DnD 3.5 Player Aids?

[ForumFerret]

Hey, guys!

I was thinking, here...and that's always a bad thing....if there were any player aids out there that would help with running a character -during- the game.

Some examples, off the top of my head:

Inventory management - show me what I'm carrying and where I'm carrying it. I think the old Core Rules did this -wonderfully-. Even better if the tool is aware of bags of holding, and changes my characters 'carried weight' appropriately.

Basic capability for generating magic items and the like, so I can add them to my character in almost-real-time while playing.

Show me my equipped weapons. I like the E-tools character sheet. It'd be even better if I could, say, click on a weapon entry, and have the tool automatically roll attack, damage, crit rolls, etc, and spit out all that in an easy to read format.

Ditto for spells. Track my Caster level, show me my known/memorized spells, and let me click on them to cast; automatically roll for CL checks, to-hit, and damage.

Let me click on skills and get a skill roll automatically.

Is there -anything- out there like this, even if you have to pay for it? I keep my laptop at the table to do inventory and notes with ANYWAY, if I could do this with a reasonably competent interface, it'd be lovely.

Also, is there a downloadable HTML SRD with good bookmarks/pictures out there anywhere? That'd also make things lots easier.

Thanks guys!

 

[XCorvis]

Player Genie is one thing that does that, but it's not free: http://www.dmgenie.com/PlayerGenie.shtml

I think there are similar free tools, but they tend to be targeted at DMs.

 

[IronWolf]

Also, is there a downloadable HTML SRD with good bookmarks/pictures out there anywhere? That'd also make things lots easier.

One of my favorites:
http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/home.html

 

[Luke]

RolePlayingMaster has been specifically designed to excel at this very thing.

Its a great time to check it out, as I've just uploaded a very significant update.

Apart from all the basics, here are some particularly nice features you can use.

- Optionally use the mapper, where you can have individualized graphics show the positions of all creatures. As a DM, you could use a second monitor (or networking) to show a "players view" which only shows revealed sections.

- An action window used for all actions (such as attacks, skill checks, spell casting, saves etc). It includes a description of your action (such as the spell description, skill description, or specials such as "bull rush").

- Full skills checking, which allows you to to select amongst various DC options available, and lists other enironmental effects which you can check or uncheck as appropriate.

- An optional "Review" mode. Without review mode, you can select a single action, and get an instant result for the full action (eg. does multiple attacks with additional effects such as criticals). If you have "Review" mode on, you can click through each stage, entering your own dice rolls, and examining all options (eg does my special elven resistance apply in this particular case).

- An optional "Targets" mode. Use this if you have both the players and the DM's creatures in the computer. You get the additional advantages of seeing the opposed effects (such as all the attack modifiers vs all the AC modifiers, or select a skill check which will automatically determine all the numbers for a target's opposed skill check).

- A "Player/Creature" options window. This is a window that automatically brings together all your special options and lets you decide what you want, then automatically calculates all the effects of your choices.
Examples of this would be: Your option to use your special Monk BAB, how many points you want to allocate to your power attack, if you want your Barbarian enraged, and many others.

- Any conditions or spell effects you're under automatically modify your stats, and expire when they're meant to.


The benefits I particularly notice in my current game as a player at the table are:

- The program is great for instant lookups for full info on things such as skills, spells, special actions, and just about anything.
These days, my group tend to just check details with me, rather then start looking through books.

- I'm especially quick at giving my DM the attack results of my high level fighter. With a single mouse click, I can tell him the results of my multiple attacks, including the AC I hit, the damage, the damage type (eg if slashing ve crushing is important), and the critical results (if appropriate). It really moves combat along.

- Any spell effects I'm under are automatically included in my stats (be they spell aid from my party, hostile spell effects, magical items, or even just being stunned.
We constantly find that my character is the only one at the table that is consistently accurate, as its very easy to forget the numerous effects that can be in operation (especially in high level campaigns).

Good luck!

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Heyo Luke, I just downloaded the new version, uninstalled my old version, and tried the new one out - I got a missing DLL error, LK-Zip.dll not found. Reinstalling did not work.

The Auld Grump

 

[Luke]

That problem was there for about 5 hours after the first upload. Hopefully you've since found that the updates were corrected, and that you could alo simply grab the missing file.

I should also mention that there's no need to uninstall old versions anymore (or go through the rigour of exporting, then re-importing after the update).
I found a way to update where all your datasets and personal info remain untouched with new updates. It is often a good idea to also get updates of the datasets you use (typically the 3.0 or revised 3.5 rule datasets).

Sorry about the inconvenience.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Okay, got it now.

Good to know that you no longer need uninstall the old version. I take it the DLL goes in the Windows directory? You might want to mention that, some people get scared when they see things like .dll, .dat, or even .jpg. (This last frightens me at least, I ask myself 'how much detail did this puppy lose?'...)

The Auld Grump