[RPG] How to convert monsters from D&D 3.5 to d20 Modern

The conditions required to get the maximum possible wealth bonus are very artificial, but for the sake of argument let's assume the following:

• Dilettante taken as Profession
• an 8 rolled on 2d4 for starting wealth
• rolling 18 for Wisdom at character creation
• always rolling 20 on wealth checks when leveling up
• every feat spent on Windfall
• always spending the maximum skill points on Profession (max rank = level + 3)
• always increasing Wisdom
• never buying anything that requires a wealth check
• the DM completely ignores wealth, neither granting it nor threatening it

Such a character can start with a wealth bonus of +20 at 1st level (8 from the 2d4 roll, +6 for Dilettante, and +3 x2 from taking Windfall twice).

At level-up, there are three ways the wealth bonus might increase:

• Succeeding on a Profession check, which gives +1, and an additional +1 for each margin of 5 that the roll passes the DC. Note that the DC is the current wealth bonus.
• Buying the Windfall feat again, which gives a flat +3 bonus to wealth each time its bought. (And which also gives +1 to Profession rolls to increase wealth when leveling up.)
• There is a flat increase to wealth when leveling up, depending on how many ranks in Profession the character has. e.g., +1 for Rank 1-5, +2 for Rank 6-10, etc.

So we can figure out what the maximum theoretical wealth increase is for each level by tracking the things that give bonuses to the Profession roll (Wisdom, Windfall feats, and ranks in Profession), and comparing that to the current wealth rating (which is the DC for Profession checks when leveling up). We can then calculate the maximum bonus from the Profession roll, from new Windfall feats, and from the flat bonus from having ranks in Profession. That's summarised in the following table.

                            S               Increases
                            t W        ———————————————————————
                     C      a e                          T      M
 L        R     F    h B    r a    M   |       F    R    o   |  a B
 e        a     e    e o    t l    a R |  R    e    a    t I |  x o
 v    W   n     a    c n    i t    x o |  o    a    n    a n |    n
 e    i   k     t    k u    n h      l |  l    f    k    l c |    u
 l |  s | s |   s |    s |  g    |   l |  l |  s |  s |    r.|    s
———+————+———+—————+——————+———————+—————+————+————+————+——————+——————
 1:  18   4    x2 |    —    +20      — |  —    —    —     —  |  +20
 2:  18   5    x3 |  +12    +20     32 | +3,  +3,  +1,   +7  |  +27
 3:  18   6    x4 |  +14    +27     34 | +2,  +3,  +2,   +7  |  +34
 4:  19   7    x5 |  +16    +34     36 | +1,  +3,  +2,   +6  |  +40
 5:  19   8    x5 |  +17    +40     37 | +0,  +0,  +2,   +2  |  +42
 6:  19   9    x7 |  +20    +42     40 | +0,  +6,  +2,   +8  |  +50
 7:  19  10    x7 |  +21    +50     41 | +0,  +0,  +2,   +2  |  +52
 8:  20  11    x8 |  +24    +52     44 | +0,  +3,  +3,   +6  |  +58
 9:  20  12    x9 |  +26    +58     46 | +0,  +3,  +3,   +6  |  +64
10:  20  13   x10 |  +28    +64     48 | +0,  +3,  +3,   +6  |  +70
11:  20  14   x10 |  +29    +70     49 | +0,  +0,  +3,   +3  |  +73
12:  21  15   x12 |  +32    +73     52 | +0,  +6,  +3,   +9  |  +82
13:  21  16   x12 |  +33    +82     53 | +0,  +0,  +4,   +4  |  +86
14:  21  17   x13 |  +35    +86     55 | +0,  +3,  +4,   +7  |  +93
15:  21  18   x14 |  +37    +93     57 | +0,  +3,  +4,   +7  | +100
16:  22  19   x15 |  +40   +100     60 | +0,  +3,  +4,   +7  | +107
17:  22  20   x15 |  +41   +107     61 | +0,  +0,  +4,   +4  | +111
18:  22  21   x17 |  +44   +111     64 | +0,  +6,  +5,  +11  | +122
19:  22  22   x17 |  +45   +122     65 | +0,  +0,  +5,   +5  | +127
20:  23  23   x18 |  +47   +127     67 | +0,  +3,  +5,   +8  | +135

Table key:

• Level is the level just gained.
• Wis is the character's Wisdom.
• Ranks is ranks in Profession.
• Feats is how many times the Windfall feat has been taken.
• Check Bonus is the bonus to Profession checks for determining wealth bonus increases when leveling up. (Wis bonus + Profession ranks + 1 per Windfall feat.)
• Starting Wealth is the wealth bonus before calculating the increase for this level. It's used as the DC of the Profession check.
• Max Roll is the maximum possible Profession check: rolling 20 + check bonus from the earlier column.
• Increases are the three ways the wealth bonus could increase that level, and their total:
  • Roll is the increase from a perfect 20 roll on the Profession check.
  • Feats is the increase from Windfall feats taken at that level (+3 per feat)
  • Ranks is the flat increase according to p. 70 due to the number of ranks in Profession.
  • Total is the total increase in wealth bonus for that level, and will be applied to the next level in the table.
• Max Bonus is the final, maximum wealth bonus possible at that level, as a sum of the Starting Wealth column and the Increases: Total column.

As you can see, the wealth bonus quickly becomes so large that it becomes impossible to beat the DC on the Profession check even when rolling perfect 20s. (And note that 20 is not an automatic success, see p. 44 Skill Checks.) After 4th level, only the Windfall feats and the flat bonus matter.

So, the maximum wealth bonus at 10th level is +70 (wealth bonus starts at +64, plus the total increase of 6), and the maximum wealth bonus at 20th level is +135 (wealth bonus starts at +127, plus the total increase of +8).

As for how much that is in real-world dollars, according to the system there is no way to translate it into dollars:

[The] Wealth bonus [is] a sort of composite of her income, credit rating, and savings. […] Wealth is not a direct representation of a character's salary or how much money the character has socked away in the bank. […] The Wealth bonus simply represents your character's buying power at any given time.

So a character with +70 Wealth is rich enough that credit is easy enough to come by that they almost never need to worry about money. For comparison, the table on p. 38 calls +31 and higher "Very rich". The only purchase that could even be noticed by such a character (i.e., which would drop their wealth by any amount) would have to have a Purchase DC of 85, which means they could have as many mansions (Purchase DC 36), Learjets (Purchase DC 40), or M1A1 Abrams tanks (Purchase DC 47) as they wanted to own. The only way money would ever be an object would be if the GM set an exorbitant custom DC for, say, buying a very large rival company.

A character with +135 Wealth is so exceedingly rich that they don't ever have to even think about money—their wealth is so great that everyone knows they're good for it, and their vast network of accountants pays for everything out of the complex financial empire they own. They probably don't even know exactly how much they're worth, and considering how the stock markets work, their exact wealth is probably impossible to know until they tried to use every last penny of it, at which point there would probably be world-wide financial panic. They can probably buy entire countries, unofficially.

In d20 Modern, there's no thing as "gunpoint" per se. There is:

1. Surprising someone and getting them flat-footed, in which case they lose their Dodge bonus. The problem is, it requires GM fiat to say "you're still flat-footed until someone twitches" instead of the first combat round going by, everyone rolling init, and rushing the guy. But, RAW...

2. You can ready an action to shoot someone. Of course, in d20 Modern one shot isn't likely to kill anyone, so it's not as intimidating as one might hope. And if you got them flat-footed or got initiative on them, then you can have a readied action before they get to act.

3. The fact that ranged attacks provoke attacks of opportunity is an additional wrinkle, but in the real world cops etc. know not to keep melee opponents at gunpoint at very close range because experience has shown a guy with a knife or whatnot can be on you before you can fire in many circumstances.