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I had put a post mentioning that I had created what I felt was a really good few generators that were fairly easy to manipulate and add to. I asked if there might be someone who might be willing to post the generators on their site for the world to benefit from. Thank you Thanis for helping me get this done.
Anyone can get the different generators at:
http://mikehost.homeip.net/dload.php?action=category&cat_id=3
There is an Art/Gemstone generator (which really gives some really great ideas for treasure besides pp, gp, sp, and cp), a scroll generator and a magic item generator. The scroll generator and the magic item generator use information from nearly all WotC books that are 3.X. I have recently updated the magic item generator to include a good number of magic items from 3.X issues of Dungeon and Dragon magazines. Users have the option to include books that they want to and even to emphasize certain books if they have a theme with their campaign/story arc. The scroll generator and the magic item generator also can include psionics and the magic item generator can include epic level items.
Every DM should at least check these out if they get a chance. There are instructions included in the zip file that you should make sure to read to get the full benefit from the files.
Post here if have any comments (hopefully good) and possible suggestions.
Bill
I'm looking forward to examining your generators in detail, Bill...mwah hah hah!
I think combining your Scroll Generator with an online searchable spell database would work, Bill, along with the Dungeon #133 Campaign Workbook: The Mobius Scrolls for appearance and the like...
*plots plots plots*
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I think combining your Scroll Generator with an online searchable spell database would work, Bill, along with the Dungeon #133 Campaign Workbook: The Mobius Scrolls for appearance and the like...
*plots plots plots*
I also like the staff description generator from (I believe) Dungeon 127 as well ("Staffs of Power").
There is also the potion description generator from (again I believe) Dungeon 125 ("Beaker of Endless Potions")
I have also thought about including the "100 useless items" from Dungeon 121 in the mundane items list...
Bill
I also like the staff description generator from (I believe) Dungeon 127 as well ("Staffs of Power").
There is also the potion description generator from (again I believe) Dungeon 125 ("Beaker of Endless Potions")
I have also thought about including the "100 useless items" from Dungeon 121 in the mundane items list...
Bill
Yes, yes, yes...*gathers tomes of Dungeon about her desk, giggling*
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The sheer intellectual energy eminating from two incredibly focused minds automatically drew me to this thread. While I have no contributions to give, I felt I should respond. I use the Beaker of Endless Potions, The table of useless items and several other random tables from Dungeon mag. The two of you working together to assemble this stuff is going to be awe-inspiring. I look forward to groveling and begging to lick the boots of the Creators of Greatness in the near future. I am sure whatever you two intellectual giants produce will be a wonder to behold. In advance, Thank You for all your hard work in making a resource that DMs and Player can utilize to make their games more fun. Huzzah, I say, Huzzah!!
FH
~chanting~ We are not worthy!
I feel as though I've combined my two favorite foods, pasta and ice cream... and it works!
Yay!
TK
I feel as though I've combined my two favorite foods, pasta and ice cream... and it works!
Yay!
TK
You lie. You told me your two favorite foods where pasta and strawberries. *grumbles something about not getting any more strawberries*
Thank you guys for your hard work.
You lie. You told me your two favorite foods where pasta and strawberries. *grumbles something about not getting any more strawberries*
Thank you guys for your hard work.
So make him a freaky smoothy out of Pasta flavored Ice Cream and Strawberries.
Or maybe strawberry flavored pasta.
Heh... if I'd had these things back when I was DMing, maybe I would've included scrolls in treasure hordes, instead of reading "Scroll" as "Potion" when rolling random treasures. :P
A dessert pasta: Take your standard linguine and make a sauce of melted cream cheese. Top with whipped cream, strawberries and shaved chocolate. Garnish with a mint sprig if you want.
If you're lucky, your other half homemakes pasta anyway and will make you chocolate pasta. (Yay for me - my other half loves to cook too!) I think you can actually find chocolate pasta if you look hard enough on the internet or at a gourmet food store.
I've got the basic outline in shape for adding Spells to a database, and I'll just mass dump them in when I'm ready for them.
Once I've got a decent base of spells to work from in the database, then I'll integrate Bill's scroll generator into a workable web-based version of it.
I could also make a spellbook generator off of it too...and use it for wands and potions...
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I could also make a spellbook generator off of it too...and use it for wands and potions...
I like the idea of a spellbook generator. I just couldn't come up with a good way to eliminate duplicates on my stuff.
As far as wands and potions, I wanted to be able to include metamagic feats on some of them. I also wanted to pick and choose the caster level for the items that it made sense for. A wand of magic missile cast at 6th level seemed like a waste of resources and XP to me. Maybe down the road we can come up with some kind of formula to randomly select metamagic feats and attach it to scrolls, wands, and/or potions.
**plotting**
Bill
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The sheer intellectual energy eminating from two incredibly focused minds automatically drew me to this thread. While I have no contributions to give, I felt I should respond. I use the Beaker of Endless Potions, The table of useless items and several other random tables from Dungeon mag. The two of you working together to assemble this stuff is going to be awe-inspiring. I look forward to groveling and begging to lick the boots of the Creators of Greatness in the near future. I am sure whatever you two intellectual giants produce will be a wonder to behold. In advance, Thank You for all your hard work in making a resource that DMs and Player can utilize to make their games more fun. Huzzah, I say, Huzzah!!
FH
I really appreciate the kind words and while Lillith is probably more the "intellectual giant" I do hope that people are able to use what I have created and feel that is is well done (instead of most of the stuff that I found before I felt that I needed to do it myself). I am looking forward to what Lillith puts together regarding this...
Seriously, if you like these generators, let people know so that they don't think that it is just crap like so much else out there. (I know how Thanis and Lillith feel -- anyone else?)
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While I do disagree with your conception of piotions and wands above 3rd and 4th levels, respectively, I still admire the sheer effort and commitment you've put into these programs. I will certainly use them in the future, and could only beg for a Spell Compendium conversion to be added in to the wands and scrolls at some point- I understand how much of an undertaking add all those spells would be. The customization of source books was a beautiful touch as well.
As far as wands and potions, I wanted to be able to include metamagic feats on some of them. I also wanted to pick and choose the caster level for the items that it made sense for. A wand of magic missile cast at 6th level seemed like a waste of resources and XP to me. Maybe down the road we can come up with some kind of formula to randomly select metamagic feats and attach it to scrolls, wands, and/or potions.
**plotting**
Bill
You would iterate through each result that you've got, see if any were eligible for a metamagic feat, then give let's say a base 10-25% chance for a metamagic feat (increased percentage if the class was, say a Sorcerer-Wizard as opposed to a ranger or a paladin).
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You would iterate through each result that you've got, see if any were eligible for a metamagic feat, then give let's say a base 10-25% chance for a metamagic feat (increased percentage if the class was, say a Sorcerer-Wizard as opposed to a ranger or a paladin).
In order for this to work we would need to label them or group them together as eligible for particular feats. We would also need to watch caster level and make sure that we didn't go over a ninth level spell.
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While I do disagree with your conception of potions and wands above 3rd and 4th levels, respectively, I still admire the sheer effort and commitment you've put into these programs.
I feel that I need to explain my logic with this. First of all, I always hated it that potions and wands were included in "major" treasure. (OK we just killed a CR 18 red dragon. Let's see what we got. <Roll, Roll> It looks like you get a potion of cure moderate and a wand of fireballs cast at 7th level.)
As far as wands are concerned, dorjes (sp?) can go up to 9th level spells (powers). There are a number of reasons for this, but ultimately it seems unfair to wizards if a psion can create a 9th level wand but a wizard can't. A further reason would be a person (in theory) could create a staff with only one spell in it up to 9th level at a cost of 1 charge each. The cost would ultimately be the same.
As far as potions are concerned -- I am not entirely sure why they made it so that you could create a spell in paper form up to 9th level, but you couldn't create a spell in liquid form up to the same level for twice the cost. The only thing that I can think of is that there are some "personal" spells that are not meant for a fighter to have. Personally, I don't have a problem if the character happens to be ubber powerful for one day because of a nice potion. It is a one-shot item and once it is used, it is gone.
With this being said, I have a feeling that you are not alone in your preferences and I may try and put in an option to include or exclude higher level potions and/or wands. That may take some doing in my spreadsheets, but we should consider this now for the website version, Lillith.
I will certainly use them in the future, and could only beg for a Spell Compendium conversion to be added in to the wands and scrolls at some point- I understand how much of an undertaking add all those spells would be. The customization of source books was a beautiful touch as well.
I have agonized over getting the spell compendium. I have a hard time justifying getting a book that mostly re-prints spells from sources that I already have. I have also been dealing with what to do about spells from multiple sources. I have some ideas about it, but it will require a bit of back-tracking. I don't have any immediate plans to include the spell compendium. I would like to include spells from dragon magazine in the semi-near future though.
Bill
Hey, Bill, I do have the Spell Compendium, so you don't have to worry about getting it for this project. :-P
Going to write a program today that will take a list and import it into a database. Yay! (Why are doing these projects so much more fun than the ones I'm doing for work?)
Spells (which will be the basis for wands, potions, scrolls, staves, etc) will be able to be grouped by sourcebook, school, subschool, and descriptor. 'Twould be no big thing to figure out a way to determine if a spell is eligible for a metamagic feat, then add that to the classifications.
I'll wait to do the metamagic stuff, though - basics first!
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Going to write a program today that will take a list and import it into a database. Yay! (Why are doing these projects so much more fun than the ones I'm doing for work?)
I agree. For me it is because I am challenging myself to learn/do something new. Whereas work is typically the same thing over and over...
Yay! All spells & psionic powers updated and loaded into the database, ready for tinkering!
And in case anyone's interested, there are 2,134 spells & powers divided amongst the following books:
Champions of Ruin: 26
Champions of Valor: 21
City of Splendors: Waterdeep: 23
Complete Adventurer: 69
Complete Arcane: 93
Complete Divine: 110
Complete Warrior: 3
Draconomicon: 26
Eberron Campaign Setting: 8
Expanded Psionics Handbook: 291
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting: 15
Frostburn: 105
Heroes of Battle: 13
Heroes of Horror" 22
Librim Mortis: 43
Lords of Darkness: 7
Lost Empires of Faerun: 23
Magic of Eberron: 42
Magic of Faerun: 159
Miniatures Handbook: 41
Monsters of Faerun: 2
Planar Handbook: 72
Player's Guide to Faerun: 52
Player's Handbook: 601
Races of Destiny: 21
Races of Eberron: 28
Races of Faerun: 7
Races of Stone: 15
Races of the Dragon: 26
Races of the Wild: 10
Sandstorm: 67
Serpent Kingdoms: 13
Sharn: City of Towers: 3
Shining South: 32
Stormwatch: 47
Unapproachable East: 14
Underdark: 36
Ooof, my brain hurts now. Thanks Bill, for compiling above list!
Got the base scroll generator functioning on my test server. Integrated it into the scroll appearance generator, so you'll get output like this:
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1.
* Cause Fear
* Detect Chaos
* Protection from Winged Flyers
Paper: Stiff moldering vellum, bound and folded; dusty exterior
Writing & Ornamentation: Meticulous handwriting in black ink;
On Activation: Dissolves into a swarm of moths that flutter away
2.
* Insignia of Alarm
* Curse of Impending Blades
Paper: Thick linen, rolled on rods
Writing & Ornamentation: Faded sloppy handwriting in black ink;
On Activation: Shrinks away to nothingness
3.
* Swift Bless Weapon
* Bless Water
Paper: Rough paper, bound and flattened
Writing & Ornamentation: Smudged meticulous handwriting in light grey ink;
On Activation: Characters on the scroll merge into a drawing of a screaming face, which proceeds to swallow itself and disappear
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More stuff to come!
*cast thread resurrection*
*does the happy dance*
Yes!! Got the scroll generator to output caster level and....
*dum dum dummmmmmmm*
the ability to have generator results based on what sourcebooks you have access to. Mwah-hah-haaaaaaah!
It's not live yet, but expect it soon...
Mwah-hah-hah!!! Sourcebook sorting and display now lives at the NPC Stat Block Bank site!
Hah-haaaaah! On to other things...like encounter and treasure generators...
Mwah-hah-hah!!! Sourcebook sorting and display now lives at the NPC Stat Block Bank site!
Hah-haaaaah! On to other things...like encounter and treasure generators...
That is wonderful news!
A dessert pasta: Take your standard linguine and make a sauce of melted cream cheese. Top with whipped cream, strawberries and shaved chocolate. Garnish with a mint sprig if you want.
If you're lucky, your other half homemakes pasta anyway and will make you chocolate pasta. (Yay for me - my other half loves to cook too!) I think you can actually find chocolate pasta if you look hard enough on the internet or at a gourmet food store.
Beware, Lilith. I have a pasta maker and have made chocolate and marscapone cheese stuffed ravioli with rasbperry sauce...
Beware, Lilith. I have a pasta maker and have made chocolate and marscapone cheese stuffed ravioli with rasbperry sauce...
Change it to strawberries and you're on!
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Quick update on the generators...
I have been working on the scroll generator and trying to incorporate the Spell Compendium. This is really becoming quite a task. The Spell Compendium really updated a whole lot of spells. The major difficulty is that it changed a lot of spell levels and class availability. For example: Blindsight used to be a spell available to clerics, druids and wizards. It is no longer available to wizards and the spell level changed for clerics and druids. There have been many examples of this kind of difference -- sometimes a greater difference than that -- Amanuensis was a 3rd level spell and now is a 0 level spell. With this many changes, I almost need to re-do the entire generator.
Basically, just wanted to let people know that I am still working on the generators and incorporating the new books into them -- it will just take a while.
Bill
So when do we all get together for the dessert contest?
I'm giving them a spin now, I was wondering do you recall what issue of Dragon had the Dragon name generator? I'm getting pretty weak with "Lord Hellfurnace", and the players smell it.
Thanks
steve
Per the DragonDex (http://www.aeolia.net/dragondex/articles-subject.html):
"By Any Other Name: Dragon Names"; Owen K.C. Stephens; issue 260, p56.