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I have run the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 version of Rise of the Runelords under Pathfinder 1st Edition rules, mostly by using fan-created conversions of unique creatures posted to d20pfsrd.com. I am currently converting and running the Pathfinder 1st Edition Ironfang Invasion under Pathfinder 2nd Edition rules.
Both those tasks are easier than converting a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition adventure to Pathfinder 2nd Edition rules, but my experience should be relevant.
The Forgotten Realms Wiki describes The Wild Beyond the Witchlight as a 5th-edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure that takes place the Feywild and is designed for 1st- to 8th-level characters.
The creatures, hazards, and treasures of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight will have to be switched over to PF2 rules. The PF2 Gamemastery Guide has a section on Building Creatures. I have been using it in Ironfang Invasion to rebuild the PF1 unique creatures and characters in the adventure as PF2 creatures and characters. Sometimes the PF2 Bestiaries have the creature already converted, but that has become rarer as the level increased, so now at 18th level I convert just about everyone. It takes an hour or two per creature. The level (Challenge Rating) and ability scores of the creature remain the same, but NPCs in PF1 have classes and NPCs in PF2 don't. Instead, I look up appropriate numbers for attack bonus, saving throws, hit points, etc., and then threw in four or five special abilities that give the flavor of how the original character would fight. Creature design in PF2 is deliberately simple so that the GM has an easier time running the creature.
Treasure and hazards could be converted--the Gamemastery Guide has rules for that, too--but I don't. I just substitute existing PF2 treasure and hazards that have the same flavor.
The plot, setting, and maps of the adventure don't change.
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There are a lot of creatures that you can run basically on the fly, using the level charts in the Gamemastery Guide. Keep their cool abilities. And just use the DCs listed in the GMG. For more unique important monsters, actually building them might be wise.
But converting things to PF2 is insanely easy. Give it a shot. There should be no reason to miss out on your cool adventure.
SO, how'd it go?
Just been thinking of trying Wild Beyond The Witchlight with PF2e, so I'd love any feedback or help.
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So I’m definitely not Mathmuse or the OP, but I have some thoughts I can share as someone who likes to convert adventures. To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t a solid conversion guide for PF2, so you’ll need to come up with a system of your own. I can share a lot of what I’ve learned and hope that it helps in any way.
The first big recommendation is to know both systems quite well. It also helps to have some experience with the adventure that you’re converting so that you can capture the “vibe” that the original was going for. Doing one-to-one conversions can end up making encounters that were once pushovers into horrible fights or make dangerous hazards into mere speed bumps. When it comes to PF2, you should be very used to the Encounter Design rules as well as how they play at the table. Throwing Severe and Extreme encounters at a group just because the original adventure was “difficult” can be quite frustrating.
Now to get a bit more nitty-gritty. When I do conversion, the first thing I do is read through the original adventure and take notes on everything that needs to be replaced - skill checks, encounters, treasure, and any important bits that are very system-dependent. I personally put these into a big Google Doc and work through them one by one. When it comes to skill checks, I tend to stick to the Level-Based DCs and just move them around with easy and hard modifiers. That isn’t to say that I don’t stray from this - DCs can get to be a bit more art than science and it’s important to utilize the four degrees of success to keep the story progressing further. This means you may need to create some elements from whole cloth to really get the most out of the system - this includes “failing forward” to progress the adventure, while still discouraging failure.
Monster and encounter design is probably the easiest. Often you can get away with one-to-one conversions if the systems aren’t too different (I tend to look at a lot of 3.5e material, myself), but you should make sure that the aim of the encounter remains the same. If an encounter relied on ghouls paralyzing opponents, that may not function the same way in PF2 in the case of the Remaster (or even before it, given the incapacitation trait). Sometimes you can nudge numbers with the weak or elite variants of creatures as well. When you run into something that doesn’t convert easily, you’ll have to build one from scratch. Personally, I recommend using Monster Tool and then tweaking the numbers to fit the concept. Once you’re done, add up all the XP to make sure that the PCs should be of an appropriate level when you want them to be. I play with milestone leveling and still do this step just to make certain that the number of encounters and events feels right.
Treasure is an awful slog. There’s no two-ways about it. What I’ve done is just scrap all of the treasure and start over from the beginning rather than try to create a system of conversion. I try and gauge the size of the “treasure lots” and parcel them out with the Treasure By Level table (another good reason to count XP). Just try to match things up as best as you can and make a good case for keeping most of what’s found generally intact. You may need to go and make some items as well. (And I use Template Tool for that).
So once you have your checklist of items to run through, just slowly go through them item by item and clean things up once you’re all finished. I recommend saving the treasure for last just so that you have a good measure of where the PCs will be in the game and so that you can also have some of your NPC opponents holding treasure as well.
All that said, best of luck with converting!