4e to 3.5/Pathfinder

[Bestigle]

Hi. I'm a Pathfinder GM for a group of about 8/9 people (but it varies who comes), and I've got a weird situation. Long story short, dragons and serpentfolk are going to be pretty common later on, so I picked up Draconomicon and Serpent Kingdoms for 3.5 for some added supplements. Due to a shipping error, I was sent the 4e Draconomicon instead of the 3.5. The company was quick to correct it, but now I've got a copy of the 4e Draconomicon on my sourcebook shelf without any clue how to read it. I'm uncertain as to how the power levels differ between 3.5 and 4e. I've been doing pretty well with converting/making do with 3.5 for pathfinder, but having no real clue as to how 4e works compared to 3.5, I'm not sure how to convert, and I'd hate to let a perfectly good dragon book go to waste. Any tips for converting/reading stat blocks?

[Seppo87]

It's not feasible to convert 4e to PF, that's a ton of work and is mostly eyeballing, which is almost impossible if you don't know 4E in depth.

[weckar]

The company did not request for you to return the mis-shipped item? :smallconfused:

[Troacctid]

It's not that hard to port over 4e mechanics. Daily, encounter, and at-will powers are already a thing in 3.5/PF. Reflex, Fortitude, and Will defenses are essentially taking 10 on saving throws. The skill system is just the Maximum Ranks, Limited Choices (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/alternativeSkillSystems.htm) variant. Granting combat advantage is like being denied your Dexterity bonus to AC.

It's the math that's the tricky part. All the numbers scale differently in 4e because they're carefully calibrated against level-appropriate monsters. You'll basically need to assign a BAB and base save progression to the 4e class in order to make it work in 3.5/PF.

As for monsters, just make up completely new numbers and use the same abilities and you should be okay.