D&D 5E What are you hoping to see in the conversion documents?

[fjw70]

I am just curious what people expect to see in the delayed conversion documents.

The way I convert old material is just replacing the monster stats with equivalent 5e stats (I.e. The room says three orcs are in there so I use 5e orcs). Of course I adjust the number if I think that is necessary but I do that for 5e material too.

I am just not sure what useful info will be in these documents.

 

[CapnZapp]

I have never seen a truly useful conversion document in my life.

They will either be utterly inane or uselessly complicated.

I have an especially hard time believing the 4e fans will be anywhere close to getting a satisfying experience.

 

[Smoo]

I'd like some kind of write-up about saving throws (converting from 1e/2e). Not just about how to map the five original categories (most of which seem intuitive anyway), but how to handle the difference in the way they were modeled. When 1e/2e has a poison needle trap that says "save vs poison or die", it would be nice to see how the designers would model that in 5e. A DC 5 or 10 Constitution save which does result in death on fail? A harder one that just does damage and gives the poisoned condition? So many possibilities.

There were some other special attacks and conditions that would be nice to see talked about. Disease, level drain, rapid aging... I gather a conscious decision was made to remove most of these old punishing tropes, but for someone who is trying to run the old books, I'd like to see what the 5e model for a proportional equivalent would be.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

While I was looking forward to it, it suddenly accrued to me, what would I would actually want to see, 5th Ed is so intuitively easy to convert pre-4th Ed material from, I don't really need it. I have been a converting maniac, since 2012.

 

[Shiroiken]

When 1e/2e has a poison needle trap that says "save vs poison or die", it would be nice to see how the designers would model that in 5e. A DC 5 or 10 Constitution save which does result in death on fail? A harder one that just does damage and gives the poisoned condition? So many possibilities.

Having already done this in my own conversions, it's actually very easy. The DMG lists levels of dangers of traps, and you use the "lethal" setting. It gives the exact same feel, without it being "automatically" deadly (low rolls do happen).

As for some of the other conditions, I just keep them as is, unless it's from an updated monster (where I just use the 5E stats). Level Drain translates the same way undead work now (I forget what the ability is called), unless it's XP loss (as per Deck of Many Things). Aging I use a modifier for each of the races, so that the effect is as punishing for all races (x2 for most demi-humans, x4 for dwarves, and x8 for elves). Diseases might be kinda neat, but I doubt it'll be really useful.

 

[delericho]

Detail, especially for the stuff that is not obvious. I don't need to be told "substitute a monster of X CR for one of Y CR" - that's pretty easy stuff. But a walk-through of how to convert a 2nd Ed kit to a 5e sub-class or background would be extremely useful.

Oh, and an emphasis on high-level stuff would be much appreciated as well, especially in the 3e->5e and 4e->5e documents - because of the much flatter power-curve in 5e, those conversions will be particularly difficult to achieve, so more help would be appreciated.

As for what I expect to see, well, that's something else.

 

[Evenglare]

I don't know what to expect. I definitely want them though, just because they haven't made good ones does not mean they shouldnt try. I'm not going set my self for dissapointment.

 

[Mercule]

Not sure what kind of conversion docs you're talking about.

If you mean docs on how to convert a 1E character to 5E, I don't see any point. Pick a level and create a comparable character. They're going to be different, but you can shoot for core features. Any doc for this would look like the 2E => 3E guide, which was ~15 pages of "take your best guess".

For monsters, magic items, etc. I don't think a guide can be written. Each one is a special snowflake; most of the stuff that can be generalized already has been. I just want a "Magic Item Compendium" and a "Spell Compendium" and a "Monster Manual 2". A lot of that could start as an Unearthed Arcana column, with the potential for the combined "Compendium" format, later.

Finally, for settings, I'd really prefer an updated hard-cover for the settings I care about (mainly Eberron, though I'd bite on Dark Sun, Ravenloft, and Birthright). It would contain all the info I needed to run a 5E version of the game -- basically a 5E version of the 3E FRCS, ECS, etc. An acceptable, and more realistic, alternative would be to convert the crunchy bits, give it a decent layout, and put it up on DnD Classics, like the PoA companion was.

In any matter, I guess I come down on either wanting to be given a fish or not being hungry. Actually, I think we've been given enough information in the core rules that we should either know or be able to figure out how to fish. It's just a matter of whether we have the time/inclination to do so. Twenty years ago, I'd have jumped at the task; today, I don't have time.

 

[CapnZapp]

Any doc for this would look like the 2E => 3E guide, which was ~15 pages of "take your best guess".

Heh.

Yeah, that was in a uselessness class of its own...

 

[CapnZapp]

The only edition needing a conversation is 4th.

And it will be a disappointment, since to be good, it needs to rip out the heart of 5e. And it needs to be a hundred pages of playtested stuff.

Wotc should never have promised anything. The only value of that promise was to deflect criticism at a sensitive time, ie the launch. Better to take the flak now, when only the diehards care any more...