Is There Any Way I Could Use 3.5 Materials for 4E?

Windbit

So, a couple of years back I got the DnD 3.5 core books (PHB, DMG, MM). Cut to the present and I've got the three core books, Stormwrack, Dungeonscape, 10 issues of Dragon, 5 issues of Dungeon, 5 adventure modules, and 7 issues of Pathfinder.

After spending so much on 3.5 stuff, I was at first intent on staying with 3.5. I was tempted to try 4E after hearing how much fun it is, but then Paizo Publishing announced its plan to make their own improvements to 3.5 to fix its problems without invalidating people's 3.5 materials.

Now, however, I'm losing faith that Paizo's edition could be good enough to stick with. While it seems neat so far, there are problems with 3.5 that seem too big for them to solve: martial classes whose only option is full attack, sometimes incredibly time consuming preparation for games, huge stat blocks for high level NPCs, and the difficulty of running high level games.

I know there are people who have spent tons of money buying much more 3.5 material than I have, but I'd hate for it all to go to waste. At the same time, 4E sounds more fun for players and much easier to run than 3.5.

So, if I were to get the 4E books, is there any way I could adapt 3.5 edition materials? Would it be terribly difficult to make 4E conversions of 3.5 monsters? In a published 3.5 adventure, could I run it and swap out 3.5 monsters for their 4E counterparts without too much difficulty? If an adventure called for 3.5 wizard, would swapping it out for a 4E wizard be too difficult?

Slainbylich

If you're willing to elbow grease it a bit, I wouldn't forsee any real issue with converting things over. The stats for monsters are far easier to put together, so converting those shouldn't be an issue. Prestiege classes could be done up into paragon paths, I would think. Some issues you might have are with certain spells and/or class abilities, but some careful eyeballing should take care of that.

dscrilla

Your in pretty good shape when using location guides like "players guide to Forgotten Realms " and "races of X" If its a book full of stats like a monster manual or complete fighters handbook, its gonna be allot more work.

Windbit

Oh, I just thought of something: If I'm running an adventure written for 3.5, I'll probably need to tweak any loot the PCs find. Magic items don't work the same in 4E, do they? Are wealth guidelines as strict as in 3.5?

delroland

More strict, but with a lot of the hard work taken out of it. Encounters are a lot more strict as well, but again, most of the work is already done for the DM.

Essentially, all the treasure from level to level is broken up in pre-balanced parcels which you can hand out however you see fit. You can make the parcels part of monster hoards, give them out as quest rewards, and break it up as you see fit.

Encounters are balanced toward a certain XP total per encounter. Just decide on the theme of the encounter, then populate it with enough monsters to fill the XP quota. (Edit: so for example if the party is supposed to fight goblins, let them fight goblins. Just mix up the numbers and types of goblins to meet the XP total for an encounter of their appropriate level. It may not match exactly the number and powers of those goblins in 3.5, but it will match the theme while providing an appropriate challenge to the PC's.)

Incenjucar

Fluff is universal, give or take, as are ideas for mechanics. I've never stopped making use of some of the notions I've gotten from my old 2E books, and I occasionally referenced them for 3E.

When I get back into an apartment on a permanent basis (probably when 5E rolls out :P), I'll be pulling all my 2E and 3E books out and actively running through them for ideas. We need more Eggshell Grenades.