Looking for eTools alternative?

[centipedes]

So eTools is really useless, in our newest campaign, most of the PC's are playing as classes and races that cannot be entered into eTools. I am looking for a more homebrew friendly alternative. Thanks in advance.

 

[Stormonu]

RPGxplorer? Herolab? OpenRPG?

The database from e-tools is an access database, if you have any programming skills, you can make your own front end and new content.

In particular, what is useless about e-tools? You can add your own homebrew to it. What are these classes and races that won't work?

 

[centipedes]

RPGxplorer? Herolab? OpenRPG?

The database from e-tools is an access database, if you have any programming skills, you can make your own front end and new content.

In particular, what is useless about e-tools? You can add your own homebrew to it. What are these classes and races that won't work?

To my knowledge, it's tedious to make your own races unless you know how to do templates, which I do not. And to make your own classes is basically impossible. EDIT: I was able to make a template that will work as the race I would like to place as in eTools, however making a class seems not possible?

 

[Vicente]

I would go PCGen, the software is great and it's not so hard to create a new race or a new class, they have quite a few tutorials for that and a nice group to help with questions about those things.

 

[lonewolfdevel]

Give Hero Lab a look. You can add custom content, including classes. There are also numerous users on our forums who have already added the content from assorted WotC 3.5 books. They've setup a repository with their data files that you can just drop in and use, so the content you're seeking may already be available.

 

[Stormonu]

To my knowledge, it's tedious to make your own races unless you know how to do templates, which I do not. And to make your own classes is basically impossible. EDIT: I was able to make a template that will work as the race I would like to place as in eTools, however making a class seems not possible?

I had to actually reload e-tools to take a look. Classes *can* be built under the house rules section (the image that looks like a house, interestingly enough). Races aren't made as templates, there is instead a button that looks half-human/half-orc where you input a new race (it first asks for type, then after choosing that, goes into a full-featured build). The Help has all the information under the "How Do I" section. [Edit] I am running the 1.666 version of e-tools.

However, with all that said, I don't trust e-tools much (anything beyond core seems to be dubious because of programming limitations) and there are other creators that are much easier to use. My preferance is for RPGxplorer and Hero Lab - with a preference for Hero Lab as it seems much easier. As a side note, I always found PCGen quite confusing and more cumbersome that e-tools - though it appears to be extremely flexible.

 

[falcarrion]

I use Herolab. I have both data sets for 3.5 and 4th ed.

 

[IronWolf]

I would go PCGen, the software is great and it's not so hard to create a new race or a new class, they have quite a few tutorials for that and a nice group to help with questions about those things.

I would second this recommendation for PCGen. Runs on multiple OS's, it is free and highly configurable to allow one to add races, classes, feats, and house rules to it.

 

[centipedes]

I will give PCGen a look. I tried RPGxplorer and it's just too confusing, some things don't work right, certain traits aren't available for input and it is just too much. I guess I could also give Hero Lab a look too. Also, Build a Race in eTools is very annoying and it is faster to just make templates. Creating classes via House Rules is legitimately impossible, believe me I tried. I download ETHelper and it allows to me make new classes and such and it worked pretty well though. Edit, I will also try Hero Lab. Edit2: I was just told that Hero Lab contains many viruses?

 

[Stormonu]

Also, Build a Race in eTools is very annoying and it is faster to just make templates. Creating classes via House Rules is legitimately impossible, believe me I tried. I download ETHelper and it allows to me make new classes and such and it worked pretty well though.

Wow, just went through it to try myself. I think I remember why now I stopped using it.