Converting D&D Paladins?!

[Brian Leybourne]

I think so. Rules for horseback combat and animals are always useful, plenty of NPC's for emergencies, plus lots of beasties (magical and otherwise) which is kind of what D&D games would be all about.

I like to think the book is generally useful, regardless of how you play TROS.

Brian.

[prophet118]

i hope so... i'll also give updates on the conversion process..

and i'll probably end up using your character gen Brian, mainly because its alot easier than doing it by hand... question on that though...

my printer doesnt work right now, can i send the saved files to another guy (who has the character gen software), and have him load them to print them?

just curious..

if i can get my printer drivers updated to win2k i can get adobe acrobat again then i'll just PDF them

[Brian Leybourne]

Yes, no reason why that wouldn't work.

Brian.

[Draigh]

Just an idea for the cleric type or it might work for the paladin's lay on hands ability.

Allow the player to heal wounds as such:

TN = 3 X wound level

1) Allow PCs to roll Faith vs TN, each success heals a wound level.

or

2) Auto heal up to level four wounds (or level five, as long as it's not an automatic kill).  Then make the PC roll Faith vs TN to keep from losing points of Faith, with no insight if they lose them.  Each success on this roll allows them to retain one point.

The second one is risky, but would allow you to bring back a friend from death's door.

What do you guys think?

[contracycle]

I think.... this is probably going about it backwards.  Whats the point in reproducing another games rules?  These are all worthy efforts and all, but I suspect that you might get a better Paladin by using straight SA's they stand.  Sure, it would be more Kninghts Templar than D&D, but I think this is porobably a good thing.  All too often the Paladins healing power is not much more than secondary medic status so the party doesn't need to commit a whole character to Cleric.  This is wholly aganist the spirit of TROS, IMHO.

Further, I think lets NOT consider the Druid - the twinkie D&D druid with a fondness for nature.  Druids with a distate for bloodshed?  I thikn not.  Surely it would be more interetsing to take the ideas behind the druid concept (whichever you choose) and use TROS magic system to achive them.

[prophet118]

whether it is against the spirit of TROS or not doesnt matter, i am not trying to convert peoples ideas, if you had read actual post, you would know that i am trying to do as a direct of a conversion as possible

regardless of "twink" status, my whole point is to convert an existing D&D game, and convert it seemlessly.... why would i want to weaken the pre-existing characters to something else?

sure i could make the paladin nothing more than a bladeslinger with a high faith SA.... that screws the player out of everything he has been working for, for the past 6 months though.

[prophet118]

i dont want to come off sounding harsh here... but as i said, the plan is to convert a current game, granted the players arent at super levels (around 8 or so)

i dont just want to switch games on them, or gimp their characters, ya know?, the idea is to make this as seemless as possible, and as painless as possible

[Jake Norwood]

Prophet-

No worries, man. I dig the conversion.

Set paladins up at a c race priority and give them the same approximate abilities as gifts or skills.

Jake

[Brian Leybourne]

For myself, I would never use Paladins as we're discussing here in an actual game.

I just like shooting the shit about TROS rules and how flexible they are, you know? It's fun coming up with variations. And hey, you never know, something that comes purely out of the ether might prove potentially useful later on (like current insight level being used as a measure of character age/experience/marurity/whatever).

Brian.

[prophet118]

Prophet-

No worries, man. I dig the conversion.

Set paladins up at a c race priority and give them the same approximate abilities as gifts or skills.

Jake

well sounds cool

out of curiosity, what would be the difference between DEF for race... i bet this has been discussed before... but wouldnt most people opt for race priority F?... for standard soldiers at least...

just curious thats all, i do agree with the race choice though.. very wise choice

[prophet118]

For myself, I would never use Paladins as we're discussing here in an actual game.

I just like shooting the shit about TROS rules and how flexible they are, you know? It's fun coming up with variations. And hey, you never know, something that comes purely out of the ether might prove potentially useful later on (like current insight level being used as a measure of character age/experience/marurity/whatever).

Brian.

hell, i probably wouldnt if we were doing a straight TROS.... if the player had come to me asking to play a paladin (and we were already doing TROS, not D&D)... id simply say, create a soldier with a high faith score.... but because of the need to keep true to the campaign... some sacrifices must be made.

[contracycle]

OK, well, I didn't mean to be TOO critical but I'm inclined to think this sort of exercise if more effrot than its worth.  Way back when I built my own hit location based system, it was a direct D&D port and came with a huge set of secondary rules designed specifically to handle the port.  There was a whole-page table working out how much HP damage translated into wounds - with the consequence that Magic Missile became the Finger of Death.  I ended up with about 12 pages of real rules and 60-odd pages of conversion rules.  I have negative memories of the whole saga; gave me the sensation of constantly running just to stand still.  So, I'm kinda worried that the whole thing is more trouble than its worth, and would recommend one of two approaches:
1) new system new game.  Try it out and then decide which to play, and forget about the conversion
2) re-imagine the characters from scratch as if their play history to date was all backstory, and express them purely in the TROS rules.

[prophet118]

So, I'm kinda worried that the whole thing is more trouble than its worth, and would recommend one of two approaches:
1) new system new game.  Try it out and then decide which to play, and forget about the conversion
2) re-imagine the characters from scratch as if their play history to date was all backstory, and express them purely in the TROS rules.

1.) im not a noob here, i have tried the game, using the base line rules, cant you understand i simply which to convert a game that is planned to be an epic campaign?

2.)re-imagine the characters... funny.. you tell that to a bunch of players who have spent the last 6 months working on their characters..

i am swithcing to TROS because it handles things that i wanted to do, better than D&D, but i will not make them play new characters, or suck ass versions of their current characters, to do that is like telling them, "ok i know you spent this time on your characters, but you can forget it, lets switch to a new system"


im trying to get them interested in TROS, by converting their characters seemlessly... if i cannot, they will not play... simply put

im sure you can somehow understand that

this isnt an excercise in futility... im adding two SA's to the system... the rest converts just fine... i wont need any extra rules... spells?.. the hell with D&D spells... i have told the spell casters that they will be stronger in TROS, and be able to create their own spells.. .they love that... so why try to convert D&D spells, when they love the new stuff much better?

[contracycle]

Sure, well, always trust the engineer in the field, I say.  It's just that my expeirnce set off warning bells; IMO I wouldn't try to change horses mid-stream in this case and would instead finish the campaig with the existing rules.  Butr if you're confident that you ahve buy-in from the players, go for it.  Just for clarity though:

i am swithcing to TROS because it handles things that i wanted to do, better than D&D, but i will not make them play new characters, or suck ass versions of their current characters, to do that is like telling them, "ok i know you spent this time on your characters, but you can forget it, lets switch to a new system"

I'm not saying new characters or suck ass characters; I specifically mean just let them write the character down as it is withoutb the calculation steps in the TROS chargen.  Just write the D&D character as it is now in TROS terms.  My experience is that two systems have their own checks and balances and that direct ports tend to distort those balances.  Frex, a D&D thiefs backstab damage multiplier is totally redundant, because one blow from anyone can kill you stone dead; but part iof the thives XP cost has been raising the backstab ability.  Stuff like that.

[prophet118]

Sure, well, always trust the engineer in the field, I say.  It's just that my expeirnce set off warning bells; IMO I wouldn't try to change horses mid-stream in this case and would instead finish the campaig with the existing rules.  Butr if you're confident that you ahve buy-in from the players, go for it.  Just for clarity though:

i am swithcing to TROS because it handles things that i wanted to do, better than D&D, but i will not make them play new characters, or suck ass versions of their current characters, to do that is like telling them, "ok i know you spent this time on your characters, but you can forget it, lets switch to a new system"

I'm not saying new characters or suck ass characters; I specifically mean just let them write the character down as it is withoutb the calculation steps in the TROS chargen.  Just write the D&D character as it is now in TROS terms.  My experience is that two systems have their own checks and balances and that direct ports tend to distort those balances.  Frex, a D&D thiefs backstab damage multiplier is totally redundant, because one blow from anyone can kill you stone dead; but part iof the thives XP cost has been raising the backstab ability.  Stuff like that.

part of their XP cost?.... you must not have played 3rd ed.... well anyways... the party consists of a druid, a paladin, a fighter/ranger, and a wizard... a fairly easy party to convert.. but they wont be standard starting TROS characters... they will be a little better than starting...

for the most part, there isnt much to be converted that worries me, with the exception of making sure the paladin was still represented as he is.. hell, i could run it as just faith, but then you'd have to figure out why he can do it, and others with faith cant.... which was why i wanted some specific SA's based on faith, but not faith.