converting a 4e game to 5e - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 blake_marlowe Sep 24, 2014 8:28:14	i don't believe I've seen such a discussion anywhere. i've been running a 4e game for the past 5 years. i finally did a test-drive of 5e the other day--one encounter--and like not losing 3-4 hrs/encounter from each session so am giving some serious thought to doing a conversion. it seems hard to imagine i'm the only person here who is considering or has made that transition. apart from the fact that i will need to redesign all of my antagonists (which is a shame cuz my customized tarrasque is a lot more interesting than the 4e MM1's), does anyone have any insights about unexpected challenges in such a process? any lessons that might save me some time as i go about this? my 4e PCs just hit level 16, so post-conversion they'll be 5e level 11 PCs: only seems fair to me.
#2 Llenlleawg Sep 24, 2014 10:17:36	Honestly, I would suggest not converting your current PCs right away, especially since they are high level, or high enough. Since we are all new to 5e, it's actually best to work your way up a bit. If you and your players are mostly familiar with 4e play style, this will be especially important. So, I would say just use the same campaign world, but start with new characters. When you have gone up a few levels, and have a better sense of how the new edition works in actual play, then perhaps you can think of converting the 4e PCs to 5e. Note that exact conversions are not quite possible, and indeed some of the specific effects of the PCs won't be available as such. Take the basic idea of each character and then just build accordingly, rather than trying to find a specific conversion element for each feature/power/feat/whatever of the 4e version. (In fact, that's another reason not to convert right away. The players may spend more time noticing how the characters feel or play differently, and this might make the game less satisying. On the other hand, when they get a good sense of the system and how the classes, spells, etc. work in 5e, it should be easier for them ti find, spontanteously, something analogous to their older PC.)
#3 Manchine Sep 24, 2014 10:25:21	I have been looking at this. I have a few adventures downloaded Escape for Sembia, Treasure of Talon Pass, Keep of Shadowfell, Scepter Tower of Spellgard, Thunderspire Labyrinth, Pyramid of Shadows.
#4 blake_marlowe Sep 24, 2014 11:25:21	llenlleawg quoth: honestly, i would suggest not converting your current PCs right away, especially since they are high level, or high enough. since we are all new to 5e, it's actually best to work your way up a bit. if you and your players are mostly familiar with 4e play style, this will be especially important.
#5 Llenlleawg Sep 24, 2014 13:06:53	Thanks for the clarification! Anyway, it might be helpful if we knew your PCs, since you are open to a "thought for thought" style conversion. Mind you, I am confessedly multiclass-phobic, and honestly am not a fan of feats, but I'm willing to set that aside to do my best to "convert" any given PC you present to us. (Of course, WotC may put out conversion guides later!)
#6 blake_marlowe Sep 24, 2014 17:15:32	my thanks, llenlleawg! honestly, my intention is to offer the players a choice: either they do their own conversion, or i do it for them. i expect not to be taken up on that offer at all: my players are pretty invested by now in their PCs and obviously, if they'll be asked to live and die with these characters, they should have the opportunity to make sure they are happy with them, you know?
#7 pauln6 Sep 25, 2014 16:37:55	Our Pcs are mostly 2e (a couple caught the tail end of 1e) that we have converted at each switch of the rules. You need to ignore your 4e stats and go back to the earlier editions though. We had to morph our PCs to make them functional in 4e and they barely felt like the same characters in many respects. I took our 2e stats as a base and worked out how many points we'd need to get roughly back to those levels with points buy (it worked out as baseline with 4 free boosts to play with since I plan to ban stat boosts except those from feats). Every time we upgrade I shave off a couple of levels so after 25 years the PCs will be levels 10-13 in 5e. They do look fun though.
#8 malphaeus Dec 16, 2014 9:05:34	Necro'ing this thread because I am considering something similar. I'll be finishing a campaign arc which will put the PCs at level 15 - converting them over to 5e, I'll start them at 10th (15/30 = 10/20). I have a dragonborn fighter, a revenant gloom pact hexblade, a shadar-kai O-assassin, a human wizard (MC cleric and Invoker PP), and a human bardlord. The fighter will likely be a straight shot over to champion (allowing her to mark with the DMG marking rule) I'll have to homebrew revenants - no big deal. The patron will be a mix of Fiend and GOO features - and he will be a blade pact lock. The O-assassin will be a way of shadow monk with maybe a few rogue levels. The wizard will be a wizard, no idea what school - with a few levels of cleric - no idea what domain. The bardlord will be a battlemaster fighter and bard, split about 50/50 Blake - did you have any luck with your conversion?
#9 Reius Dec 16, 2014 15:49:28	blake_marlowe wrote:
(Reply to #9) AaronOfBarbaria	Reius wrote:
(Reply to #10) Reius	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
(Reply to #11) CCS	Reius wrote:
(Reply to #12) AaronOfBarbaria	CCS wrote:
(Reply to #12) Reius	CCS wrote:
#15 iserith Dec 16, 2014 20:03:25	My one shot 4e games are three encounters (level +2, +3, and +4 encounters) and three skill challenges. Including one hour taken up by PC introductions, bonds, framing/connecting to the premise, and breaks, we fill a four-hour session.
#16 Youngy Dec 16, 2014 20:49:14	Take the revenant stats from the monster manual. Should be able to backwards engineer what it adds to a person from the stat block.
(Reply to #15) Reius	iserith wrote:
#18 pukunui Dec 17, 2014 9:59:24	FWIW, I'm playing in a 5e conversion of the Age of Worms AP. We're at 13th level, and we just had a multi-part battle that took up part of one session and all of the next. I'm not sure of the exact length but I'd guesstimate it was 3-4 hours all up.
#19 sleypy Dec 17, 2014 12:42:57	Reius wrote:

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

blake_marlowe

Sep 24, 2014 8:28:14

i don't believe I've seen such a discussion anywhere.

i've been running a 4e game for the past 5 years. i finally did a test-drive of 5e the other day--one encounter--and like not losing 3-4 hrs/encounter from each session so am giving some serious thought to doing a conversion.

it seems hard to imagine i'm the only person here who is considering or has made that transition. apart from the fact that i will need to redesign all of my antagonists (which is a shame cuz my customized tarrasque is a lot more interesting than the 4e MM1's), does anyone have any insights about unexpected challenges in such a process? any lessons that might save me some time as i go about this?

my 4e PCs just hit level 16, so post-conversion they'll be 5e level 11 PCs: only seems fair to me.

Llenlleawg

Sep 24, 2014 10:17:36

Honestly, I would suggest not converting your current PCs right away, especially since they are high level, or high enough. Since we are all new to 5e, it's actually best to work your way up a bit. If you and your players are mostly familiar with 4e play style, this will be especially important.

So, I would say just use the same campaign world, but start with new characters. When you have gone up a few levels, and have a better sense of how the new edition works in actual play, then perhaps you can think of converting the 4e PCs to 5e. Note that exact conversions are not quite possible, and indeed some of the specific effects of the PCs won't be available as such. Take the basic idea of each character and then just build accordingly, rather than trying to find a specific conversion element for each feature/power/feat/whatever of the 4e version. (In fact, that's another reason not to convert right away. The players may spend more time noticing how the characters feel or play differently, and this might make the game less satisying. On the other hand, when they get a good sense of the system and how the classes, spells, etc. work in 5e, it should be easier for them ti find, spontanteously, something analogous to their older PC.)

Manchine

Sep 24, 2014 10:25:21

I have been looking at this. I have a few adventures downloaded Escape for Sembia, Treasure of Talon Pass, Keep of Shadowfell, Scepter Tower of Spellgard, Thunderspire Labyrinth, Pyramid of Shadows.

blake_marlowe

Sep 24, 2014 11:25:21

llenlleawg quoth:
honestly, i would suggest not converting your current PCs right away, especially since they are high level, or high enough. since we are all new to 5e, it's actually best to work your way up a bit. if you and your players are mostly familiar with 4e play style, this will be especially important.

Llenlleawg

Sep 24, 2014 13:06:53

Thanks for the clarification!

Anyway, it might be helpful if we knew your PCs, since you are open to a "thought for thought" style conversion. Mind you, I am confessedly multiclass-phobic, and honestly am not a fan of feats, but I'm willing to set that aside to do my best to "convert" any given PC you present to us. (Of course, WotC may put out conversion guides later!)

blake_marlowe

Sep 24, 2014 17:15:32

my thanks, llenlleawg!

honestly, my intention is to offer the players a choice: either they do their own conversion, or i do it for them. i expect not to be taken up on that offer at all: my players are pretty invested by now in their PCs and obviously, if they'll be asked to live and die with these characters, they should have the opportunity to make sure they are happy with them, you know?

pauln6

Sep 25, 2014 16:37:55

Our Pcs are mostly 2e (a couple caught the tail end of 1e) that we have converted at each switch of the rules. You need to ignore your 4e stats and go back to the earlier editions though. We had to morph our PCs to make them functional in 4e and they barely felt like the same characters in many respects. I took our 2e stats as a base and worked out how many points we'd need to get roughly back to those levels with points buy (it worked out as baseline with 4 free boosts to play with since I plan to ban stat boosts except those from feats). Every time we upgrade I shave off a couple of levels so after 25 years the PCs will be levels 10-13 in 5e. They do look fun though.

malphaeus

Dec 16, 2014 9:05:34

Necro'ing this thread because I am considering something similar.

I'll be finishing a campaign arc which will put the PCs at level 15 - converting them over to 5e, I'll start them at 10th (15/30 = 10/20). I have a dragonborn fighter, a revenant gloom pact hexblade, a shadar-kai O-assassin, a human wizard (MC cleric and Invoker PP), and a human bardlord.

The fighter will likely be a straight shot over to champion (allowing her to mark with the DMG marking rule)

I'll have to homebrew revenants - no big deal. The patron will be a mix of Fiend and GOO features - and he will be a blade pact lock.

The O-assassin will be a way of shadow monk with maybe a few rogue levels.

The wizard will be a wizard, no idea what school - with a few levels of cleric - no idea what domain.

The bardlord will be a battlemaster fighter and bard, split about 50/50

Blake - did you have any luck with your conversion?

Reius

Dec 16, 2014 15:49:28

blake_marlowe wrote:

(Reply to #9)

AaronOfBarbaria

Reius wrote:

(Reply to #10)

Reius

AaronOfBarbaria wrote:

(Reply to #11)

CCS

Reius wrote:

(Reply to #12)

AaronOfBarbaria

CCS wrote:

(Reply to #12)

Reius

CCS wrote:

#15

iserith

Dec 16, 2014 20:03:25

My one shot 4e games are three encounters (level +2, +3, and +4 encounters) and three skill challenges. Including one hour taken up by PC introductions, bonds, framing/connecting to the premise, and breaks, we fill a four-hour session.

#16

Youngy

Dec 16, 2014 20:49:14

Take the revenant stats from the monster manual. Should be able to backwards engineer what it adds to a person from the stat block.

(Reply to #15)

Reius

iserith wrote:

#18

pukunui

Dec 17, 2014 9:59:24

FWIW, I'm playing in a 5e conversion of the Age of Worms AP. We're at 13th level, and we just had a multi-part battle that took up part of one session and all of the next. I'm not sure of the exact length but I'd guesstimate it was 3-4 hours all up.

#19

sleypy

Dec 17, 2014 12:42:57

Reius wrote: