Hello,
I’m thinking of purchasing a subscription to the AP’s and was wondering how hard it is to convert to 3.5? (My group is a bunch of die hard 3.5 guys) I see it says its backwards compatible, but I’m not sure what that means. Are there notes in the AP for conversion or is there a source to use for the conversion? I would also like to hear from people who are subscribers who run the AP’s in 3.5. How has it worked for you?
Thanks!
The APs do not contain notes for conversion, and the only conversions I have seen on the boards are for the 3.5 APs (Runelords through Legacy of Fire) being converted over to Pathfinder.
However, the systems are close enough that conversion isn't particularly necessary. Especially in your direction. You'll need to adjust the XP totals to keep things on track, but that is easily done (and the APs tell you when leveling should happen). You can just ignore things like Sorcerer bloodlines, CMB/CMD, and the new channeling when they pop up in statblocks. Monsters are even easier, since you can just crack open your 3.5 Monster Manual for most things.
If you want to be really, really thorough you could go through every stat block and rebuild it, breaking up Perception into Listen and Spot and adjusting feats all that, but it isn't particularly necessary. Seriously, you can just directly run Pathfinder and 3.5 material against each other with no changes and most of the time nobody will have any idea unless you tell them. I mean, how are they to know that the Elf got +2 intelligence, or that the dragon rolled perception instead of search?
Sorry for the delay, my internet has been down. Thanks for the reply. Im glad to hear that. Now I just need to pick one to run. Anyone out there that has run these in 3.5 that can report which ones work better in 3.5?
Higher level custom NPC's will take longer to convert, but that is about it. I don't consider it difficult.
I convert from 3.5 to Pathfinder sometimes. Going back the other way is not any more difficult.
I'm assuming you're not looking at the first 2 APs which were written for 3.5 rules, correct?
Sorry for the delay, my internet has been down. Thanks for the reply. Im glad to hear that. Now I just need to pick one to run. Anyone out there that has run these in 3.5 that can report which ones work better in 3.5?
The first four APs were written for 3.5, so there'd be literally no problem with any of them:
Rise of the rune lords
Curse of the crimson throne (my favorite, in passing)
Second darkness
Legacy of fire
There are also the dungeon APs if you have access to those:
Shackled city
Age of worms
Savage tide
Those last three aren't set in golarion, if that matters, plus they go all the way to twentieth level (the first four topping out somewhere in the teens).
I would also like to hear from people who are subscribers who run the AP’s in 3.5. How has it worked for you?
That would be me. Running Pathfinder APs using the 3.5 rules is no problem at all, IMO.
Mort the Cleverly Named pretty much said it all. If you have access to the online PRD while you prepare, you're pretty much set if you want to full-scale convert NPCs. However, in the end, (for example) a Sor 3 is a Sor 3 - so you can ignore or swap abilities when you see them in the AP. And, as Mort mentioned, for most monsters you can just crack open your MM (and your 3.5 Tome of Horrors, if you have it).
Converting new monsters is also a breeze - you can even use almost every Pathfinder feat as-is in 3.5 (it just becomes a monster ability), or you can swap them out with an existing 3.5 feat. Again, they're all in the online PRD.
Skills are easy: Perception is just Listen & Spot. Acrobatics is just Balance, Jump, and Tumble. Stealth is just Hide and Move Silently. You don't even need to convert.
I'm running Savage Tide in the opposite direction. The players are using Pathfinder, I'm using 3.5. The differences are totally invisible.
However, just because the differences are invisible doesn't mean they're not significant. The power level of Pathfinder is slightly greater than the power level of 3.5. In other words, Pathfinder characters and monsters are both slightly more powerful than 3.5 characters and monsters of the same CR. By way of (the most obvious) example, look at Pathfinder NPC's. An Evil 5th level fighter is CR 4 in Pathfinder. That same Evil 5th Level fighter is CR 5 in 3.5. And the Pathfinder evil fighter is actually more powerful, with more feats, and with special abilities like weapon and armor specialization.
So I'd be a little wary running a Pathfinder adventure for 3.5 characters. I'd worry about it being too challenging.
On the other hand, it sounds like your characters have been playing 3.5 for a while and probably have pretty good system mastery. If they're taking advantage of a lot of the splat books then you probably need a big challenge for them, anyway, since those splat books are definitely not balanced with core. In that case, running a Pathfinder adventure path is probably just the challenge your players need.
Thanks for all the great advise! Yes, DJEternalDarkness, you are correct. I was looking at getting the subscription. I am running SCAP right now and was looking to the future. Thanks again!
I often do conversions for APs that were made with the 3.5 system to pathfinder. Monster you'll have trouble with if they're pathfinder unique ones, however for NPCs we usually add another level to make it match with CR so for going back to 3.5 I'd suggest doing the reverse and taking a level away.
There are already many 3.5 APs however so you could do one of them. They still sell the PDFs online.
The first 4? Paizo adventure paths that use 3.5 rules. You can get the PDFs easily enough.
Also the dungeon adventure paths are 3.5
And the enworld adventure War of the Burning Sky is available in 3.5
But to answer your question, IMO converting them, even making slight adjustments on the fly, should be quite easy.