Converting a 3.5 campaign

[moon glum]

I big part of the appeal of pathfinder is that you can use your 3.5e stuff with little to no work.

Today I started converting about 25 pages of crunch from my last 3.5e campaign setting to pathfinder. I am happy to say that it took less than 1 day and I am almost done.

The following are the things that were hardest/took the most work:

1. Races. The pathfinder races all get a bit of a change and a boost, so I had to go through each player race and make appropriate conversions. This requires a lot of thinking. What's the best way to convert the small sized, technological dwarven race, the Chepri (from Perdido Street Station), or the Warforged? It requires care and thought.
In the end, I simply eliminated those races I was having trouble converting from being player options (at least for now). Warforged are still in, as are Kenku, Hadozee, and batwinged goblins (the flying rules work well with them). Mrrr (cat people), and Chepri are out for now.

2. Cleric Domains. I use many of the domains from various 3rd party sources to give flavor to the various religions of the world. While the selection of pathfinder domains is more extensive than what is in the 3.5 players handbook, it didn't give me the variety I need for my campaign. For example, I have a dwarven religion of the world machine, that requires a 'Machine' type domain. I had been using the Monte Cooke 'Technology' domain for this, but had to create a whole new domain to convert this religion to pathfinder. Likewise for domains like Time, Cats, Illusion, Balance, Mysticism, Inquisition, Slime, etc.. That is just a lot of work.

I would actually prefer to have pathfinder just use the old style 3.5e domains. What was the design rationale for changing them?

The following were very easy to convert:

1. Classes. It was not painful to eliminate classes like Swashbuckler, Warlock, and Scout. The pathfinder classes easily take over the roles these offered. Sorcerers, with their various bloodlines, are actually more flavorful versions of the Warlock, and Rogues are better at swashing their buckles than Swashbucklers ever were.

2. Equipment: There really isn't much difference. I like being able to use Monte Cooke's technology pdf without modification. I like that things like 'Amazon Bracers' didn't need changes.

[seekerofshadowlight]

Ya know the cleric domains are not really that hard to convert there just more defined I have convert a few it doesn't take long. its been a while but off top of my head i think it was
1st....minor power
2nd..1st level spell 1/day per 2 level
4th..2nd level spell 1/day
8th...4th level spell now a power
12th..6th level spell 1 /day
16th...8th level spell 1 day
20th...9th level spell 1 day

only 1 and 8 even take any work the others are easy. then move all unused spell to that clerics caster list done.

[moon glum]

seekerofshadowlight wrote:

Ya know the cleric domains are not really that hard to convert there just more defined I have convert a few it doesn't take long. its been a while but off top of my head i think it was

1st....minor power
2nd..1st level spell 1/day per 2 level
4th..2nd level spell 1/day
8th...4th level spell now a power
12th..6th level spell 1 /day
16th...8th level spell 1 day
20th...9th level spell 1 day

only 1 and 8 even take any work the others are easy. then move all unused spell to that clerics caster list done.

The 4th and 8th level powers can be tricky. If you give them a spell as a supernatural ability, you have to remember that spell resistance no longer applies against it, etc.. But yeah, picking a few spells to cast as spell like abilities isn't that big a deal.

I still don't understand which the domains were changed in the first place though. Spell like abilities are very powerful compared to spells, so perhaps its a balance issue. But the old domains were just as detailed and rich as the new domain powers.

[The Wraith]

Ben Iglauer wrote:

I still don't understand which the domains were changed in the first place though. Spell like abilities are very powerful compared to spells, so perhaps its a balance issue. But the old domains were just as detailed and rich as the new domain powers.

The Cleric Domains grant actual spell slots (with a fixed spell inside), not spell-like abilities (pag. 176 "In addition, each domains grants a number of bonus SPELLS. These spells are prepared along with the cleric's other spells for the day."); the only exceptions are the 1st and 8th level pwers, which are Supernatural. Sure, the lists show (Sp) to the side of the spells, but this is easily a carryover from the Alpha versions (where Domains granted Spell-like abilities and not spells).

Yes, creating the 1st and 8th level abilities can be tricky (I'm currently adapting the Cleric Domains from Eberron Campaign Settings, and granted, some abilities are still blank on my worksheet - Commerce 8th! What can I grant them !?! Even Commerce 1st was a pain to think of !!!), but the spells are easy to place; well, some of them perhaps have to be changed (like PFRPG did with some spells from the old domains - like Evil 4th for example, Align Weapon instead of Desecrate; or some spells that are too weak for the level in which they are taken, and so are 3/day instead of 1/day), but most of the work has already been done.

[JBSchroeds]

Since this has come up again with domains, I don't remember ever seeing an official explanation of why domains were changed. If I just missed it, could someone point me to it. The change in domains has felt a bit arbitrary to me.

[tergiver]

This isn't an official answer, but as far as I can tell the goals were:
1) Give 1st level clerics a couple of at-will powers to mitigate 15-minute adventuring
2) Reduce slightly the number of spells the cleric has
3) Keep all cleric domains open to the cleric
4) Give some benefit for going up to 20th level in the base class

[JBSchroeds]

tergiver wrote:

This isn't an official answer, but as far as I can tell the goals were:

1) Give 1st level clerics a couple of at-will powers to mitigate 15-minute adventuring
2) Reduce slightly the number of spells the cleric has
3) Keep all cleric domains open to the cleric
4) Give some benefit for going up to 20th level in the base class

1) Could this be done by adding either a couple scaling powers that a character chould choose from, or design a few new Orisons?

2) The domain spells add a narrow themed spell that doesn't have the utility of a general spellslot. Also, the new Pathfinder class gets both powers/spells at the same time for both his domains, so, overall, there isn't a noticable decrease in spells compared to only one domain spell per spell level in 3.5.
3) I don't understand this point. Domains are still based on your diety.
4) Couldn't we just add a capstone ability to each domain granted at 20th?

I'll be sure to bring this up once the cleric forums open up. None of the explanations I've seen for the changes seem to balance out the major impact on reverse compatability.

[tergiver]

JBSchroeds wrote:

1) Could this be done by adding either a couple scaling powers that a character chould choose from, or design a few new Orisons?

Probably, but adding a neat low-level power that becomes useless at higher levels is easier and less disruptive than creating scaling powers. It seems likely that any scaling power is likely to be overshadowed by cleric spells at higher levels anyway.

Changing the granted domain power into the 1st level ability and dropping 1st level domain spells would be a pretty basic change to make.

JBSchroeds wrote:

2) The domain spells add a narrow themed spell that doesn't have the utility of a general spellslot. Also, the new Pathfinder class gets both powers/spells at the same time for both his domains, so, overall, there isn't a noticable decrease in spells compared to only one domain spell per spell level in 3.5.

The narrowness was true before and it's true now. It's not a major decrease in spells, but it's a minor (1/6 or 1/7) decrease in spell prep, though.

JBSchroeds wrote:

3) I don't understand this point. Domains are still based on your diety.

Poorly phrased on my part - I meant that every cleric always has access to all their domain powers. In 3.x, you had to decide for each level of spell which domain you wanted to manifest. This way, you always have access to your domain powers, even the generally lame ones you normally don't use.

JBSchroeds wrote:

4) Couldn't we just add a capstone ability to each domain granted at 20th?

That is another option, and one easier to reverse engineer onto the plethora of existing domains.

JBSchroeds wrote:

I'll be sure to bring this up once the cleric forums open up. None of the explanations I've seen for the changes seem to balance out the major impact on reverse compatability.

Sure, that's a good plan.