cerberuspuppy's page

Hero Lab's UI is... painful? Have you used it for more than a few minutes? I've found that it's extremely intuitive and easy to use once you get the hang of it. It usually takes me no more than a few minutes to make a solid character, and it's DEFINITELY way faster than doing it by hand. 95% of any tweaks needed can be done with the Adjustments tab, and the remainder I can just tweak on my character sheet when I export it.

I agree with Doug - if you think HL is bad, then what you're asking for doesn't exist.

I've never seen any Java app that wasn't garbage. Vassal, XMage, on and on they've ALL been about as reliable and user-friendly as a rabid porcupine. Trying to get PC Gen to work was like trying to build something out of melting LEGO.

Hero Lab is MUCH too obnoxious for something so ridiculously expensive. Only half of the UI is intuitive. The rest is either hidden or counter-intuitive. I put up with it for years- far too long. It's even worse for Society, because I have to wade through another layer of junk.

When I can't use your software without constantly thinking of ways in which it absolutely should be better, there's a problem. When I can't use it at all, then I won't.

Seriously, why is this impossible? It's Pathfinder, not Rolemaster. The math itself is all very simple, it's just the multiple interactions that get complicated, and even then for a human, not a computer. Half the battle is just having all the data in place and readily accessible.

Is it just a matter of programmers habitually taking the wrong approach? Spreadsheets and Java instead of an Android app built in Unity or Unreal?

Yes, it's a stock question, but I do NOT want the stock answers.

NO Java garbage. That means NO PCGEN.

NO spreadsheets. All that does is add another layer of junk that WILL break.

I'd prefer something browser based but I don't mind downloads so much as long as THE STUPID THING ACTUALLY WORKS. Imagine that. I want something that isn't so much hassle that I'd be better off busting out the books and doing myself. Kinda defeats the purpose, huh?

I am willing to pay, but not to be cheated like with Hero Lab, especially since their UI is downright painful.

I have this wacky idea that I will open the program and it will work. I won't even have to hack it or hunt down a workaround tutorial or otherwise beat it into submission.

I never figured out why this is so impossible. D&D had a great character generator right on the Wizards site for most of 4th Edition's lifespan.

I'm on spring break until March 22 so I thought I'd see if anybody wanted to get a game together. Maybe even a mod if enough of us have the time off. I can play a cleric 2 or a barbarian 1/fighter 1.

If so what is it? Feat, trait or item? What book is it in? Thanks.

Telekinesis and pyrokinesis both? Sounds fun.

I would also like to see a "gishy" psychic warrior type.

I just got Fangwood Keep and I'm looking forward to running it. I have plenty of minis and I can use the PRD for stats that aren't in the module, but what about maps?

I have a vinyl mat and markers but I don't like drawing all those huge rooms. Are there any nice poster maps for the Keep? Or maybe map tiles that would work? I searched but I didn't find anything. Thanks.

Don't get me wrong, this looks good for what it is, but... still no Warlord or Artificer?

No, you'll never know everything that your PCs could possibly do, but really... why would you want to? Wouldn't that take a lot of the fun out of it?

Yeah most of the dice are black with white numbers because black is his favorite color.

Hrm. I don't think I'll sweat the d12s unless he winds up playing a Barbarian. The d20s should be fine at 4, we can get a couple more later if need be at higher levels. I was worried most about the d4s and d8s because I didn't know if anything in PF might need more.

Thanks all.

FWIW all four d20s are different colors. I was careful of that at least.

How could a player, not the DM, possibly need 36 d6? Let alone more?

Here's an interesting question: Of course you can never have too many dice, but what's good for a new player to start out with? I'm getting a Christmas present for a guy who has never played any RPGs and I figured the best choice might very well be dice, which are useful regardless of the system.

So far I have:

A set of 10 d10, because they look cool (black with gold numbers) and that covers the possibility of WW, L5R etc and must surely be enough for PF.

Another set of a dozen d6, again for the look and to cover Shadowrun etc. Should also be plenty for PF.

4d20 which should be more than enough for anything.

2d12, which I'm pretty sure is enough- these don't get used much anywhere.

1 percentile die, cuz you never know.

Here's where I'm really uncertain:

7d8 Should I go for the full 10?

6d4 Does anything use more than 5?

Thanks.

I do have a Macbook now. It's possible I could use that.

I do need to bear in mind that casters can be very dangerous, so anything that's good against them can be very strong and helpful. Also, illusions, confusion, dominate, etc would all be among his "berserk buttons".

How easily do you think Krinn's build could be adapted to this concept?

Caring for the plants and smoking are attempts at something soothing. Also smoke, fire, red dragon, makes some sense.

Oh he never intends to be funny. He just is.

So if I take the Draconic bloodline from the Sorcerer via feats what would that look like? I could just stick with the red dragon from the original version. How many feats would I have to invest? Would I get claws and would that give me access to Pounce? How easily could I get the fire resistance from level 3? If I have to take Skill Focus I might as well take it in a useful skill like Perception right?

Here's what I've got so far. It's not great but I don't like PC Gen from what I've seen. It's very clunky and it doesn't seem to have everything, like Raging Vitality. Nor will it tell me whether that spread of ability scores is even legal. It probably isn't. It didn't even equip my greatsword or hide armor- I think I've fixed that now. Also it wouldn't let me spend a skill point to learn Draconic.

Name: Abraxsis
Race: Human
Classes: Barbarian 1
Hit Points: 15
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Vision:
Speed: Walk 40 ft.
Languages: Common
Stat Score Mod
STR 18 (+4)
DEX 12 (+1)
CON 15 (+2)
INT 8 (-1)
WIS 12 (+1)
CHA 13 (+1)
-------------------------- Skills --------------------------
Skill Total Rnk Stat Msc
Acrobatics 1 0.0 1 0
Acrobatics (Jump) 5 0.0 1 4
Appraise -1 0.0 -1 0
Bluff 1 0.0 1 0
Climb 4 0.0 4 0
Craft (Untrained) -1 0.0 -1 0
Diplomacy 1 0.0 1 0
Disguise 1 0.0 1 0
Escape Artist 1 0.0 1 0
Fly 1 0.0 1 0
Heal 1 0.0 1 0
Intimidate 5 1.0 1 3
Knowledge (Nature) 3 1.0 -1 3
Perception 5 1.0 1 3
Perform (Untrained) 1 0.0 1 0
Ride 1 0.0 1 0
Sense Motive 1 0.0 1 0
Stealth 1 0.0 1 0
Survival 6 1.0 1 4
Swim 4 0.0 4 0

-------------------------- Feats ---------------------------
Iron Will
You get a +2 bonus on all Will saving throws.

Power Attack

There comes a point when you're going so far to mitigate the dice that there's not much point in doing it randomly at all. Why not just roll 2d6+6 for that matter? That would rather neatly give you 8 to 18. Still not great but maybe better.

Anyway, off topic again...

Any ideas on how to balance the character concept with a playable build?

I looked around and there might be some Android apps that could possibly fit the bill of not only a character sheet but a character manager. I'm just not quite sure which ones to try.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. The point of this thread is not to rant about broken spells. I'm really just trying to get a feel for what I might like to play. That of course is not going to be any one single class.

4E did away with Detect Alignment (even for Paladins) and I never heard even one person say they missed it. It's a PALADIN. His worldview IS black and white, even in a setting like Eberron. He has a mandate to destroy evil and he can detect it at will and basically without fail, unless every goblin has some kind of counter magic. What do you think he's going to do? Even a die hard roleplayer will see that the character would of course use the resources he has and act upon the information he has.

So every even remotely subtle villain has to have some kind of magic to obscure his alignment and how does that work? Does the Paladin get static? That's not suspicious...

So the DM can't actually use any evil NPCs? They all have to hide in a hole somewhere? Otherwise "It pings, I kill it." It's some politically powerful person? Fine, he goes to the church and they kill it. Whole plots go down the drain just because the party has the ability to instantly discern opposition without even a skill check.

The first villain I ever wrote up for 4E was a middling noble and FIGHTER who just happened to be a skilled politician. I did that just because I finally could. The best villain so far in the current game was another fighter and leader of a rival party who weren't obviously evil at first. Neither would have lasted one session in a 5E or 3E game.

I don't like to put too much weight on the dice anyway but letting one roll define your character for his or her entire career? That's completely absurd. It's bad enough that one roll can outright kill your character- it's another for one roll to permanently debilitate that character in the first place. In a party of 6 there's always the player who gets a TREMENDOUS roll and the one who can't hardly do anything with a bad roll or whose perfectly good character concept gets trashed by the dice. And then there are MAD classes vs SAD classes- the dice can say "No Paladin for you!"

No. DECISIONS build characters, not dice. It absolutely should be in the hands of mostly the player and partly the DM.

I played 3E with a lot of different groups, some better than others. I played Fighters, Clerics (a lot of clerics), Wizards, a Sorcerer, a Druid, a couple (multiclassed) Rogues, a Paladin, a couple Rangers, and probably others I can't remember right now. I tried to run but in its own way it was even harder to DM than 2E! There was plenty positive. We had fun, but despite the rules more often than because of them. Winding up with a helpless character was not fun, I know that much. At the other end of the spectrum, being practically impossible to challenge wasn't much fun either.

I utterly despise rolling for ability scores (seriously quite possibly the single most broken game mechanic in the history of RPGs) and will insist on some kind of point buy but I don't know how many points we would have.

It's really just that he considers them to be "shifty thieving little backstabbers" and Gnomes are really into trickery, deception and illusions which he doesn't like. I'm sure that he could make exceptions or get over it to some extent.

I've looked a little at the Inquisitor and Paladin. They do look good overall, though the Paladin has only 2 skill points, again with a class that has Int as a dump. Ugh, just... ugh.

My main problem with both classes though is that they have such a game-breaking spell as an at will ability. I really don't feel good about that. Detect Alignment absolutely should have been removed. I wish Paizo had felt more free to change a lot of things TBH. (Confirming crits? Really?)

I'm still not sure but I might be playing in a Pathfinder game and I'm kicking around ideas. My strongest character concept (as in the actual character himself) is Abraxsis Pratt, a straight up redux of an old character from a 3.5 Dragonstar game (a fantasy/scifi OGL setting from FF- actually kind of fun) The "high concept" started as "Richard Moll with a plasma rifle" and evolved from there.

The only thing I didn't like about the character was that I completely botched the build. I went with straight up Fighter when Barbarian would have been better and fit the personality better too. I didn't want to do the book keeping I thought might be too much of a pain, with basically two totally different sets of stats for raging and otherwise. That and I didn't want to give up heavy armor- this was a setting with powered armor after all.

About that book keeping- I have a Kindle Fire HD. Is there an app I can get on there that will manage the character sheet and ALL the math for me and let me switch the rage bonuses off/on on the fly? Bonus if it will also track all the copious buffs like Haste, Bull's Strength, etc. Also bonus if it doubles as a character builder or if you can steer me to a good one on the PC for that matter.

A few ideas on what I know of the mechanics: 1) "Rage cycling" looks very abusive. I really don't think the DM would let me get away with that. I could ask, but it smells fishy to me. 2) I'm concerned that many top builds look so counter-intuitive. (ala 3.5) What's wrong with mithral plate and a greatsword? I don't even know what a bardiche is. 3) Is Superstition essential? It doesn't quite fit what I'd established of his background and I hear it can backfire.

RP notes: 1) Abraxsis is Human- mostly. He's got traces of a supernatural bloodline. That may be the source of his rage. Originally that was a red dragon, but for the new version I might go with something fiendish. 2) He's an orphan from a young age and his only known relative is his sister, a sorceress. 3) He meditates in a mostly vain attempt to control his temper. 4) I know Charisma is a dump stat for Barbarians, but I'm reluctant to dump it too hard, for RP reasons and also for Intimidate. "Does the phrase 'closed casket funeral' mean anything to you?" 5) His hobby is botany. (no not for growing weed) 6) He smokes cigars but not every day. Or maybe not cigars if a pipe might make more sense- maybe tobacco is what he's growing. Hmm. 7) He can actually be pretty funny (especially when he doesn't mean to be) and even has flashes of insight at times even though he's not very smart- not like Int 6 or 7, more like 8. (-2 would have me bleeding skill points anyway.) 8) His "rages" are usually more cold than hot, unless someone has pushed one of several berserk buttons: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BerserkButton 9) He really doesn't like Halflings or especially Gnomes. It's probably not bad enough to keep him from having a Chaotic Good alignment, but it could be a problem if he ever has to trust one.

The question is how to make all this work mechanically and still have something effective. I can trim things down a bit if it's too much to cover I suppose.

I know! I hate it when people say 4E stops all RP. I've seen plenty in my game. On that front we're just getting warmed up. You know what stops RP? Detect Evil! Powerful divinations. Save or Die. Making an epic combat practically impossible. In so many ways 3E was much worse!

I do have to admit that most of my own best RP I did in 3E and even 2E, but mainly I'm just not a good DM. Even now I've got some good NPCs- arrogant dragons, a Dwarf Cleric who is a total loon and talks to his axe, and my own Warlock PC is just starting to come out of his shell, but it's been a long time since I've equaled my 3E Kobold Sorcerer, grumpy old man, pirate captain, or especially Abraxsis, who was terrible mechanically (I screwed up that build so badly.) but hilarious in RP. Ever see a show called Night Court way back when? Yeah, imagine Bull with a plasma rifle and a huge mean streak.

Barbarian could work. I don't mind playing melee characters at all, in fact that can be fun. The toughness can be really nice too. What I don't like is doing the same thing all the time and having no real tactical options or out of combat utility. Or being too easy to completely stymie. I could revamp an old character who was a LOT of fun though. If I can plot every decision ever on a simple flow chart (In melee? Yes- full attack, No- charge, DONE) then that is less interesting.

Druid would be better in a lot of ways. I suppose I could turn into a bear and fight in melee if need be. Not as effectively, but it's an option. What's better, elf or gnome? Or human for that matter...

- Witch. I'm playing a Warlock already in a 4E Dark Sun game- this might be a bit redundant.

- Summoner. Something about being a one trick pony (Celestial Dire Wolf- I choose you!) doesn't seem appealing, especially if it's known as a power gaming thing. That and micromanaging templates etc.

- Inquisitor. Tempting. I'll have to consider it. How much does choice of deity really matter for divine classes? Still, I've played so many Clerics...

- Paladin. So Paladin is strong? That's good. I've only played one once (in 3.5) and that was very briefly. My whole character concept was "Can I be Not Nice and still be LG and a team player?" so that didn't give me much to go on. How's the greatsword route? My favorite WOW character by far was a Paladin tank though FWIW.

They kept Detect Alignment? UGH.

A class with that many Cha skills has it as a dump stat? It looks at least somewhat interesting. I feel like I'd rather stick to what's in the book but at least I can get the class rules for no additional charge. How easily could it be refluffed into a "bounty hunter"? Or would that just be a matter of deity choice?

I'll take a look at the cleric too.

Thanks.

Like I said in the other thread, it looks like I might be playing in a Pathfinder game soon. I should probably try it out sooner or later anyway.

I haven't had time to give the book a very close look just yet, but from what little I've seen I might be most interested in the Druid. It seems to strike a good balance between versatility and focus. It also seems to be the most interesting (though not most efficient) way to play the healer, and let's face it, I'm probably going to get stuck playing the healer. I do often enough that I need to have a plan for that.

Speaking of healers, does Pathfinder have anything like 4E's minor action heals? Such a simple idea, but it helped A LOT. Seriously when you've played healers in every edition since 2E you know how huge that was. There's a reason why the Warlord was the most fun healer ever- because you actually got to FIGHT. (as well as all the great tactical options)

I like the feel and mechanics of the Druid from what I've seen so far- spell casting, wild shape, animal companion, etc but I'll need to study it more closely before I know for sure.

On the other hand, I might not want to jump right into a caster right off the bat. Maybe I should start with something simpler if I can. How's the Barbarian? Is the Fighter 2/Barbarian 18 build still strong? (no pun intended) Or is it no longer worth it? Is there any way to get all the benefits of the Barbarian plus plate mail? I could revamp one of my old characters, who was a lot of fun despite the way I built him all wrong. I could try it again only smarter.

I kind of like Rogues, it's just that I've never played one without multiclassing and even then not much.

If I am not shoehorned and can choose anything what should I go with? Ideally I want something that:

-Is complex enough to keep me from getting bored yet simple enough that I can play it even though I haven't touched 3.5 since 4E came out.

-Has at least decent versatility and isn't completely useless outside of its specialty. (Fighters still get 2 skill points? Really?) Can Barbarians track? Are they interesting even in combat?

-Is powerful enough to be effective but not so game breaking that I feel bad about playing it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks again.

I currently run a 4E D&D game. I know, I know, you probably all hate it and I'm assuming you don't want to hear about that. Thing is, WoTC has all but stopped supporting 4E already (we still have DDI- for now) and 5E (I will NEVER call it "Next"- what a load of bull) is a disjointed mess to say the least. I shouldn't even get started.

The question is whether to keep playing a dead game that for all its faults we know works or try something different. Losing the online support will hurt a lot, but we managed without it back in the old days. I tried to talk the group into trying Mutants & Masterminds but it's starting to look like the only thing we can all agree on is some version of D&D.

Naturally, Pathfinder is the top contender. I've even gone so far as to shell out for the book. It's a very nice looking book and does seem to be well made, though it's just plain too big IMO.

Here's what worries me: I left 3E behind for a reason- because the whole thing was stupid broken. Monte Cook deliberately overpowered the casters and underpowered everything else- by A LOT. Buffs were too important (which only made the casters even more dominant) and there were times when we literally spent more time buffing than fighting! Or buffing strategy would be more important than combat tactics. 3E DEMANDED system mastery- especially after about level 12 or so, you minmaxed the crap out of everything or you were dead. You played the right class the right way with the right gear or you were completely useless 90% of the time. I'm not eager to go back to that.

When I see that Wish is in Pathfinder (just for example) I'm frankly not encouraged.

So how similar is Pathfinder to 3.5? To what extent did Paizo fix things and actually balance the game? Game balance is very important to me. That's the main reason I prefer 4E despite all its flaws. I know perfect balance is impossible, but it certainly needs to be better than any other version of D&D I've ever seen.

Support is also important to me though. Paizo clearly stands behind its product.

Also it's probably easier to find players for Pathfinder than anything else these days.

Granted, I probably wouldn't be DMing anymore anyway- I'm getting a bit burned out and too busy, but we do have at least one guy who can run Pathfinder.

Thanks for your help and sorry if I come across as too angry or bitter. It's just that I've invested a lot into this game over 20 years.