My Conversion Efforts (spoilers for VoLK inside)


Alpha Release 3 General Discussion

Shadow Lodge

To start off, I've been working on converting Necromancer Games, Vault of Larin Karr (at least I think that's how it's spelled) for my current gaming group to the Pathfinder Alpha. The module was originally written for 3.0, and as far as I'm aware nobody ever did a 3.5 conversion. It's set in the Quail Valley and is designed as a stand-alone campaign environment for the characters to explore at their leisure (this means it is not in any way linear). The group consists of a dwarven fighter, a halfling sorcerer (undead lineage), a shifter druid, and a human ranger (all of 4th level).

To date the group has traveled to two of the villages in search of adventure, has been involved in two major encounters (and a couple) with the majority of our game sessions spent dealing with role-playing, not combat. Because the adventure is so open-ended I've been converting on the fly, asking them each week what they plan on spending the next week doing. This lets me do a little preparation, but they're always a bit unorthodox in their ideas, which keeps me on my toes a bit more.

In any case, here's what I've discovered with conversion efforts:

Pros:
Adding in the Shifter race was pretty easy. We made a quick decision on the conversion of stat bonuses and we let the rest stand. I could have put in a little more thought into "balancing" the race, but the player seemed more than happy overall, so we let all the abilities stay as-is and just adjusted the stat bonuses.

Conversion of encounters overall is extremely easy and really hasn't taken a lot of time to do. As long as I keep a 3.5 MM around, even the stat blocks aren't difficult to deal with for the "standard" critters since things like BAB and the the foundations remain the same.

Wow CMB is easy to work with. I don't even bother doing the math until I need it since converting this puppy on the fly is so easy. I'd say every fight to date has used the CMB to some degree. I love it, and the players love it.

Converting the cleric and sorcerer for the Hobgoblin Keep encounter was extremely easy. Spells remained the same, so I just had to do a quick comparison to see if I needed to add new powers for the classes. Changing the domains from the Cleric did require I put in a little effort, but it was as simple as removing one spell/ability and adding in the abilities appropriate for the domains. The sorcerer was even easier simply because nothing was removed; things were only added. I did have to put in prep-work for these things, as doing them on the fly would have likely taken longer than I would have liked.

Cons:
I'm having problems with some of the skill combos. Things like perception work well in concept, but don't always play out well in play. Currently the group is assaulting a Hobgoblin keep. They've done very well for themselves keeping out of the light and out of sight, but they're having some issues keeping things quiet. It's difficult to provide split bonuses/penalties for working at night (and therefore having a stealth bonus to be seen) but also working in the dead quiet of the night in a confined space (therefore giving them a stealth penalty to be heard). Add that in with the need to convert the bad-guys to the perception system and it's not nearly as clear-cut as I'd hoped. Some kind of advice on how to deal with the nature of listen/spot and move silently/hide in the manual would help in trying to convert these stats a little easier.

The target numbers on CMB seems a little too difficult to hit. I've only seen a handful succeed which is a bit worrisome. I'm not sure how much lower I would put this though, since a base 10 would almost seem too low.

It's late though, and I'm tired, so I'll try to add in more thoughts as our playtest continues.

Community / Forums / Archive / Pathfinder / Playtests & Prerelease Discussions / Pathfinder Roleplaying Game / Alpha Playtest Feedback / Alpha Release 3 / General Discussion / My Conversion Efforts (spoilers for VoLK inside) All Messageboards
Recent threads in General Discussion