Converting BECMI's 36 levels to 30
by Joe Not CharlesHere's the conversion system I use for 4E. I wanted basically 3 things out of it:
1. Basic/Expert corresponds to Heroic Tier; Companion to Paragon Tier; and Master to Epic Tier
2. The bottom levels are squeezed together rather than the top levels, since 1st-level characters in 4E have more capabilities than 1st-level characters in BECMI
3. If possible, Name Level and the level 1-3 "Basic" set have some meaning in the conversion, just for historical interest
And what I came up with I think works pretty well: the 14 levels of Basic/Expert are squeezed down into 10, and then the 11 levels of Companion and Master are each squeezed down into 10 by repeating 1 level.
BECMI level 1-3 = 4E level 1 (The entire Basic Set in 1 level!)
BECMI level 4-5 = 4E level 2
BECMI level 6-7 = 4E level 3
BECMI level 8 = 4E level 4
BECMI level 9 = 4E level 5 (Name Level at level 5, a nice even number and when 4E chars get their second Daily power)
BECMI level 10-14 = 4E level 6-10
BECMI level 15-16 = 4E level 11 (Starting Paragon tier, squish two levels together)
BECMI level 17-25 = 4E level 12-20
BECMI level 26-27 = 4E level 21 (Starting Epic tier, squish two levels together)
BECMI level 28-36 = 4E level 22-30