D&D 5E Using the Pathfinder Bestiaries in D&D 5e - anyone doing it?

[Mercurius]

I couldn't resist that Amazon special for an extra 30% off any book, so bought the Bestiary 4 - which now gives me all four...and I don't even play Pathfinder. Anyhow, I like the quality of the books and the material - they really set the bar for a "monster manual." I'm going to be running a 5e campaign this coming January and would love to be able to use the Bestiaries. Anyone done this? How easy (or difficult) are they to convert? Anyone have any good guidelines?

I'm fully comfortable with making secret DM Fiat decisions "behind the screen" - like "this combat is going on way too long; the next major hit will kill the monster." That sort of thing. But I'm mainly wondering of level, damage, AC, challenge ratings, and all that.

 

[MerricB]

I couldn't resist that Amazon special for an extra 30% off any book, so bought the Bestiary 4 - which now gives me all four...and I don't even play Pathfinder. Anyhow, I like the quality of the books and the material - they really set the bar for a "monster manual." I'm going to be running a 5e campaign this coming January and would love to be able to use the Bestiaries. Anyone done this? How easy (or difficult) are they to convert? Anyone have any good guidelines?

I'm fully comfortable with making secret DM Fiat decisions "behind the screen" - like "this combat is going on way too long; the next major hit will kill the monster." That sort of thing. But I'm mainly wondering of level, damage, AC, challenge ratings, and all that.

AC is 13.

Bounded accuracy is a thing. Level is whatever level you're PCs can face. After that, it's redesign the monster from scratch, taking inspiration for special abilities from the bestiary.

No, I haven't been doing it, though I have a lot of experience doing AD&D to 3e or 3e to 4e! To Next, the numbers are mostly ignored.

Cheers!

 

[Mercurius]

Thanks, Merric. I was hoping someone had some secret formula - maybe that will come, especially if WotC offers conversion guidelines for 3E.

 

[dd.stevenson]

I'm going to be running a 5e campaign this coming January and would love to be able to use the Bestiaries. Anyone done this? How easy (or difficult) are they to convert? Anyone have any good guidelines?

I've been using this helpful post by jamesmanhattan, and it's worked pretty well so far.

 

[tsadkiel]

I haven't run the numbers myself, but this looks pretty solid to me - it's what I intend to use. And a later post covers xp values.

 

[Mercurius]

Wow, awesome - thanks for those two links [MENTION=262]tsadkiel[/MENTION] and [MENTION=6683099]dd.stevenson[/MENTION] - very helpful.