Canonfire!

Fri Apr 07, 2006 7:32 pm Theif Skills transfers

Anyone have any good Theif Skills transfer template from the old 1.0 and 2.0 Percentage format to the new D20 format in 3.x?
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Greyhawk fan since Keep on the Borderlands

Sun Apr 09, 2006 9:34 am

You mean as in character conversion? I think it's best to rebuild them from the ground up.

But i think there is a rule of thumb in the Conversion Manual: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnD_CYC_intro.asp

Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:08 am

In my opinion it is best to build them from the ground up, favoring the skills that the thief character actually used, rather than build the skills according to the 1e/2e charts which favored certain skills.

The main reason for my thinking on this is that it stays true to the thief character's actual skill usage, plus it helps the players more quickly understand how the d20 Difficulty Class system works. The best guide for a complete rebuild is the Difficulty Classes for the various skills themselves. If the character could previously climb a typical wall(DC 20) with close to 100% accuracy, then simply extrapolate how many skill points to spend on the Climb skill so that a roll of "1"(or close to it) would be successful. If the character actually was a skilled climber, but is not high enough level to achieve an automatic result, then simply favor this particular skill over others. Rogues get lots of skill points, but players will find that they are quickly spent as Rogues have access to some really good skills and lots of them. One mistake to avoid is taking too many skills with too few points assigned to them(although this obviously wouldn't apply to a "jack-of-all-trades; master-of-none" type of character).

One thing I do recommend is that both the player and the DM each do a conversion of the character and see how close they come out to be, or to have the DM help in the conversion. This helps in keeping the character as close to the original as possible, and to keep a player from building a character that is less than true to the original. This simple precaution made the conversion to 3.0/3.5 relatively seamless in my campaign. You still may want to allow for a bit of wiggle room with regards to character creation, as there are lots of new character options to make use of in 3.0/3.5 and this is a good portion of the fun of the new system.

Point of note: it really is difficult to convert multi-classed characters with multiple spellcasting classes from 1e/2e to 3.0/3.5e while maintaining their previous spell access and abilities. It can be done, but requires a bit of creativity and usually a slight sacrifice of some abilities. Converting a druid/mage aptly demonstrated this to me right away.

Hope this helps.
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- Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -

Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:51 am

Problem is that the characters I need to apply them to are for NPCs. I'll probably make a generic listing of stats and run them up a chart based on Theif Level. If they're multiclassed, I'll sort that out too.

I probably ought to make a 2.0 -> 3.0 Quick reference chart for using older 2.0 type modules and being able to get reasonably good stats quickly for NPCs. Gosh, is there a rogues gallery issue for 3.5? I had one, but it's apparently just pre 3.0.
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Greyhawk fan since Keep on the Borderlands

Tue Apr 25, 2006 10:14 am

There is the "official" conversion book from AD&D to D&D3E that WOTC released when 3.0 came out. There were hardcopies (I have one) and it came out in PDF form. Copies were in the D&D character generator CDROM that came out with the 3.0 PHB

Thu May 11, 2006 8:39 am

Here I found it. Repeated from the conversion book.
Old Thief Skill = D&D 3E Skill
Pick Pockets = Pick Pocket
Open Locks = Open Lock
Find/Remove Traps= Search (finding traps)
Find/Remove Traps=Disable Device(removing traps)
Move Silently=Move Silently
Hide in Shadows=Hide
Detect Noise=Listen
Climb Walls=Climb
Read Languages=Decipher Script

Calculation do in order ones step at a time.
Take your thief skill, divide by 5, round down, subtract 5. This equals your total bonus. This is your total skill bonus. Subtract your 3E stat bonus and that leaves your ranks in the skill.

I personally modified this by determining my 2nd ed thief skills with no armor on and tools that 3E says are required to make the skill roll.