Finally got tired of creating characters by hand. I'm aware of HeroLab, of course, but I'm not willing to drop $100+ (the amount needed to get "access" to a full-ish set of material)
Free is ideal, of course, but I AM willing to pay 20-30 bucks for a "complete" system. Up to $50 if it's really good.
I'm about to give this a try; don't know if others have experience with it.
Any recommendations within these parameters are greatly appreciated.
Finally got tired of creating characters by hand. I'm aware of HeroLab, of course, but I'm not willing to drop $100+ (the amount needed to get "access" to a full-ish set of material)
Free is ideal, of course, but I AM willing to pay 20-30 bucks for a "complete" system. Up to $50 if it's really good.
I'm about to give this a try; don't know if others have experience with it.
Any recommendations within these parameters are greatly appreciated.
I used PCGen myself, its pretty good.
Only found bugs on the Psionics stuff so far.
Honestly, I've not found a better application than Hero Lab and haven't needed to buy anything more than the Core book and the class books (APG, UC and UM)
Yeah it's a bit more expensive but it's so much easier than the others that I've used
The very first character I want to create would require Inner Sea Combat (for Iroran Paladin) and Gnomes of Golarian (for Bewildering Koan). The latter I could probably just put in manually, I suppose. There is on option for that, yes?
Bottom line is, I know that once I started using it, I would easily end up buying $200 worth of supplements based on micro-transaction psychology. It's a powerful, but insidious business practice.
Finally got tired of creating characters by hand. I'm aware of HeroLab, of course, but I'm not willing to drop $100+ (the amount needed to get "access" to a full-ish set of material)
Free is ideal, of course, but I AM willing to pay 20-30 bucks for a "complete" system. Up to $50 if it's really good.
I'm about to give this a try; don't know if others have experience with it.
Any recommendations within these parameters are greatly appreciated.
I used PCGen myself, its pretty good.
Only found bugs on the Psionics stuff so far.
I just took a look at that, but it doesn't have Inner Sea Combat as an option, or any of the newer things. Development seems to have dead-halted a year ago, sadly.
I use the excel files created by BlueCanary. His files can be found HERE.
Now, if you are using an old computer with old excel, then I recommend version 6.20 (which has most everything). Although, the last version 7.4.0.1 is working well on my old computer. I have found the versions in between a tad unstable.
The bonus: It's free.
YAPCG is what I've been using for quite some time, and while it does have a few bugs pop up from now and then and a few nit picky things it is an excellent choice for the price(free).
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Forum ate my long post.
PCGen can get the job done most of the times, no the development hasn't halted, it's just slower than it was, it's FREE.
HeroLab is truly ridiculously overpriced (you even have to pay to install it on more than 2 machines, you have to go through hoops if you format your machine regularly), but the product is truly GREAT, it has no equal, it is truly marvelous.
My suggestion is that if you have ~100$ to spare; buy hero lab, otherwise stay with PCGen, help with development (even reporting bugs helps) and if you can/want try to save up the money for herolab.
Yeah, HeroLab is just not an option. I know myself, and I know that once I started using it, I would buy most of the supplements, which I am simply not going to do. I do not participate in anything with micro-transactions for the same reason. If there was a single, high, upfront cost that guaranteed access to all materials, I would consider it. As it is, no.
Thank you Moondragon & Tony Harding; I will try both those options.
It's not micro-transactions, the transactions are anything but micro.
I hate micro-transactions myself, but in my opinion doesn't have such a thing, it's a just an expensive software (~200$) that gives you the ability to pay less for limited versions of itself (also you have to pay for yearly or half-yearly updates).
All of the above things i have also seen in other kind of software, whether you think that the software is worth that price is up to you.
The fact that you can't install it on more than one machine, which I didn't know before now, is the final nail in the coffin. I regularly use three different machines. I can now confidently say I will never buy it.
The other two I was going to try don't work for me, because I don't have Microsoft office at the moment.
As far as PCGen, yeah, I'm already looking into trying to code the Iroran Paladin archetype for PCGen; I found the yahoo groups, and realized it's not dead. I haven't coded Java for a long time, but it doesn't seem to require too much expertise, just patience.
When you buy it you can install it on 2 machines, you have to pay 10$ for each 2 more (i think), and yes i understand you, i also have 3 main machines and 2-3 secondary machines (and i am not counting the tablets/smartphones since they are all android).
If you do have a good knowledge of Java then PCGen is really the choice for you, the dev team is always looking for people who can code and i am pretty sure that if you ask they can help you with the coding. Unfortunately my knowledge of Java is pretty much elementary so i can't help PCGen in that way (though i use the alpha/beta versions and report bugs when i find them).
Woot! There's also the righteous thrill of helping the open source against the extortionist monopoly. =D
Seriously, I wonder if HeroLab has some sort of monopoly agreement with paizo; clearly they must be paying paizo something since they are profiting off of open gaming license stuff. It's suspicious that there are no other for-pay options.
As far as PCGen, yeah, I'm already looking into trying to code the Iroran Paladin archetype for PCGen; I found the yahoo groups, and realized it's not dead. I haven't coded Java for a long time, but it doesn't seem to require too much expertise, just patience.
<disclaimer> I occasionally help with data entry on pcgen - usually if I want an option that's not been done yet, or when I find a bug that the regulars don't squash quickly enough for me (unusual on the core products as [data] bug squashing is pretty snappy).
But as you say, it's anything but dead. With only a few dedicated data enterers, fewer coders and a general focus on the big core books, the splats in particular run well behind - but it's easy enough to add simple stuff and the Yahoo groups are very responsive to cries for help. New code versions are released relatively frequently as well - the version now is miles better & faster than the one I first used only a few short years ago.
The data format is a bit intimidating (largely due to the plethora of options/tags to do stuff), but nothing to trouble a coder. The docs are pretty good & there are video tutorials for the basics & most common additions to get you going.
Anyway, I've been using it for all my character maintenance & NPC creation for several years. Learning curve was so worth it. Little to be lost by giving it a shot in my opinion! By the way, you want to use the latest alpha, not the last stable version (the alphas are generally pretty stable, & the pace of development means generally less data bugs in the newest versions).
Yeah, I'm almost done with the Iroran Paladin. I just followed the format for other archetypes; looked at the Sensei, for example, to see how to add class skills.
Only things I still have to do are figure out how to add in the Confident Defense AC bonus (probably by looking at Duelist Canny Defense ability), and see if I can get it to calculate the proper Unarmed Strike damage for the Iroran Paladin, but I'm not terribly concerned about that.
Cool. Feel free to contribute your work to the project when it's working! The groups will help you do so & we'll all be grateful for another pair of hands.
