Poisoncraft: Codex Venenorum is done and waiting for a trip through the Fred Hicks Prettification Machine. So I thought I would unwind with another 3e conversion. This is one of my favorites from the last edition:

Feeblemind power

I like this conversion for a few reasons. It gives the wizard another long-distance power, which is quickly becoming the last defining feature of the class. It has a pretty novel suite of damage effects. (I particularly like the penalty to Reflex defense, which seems odd at first blush but, in fact, makes perfect sense.) Finally, I like the conditional penalty to the saving throw, which is a fruitful area for further design exploration.

Just one problem….

Did you figure it out….

I didn’t notice until I started typing this post….

That’s right. Monsters don’t have the arcane keyword. So that last sentence is essentially useless. Sigh.

This points out an interesting design phenomenon for me. When I’m designing for 4e, I don’t have much trouble getting into the 4e mindset. For some reason, when I’m designing conversions from 3e to 4e, I seem to have these kind of niggling issues pop up. In fact, I had some similar issues crop up while I was working on the Poisoncraft conversion. I would find myself doing a straight conversion of something and catch myself in time to realize that it might be something that doesn’t belong in 4e at all. For Poisoncraft, I think this ended up making it a much better product because I found myself really focusing on the design issues, giving them greater scrutiny. Anyone else have similar experiences?

On the upside, there are a couple of easy fixes. You could just swap psychic for arcane. In some ways, this is a better fit than arcane anyway (though it lacks the traditional tie to its 3e progenitor). You could repurpose it to a monster power easily enough, perhaps for an evil mage NPC. What would you do?

Time for another conversion of a 3e favorite. Contingency seems like a quintessential utility power.

Contingency          Wizard Utility 16
Always be prepared.
Daily * Arcane
Standard Action (Special)          Personal
Special: You can only use this power during a short or extended rest.
Effect: You can use another power on yourself so that it comes into effect at a future time under some condition that you dictate when using this power. The power brought into effect must be one that has a range of “personal” or has a target that may legally target only “you”, e.g., “you or one creature”. The condition must be expressed as a trigger, similar to when you ready an action. Thereafter, if the trigger occurs, the companion power takes effect as an immediate interrupt. The effect ends when the contingency occurs or when you take an extended rest.

For giggles, I occasionally convert some 3e favorites to 4e. It occurred to me that some of you might enjoy, so I decided to post them here. For starters, hold person, which is interesting because there aren’t any good ways to emulate the effect in 4e, i.e., no held or paralyzed condition in 4e. Of course, that is no deterrent to me. In fact, this conversion isn’t a perfect emulation, but I think it’s a fun one. Enjoy!

Hold Person                                                   Cleric Attack 13
You rebuke your enemy with the ominous tidings of your deity, freezing them in place.
Encounter * Divine, Implement
Standard Action                    Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. Will
Hit: The target is helpless, immobilized, and cannot use powers with the weapon or implement keyword (save ends all).