Converting D&D3.

5 Monsters to 5e On The Fly

Introduction
So this isn’t perfect, but it should get you very close to being able to use any Pathfinder
or 3.5 monsters in D&D 5e. It should even allow you to run a 3.5 or Pathfinder
adventure on the fly, including NPC’s. This document tries to keep it to a very small
amount of adjustments, which you can mentally do and pencil in. For all the calculations
in here; round down.

Step 1: Subtract CR from AC

Subtract the CR (Challenge Rating) from the Armor Class to get the D&D 5e appropriate
AC.

For example: An Iron Golem has an AC of 30 and a Challenge Rating of 13. Its D&D 5e
AC should be 30-13 = AC:17

Step 2: Attack bonus for all attacks is CR/2+3

To figure out a monster’s Attack Bonus for melee and ranged attacks vs AC. Cut the
Challenge Rating in half and add 3 to that number. Usually you should round down, but
if the monster has an extremely high Strength score you may want to round up or even
add 1.

For example: A CR:7 Flesh Golem should have a melee attack that is +6 vs AC. That’s
half of 7(rounded down) +3.

Step 3: Keep Damage as is. Make Multiattacks at full attack

bonus from Step 2.
Leave the damage just as listed on the stat block. If a monster gets multiple attacks with
declining attack bonuses, keep them all at the same Attack Bonus calculated in Step 2
above, with the damage as listed.

For example: The Challenge Rating:20 Balor attack line says:

+1 vorpal unholy longsword +31/+26/+21/+16 (2d6+13),

+1 vorpal flaming whip +30/+25/+20 (1d4+7 plus 1d6 fire and entangle)

This would be 4 longsword attacks at +13 vs AC for 2d6+13 damage each, plus 3
attacks with the flaming whip at +13 vs AC for 1d4+7+1d6 damage. That’s an average
damage of 119 per round.

That’s a good target for a CR:20 D&D 5e creature. You’ll notice it’s a little higher than
the Balor in the D&D 5e Bestiary, but that’s because this is CR:20 and the Bestiary has
the Balor at Level 16. We aren’t making level adjustments. If you are converting a
Pathfinder adventure that calls for a DC:20 Balor, we want to make sure it stays as
challenging as the adventure calls for, not how D&D 5e thinks it should be in the
Pantheon.

Allow monsters to keep their extended Crit Ranges, but make critical hits do max
damage for monsters instead of double. Don’t roll to confirm critical hits, assume they
always confirm.

If you want to double the damage, and make fewer attacks, feel free to do so. For
instance you could make 2 longsword attacks, each for double damage. It’s tough to do
that if you have a monster that makes an odd number of attacks.

Step 4: Save DC’s; take the listed monster ability DC, halve the
part above 10, and add it back to 10.
To figure out what the characters need to roll to make a saving throw against something
the monster does to them; Take the Save DC’s of monster attacks or trap that is listed,
subtract 10 from it, divide that number in half, and add it back to 10. For example: An
Adult Silver Dragon has a breath weapon that requires a DC:23 saving throw. Take 23-
10 = 13. Divide the 13 in half to become 6, and add that back to 10, so the saving throw
DC becomes 16.

Step 5: Hit Points, leave as is.

Note: Yes, these monsters will have more HP than the ones in the Bestiary. A major
complaint I’ve been seeing on the forums is monsters die too easily. If you graph
damage output of the players for D&D 5e side by side with Pathfinder it is spot on at
higher levels.

I also checked for differences in Hit Points between the 3.5srd and d20srd, and
surprisingly the Medians for HP are all the same! Pathfinder only shifted things, like
increasing Outsiders to a d10 Hit Die from a d8, but they reduced Ooze Hit Die down to
d8 from d10. All the adjustments must have been in parallel. For every Hit Die size
Pathfinder increased over 3.5srd, they must have decreased another one.

Step 6: Ability Stat Scores, STR,DEX, etc, (you don’t need

them, see Step 7)
If you use half the Fort, Ref, Will save bonuses for everything it will save a LOT of
calculation.

Step 7: For monster Saving Throws, and Ability Checks, use

the Fort/Ref/Will save bonuses divided by two.
For example: A CR:6 Girallon has Fort+9, Ref+8, Will+5. If it has to make a DEX saving
throw it would get half the Ref save of +4. If it had to make a STR check to escape being
grabbed, it would use half the Fort save of +4.
Even if D&D 5e calls for STR or a CON save, you can use half the listed Fortitude save
bonus for both. If the creature has a negative save, don’t divide it in two, leave it as a
negative.

You may think this cheats the players a bit. If you start to dig you’ll notice a few things.

There are no spells that call for an INT saving throw.

It’s also extremely rare for a monster to ever need to make an INT check.

Anything that calls for DEX saving throw, simply use half the listed Reflex save bonus.

There are no spells that call for a STR saving throw. STR usually only comes into play
when grappling, escaping, disarming or other maneuvers. Usually STR and CON are
either both high or both low, so it’s ok to use half the Fortitude save bonus for both,
even resisting maneuvers or escaping. There are very rare cases of extremely low STR
combined with high CON; those are all incorporeal, swarms, or formless creatures and
players won’t be disarming or grappling with them anyway.

There are only a tiny handful of spells that require a Charisma saving throw. These are
mostly charm spells, or banishing spells. I think it's ok to lump Charisma and Wisdom
saves together into Will save.

Also use half the Will save bonus to detect hidden creatures, to detect lies etc.

Step 8: For skills, use half the Fort/Ref/Will save bonus as the
base ability, add +5 for being trained.
If a monster needs to use a skill, simply use half the relevant Fort, Ref, or Will save as
the base ability modifier, and if the monster has the skill listed in their stat block give
them a +5 for being trained. For example: A Cloaker has Fort+6, Ref+5, Will+7 and has
the skills listed of Disguise, Perception, Stealth. If it needs to make a Disguise Check,
use half the Will save bonus of +7/2=+3 and add +5 for being trained. So a total of 3+5
= +8 for Disguise checks.

Step 9: Initiative bonus, leave as is.

Most of the initiative bonuses are very small in Pathfinder, the ones that aren’t are
usually because the monster has the Improved Initiative feat. This is normally because
going first is important to the monster and helps define how the monster plays.

Step 10: Last remaining bits, try to keep things feeling like D&D
5e.
Monsters that can Sneak Attack, can get Advantage if any of their allies is adjacent to
the target, and then give up the Advantage to take a Sneak Attack (just like a Rogue).
They also have Advantage on anyone they beat in Initiative, and when hidden, target is
prone, etc.
Depending on your knowledge of feats, you could allow monsters with Spring Attack to
be able to move 10 ft. without provoking an opportunity attack. You should give out
other general feat abilities like that, but don’t worry about feats too much, ignore most
of them.

Level Drain: -5 to max HP, -1 to all d20 rolls, -1 to Spell DC's

Ability Damage:Keep the same dice (i.e. a Shadow does 1d6 STR damage) Each number
gets translated straight to the below. 1d6 hours duration.

STR dmg: penalty to damage rolls - skill checks/Saves

CON dmg: penalty to max HP - skill checks/Saves

DEX dmg: penalty to AC, and skill checks/Saves

INT dmg: penalty to Spell DCs skill checks/Saves

WIS dmg: penalty to Spell DCs and Skill Checks/Saves

CHA dmg: penalty to Spell DCs and Skill Checks/Saves

For any paralyze/stun/frighten effect a player can make a saving throw if they spend an
Action to do so.

If a creature has Magic Resistance, simply let them roll twice on all Saving Throws vs.
Spells.

If a creature has Damage Reduction, simply let them take half damage from that source:
“Resistance” as it’s called in D&D 5e terms.

Any duration’s that are listed in 1d4+3 rounds or some such, simply change to 1 minute.
Also, give all players and monster the ability to get another Saving Throw if they spend
an Action to do so.

Breath Weapon, says it recharges every 1d4 rounds, simply roll a d6 every round and
recharge on 5 or a 6, the same as 4th edition recharges.

Any Petrify, is restrained for the first round, and if they don’t spend an Action to save
against, it becomes Petrified.

Any “Save-or-Die” simply does Caster Level*d8 in damage, save for half.

Any Charmed or Dominated person gets another saving throw if they take any damage,
or if they are forced to do something that would cause themselves harm.

Most Poison you can change into flat damage, instead of Ability Damage.

Any damage to equipment, such as Black Pudding damaging armor and weapons, simply
stack -1 penalties to damage or AC.

grab = whenever you see an attack that "grabs" the target must make a DC of (1/2
monster's Fort save) STR check or become "grabbed". The monster would get Advantage
on all future attacks vs that target. The grabbed target must spend an Action to make
STR or DEX check to escape.

If a creature has “constrict” then they immediately do that extra damage listed when the
grab succeeds. They also get to automatically inflict the constrict damage every round
when they act.

rend = if both hit, do an extra X damage (it’s listed)

trip = simply make a quick opposed STR or DEX check, player’s choice, or be knocked
prone.

pounce = as an Action the creature can move its speed and make a full attack. This
means they can Move, and then spend an Action to Move and Attack, essentially double
moving (like a charge).

rake = consider this free automatic damage that happens to grabbed foes at the start of
creatures turn.

Try your best on spells, some work just the same.

Encounter Building Guidelines – (Challenge Ratings)

In older editions of D&D (before 4E) a “standard” encounter was targeted to be 50% of
the party’s strength. If you had a party of six players with a total of 18 class levels
between them all, a standard encounter would be around 9 total Hit Dice of monsters. A
“Tough” encounter could be 100% of the party’s strength, and a super-duper hard could
even be up to 200%. (Source: Frank Mentzer Dragon#101)

The following is Speculation: ----What they did with Challenge Rating is say: a monster
with this “Challenge Rating” is a “standard” difficulty encounter for a party of 4 players
of a level equal to that Challenge Rating. Remember, “standard” difficulty means: 50%
of the strength of 4 players. What does that tell you? That means that a monster of a
given Challenge Rating is roughly equal to 2 players. I should say that again, because if
it’s true, it makes thinking of creating encounters very easy! A monster of a given
Challenge Rating is roughly equal to 2 players.

Pick any single monster of a Challenge Rating, and it is equal to 50% of the strength of 4
players of that level. It will have the Hit Points and damage output of 2 players. So this
was my “Eureka” moment. Say you want to figure out what the damage output and HP
of a single player is expected to be. If you divide the HP and damage output of a
monster in half, you will get the average expected damage and hit points of a single
character of the level equal to its Challenge Rating. Don’t assume Fighter is the baseline;
Fighters have immense advantages to damage and HP. These numbers are meant to be
the average of the party where Fighters do a lot of damage, Cleric’s swing their 1d8
mace, Thieves don’t get Dex bonus to damage, wizards do 1d6+0 most rounds. Also,
these numbers represent the average ho-hum party, not the super optimized, all 18’s in
their primary stats, type party.

One more Challenge Rating fact to remember: if you ever combine 2 monsters of the
same Challenge Rating, the Challenge Rating of the entire encounter becomes 2 higher.
Combining 2 monsters of 50% difficulty creates an encounter of 100% difficulty.
Therefore if you ever see a Challenge Rating 2 higher, it means this encounter is 100%
of the strength of the party.