the spell is intended. Thank you