PDA

View Full Version : 4e monsters in a 3.5/PF Game? [PEACH]



ajkkjjk52
2010-11-08, 06:29 PM
This question might be straight-up crazy, but hear me out.

I want to run a one-shot adventure for my regular group in a few weeks when the GM will be away but the rest of us players will be around. It's a one-shot I wrote a few months ago for 4th edition, but our group, which plays Pathfinder, has a few new players and I don't want to force them to learn a new system, so I started porting it to PF.

Problem is, I wrote the adventure based on some specific monsters in the 4e MM that had very different concept interpretations from their 3.X counterparts, both in terms of appearance but also in terms of abilities.

So I started homebrewing PF versions, but I just couldn't get the flavor or menace I wanted using RAW. That's when it struck me. I could just put the 4th ed. monsters up against my PF characters. Obviously, I'd have to do a little work (calculating CMB & CMD (Pathfinder stats, for those unfamiliar) and convert attacks vs will or reflex into those with save DCs), and be very careful estimating CRs/ELs, but I'm not sure what else would really prevent it from working.

The characters wouldn't be able to figure out how the monsters were doing what they were doing based on RAW, of course, but that would only add to the menace of the encounters, if the rules that bound the players were a completely different set.

So am I crazy? Am I missing something here? Or would this bizarre hybrid actually be playable?

CarpeGuitarrem
2010-11-08, 06:35 PM
Fair, no, but playable, perhaps. Be willing to be flexible and change monster stats on the fly to compensate for things going wrong in your conversion metric. I don't know 3.P (I think that's the standard shorthand?) well enough to tell you if math matches up, but if you don't care about a strictly fair or balanced fight, totally do it.

Just be ready to go with whatever happens, and to move the story along regardless of who wins.

Mando Knight
2010-11-08, 07:25 PM
In addition to the things you already mentioned, knock off a hell of a lot of HP.

kyoryu
2010-11-08, 08:18 PM
In addition to the things you already mentioned, knock off a hell of a lot of HP.

Yeah. HP in 3.x and 4e are on pretty much completely different scales.

ajkkjjk52
2010-11-11, 07:24 PM
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll run some mock battles before I give it to my players, and let you all know how it goes.