I have been converting AD&D 2e Planescape monsters to 5th edition for my upcoming game, and thought I'd start a thread for our monster conversions. To start off, here is a solid guideline I put together for guesstimating 5e Challenge Rating using 2e XP Value. I will be running a 5e planescape campaign in a few months so I have lots of time to prepare. Can the playground recommend any planescape campaigns that are high level (7+) and are easy to convert to 5e?
I see a lot of suggestions and posts on various forums, even WOTC forums, from people wanting to see Planescape return to D&D as a core setting... I thought, why talk about it? Why not just do it? So, as I'd never trust myself alone to write this, I wanted to get the community opinions on how you'd convert Planescape to 5th Edition. Here are the points I feel need covering...
Changes To Playable Races - The tieflings are no longer the 'cursed race' bullshit from 4e, (did anyone actually play them like that?), they're planetouched same as they always where. Other than that they play exactly as they do in PHB. Humans, Dwarfs, Elves, Halflings, Gnomes, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, and even Dragonborn can all stay completely unchanged from 5e PHB. Genasi from Elemental Evil Player Companion fit perfectly in Planescape too, as do the Aasimar from DMG. The Eladrin in DMG could easily represent a planetouched elf of the Chaotic planes. Finally there's including the Aarakocra and Goliath as playable races, which I think work reasonably well, I'd make them mundane material plane races that have links and even settlements on the planes of Air and Earth respectively.
Additional Playable Races - We need Githzerai and Bariaur as playable races as they're a big part of Planescape. On top of that I'd move to have Hobgoblins, Pixies, Gargoyles, and Kenku as playable races too... just for the added variety. I already have stats drawn up for these that people are welcome to take a look at.
We need to bring back templates. Things like Lycanthrope, Vampire, Half-Dragon, etc. should be templates so that you can build them as viable NPCs with character levels or grant them to PCs if appropriate.
Yugoloths - I say that yugoloths... are fine. Yes I know, controversial sure, hear me out. We keep Yugoloths as the devil-crafted fiends from the 5e MM... and have there be a deeper level to Carceri that has the 'true' Yugoloths. Perhaps they're actually more like creatures from the far realm and this is where that pact of Warlock draws their power.
Factions - I'd simply retcon the final events that turned Planescape into a mad-house and just play as though nothing changed. This allows us to simply include all the old factions and just re-jig them for 5e
'Monstrous' PCs - We should stat something to allow players to start as monstrous PCs. I'd say we should make Azer, Cambion, Centaur, Drider, and Succubus/Incubus; as well as characters with Vampire Spawn, Lycanthrope, or Half-Dragon templates ALL playable, but they start with an effective character level of 5... after which they gain levels as usual. It makes sense to me that characters in Planescape that actually effect real far reaching change don't necessarily need to be Humans, Elves etc. but could be some of the more fantastical races. A little bit of re-writing and slight rebalancing would likely be enough.
'Wonderous' PCs - For the same reason, we should make Angel (Deva), Devil (Erinyes), Genies, Rakshasa, Yugoloth (Arcanaloth), and creatures with the Vampire or Lich templates playable too, but they should start with an effective level of 10. Obviously some rebalancing would be necessary, but it'd be a cool option for either, a campaign starting at high level, someone joining a campaign part-way through, or for if your character dies or is retired for some reason after 10th level. They'd simply gain levels normally beyond that so a Deva; Level 2 Bard would be effectively level 12.
Sigil Needs Fluff - We need some basic fluff, updated for 5e on what Sigil is like. Important NPCs, landmarks, factions etc. should be stated and given some backstory to help flesh it out. Other than that, we can use the basic description of the planes as in 5e, mixed with Forgotten Realms, Ebberon, Greyhawk Dark Sun, or whatever the 'Material Plane' is in your world (for me it'd be Forgotten Realms). Leave the rest up to each GM to flesh out.
New spells, new feats, and possibly new classes - I would avoid doing psionics unless your specific base setting has them (FR largely doesn't), and do psionic creatures as just sorcerers or innate spellcasters who have spells/abilities that do psychic damage. It's so much cleaner. Other than that though there are a few roles in Planescape that could do with a little attention. Some can manage with a feat, others maybe a whole class. There are guildelines in the 5e DMG for making your own spells and classes, and feats are fairly easy to reverse engineer.
And last, but possibly the most important... No-one is allowed to stat the Lady Of Pain, attempts to do so will result in you being mazed.
Planescape 5e Pdf Online
So, what do people think? Is this a project anyone would be interested in helping contribute anything for?