What are the best builders and fillable character sheets out there? Which of them are working with third party publishers?
I've used PCGen for a very long time now, and I love it.
I have an Excel-based character sheet called Pathfinder Character Excelerator that is under active development. You can find a link to the file as well as our discussion thread in my profile. I am actively working with 3PP folks to include their OGC, and have even secured permission for using some IP in the sheet. In addition to including 3PP material, my sheet is focused on staying fairly small and multi-platform compatible while being as automated as possible (for instance, I am going through the feats and traits to incorporate as many game effects as possible).
I recently took the plunge and bought Hero Lab and have not been disappointed. Very easy to use, keeps track of money spent, locations of your equipment and is fully usable to track your Pathfinder Society characters and sessions.
The only drawback is that you need to purchase separate licenses if you want to use it for more than one of the compatible RPGs, but even doing so would be less than the price of buying separate programs for each system. So, it's not too bad.
For a fillable character sheet with all the necessary info, I *really* like the RPG Engine's SCoreGen (for character sheets) and adVance (for spell lists):
http://chargen.us.splinder.com/
Has all the options I want, generates fairly quickly, and uses Excel. Makes a very nice character sheet with all the info I need.
I also use PC Gen for character generation, but I find that more useful as a GM so I can generate and access NPCs and monsters on my laptop--and easily add in my custom deities, etc. I find the printable character sheet output to only be so-so (not all abilities are described adequately to my liking).
Ogre's is definitely a good one as well. He uses macros/VBA, and so the sheet has some functionality I won't have due to my goal of being multi-platform compatible. I recommend his to anyone looking for things like automated reset of sheet contents.
I probably should note the 3PP content I currently have and the folks I'm working with...
At present, I have most of the Remarkable Races from Alluria Publishing in place, and will soon have their remaining races as well.
I have the Shaman base class from Super Genius Games in place and am working on all of their other classes.
I have the races and feats from the Legend of the Shining Jewel shared-campaign in place
I have the The Book of Arcane Magic and The Book of Divine Magic material in place right now, including some IP used by permission from 4WFG.
I'm in the process of purchasing every item these folks have produced to date and am working directly with all of these publishers to ensure the OGC is correct/compliant. I'll readily add anything new that they produce.
I've recently purchased Adamant's Tome of Secrets and am adding the following to my collection shortly:
- Abbey of the Golden Sparrow from Tricky Owlbear
- Class Options: Volume 1—Sorcerer Bloodlines and Class Options: Volume 2—Paladins Prevail! from Reality Deviants
- Darkness Without Form: Secrets of the Mimic from SKR Games
- Ironborn of Questhaven from Rite Publishing
Assuming all goes well with these purchases and the publishers want to include their content, I'll be integrating the relevant OGC and purchasing more of their products.
So, I can't speak for the other tools, but I'm definitely dedicated to including OGC in my work and supporting the 3PP industry as much as possible.
I also have the APG playtest classes either in place or in the works...
Are these end user friendly in terms of specific campaign features?
Are these end user friendly in terms of specific campaign features?
Could you explain a bit more what you mean by this? I have included specific campaign feats/traits (for the adventure paths as well as the LSJ campaign) if that's what you mean. I'm just now finishing up the trait automation process, meaning if you select a trait that grants a bonus to a skill/save/etc. or sets a class skill it is automatically tracked on the sheet. I also have Customization features built in for adding your own bits from your campaign (this is an area that I think needs the most work in my sheet, although my focus on including all-things-Pathfinder should hopefully minimize the need for customization). I am also very sensitive to user-interface suggestions and actively work with folks in my discussion thread to make my sheet as end-user friendly as possible. However, I'm not sure if these answers gets at what you are asking.
Erian_7 would you shoot me an email steve (at) ritepublishing (dot) com
Erian_7 would you shoot me an email steve (at) ritepublishing (dot) com
Email heading your way!
I've been developing my own character creation program for a while now that is in alpha testing still. You can find it here: http://hyperlance.blogspot.com/
I've used PCGen for a very long time now, and I love it.
Been playing around with PCGen for two straight days now. It is . . . ok.
The good: it accesses all the OGL PF stuff it can and for the most part is easy to use.
The bad: Little, niggling errors. For example, I just made up Tsuto (from RotR) and it keeps statting him out as CR 1, when according to the rules he is CR 2. Actually a lot of CR issues crop up . . . a goblin bard as a CR 1/3 (Should be CR 1/2). The print issues leave a lot to be desired too.
All in all, if you are PLAYER it works nicely. The CR thing doesn't matter, nor does the print options (they are all variances of the character sheet), but the inability to print usable stat blocks and properly calculate CR bother me.
Are they overlookable? Yes. But I'm a stickler for the details. I'll try these other ones listed here, before moving on to Hero Labs.
Assuming you are using the Pathfinder rule set and not the 3.5 ruleset...
The bad: Little, niggling errors. For example, I just made up Tsuto (from RotR) and it keeps stating him out as CR 1, when according to the rules he is CR 2. Actually a lot of CR issues crop up . . . a goblin bard as a CR 1/3 (Should be CR 1/2).
All PC's and classed NPC's start off as CR 1/2, then 1, 2, etc. I can't find the rule in the core rulebook, but looking at the Kingmaker, Stolen Lands adventure, Happs (Rgr1) is CR 1/2, and Kressle (Rgr2) is CR 1. So Tsuto's CR should be 1 less than the number of class levels he has.
As far as the Goblin Bard, I'll have to investigate that further.
but the inability to print usable stat blocks and properly calculate CR bother me.
Try statblock5.htm. That is *very* close to Paizo's statblock.
-- david
Papa.DRB
ps. If you have more questions or concerns, please feel free to join the PCGen Yahoo Group http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen/ and we will answer any question you have.
Assuming you are using the Pathfinder rule set and not the 3.5 ruleset...
Yup.
All PC's and classed NPC's start off as CR 1/2, then 1, 2, etc. I can't find the rule in the core rulebook, but looking at the Kingmaker, Stolen Lands adventure, Happs (Rgr1) is CR 1/2, and Kressle (Rgr2) is CR 1. So Tsuto's CR should be 1 less than the number of class levels he has.
Yeah that's the issue. Tsuto has 3 class levels but comes out as a CR 1. The goblins should be the same (kobolds are class level -2), but it also comes out one level lower than it should. This can be fixed by custom creating a new race and bumping up the racial CR, but that is a pain.
Try statblock5.htm. That is *very* close to Paizo's statblock.
Totally agree. It is very close. Yet, unless I'm missing something, you cannot export to PDF, HTML, or Text with that stat block. If you notice, all the export options create much more involved statblocks than that.
Even more unfortunate, I cannot simply copy and paste from that window. I simply get a block of text.
Again, these are relatively small issues -- however, they discourage me just enough. Again, that's me, and I imagine this will work well for a lot of people. The layout, use, and functionality are top-notch.
And you cannot beat the price ;)
Yeah that's the issue. Tsuto has 3 class levels but comes out as a CR 1. The goblins should be the same (kobolds are class level -2), but it also comes out one level lower than it should. This can be fixed by custom creating a new race and bumping up the racial CR, but that is a pain.
Well son-of-a-sea-cook, as my daddy would say. The issue is that multi-classing is messing up the CR. I'll open a bug report on that.
Totally agree. It is very close. Yet, unless I'm missing something, you cannot export to PDF, HTML, or Text with that stat block. If you notice, all the export options create much more involved statblocks than that.
d20\fantasy\htmlxml\csheet_fantasy_statblock5.htm shows up in my export list for "standard", ie. html, exporting.
-- david
Papa.DRB
ps. I am running 5.16.3RC1 which is the latest in the 5.16.x line. Even though it is a release candidate it is really solid. Though, there was a report on a CR (high level) issue. I'll add the multi-class CR problem to the list.
Awesome!
I must have missed the statblock export thing.
When you fix the multi-class function, could you post here too?
Thanks for your help.
Will post here when it is fixed. I'll open the bug report after I do some additional investigation (probably tomorrow), then we will see where it gets prioritized.
-- david
Papa.DRB
Awesome!
I must have missed the statblock export thing.
When you fix the multi-class function, could you post here too?
Thanks for your help.