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I was looking for a Hero Lab-type of program with less of a cost to it than actual Hero Lab. I can't justify spending $70+ bucks on the program with all the Ultimate books datasets.
Is there another option?
Looking for a good mix of quality and low price. I just can't justify spending $70 so I can keep a couple PCs updated, and yes if I bought Hero Lab I would need to buy all the PRPG datasets in the core and probably the Beastiary 1 at least.
I suppose I may be biased, but I feel that PCGen is quite good. And, it is free.
Yeah, PCGen is okay (I wouldn't say it's good, but it's not bad). I haven't really used HeroLab, so I can't compare.
PCGen's UI irks me, some options produce wonky results (i.e. weapon finesse w/ an elven curve blade) with some of the output sheets, and quite a few of the traits don't add their bonuses.
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I have used PCGen, but I was not really pleased with it. There are a lot of achetypes that are not fully integrated. Bonus feats that do not add, and cannot be added without knowledge of how to manipulate the code. I have used the free trial for Herolab and I like what I saw, but there are a lot of additional datasets that I would have to buy to use what is available on D20pfsrd.com, which is where my players get most of their stuff.
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sCoreForge Pathfinder Character Creator is a free program that has many of the various source options built into it. It is updated approximately once per week and the creator(s) are responsive when it comes to fixing errors that are found. I have several players who use the program on a regular basis.
I've used both PCGen and Herolab. PCGen is an excellent program, but you need to be willing to understand that new sources may not get updated as quickly as you'd like. If you are fairly savvy, you can make new source files of your own and create custom data.
Hero Lab is much faster on getting support for new sources, but you are going to pay for it. And while you are less likely to *need* to create custom items, doing so is much more difficult, in my experience.
I've got the money, so I've essentially moved over to Herolab, but if you are looking to avoid cost, PCGen is the way to go.
(Haven't tried sCoreForge, so I can't really discuss it)
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You do realize that Hero Lab only needs the core system and once you have that you can enter ALL the information yourself. It is not to terribly difficult to do if that is what you want to do that is. Just takes time.
Lone Wolf Developing opens all their software for the most part to the common user so that they can enter the data to the system. What you are paying the extra for is that time that they are spending to do so for us.
While PCGen and other free programs are decent.. none are as up to date as Hero Lab at the moment. Nor (My personal opinion here) as fast at fixing/updating their programs as Hero Lab. Once something is out they usually have the data update almost out at the same time if not with in a week or two after.
You do realize that Hero Lab only needs the core system and once you have that you can enter ALL the information yourself.
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While PCGen and other free programs are decent.. none are as up to date as Hero Lab at the moment.
Aren't these two statements at cross-purposes?
Also, you can enter all the information yourself in PCGen as well.
You do realize that Hero Lab only needs the core system and once you have that you can enter ALL the information yourself. It is not to terribly difficult to do if that is what you want to do that is. Just takes time.
Just to clarify, cause I thinking about getting it, are you saying you can add any custom information, including, say, a home brew prestige class into Hero Lab? Thanks.
You do realize that Hero Lab only needs the core system and once you have that you can enter ALL the information yourself. It is not to terribly difficult to do if that is what you want to do that is. Just takes time.Just to clarify, cause I thinking about getting it, are you saying you can add any custom information, including, say, a home brew prestige class into Hero Lab? Thanks.
You can.
Be aware, however, that the learning curve is steep (though the people on the forums are very helpful in figuring out how to do something).
Is it done through the GUI or do you create your own database files (a la PCGen)?
It's via a GUI, but parts of that GUI will put you into coding windows. So you'll build 90% of a class using checkboxes and dropdowns, but it's likely you'll have to delve into Herolab's programming language to complete things.
For the most part, you can swipe copies of code for what you need from other classes/items/feats, as long as it is a mechanic that already exists somewhere. Otherwise you may have to get a bit more down and dirty.
Basically if you know anything about XML it is fairly easy. If not then it is not as difficult as one might think as Ramarren has mentioned the customer base is very good at helping out on their forums :)
I hate XML. I can work with it, but boy do I hate it...