Part 5 - Simple Epic

Part 4 - Low level gods

Part 3 - What matters?

Part 2 - Brevity

Part 1 - Humanity

GMing for Deities

Part 4: Conversion of High Level characters from 1e AD&D to 3e D&D.

[Editors Note: This article is designed for low magic campaigns.]

Another crunchy article - this is a conversion system I have developed for converting 1e PCs to 3e (or potentially vice versa!). It recognises that where in 1e power increase with level is initially rapid and then tailed off, in 3e power increase remains almost geometric and certainly tails off much less rapidly. Unlike the official conversion system, this is intended to maintain the existing 1e power level and gradient - eg in 1e a 16th level Cleric has just gained his 7th level spells and is about as powerful, compared to lower-level characters, as a 3e 13th level Cleric, who coincidentally has also just got his 7th level spells. This system also makes converted high level characters still playable in the kinds of adventures they could have had in a 1e campaign. Of officially published materials, some like WotC's Book of Vile Darkness or Green Ronin's Legions of Hell appear to use a similar conversion gradient in setting the CRs of their monsters, and can be used alongside this system; while other publications like Tome of Horrors use more a straight 1e level/hit dice = 3e level/CR, making high level creatures far more powerful than in 1e; and WotC's Deities & Demigods is best ignored…

1. Add up the character's total levels. For multiclass & dual-class characters, count the first 9 levels of each of the second-highest & subsequent classes as only +1 level. Subsequent levels count normally, so Wiz-9/Ftr-9 is 10 levels, but Wiz-10/Ftr-10 is 12 levels, and Wiz-20/Ftr-20 is 32 levels. This reflects the way the 1e XP system functions.

2. Having found total 1e levels, convert to 3e levels as follows:

Level 1-10: 1-1
Level 11-30: 2-1
Level 31-60: 3-1
Level 61-100: 4-1
Level 101-150: 5-1
Level 151-210: 6-1
Level 211-280: 7-1
Level 281-360: 8-1
Level 361-450: 9-1
Level 451-550: 10:1
etc.

This gives the following results. NB it will not work well for Legends & Lore deities whose powers bear little relation to their listed levels, but should work for PCs and most NPCs. For deity-level monsters take their 1e hit dice or hp/4.5, this converts to 3e CR, although a few like 66hp 1e Lolth will look very weak - this is because her 1e stats _were_ very weak!

Thus 1e Demogorgon with 44 hit dice, would be CR 24, while Doomstar, in 1e level 514th (single classed), would be a mere 96th level in 3e.

Next: Part 5- Divine Power (using this conversion method).