Monster Conversion from 4th to 5th edition

Looking through Living Lore, trying to get inspired for tonight's game. I see a few things of interest, but I'd like to know what people think the conversion for Might scores might be. 4th has higher Might scores across the board, it seems. How much lower would they be in 5th edition?

Thanks in advance, sodales!

V

Good question. I heavy no readily answer. I have usually just gone with my gut feeling, and I have usually adjusted it more towards what challenge level I wanted for a story than conversion as such.

I think the general consideration is that 4th Ed Might Scores may be too high for 5th Ed.
If you stick to the 4th Ed Score ,
give opportunities for the players to get penetration boosts for spells.

Do your players tend to research obstacles (given the chance to do so) ,
or simply go in head-first all guns blazing?

I would suggest subtracting between 5-10 Might from all of the 4th Ed critters.

You should also scale down their Soak scores.

  • Alex -

Might in 4th Ed determined MR just as in 5th, but the Pen. of spells used full Casting Total - whereas in 5th, it is reduce to (CT - Spell Level)

Similarly, Might based powers have reduced Pen (-5*Might Used) but, many powers use little Might.

Thus a "fair challenge" needs a lower might score ... we need to look at the "threat "of small (might 5-10), medium, and powerful beings. In 5e a Might of 40 is a serious challenge! Few beings have Might over 40...

(If you think Might 40 isn't a great threat vs Parma - you are quite right .. by design, Ars Magica includes the notion (from its pseudo-history) that the Parma Magica was a major breakthrough, which made its users virtually immune to direct spell-casting. Don't assume that you should introduce Might60- or 80 beings just to provide something which may punch through Parma - assume the Fae (or whatever) won't be able to punch through directly, and look for indirect ways round this...)