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Hoestly, if you are a fairly regular con-goer, my suggestion is to do one of two things:
- Grab HeroLab to make and print your characters, and when you know you'll level, simply save off a new file, change the things you know will change and print the new one...post-mod, write on it the things you are buying/selling for your reference. Go from one clean printed sheet to a second clean printed sheet
- If you're a pen/pencil and paper type of guy/gal, leave blank the things you know will change, photocopy it and then just fill in the blanks for whatever given level. Of course, you could always just re-write them too, my idea just saves you some time.
Personally, even with some data errors/flaws and the occasional UI pain, I wholly recommend HeroLab, even if you just get the core books - and no, I'm not being paid to advertise or anything - I just think it's a nice application for the cost, especially if you have multiple characters and go to cons.
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It is definitely faster than sheets.
I think it is absolutely worth the money, especially if:
1. You have multiple PFS characters. You can play around with giving them levels and see how they look in the future.
2. You DM in almost any capacity. Hero Lab can do more than just make PCs. You can make NPCs on the fly, fully stated up and with spells/feats/skills /etc... You can make monsters. I run a Kingmaker Campaign, and it allows me to keep all my player's PCs organized, and lets me look up things while we play without having to ask. I have all my NPCs in there, and allows me to also create custom items if needed.
They have a free demo, just try it out, see what you think. I used it just for the demo function for a long time.
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I love Hero Lab for the fact that all the details are programmed in. As soon as you level up and have to make a choice of some sort, the tab turns red and makes sure you get everything selected. Especially for a class you haven't played much, it helps you get everything right. More than once it has calculated my AC, or CMB, or attack bonus as better than I was calculating; after going back and figuring out how it got there, I was able to play with the right values instead of accidentally gimping myself.
Another thing it's awesome for is "what if" planning: I do a lot of multiclassing, and I can make a dupe of my character, and try levelling it up in different classes to see the net effect and help decide which way to go when I get there. It also makes it easy to make up a bunch of new characters to see what they would look like. I'm an altaholic, and my hard drive is littered with ideas for future characters. Much better than littering my apartment with scribbled out character sheets. ;-)
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I never use it in-game, and those who I have seen use it tend to be slower unless they know their way around it. But as far as making characters, the 'what-if' situations, viewing nearly all the possibilities for a given spell list, feat, trait, etc....you can't beat it.
I will admit it is missing a few things here and there and some 'rules' don't work right. But once you find these, you simply adjust it within that character and all is well. If you really need something customized, you can enter that in to HL as well, though that takes a little extra time and knowledge.
FWIW, I plan on talking with the HL guys at GenCon to talk about some features they need to put in like sorting of lists, more filtering options, etc. If anyone that's not going to GC has something they want to bring up, let me know and as long as I get a chance, I will bring it up too...my experience at that venue with them has been positive so far in that they listen, take some notes and seem to generally give a d@mn about pleasing their customers.
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@The Great Rinaldo!: I was talking about making/leveling characters.
Yes and no.
Yes, it takes a bit longer than leveling by hand, in that it reminds me of more of the options available for me than I would remember/use when working by hand.
No, other than verifying where some numbers came from (I do running audits on my pwn PCs), it makes working up a character, or leveling an existing one, much easier.
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Just a quick aside - I've been using pdf fill-in character sheets for years for PF - is Hero Lab worth the cost? How much time does it actually save in doing sheets?
I adore it. Not because it handles numbers for me but because I don't like hand-writing things. Filling out sheets and erasing and scribbling and oh crap I spilled some coffee and I can't read this and a;sldkjf;laksdf. Hero Lab is much neater.
It's also not perfect. It still doesn't do Synthesist Summoners, I think, and you have to pay extra for non-core rules--reasonable fees, to be certain, and mostly just to cover the cost of data entry on Wolf Lair's end, or so I like to think of it, but that's a turn-off for some people.
It's worth downloading the demo and seeing if you like it, though. I was hooked right away.
...Am I really the only person who would be slowed down by using HeroLab?
I would also be slowed down by it.
While I own it, and love it- it has its faults. and they creep up at the oddest times.
A friend of mine continually has to reboot his to get it to show his proper armorclass. It keeps forgetting 7 points in there somewhere.
It also has a tendency to get smoe skill things incorrect- especially with familiars.
I use HL to make a character and go through iterations of it quickly until I figure out exactly what I want (its much easier to change races in HL than on paper, I found) but when all is said and done I carefully transfer it all to a paper sheet making sure all the number are correct and that I know where each and every one of them come from.
I'd do it even if HL was 100% correct (I like a paper sheet) but all comp. programs have their issues and HL is no different.
-S
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Also bears mentioning that if you are in any way shape or form "light-programming" inclined, HeroLab also has a very powerful editor to create your own traits, feats, classes, items, spells, etc...
It can be a bit daunting to get going with the custom stuff, but you get the hand of it after playing around some time.
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To the OP. Level up, I brought copies of my character level X and X+1. I would have missed much leveling up in the few hours between night 1 and morning 2 and was tired too boot. FWIW I use a pencil on my character sheets in the areas that will change in the next three levels or so. I also highlight those things I want to change soon (skill points frex).
Since XP, gold, and even new equipment is tracked on the chronicle sheets and not on the character sheets it is even easier to prepare the X+1.
The only danger:
I have to say that I can't see Hero Lab being able to slow me down. Unless someone knows all the races, classes, archetypes, and feats perfectly then I can't see it slowing one down. That is just my opinion. Maybe someday I will have all that knowledge but that seems like a lot. I know having 4 pdfs open and flipping between them is not very fast for me.
I am attending a con in a couple of weeks and plan on having characters with level +2 as I am still new enough that I might play one character all weekend. I think having it already set to go is nice as if you go long on your game that levels you then you are set to just get to your next and get going.