Converting 3.5 to 5e

[Athear]

so I have a a character i want to play in a 5e game but I am primarily a 3.5 five player. while I generally do not enjoy 5e. i do want to reprise this character because she never got a satisfying ending.

her original form from 3.5 was a duskblade: 3, wizard: 4, Pale master: 3
racial/ class features/ ACF: Dancing lights, detect magic, flare, ghost sound, read magic, summon familiar, scribe scroll (combat wizard ACF) animate dead.
her feats where: Skill focus (Religion), Scribe scroll, weapon focus naginata, short haft, and combat expertise

her backstory is this:
Rin ( 凜 kanji for cold) Akimaya ( 秋山 autumn mountain) was born near the shrines in the northern mountains of her Island nation home of ___ where she she was adopted into the the Akimaya family thanks to the eldest daughter of the family a Miko of the ancient faiths, a woman who would take in a forest spirit with out fear or judgement. and through this the Kitsune they would name Rin Akimaya was raised into a wealthy family and landed. Through her adoptive family she was introduced to the courts of __, where she met a young samurai named Kinryu of the Miyamoto clan. she was instantly smitten with this warrior philosopher and after a time of courting, over the next few years he would sneek into her bedchamber often as was tradition in her homeland and they where soon married. Her families wealth funded his duties as samurai, and juring this time she was as happy as she had ever been, and was soo pregnant.
Emi Gorepelt(aka athear) — Yesterday at 9:45 PM
It was then that Ryu was called in to serve his Diamyo Miyamoto Shinji as they where now at war with the Kira clan. he was called into lead the assualt on the Kira castle, with the support of the Diamyo's younger brother Miyamoto Akihiro. how ever Shinji ordered his younger brother to hold his possition till the last moment.
This caused Kinryu and his men to be overwhelmed and though his leadership carried the day he was mortaly wounded and the force of samuri and Ashigaru he took with him suffered horribly with only a handfull leaving as walking wounded. It was only after the worst of the fighting was over that Akihiro and his troops where ordered in and where awarded the glory of taking the city, a glory that belonged to Kinryu.
Returning victorious Miyamoto Shinji stripped Akimaya Rin of her estate claiming Miyamoto kinryu showed cowardice on the battlefield. evicting Rin dispite a historicaly harsh winter now seizing the province, a winter that also seized Akimaya's infant child as well.
swearing revenge for thier deaths the young warrior Akimaya rin cried into the darkness of the night and in her dreams a power answered back. trading its aid for service. maskerading as something beneign, it stoked the kitsune's rage.
so taking those few ashigaru still loyal to her family and her husbands memory she took her husbands armour and weapons. an action she was judged to be a theif for, and was to be killed by the sword, so she fled west

if that helps get her feel across, the point is she is the type of person who will do anything for her vengeance


but I want to make her in 5e but I have no Idea how nor do I have access to an extended book list for 5e.
so I need help converting her from 3.5 to 5E

[Kane0]

Primarily a caster or focusing on being a gish?

[Athear]

Primarily a caster or focusing on being a gish?

gish using necromancer to hurt people real bad.

[Athear]

sees not a good person by any stretch

[Unoriginal]

gish using necromancer to hurt people real bad.

You could go for Wizard Bladesinger, prioritizing necromancy spells.

Maybe with a few level of Fighter.

[J-H]

There are 3 main intersections with "Full caster with necromancy" and "Hits things well in combat."

1) Hexblade: Cha-based casting, hit, and damage. Brings a spirit of a slain enemy back with 6th level feature. Can pick up Animate Dead. Can pick up Spirit Shroud, surrounding self in a bunch of ghosts for damage amp.

2) Bladesinger: It's a wizard with a melee attack/damage ability based on INT that can be used a few times per day. Has access to necromancy stuff through the wizard list, but no specific necromancy flavor.

3) Cleric: Grave or Death clerics; they have animate dead. They have heavy armor, and can use Spirit Guardians to cause constant damage while being in the enemy's face. No specific boosts to melee attacks aside from specific spells like Spirit Shroud or Spirit Guardians.

I'd probably go with Hexblade. At level 9 you have Animate Dead for minions, and 5th level Spirit Shroud (as long as you maintain concentration) causing your melee attacks to do +2d8 necrotic damage due to creepy spirits of the dead floating around you, and when you hit them, they can't heal until the start of your next turn, and they're slowed.

[Athear]

You could go for Wizard Bladesinger, prioritizing necromancy spells.

Maybe with a few level of Fighter.

I'm a kitsune not elf

[Scots Dragon]

I'm a kitsune not elf

As of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, bladesinger was made universally available regardless of player race.

[JLandan]

Sounds like straight up Hexblade Warlock to me. It's just a matter of choosing the right invocations and spells.

[Willie the Duck]

Sounds like straight up Hexblade Warlock to me.

Or Fighter 1/ Undead pact Tomelock X-1. OP seems to like cantrips, plus a summoned familiar through ritual magic. Sure, wielding a glaive with only 1 level of fighter will eventually necessitate Booming Blade to stay competitive, and that doesn't have a 3.5 corollary, but then again of course it doesn't since in 3.5 you could just keep advancing as a non-fighter and still get extra attacks (albeit at a slower pace).

[RogueJK]

Based on your description of a naginata-wielding necromantic gish who formed a pact with a dark power, I'd go with a Pact of the Blade Warlock, either the newer Undead patron if you can spare a decent STR, or Hexblade if you want to just focus on CHA. Take the Polearm Master feat, then either the Ritual Caster Wizard or Magic Initiate Wizard feat to snag Find Familiar. This gets you multiple polearm attacks per round, a familiar, some necromantic-style class abilities, and Warlock spells and cantrips.

Assuming Point Buy stats, something like:
Custom Lineage "Kitsune" Hexblade Warlock
STR 10
DEX 14
CON 15
INT 8
WIS 8
CHA 15+2
Take Ritual Caster Wizard at Level 1, then Polearm Master at Level 4, +1 CHA/CON at Level 8, and +2 CHA at Level 10.
For Invocations, you'll definitely want Thirsting Blade, and you can take other useful/fitting stuff like Lifedrinker, Devil's Sight, Whispers of the Dead, and Eldritch Mind.
For spells, you have access to a number of dark/necromantic spells including Summon Undead, Danse Macabre, Phantasmal Killer, Wrathful Smite, Spirit Shroud, Blight, and Fear.


A Pact of the Tome/Pact of the Chain Warlock would be tougher to pull off, even though that's an easy means for a Warlock to access a Familiar. Hexblades can't use CHA with 2H polearms like a naginata unless they go Blade Pact, so that's not going to be a great option for a Hexblade Tomelock/Chainlock. And Undead Tomelocks/Chainlocks don't even get martial weapon proficiency, so you'd have to dip out into something like Fighter or Death Cleric for that. However, Tomelock is potentially more viable if you're willing to limit yourself to just using a Spear and refluffing it as a naginata.


It'll be nigh-impossible to pull off a naginata-wielding traditional Bladesinger, since they're limited to 1H weapons while bladesinging, and typically prioritize INT and DEX over STR anyway. Bladesinger would only work if you were to start with 1 level of Fighter for armor and weapon proficiency (and CON save proficiency), and then go Bladesinger from there but totally ignore the Bladesong feature.

Outright ignoring Bladesong is quite the waste since that's nearly all of your subclass abilities, but at least you'd still have nearly full Wizard spellcasting, plus Bladesinger's boosted Extra Attack.

[Kane0]

Seconding undead warlock picking up polearm master feat.

If youre set on being an int caster though youre limited to wizard and artificer, the former offering bladesinger as a gish option and the latter a couple options, though only battlesmith would work well with a polearm i think (you wouldnt want the feat since your bonus actiom will be busy)

Edit: as for kitsune, Tashas Custom Race unless you want to reskin an existing one like changeling, shifter, harengon, tabaxi, firbolg or something else.

[Athear]

Based on your description of a naginata-wielding necromantic gish who formed a pact with a dark power, I'd go with a Pact of the Blade Warlock, either the newer Undead patron if you can spare a decent STR, or Hexblade if you want to just focus on CHA. Take the Polearm Master feat, then either the Ritual Caster Wizard or Magic Initiate Wizard feat to snag Find Familiar. This gets you multiple polearm attacks per round, a familiar, some necromantic-style class abilities, and Warlock spells and cantrips.

Something like:
Custom Lineage "Kitsune"
Hexblade Warlock X
STR 10
DEX 14
CON 15
INT 8
WIS 8
CHA 15+2
Take Ritual Caster Wizard at Level 1, then Polearm Master at Level 4, and +1 CHA/CON at Level 8, then +2 CHA at Level 10.
For Invocations, you'll definitely want Thirsting Blade, and you can take other stuff like Lifedrinker, Devil's Sight, and Relentless Hex.
For spells, you have access to some dark/necromantic spells including Summon Undead, Phantasmal Killer, Wrathful Smite, Hex, Spirit Shroud, Blight, Fear, and Danse Macabre.


A Pact of the Tome/Pact of the Chain Warlock would be tougher to pull off, even though that's an easy means for a Warlock to access a Familiar. Hexblades can't use CHA with 2H polearms like a naginata unless they go Blade Pact, so that's not going to be a great option for a Hexblade Tomelock/Chainlock. And Undead Tomelocks/Chainlocks don't even get martial weapon proficiency, so you'd have to dip out into something like Fighter or Death Cleric for that. However, Tomelock is potentially more viable if you're willing to limit yourself to just using a Spear and refluffing it as a naginata.


It'll be nigh-impossible to pull off a naginata-wielding traditional Bladesinger, since they're limited to 1H weapons while bladesinging, and typically prioritize INT and DEX over STR anyway. Bladesinger would only work if you were to start with 1 level of Fighter for armor and weapon proficiency (and CON save proficiency), and then go Bladesinger X but totally ignore the Bladesong feature.

Outright ignoring Bladesong is quite the waste since that's nearly all of your subclass abilities, but at least you'd still have nearly full Wizard spellcasting, plus Bladesinger's boosted Extra Attack.

Don't really care about the familiar it just came with being a wizard in 3.5
never actually used it

[RogueJK]

That's good to know.

In that case, ditch Ritual Caster Wizard, take Polearm Master at Level 1, Fey Touched or Shadow Touched (+1 CHA) at Level 4, and Resilient CON at Level 8. All the other advice pretty much stays the same.

[Kane0]

What part of being a Kitsune was important to you? The shapeshifting?

[Athear]

What part of being a Kitsune was important to you? The shapeshifting?

I just like kitsune and the forest kitsune helps with a plus one charisma
https://www.5esrd.com/database/race/kitsune

[JLandan]

Hexblade with Hex Warrior and Pact of the Blade doesn't have the familiar built in, but it does have Accursed Spectre. It will also get you the glaive/naginata as a pact weapon. Also, the feat Magic Initiate can get you the spell Find Familiar (not as good as Pact of the Chain familiars, but still a familiar), plus a couple of cantrips.

Since you don't care about the familiar, save the feat for something else, ASI or another feat. Eldritch Adept can get you an extra invocation.

[Kane0]

OK so how about this:

Race: Custom Lineage (+2 Dex, Proficiency in Deception, Actor Feat for assuming human form and another +1 Cha)
Class: Warlock (Undead or Hexblade patron), Blade Pact
Background: Noble, Sage or Far Traveler
Stats: Prioritize Cha (and Str if choosing Undead) with some decent Dex and Con. Wis vs Int comes down to preference (Mental saves and Perception/Insight vs the knowledge skills)
Feats: Polearm Master at level 4, your choice at level 8 (You might want to just boost your stats but Warcaster, Fey or Shadow Touched, Resilient, Lucky and Inspiring Leader are all good)
Invocations: Mask of Many Faces (assuming human form), Improved Pact Weapon, Thirsting Blade, two more of your choice (Armor of Shadows is good if you picked Undead, Eldritch Mind is good if you don't get Warcaster feat, Devil Sight is great if you want to fight in your own Darkness, there are others for utility effects or enhancing your Eldritch Blast ranged cantrip)
Spells: Armor of Agathys, Cause Fear/Fear, Darkness, Invisibility/Greater Invisibility, Summon Shadowspawn/Undead, Misty Step/Thunder Step, Spirit Shroud/Shadow of Moil, Banishment, X Smite + Cone of Cold (Hexblade) or Blindness/Deafness + Death Ward (Undead)

Edit: That's for a level 10 character, forgot cantrips but Eldritch Blast, Friends, Mage Hand and Minor Illusion are a good selection.

[JLandan]

OK so how about this:

Race: Custom Lineage (+2 Dex, Proficiency in Deception, Actor Feat for assuming human form and another +1 Cha)
Class: Warlock (Undead or Hexblade patron), Blade Pact
Background: Noble, Sage or Far Traveler
Stats: Prioritize Cha (and Str if choosing Undead) with some decent Dex and Con. Wis vs Int comes down to preference (Mental saves and Perception/Insight vs the knowledge skills)
Feats: Polearm Master at level 4, your choice at level 8 (You might want to just boost your stats but Warcaster, Fey or Shadow Touched, Resilient, Lucky and Inspiring Leader are all good)
Invocations: Mask of Many Faces (assuming human form), Improved Pact Weapon, Thirsting Blade, two more of your choice (Armor of Shadows is good if you picked Undead, Eldritch Mind is good if you don't get Warcaster feat, Devil Sight is great if you want to fight in your own Darkness, there are others for utility effects or enhancing your Eldritch Blast ranged cantrip)
Spells: Armor of Agathys, Cause Fear/Fear, Darkness, Invisibility/Greater Invisibility, Summon Shadowspawn/Undead, Misty Step/Thunder Step, Spirit Shroud/Shadow of Moil, Banishment, X Smite + Cone of Cold (Hexblade) or Blindness/Deafness + Death Ward (Undead)

Another option for race might be to re-skin Harengon.

[Athear]

also is a dip into fighter worth it for better armour? and extra weapons?

[Kane0]

I would probably reskin Swiftstride Shifter or Firbolg.

Fighter for weapons and armor isn't necessary between Hexblade and Blade pact giving those (or the Mage Armor invocation or just using light armor in the case of Undead Patron). That said, starting with Fighter at level 1 gives you different saves for better concentration, and levels 2/3 give you access to the excellent Action Surge and Battlemaster Maneuvers respectively. Though there is the tradeoff there of course, delaying your access to extra attack, lifedrinker invocation (warlock 12), ASIs/feats and higher level spells.

[RogueJK]

also is a dip into fighter worth it for better armour? and extra weapons?

Not needed on a Hexblade. Hexblades already get the same martial weapon proficiencies as a Fighter, and get Medium Armor. The 1 point of extra AC from Heavy Armor isn't worth being an entire level behind in Warlock levels. (Plus having to invest in 15+ STR to be able to utilize Heavy Armor.)


But it'd be useful to start with 1 level of Fighter if you wanted to do Undead patron instead of Hexblade.

[Willowhelm]

I know nothing about 3.5 but from the character description it seems like some vengeance paladin fits thematically and multiclasses well with the warlock suggestions?

[Willie the Duck]

I just like kitsune and the forest kitsune helps with a plus one charisma
https://www.5esrd.com/database/race/kitsune

To be clear -- that is someone's homebrew. There isn't a specific kitsune in 5e, check with your DM on if they are available and what they look like mechanically.

[Arkhios]

Could be an Eldritch Knight (fighter) with higher-than-usual Intelligence score and as many necromancy spells as possible.

[RogueJK]

Could be an Eldritch Knight (fighter) with higher-than-usual Intelligence score and as many necromancy spells as possible.

The total number of leveled Necromancy spells an Eldritch Knight could know is only between 1 and 4, depending on their level.

All of their spells have to be either Evocation or Abjuration, with the exception of 1 spell each at Level 3, Level 8, Level 14, and Level 20.


You could potentially snag one more from Shadow Touched, choosing either False Life, Cause Fear, or Ray of Sickness as your 1st level spell choice. That'd take you up to a grand total of 5 Necromancy spells known by Level 20.


That pales in comparison to any of the full caster options like Warlock or Wizard, either of whom would have access to a plethora of Necromancy spells.