Let's hear the good reasons why no one has yet to make good character generation software for D&D. I've tried a lot -- there was the CD that came in the back of the PHB at one point... garbage, and no follow ups. There's codemonkey... emasculated by WOTC but still so filled with bugs you have to double check every calculation by hand to make sure your stats are right. Tympani has a lot to speak for it but it's a bit convoluted and of course, requires nearly everything to be input by hand (custom) for every character.
We can land on the moon, we can transplant a face, but we can't build character generation software worth a damn. Why is that?
And for the record, I don't buy the economics answer: if people buy core books they will buy something like generation software that saves them lots of time and lookup tables.
(Unspoken question of this post: know of great character generation software you can share with us?)
I've thought about it doing a character generator myself, but there's just so many variables that go into character generation, not to mention the gazillions of options that are introduced with each new book. You'd have a constant need to keep up with the Joneses, as it were.
*start shameless plug*
I went for option C and made an NPC Stat Block Bank where NPC and Character builds can be shared by everybody.
*end shameless plug*
I use HeroForge which is a large Excel spreadsheet. Version 4 has just been released. I think it does pretty much everything you are looking for and there are some over-rides which allow magic and items not included in the build to be accounted for.
I can't remember all the sites where the program can be downloaded, but Googling HeroForge will point you in the right direction. Make sure you go for Version 4.
I find it actually quite easy and quick to knock up fully statted and weaponed NPC's on this tool, as well as it being a great PC record keeper.
There's codemonkey... emasculated by WOTC but still so filled with bugs you have to double check every calculation by hand to make sure your stats are right.
Is it bad that I had to look three or four times to make sure I was not reading "co-demon-key?"
...
Blood for the dark god! Blood for the dark god!
I find it actually quite easy and quick to knock up fully statted and weaponed NPC's on this tool, as well as it being a great PC record keeper.
I can only support that. I´m using version 4.0.4. at the moment, and it´s a powerful tool for generating characters. I´m only using it for my NPCs at the moment, as the PCs are still updated by my players manually. Just google it, download it, use it, and be happy :-)
Stefan
I dunno, I use PCGen rather a lot and have only encountered a couple bugs with it, all of which have been corrected. I'm sure there are remaining issues, but I don't know what they are, so... :-)
I dunno, I use PCGen rather a lot and have only encountered a couple bugs with it, all of which have been corrected. I'm sure there are remaining issues, but I don't know what they are, so... :-)
Also, we on the PCGen team tend to listen to user input and feature requests on the Yahoogroup list. A lot has changed and improved recently and a new version with lots of new usability improvements is coming out soon, so give it a try again if you haven't seen it in a while.
I'd write my own character generator program, but the amount of optional extras nowadays and the legal implications involved make things so complicated, and I just go back to doing it in pencil.
Regarding E-Tools, I gave up on using the data sets for that progream. Most of the content worked well enough, but it seemed as though everytime I tried to use a unique creature from a book such as Complete Arcane or something else beyond the core rules, there was information that was either incorrect and/or missing. If I recall correctly, they haven't even incorporated errata into their data sets because they think there are more important things to work on.
Of course, instead of contracting more data monkeys to generate and clean up data sets so that more users will be compelled to buy and use E-Tools, they start offering new products such as their Interactive Adventures and hire contracted workers to work on those products.
I played with the trial version of RPGXplorer, and I was pretty impressed by how easy it is to edit content and create new elements using its interface. The only reason I haven't purchased it yet is because I'm waiting for it to support monsters, psionics, and templates. I think the next update, which is estimated for an April release, will include these features. I plan on eventually upgrading to the GM Tools version once it is available.
Go check out the trial version; I think you'll like it.
