Recreating very old 3.5 character to Pathfinder

[keeper2161]

I am trying recreating an old character build from 3.5 to use in pathfinder as a, possibly hostile, npc. While I never got to play it, my group back then never kept characters for more then a month, it was epic. I poured so much into the build. It was the first character I really tried to personalize not just use a build someone else made. The bad part being that most of the build uses 3.5 exclusive classes, feats, spells, and mechanics. Does anyone have any advice to convert the 3.5 material to pathfinder?




https://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?357210-Dread-necromancer-gish-build

[upho]

Does anyone have any advice to convert the 3.5 material to pathfinder?When it comes to stuff like 3.5's necropolitan (and many other templates PCs can access), Persistent Spell, many stacking metamagic reducers, and perhaps especially the Incantatrix, my advice is: don't. Unlike a lot of other 3.5 stuff which work just fine, these belong in the same category of stupidity as 3.5's polymorph, wish and similar, which PF thankfully nerfed sensibly (not overly). Unless you basically want to play a "high-op casters only"-game, you really don't want such stupidities back.

However, if you're only looking to use it as an NPC, you can pretty much just copy it from 3.5; PrC levels, spells, metamagic shenanigans and all. The only things you'd need to add/adjust would be CMB (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/Gamemastering/Combat/#TOC-Combat-Maneuver-Bonus)/CMD (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/Gamemastering/Combat/#TOC-Combat-Maneuver-Defense) and skills (keeping the 3.5 classes' skill points/level above 1st), which is really easy. Heck, you can just give this "necro-abjura-near-gish" the values you find appropriate should those the rules provide per default not agree with you, saving you from having to rebuild the whole thing in PF just to compensate for any related details (which you probably won't have to, but just in case).

If you'd prefer to recreate the character using only 1PP PF components, I'd recommend going for a magus for max "gishiness" (less minionmancy and 6/9 casting but stronger in earlier levels and a much better gish), or maybe a cleric or oracle (battle and/or bones mysteries) for a full caster variant. If the high quality 3PP options from Dreamscarred Press are on the table, there are quite a few most likely more suitable (and potentially more powerful) different ways available, also including some nice undead-ish race add-ons and related stuff. Is such content of interest (you can find all of it for free online)?

[Psyren]

I'd start with the official conversion guide - you can find a free PDF of it on Paizo here. (https://paizo.com/products/btpy89m6?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Conversion-Guide) That will cover the basics like skills, CMB/CMD and HD.

From there it gets trickier; there's a million smaller changes between the editions that you won't really suss out if you're unfamiliar with the nuances. For example, if you have Rapid Metamagic primarily so that you can quicken your DN spells, it's worth pointing out that spontaneous casters in PF no longer need that in order to Quicken. I haven't read the build in depth to see if it references specific goals or abilities that you'd like to get out of it, but if it doesn't, posting a summary of those might enable folks to help you.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Psyren
…there's a million smaller changes between the editions that you won't really suss out if you're unfamiliar with the nuances.

Do you know if there’s a comprehensive list of these myriad tiny changes? I’m constantly being tripped up by these, and it would be great to have an overall reference.

Fortunately my players know what I mean when I ask for a Spot check, but many of these micro-changes are a surprise to me, such as the difference in Rapid Metamagic you mentioned. A guide or a list would be invaluable.

[Psyren]

Do you know if there’s a comprehensive list of these myriad tiny changes? I’m constantly being tripped up by these, and it would be great to have an overall reference.

Fortunately my players know what I mean when I ask for a Spot check, but many of these micro-changes are a surprise to me, such as the difference in Rapid Metamagic you mentioned. A guide or a list would be invaluable.

I started to work on such a guide just for the core spells, and trust me when I say that it became a bit too much. I may finish it one day though.

The various class handbooks contain some of the info, but honestly the best way to find out is through play. You'll make a few mistakes but it'll be fine.

[keeper2161]

The build is by any definition complicated. It originally started out with me wanting to play a negative energy warrior that wields a great-sword and casts spells. The dread necromancer does that perfectly besides the horrendous BAB. So to counter that I needed wrath strike, which makes all my attacks use touch AC, but only lasts for one round. So I needed a way to persist it. Which being a Illumian solved. I could use the classes rebuke undead to fuel metamagic feats without raising the spell level.

But I wanted to cast through my weapon. I didn't want to go duskblade because it didn't advance my dread necromancer spell casting. So in came smiting spell. Wasn't the best option but really the only option I found.

For Incantatrix I actually found the weaker version first and couldn't for the life of me figure out why people hated it. I thought it was just PrC that gave you a bunch of metamagic feats if you really wanted them. Sure it gave the character a once a day free metamagic, 2 at level 9, but that was 7 levels into the class. I didn't realize that there was another Incantatrix that was way better in another book. In fact the Incantatrix was just filler to get some metamagic feats because I couldn't think of anything else to put for those 8 levels.

The most controversial part about the build is Magical Training and Versatile Spellcasting. Which gave me the ability to use a spellbook and use my dread necro slots to cast them. Albeit two slots for one spell. I thought it was a cool way to get a spellbook without being a wizard. And unlike a wizard I would have to track done every spell as I didn't get free spells at level up. Which I thought was really cool.

With Abjurant Champion it was just a way to to get a +16 AC without wearing wearing armor. Plus it gave me 5 levels of full BAB which the build was severally lacking and still advanced my spell casting.

I don't like Magus because it doesn't give full casting, is mainly blasting, and I can only use Magus spells with the Magus class feature. Plus it doesn't have the feel of arcane negative energy warrior. I found a pathfinder conversion for dread necromancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?353181-Dread-Necromancer-Pathfinder-update-(WIP)) that I might use.

I will probably keep Magical Training and Versatile Spellcasting as the concept is really cool. I might drop Incantatrix becuase being an Illumian solves the persist issue. The only issue is casting through my weapon which isn't to big of issue but something I might want to look into.