D&D 4th Edition RulesAsk questions about 4th-Edition rules and the like in here. General discussion about 4E or any other game belongs in General RPG Discussion, above.
You do not need a subscription for the Character Builder. You can wait a couple of months for them to work out a few more bugs and have PHB2 included and then subscribe for only one month (you may have to sign uo and then cancel). You will then have a static version of the Character Builder (it is not a web application). Of course, you need to subscribe again to be able to get any updates.
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Yes, there can be more than one right answer to a rules question! It can be an exercise in futility to attempt to apply a great deal of precision to an imprecise set of rules.
While I do recommend a DDI Subscription, there are still a few tools out there that might help you with the character Generation. These are not as easy to use as the Character Builder and you won't get all the feats/Powers/etc. or automatically generated power cards, but they are free and often well supported...
While I love DDI and all that, I am afraid only Baumi found something actually useful for the OP. (Well, at least I hope it is.)
I think the only other two important information we can give:
- Get only a month of subscription (preferably after the release of PHB 2 data), and have a working character builder. Still not free.
- Don't get your hopes up for anything free (and legal) that will assemble a character complete with feat, power, race and class ability descriptions anytime soon.
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While I love DDI and all that, I am afraid only Baumi found something actually useful for the OP. (Well, at least I hope it is.)
I think the only other two important information we can give:
- Get only a month of subscription (preferably after the release of PHB 2 data), and have a working character builder. Still not free.
- Don't get your hopes up for anything free (and legal) that will assemble a character complete with feat, power, race and class ability descriptions anytime soon.
That's not entirely true. Many of the free excel/PDF based character sheets are free and pretty complete with regards to feats, powers, magic items, .... I'm currently using Wonko's excel character sheet and it is really great. Of course it doesn't look as visually pleasing as the WotC character builder but it allows you to select all powers, feats, magic items, ...
And I *think* that it is legal too because it doesn't actually contain any flavor or copyrighted text. Just the 'rules' parts of all the powers (i.e. the math stuff). I may be mistaken but I think that's actually ok.
Hmm, the 2 worst things about DDI is that to get the most use out of it you need a laptop and everythings digital
Not strictly true. I'm typing this on a desktop that I've dragged into my living room because I'm too cheap to afford a desktop (and to lazy to have dragged it back after last nights game.)
As for OP:
You'll have some luck with form-fillable PDFs and Spreadsheet character sheets, but you're never going to get an actual character generator besides the one on DDI.
The only reason we had fan-made character generators for 3e is because WotC never made one that worked. But given the amount of work it takes, it's just not worth it for programming-savvy fans to make a 4e generator when they could just shell out a few bucks a month and spend their time on more important projects.
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You do not need a subscription for the Character Builder. You can wait a couple of months for them to work out a few more bugs and have PHB2 included and then subscribe for only one month (you may have to sign uo and then cancel). You will then have a static version of the Character Builder (it is not a web application). Of course, you need to subscribe again to be able to get any updates.
BINGO!
That's what I did...subcribe for one month to get the full 30 level final version then I did not renew. When PHB2 and a few more books come out I will go ahead and renew for one month (and only one month!), to get those updates.
Another disadvantage to this approach other than missing timely updates is if you want to install it on a new computer (or you wipe your HD), then you will not have the full 30 levels.
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Yeah, but I refuse to continue to sink more and more money into WotC's pockets. I'm fine with buying the odd book here and there (despite the fact that they continue to be degrading in quality), but monthly fees? Heck no. Some people may be unaffected by the economy, and free to game with multiple laptops and all sorts of expensive gadgets and whatnot, but some other people are struggling to get by as it is. I loathe the idea of D&D Insider and the fact that they plug it at every given opportunity.
Considering the compendium included it is actually cheaper to buy DDI than two books/year.
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