I have the big AD&D 2E encyclopedia of magical items and also the spells compendia. I haven't really looked in detail, but how is porting 2E to 5E spells and items looking for ease and speed etc? Do I need to wait for the DMG to do something like this effectively?
IMO , 5E is much lower powered than 4E,3E and even 1/2E, so some items that are set for lower levels will be well over powered.
That and I believe in 5E item bonuses max out at +3.
So generally you need to tone stuff down for 5e.
I'd flat out avoid anything that gives "+1 to hit" and probably wouldn't go much higher than +1 damage.
But items that DO things (cloak of the manta ray, ring of water walking) would probably be fine.
I don't particularly see why it should be a problem having +1 items available.
I expect the characters in the current campaign I'm running to have +1 items around 5th level.
You just need to scale the the + items to between a +1 to +3 range .
Cool. I had a quick look at magic missile. Apart from the range being far lower, it's the same spell more or less. Unless I am reading it wrong.
2E - 60 yards, 1 1d4+1 missile at 1st level
5E - 40 yards, 3 1d4+1 missiles at first level
This is quite crazy though:
2E - For every two extra levels of experience, the wizard gains an additional missile--he has two at 3rd level, three at 5th level, four at 7th level, etc., up to a total of five missiles at 9th level.
Total of 5 1d4+1 missiles maximum.
5E - When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the spell creates one more dart for each slot level above 1st.
So a Sorcerer casting MM in a 9th level slot creates 11 1d4+1 missiles/darts.
The magical item bazaar has been scuppered, but you do get bang for your buck with those magic missiles! The change doesn't really matter for any other reason that it is a purely academic exercise to look at it and go: Hmmmm.
The difference between 1E/2E magic missile vs 5E magic missile is for 1E/2E it's always a 1st level spell and a wizard at 9th level get a lot of 1st level spells.
The 5E wizard for the same effect (and lots more missiles) must use a 9th level slot to get that and he has a lot less 9th level slots than 1st level slots.
Quote from: danskmacabre;791173The difference between 1E/2E magic missile vs 5E magic missile is for 1E/2E it's always a 1st level spell and a wizard at 9th level get a lot of 1st level spells.
The 5E wizard for the same effect (and lots more missiles) must use a 9th level slot to get that and he has a lot less 9th level slots than 1st level slots.
Yep.
It'd be fairly rare for a wizard to want to use a 9th level slot for MM (allthough it could happen. Maybe the supermonster they're fighting is low on hp, and really needs to die this very round, etc.).
Not being in the playtest and only now starting to look at these things, it's quite interesting to see how it pans out.
Quote from: BarefootGaijin;791172Cool. I had a quick look at magic missile. Apart from the range being far lower, it's the same spell more or less. Unless I am reading it wrong.
2E - 60 yards, 1 1d4+1 missile at 1st level
5E - 40 yards, 3 1d4+1 missiles at first level
This is quite crazy though:
2E - For every two extra levels of experience, the wizard gains an additional missile--he has two at 3rd level, three at 5th level, four at 7th level, etc., up to a total of five missiles at 9th level.
Total of 5 1d4+1 missiles maximum.
5E - When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the spell creates one more dart for each slot level above 1st.
So a Sorcerer casting MM in a 9th level slot creates 11 1d4+1 missiles/darts.
The magical item bazaar has been scuppered, but you do get bang for your buck with those magic missiles! The change doesn't really matter for any other reason that it is a purely academic exercise to look at it and go: Hmmmm.
Using a magic missle with such a high slot isn't all that smart really for full caster or single classed magic user but things get interesting if you're running a Eldritch Knight/Conjurer/Abjurer/Evoker where you have high level slots but lower level spells. It's also works better for a Sorcerer or Paladin then most others.
Quote from: BarefootGaijin;791172So a Sorcerer casting MM in a 9th level slot creates 11 1d4+1 missiles/darts.
That's not all that great for a 9th level spell considering you could be casting Chain Lightning or Meteor Swarm.
In 1e an 18th level MU could do 9 1d4+1 missiles with a First Level spell slot and 18d6 Fireball with a 3rd level spell slot...
...of course, they could also be interrupted while casting without a Concentration save, the part people tend to forget.
Converting is going to be a total pain in the ass as 5e is geared around the whole idea that spellcasters at the higher levels have substantially less spells to work with. All one ONE 9th level spell. And you arent getting that spell back till you can get in an un-interrupted short or long rest depending on the class as my current group is coming to grips with.
The other factor is the massive downplaying of magic items. The +3 5e cap is equivalent to AD&Ds +5.
You are going to see all sorts of crazy disparities between AD&D and 5th.
One example is how wands and staves are handled in 5e as compared to AD&D. An AD&D wand could have dozens of charges and was useless once expended. A 5e wand may have only 10 or less charges. But. It recharges a little each day.
And depending on the item. You may end up with substantially fewer due to some needing attunement.
Magic weapons may be the easiest to convert. I could see something like this.
AD&D = 5e
+1-2 = +1
+3-4 = +2
+5 = +3
Spells are going to be problematic in some cases. Either underpowered or overpowered.