WotBS WotBS and 4E

[Veilheim]

So, I'm in the process of converting from 3.5 to 4E, and WotBS looks like a great possibility.

Does anyone have any hints or thoughts on converting adventures to maintain the balance? I'm wanting to take the characters out to between 24th and 28th level at the conclusion of the campaign, gaining about 2 levels every adventure with some side treks along the way.

Thanks in advance!
Brennan

 

[Selganor]

I'll get my copy of the rules by friday/saturday, but I'm seriously thinking about doing the third part of the series in 4e with "reimagined" characters.

Any thoughts about the Wayfarers? Feat chain or paragon path?

 

[Rugult]

So, I'm in the process of converting from 3.5 to 4E, and WotBS looks like a great possibility.

Does anyone have any hints or thoughts on converting adventures to maintain the balance? I'm wanting to take the characters out to between 24th and 28th level at the conclusion of the campaign, gaining about 2 levels every adventure with some side treks along the way.

Thanks in advance!
Brennan

I've been mulling over conversions to 4e, even though I am at the point where it really doesn't make sense to convert the campaign.

I think most of the monsters in the adventures can remain. Some of the templated stuff in Adventure 5 might need some tweaks (like a fly speed), and I am unsure if some of the monsters will be in the MM, like the Abyssal Basilisk in Adventure 7.

Other things to think of would be how to convert the Trillith into a 4e compatible creatures. How some alternate rules like the Wayfarers and Inquisitors would fit in.

I'll try to help more when I have books in front of me

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

There are a couple here looking at doing a conversion once we get our arms around the new rules... feel free to post what you get and your sure to get constructive feedback!

I am not looking to do serious conversions until a workable Bard class is out...and then it will depend alot on how much time I have. My current campaign is slowly going through the 4th module right now.

 

[Zinovia]

I haven't started WotBS yet, but I like the story from the parts of it I've read so far. I haven't picked up the last few modules yet. I wanted to convert the whole thing over to 4E and have it become the basis for our next campaign. It will take some time to do obviously, as there are a number of rules and characters that will need to be changed around some. I will also be customizing the modules to fit my group better.

One of the changes I was thinking of making was to change the race of the Ragesians. I know the empire had people of various races, but there are a lot of orcs and half-orcs as written. I want to change that. I'm not sure if I want to go with tieflings or dragonborn (Drakus Coaltongue is *such* a dragony name). I can just picture the authors pointing at their monitors and screaming "Sacrilege!" as they read this.

The trillith don't worry me too much - there's no great need to tie psionics into the game in my opinion. As they stated in the sidebars in several places, if your game doesn't use psionics, just have the trillith use the power of dreams. That's fine by me as mechanically the origin of their power doesn't matter too much.

There are a few mechanical issues I'm concerned about, particularly with the Monastery of the Two Winds. 4E currently doesn't have monks, sorcerers, or low level flying spells. That makes it tricky to modify. I may need to make some sweeping changes, throw out the 3.5 specific stuff, monkey around with the rest, add some powers to kick it up a notch and give some punch to the plotline without getting too long-winded.

Are there other areas or major plot points that are likely to be problematic when converting to 4E? Some of it can just be hand waved, and that's what I expect to do in many places. Several major NPC's need to be reworked completely. I'm not sure what to do with the Inquisitors and all the special counterspell type stuff they do. I don't know how that works in 4E at all. Do those abilities actually come into play much? I haven't read the later modules so I'm not sure I've seen the Inquisitors actually show up, rather than being a distant threat.

 

[RangerWickett]

A lot can be done if you just want the NPCs to keep the same feel, and you're not worried about tying things to existing character classes.

Inquisitors can still be clerics, and their 'divine channeling' for turn undead is replaced by an encounter ability to counter any arcane or divine power as an immediate reaction. High level inquisitors later on would get the ability to do this multiple times, perhaps at the expense of sacrificing their next turn.

Two Winds monks could just be built as . . . githzerai, I think, who are the ones who get the 'psionic leap' ability. Or just give them flying powers. You might even hand-wave it and say that they can only access those powers when they're in or around the monastery, and make it more of a power of the area, rather than the character.

Trillith, my God, I wish I'd been using 4e monster rules when I'd been writing the various trillith stats. Exception-based design makes it a lot easier to make trillith work than having to figure out ways to have creatures go from incorporeal to corporeal and stay reasonably challenging in both forms. You'd have to build them from the ground up, but that's pretty easy in 4e.

Considering how much Ragesians like devils, tieflings work great, especially if you want to run Burning Sky as, like, the 'ancient history' of your world, before all those wonderful tiefling empires collapsed. And sure, Coaltongue as a dragonborn could work.

But you've got to keep the gnomes in.

 

[Rugult]

But you've got to keep the gnomes in.

Agreed.

 

[Volaran]

Also, if you could steer your players away from murdering the gnomes, that would be great.

 

[Rugult]

On a serious (slightly taller) note...

I would almost be interested in working on something set after the 'canonical' ending to the campaign. Of course with players it would be almost impossible to do such a thing, as they will inevitably destroy the world somehow!

I've sketched out some concept notes for various cities in the campaign world. Just incase the players ever weaseled their way into Ragos, or the Shahalesti capital, I want to be prepared!

Maybe those would make some interesting 4e products...

 

[greenleaf]

We are midway through the 3rd adventure and are going to convert to 4e with our next gaming session. But we have 2 characters that we are struggling to re-make. One is a PHB II wild-shaping Druid. The 4e cleric just doesn't seem like a great translation of that class, but I need to look into it a bit more.

The second conversion is for an East Wind style monk. We were thinking of just making him a warlock since he is actually a monk 1/sorcerer 5 at the moment. Then we'd change his damage from necrotic to lightning. Not sure how to give him back his great AC and unarmed damage yet, much less his shocking grasp/stunning fist combos.

Anyone have any ideas for either of these two characters?