DnD 3.5 to 5e Spell Conversions: Amanuensis

Amanuensis

Transmutation cantrip

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• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 10 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a quill and a bottle of ink)
• Duration: 1 minute
• Classes: Artificer, Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard

You cause writing from one source to be copied into a book, paper, or parchment. Over the course of one minute, this spell can copy up to 250 words and creates a perfect duplicate of the original. The spell copies only nonmagical text, not illustrations or magical writings (such as the text of a spellbook, a spell scroll or glyph of warding). If the target contains both normal and magical writing only the normal text is copied, leaving a blank space in the copied text where magical writing would be expected. Likewise, if the target contains text and illustration, only the text is copied. Blank paper, parchment or a book must be provided for the spell to write upon. This spell does not translate the copied writing. If you do not understand the original, you have no additional ability to understand the copy.

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One of the spells from my conversions of the entire Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Spell Compendium into 5e and published in Spells of Antiquity. This one is a particularly interesting mountain of letters I don't care to try pronouncing out loud. This is mostly just a physical CTRL+C/CTRL+V for when you really need to remember exactly what the important book says, but don't want to steal it to do so.

DnD 3.5 to 5e Spell Conversions: Alarm, Greater

Alarm, Greater

3rd-level abjuration (ritual)

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• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Range: 30 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a tiny bell and a piece of fine silver wire)
• Duration: 8 hours
• Classes: Ranger, Wizard

You set an alarm against unwanted intrusion. Choose a door, a window, or an area within range that is no larger than a 20-foot cube. Until the spell ends, an alarm alerts you whenever a Tiny or larger creature touches or enters the warded area. This includes creatures that are moving on an adjacent plane, such as the ethereal plane. When you cast the spell, you can designate creatures that won't set off the alarm. You also choose whether the alarm is mental or audible.

A mental alarm alerts you with a ping in your mind if you are within 1 mile of the warded area. This ping awakens you if you are sleeping.

An audible alarm produces the sound of a hand bell for 10 seconds within 60 feet.

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One of the spells from my conversions of the entire Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Spell Compendium into 5e and published in Spells of Antiquity. This is one of those spells that is a situational upgrade over the lesser version. While it may be a couple levels higher, the fact that it is a ritual means that it doesn't cause too much trouble for the wizard who just might happen to have it handy in their spellbook. The big advantage it has over the lesser version is that it also warns you when someone is sneaking up to you on the ethereal plane.

DnD 3.5 to 5e Spell Conversions: Acid Storm

Acid Storm

6th-level conjuration

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• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a flask of acid)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
• Classes: Sorcerer, Wizard

You conjure a dark green cloud above a point you choose within range, which unleashes a shower of foul-smelling yellow green rain in a 20-foot-radius, 60-foot high-cylinder centered on that point. When a creature enters the spell’s area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, that creature must make a Dexterity saving throw. The creature takes 6d6 poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Additionally, on a failed save, nonmagical armor worn by the target is partly dissolved and takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to the AC it offers. The armor is destroyed if the penalty reduces its AC to 10.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 6th.

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One of the spells from my conversions of the entire Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Spell Compendium into 5e and published in Spells of Antiquity. If you thought Acid Breath didn't do enough damage and don't want to get close enough for Acid Sheath to do the job, maybe it's time to just ruin everybody's day with a deluge of acid instead.

DnD 3.5 to 5e Spell Conversions: Acid Sheath

 

Acid Sheath

4th-level conjuration

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• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self
• Components: V, S, M (a handful of fire ants)
• Duration: 10 minutes
• Classes: Sorcerer, Wizard

You enclose yourself in a fluid sheath of acid for the duration. You can end the spell early by using an action to dismiss it. This sheath grants you resistance to acid damage and any creature that touches you or hits you with a melee attack while within 5 feet of you takes 2d4 acid damage. If you are in a grapple, other creatures in the grapple take acid damage once per round at the beginning of their turn.

In addition, your melee weapon attacks deal an additional 1d4 acid damage.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage you deal when a creature touches you or hits you with a melee attack increases by 1d4 for each slot level above 4th and the additional damage dealt by your melee attacks increases by 1d4 for every two slot levels above 4th.

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One of the spells from my conversions of the entire Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Spell Compendium into 5e and published in Spells of Antiquity. Even more acid damage on the agenda here, with this one intended to be cast when you're planning on going up close, or at least someone anticipating the enemy to get into melee range.

DnD 3.5 to 5e Spell Conversions: Acid Breath

Acid Breath

1st-level evocation

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• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self (30-foot line)
• Components: V, S, M (a handful of fire ants)
• Duration: Instantaneous
• Classes: Sorcerer, Wizard

You exhale a cloud of acidic droplets. Each creature in a line 30 feet long and 5 feet wide must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 3d6 acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.

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One of the spells from my conversions of the entire Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Spell Compendium into 5e and published in Spells of Antiquity. This one is a fairly basic spell, though decent enough if you're doing an acid-themed build. I believe I was in the middle of converting this well before Tasha's Cauldron of Everything came out, along with the Caustic Brew spell. It definitely does less damage over time, but doesn't hold up your concentration and does slightly more damage at one time.  

DnD 3.5 to 5e Spell Conversions: Absorption

Absorption

3rd-level abjuration

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• Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when you see a creature within 60 feet targeting you with a spell
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: S
• Duration: Instantaneous
• Classes: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

You attempt to absorb a spell that targets only you. If the spell is of 5th level or lower, the spell is absorbed. If the spell is 6th level or higher, make an ability check using your spellcasting ability. The DC equals 10+ the spell’s level. On a success the spell is absorbed. An absorbed spell has no effect.

Additionally, when you successfully absorb a spell you briefly store that spell’s energy, which can be used to power your own spells. Until the end of your next turn, you may use the stored energy to cast a spell that you have prepared or know without expending a spell slot. The maximum level of this spell is equal to your spellcasting modifier or the level of the absorbed spell, whichever is lower.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, the absorbed spell has no effect if its level is less than or equal to the level of the spell slot you used.

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One of the spells from my conversions of the entire 3.5 Spell Compendium into 5e and published in Spells of Antiquity. This one is a little bit like counterspell, a little bit like dispel magic, but also a little bit of its own thing.

DnD 3.5 to 5e Spell Conversions: Absorb Object

Absorb Object

1st-level illusion (ritual)

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• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S
• Duration: 8 hours
• Classes: Artificer, Wizard

You touch an unattended object, which seems to meld into your body. The object must be tiny or smaller. It cannot be detected with even a careful search, although detect magic reveals the presence of a magical aura. The only evidence of its presence is a faint blotch on your skin shaped vaguely like the object. You may have a maximum number of objects stored with this spell equal to your spellcasting modifier.

As a bonus action on your turn, you may touch the spot to cause the object to appear in your hand, ending the spell. If the spell duration expires the object appears in the hand originally used to touch the object. A sentient magic item can make a Wisdom saving throw to resist the effect of this spell.

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One of the spells from my conversions of the entire 3.5 Spell Compendium into 5e and published in Spells of Antiquity. Originally, this was a spell specifically for the assassin class. I debated whether it would just make a nice feature for some rogue subclass out there somewhere, but in the end it seemed a neat niche spell for artificers and wizards. Of course, being illusion means that rogues still gain access if they go for arcane trickster. 

Spells of Antiquity

   

 As I mentioned before, a full 5e conversion of the 3.5 spell compendium was the first project I decided to take on. In hindsight it happened to be a pretty big one as well- over 600 spells total, published over the course of 2022 across 14 volumes.  But now it is finished and available for anyone who wants a truly ridiculous number of extra spells to choose from: Spells of Antiquity. Now, it is worth noting before I continue that each of the 14 titles is individually available as PWYW (pay what you want), which means that they’re all freely available to anyone who wants them.

Now, for those familiar with the original Spell Compendium, you might have noticed that it advertises over 1000 spells and be wondering where those 400 or so got to. That’s a fair question, and there’s a few reasons behind that:

1. Spell Scaling. In 5e, your Cure Wounds spell has that bit at the end: “At Higher Levels”, with an extra 1d8 of healing for each spell slot level beyond the first. In third edition, you had Cure Light Wounds at 1st level spells, Cure Moderate Wounds at 2nd level spells, Cure Serious Wounds at 3rd level spells, etc. Rather than spells being able to be cast at higher levels for greater effects, you ended up with a slew of spells that had virtually identical effects with the numbers scaled up slightly.

2. Redundancy. Third edition had some fairly chaotic energy, where it felt like new books were being rapid fired out there, with each new one not seeming to be aware of the others already out there. As such, there ended up a whole lot of spells that were extremely close to being identical. I figured there were only so many different ways “you grow some natural weapons” should be added in before things just start getting silly.

3. Alignment. In third edition, alignment was treated as much more than just one aspect of your character’s personality. Alignment was a more tangible force, which spells and abilities would regularly reference, to the extent that some classes were not allowed to be anything other than certain alignments (Paladins were exclusively allowed to be lawful good). A lot of those spells just didn't seem to fit, so for now at least I left them out.

4. Ability Damage. Once upon a time, reducing ability scores was considerably more commonplace than it is now. It was, simply put, a pain in the ass. This was especially true when you had an ability score reduced enough to change your modifiers, which might change everything from skills to attack rolls to spell save DCs temporarily. In general, 5e has steered mostly away from these, with several exceptions. In general, I tried to keep spells true to their flavor, even when their exact mechanics didn’t translate as well.

5. Conditions. This one is similar to spell scaling in some regards. In third edition, there were around 38 different conditions, compared to the 15 in 5e. Some of these seemed to be a continuum based on one condition. For example, where 5e has the frightened condition, third edition had shaken, frightened and panicked all as separate conditions with similar effects that got progressively more severe. As is the theme so far, a lot of that ended up getting scaled back and as such a handful of spells just ended up without a real place in the world.

So, where do I plan to go from here? Well, one of the big plans is to wait for OneD&D, then go back through everything and update spells based on whatever mechanical changes are involved. I would most likely not release it as a replacement for the current. I might also look to some spells that were not included in the original Spell Compendium for whatever reason or even go further back to see how the spell lists in 2e looked.

In the meantime, I will probably give things another round of proofreading and update files as needed.  Also, playtesting! Though I tried my best to balance things appropriately, there are definitely some wacky spells that I would want to give some more hands-on experience with before I feel completely comfortable with how they turned out. I’m looking to potentially combine all 14 volumes into one big mega-compendium, though at least for the moment that’s probably pretty far into the future.

That’s about it for now. Did I leave out your favorite spell? Do you see any glaring problems I could fix up? Is there any other more general feedback you have? Please feel free to share.