Hero Lab - do you use it?

[Remus Lupin]

The latest on the Mac version, according to their newsletter of last week, is that it's scheduled for a probable January release, which is good. Plus current owners can download the open beta by the end of December, which I plan to take advantage of as soon as I can.

Of course, now that I have an iPad, I REALLY want them to get cracking on that version!

 

[IronWolf]

The latest on the Mac version, according to their newsletter of last week, is that it's scheduled for a probable January release, which is good. Plus current owners can download the open beta by the end of December, which I plan to take advantage of as soon as I can.

Yep - looking forward to their Mac version!

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Yep - looking forward to their Mac version!

Same here. Once it comes out I can get rid of both Parallels and Windows 7 from my MacPro and get all that precious HD space back...

 

[MarkAHart]

Count me in as looking forward to the Mac release as well. I very much want to get HeroLab for Pathfinder. Although my iMac is partitioned to boot either Mac OS or Windows 7, I'm going to wait until the Mac version comes out.

Hopefully soon!

 

[Jester David]

I run a Homegame that's getting fairly high (currently level 12) so I was looking at this recently. Mostly for making monsters and NPCs.
But, wow is this expensive now.
It'd cost me over a hundred for all my books. I'd snap it up in a second if there was a newbie bundle or package deal. I hear it's awesome but I just can't justify the cost.

 

[Mad Hamish]

There are some package discounts, eg. when Bestiary 3 comes out you can but B1, B2 and B3 for $29.99
It isn't cheap but it does very nicely for most things (there are a few exceptions, Synthesist isn't covered yet for example)

It's up to the individual to decide whether the cost is worth if for them. It is for me but that doesn't mean anything for the other 99.999..9% of the human race (or other humanoids using it)

 

[IronWolf]

At the moment I only have the base Hero Lab package with the Pathfinder system and I've added on the APG. Even with this base amount of packages the tool has been invaluable to me for character generation or even for reviewing characters when I need to that. I've been a Hero Lab user for a long time now and will be picking up the Bestiary deal once they have the third dataset available. So the up front cost can be high, but in many cases you can spread that cost out over a longer term by only picking up the data set options you need at the moment.

Also - the data sets are pretty fairly priced. Hero Lab has the option to add in your own data. So if you do feel the data sets are not worth the cost you can add the information into the program yourself. I find the price of the packages worth it in comparison to my time to build my own data sets.

I do agree - though the cost can be spread out, as the Pathfinder system continues to grow it would be nice for them to offer a bundle offer of some type to discount the price a bit. Possibly buy the base package and then a percentage off for additional X number of packages purchased at the same time.

 

[Agamon]

At the moment I only have the base Hero Lab package with the Pathfinder system and I've added on the APG. Even with this base amount of packages the tool has been invaluable to me for character generation or even for reviewing characters when I need to that. I've been a Hero Lab user for a long time now and will be picking up the Bestiary deal once they have the third dataset available. So the up front cost can be high, but in many cases you can spread that cost out over a longer term by only picking up the data set options you need at the moment.

Also - the data sets are pretty fairly priced. Hero Lab has the option to add in your own data. So if you do feel the data sets are not worth the cost you can add the information into the program yourself. I find the price of the packages worth it in comparison to my time to build my own data sets.

I agree. I have HL with PF, SW, 4e, and the Bestiary 1 + 2 for PF. If I need one feat or spell or something, I have no problem adding it in. If you want a whole book available, it's really worth it to buy it.

It was super useful in my TT games (the combat tracker is great), but even now that I'm just playing online, it's still quite helpful as a PC repository.

But I'm not sure data sets need to be made less expensive. There's already set deals. No one expects the PF books to go down in price just because there's so many of them.

 

[IronWolf]

But I'm not sure data sets need to be made less expensive. There's already set deals. No one expects the PF books to go down in price just because there's so many of them.

I can see that point. Still wouldn't mind seeing more bundle pricing deals like they are going to do with the Bestiaries!

 

[SolitonMan]

I'm a recent purchaser of Hero Lab and d20Pro. I love the integration, it's truly amazing.

On Hero Lab itself, I'm finding it an invaluable tool. Scheduling difficulties have led me to suggest online gaming to my group, and with Hero Lab I'm able to manage their characters completely and efficiently. One of the players made a wizard with the Spellslinger archetype and HL supported it easily.

I bought Hero Lab for Pathfinder and did make the decision to buy all the extra content available. It was expensive, I probably laid out close to $150 to get everything. But I've not been at all disappointed, all of the cool features of HL make prep a breeze.

With how busy life gets these days, it's amazingly convenient to have a tool (or set of tools) that enable quick, easy and FUN play! Though I've owned it about a month at the time I'm writing this, I feel Hero Lab is one of my best choices in gaming purchases over the last few years.