D&D 4E 4e monster formatting tool

[MarkAHart]

Not sure if this will prove beneficial or useful to anyone, but we shall see...

I have created a tool to take user-entered monster data and format it into the monster stat block style. I have found this saves me time, as I like having the standardized stat blocks for when I DM.

There are two Word templates: one is for "simple" monsters -- monsters without aura, action points, immunities/vulnerabilities, etc. The second template is for more complex monsters.

Both templates are linked to an Excel sheet. The user enters monster data. To demonstrate, I have included data for a homebrewed monster just to show how it works.

A "merge" churns out a formatted stat block in 4e style as a separate Word doc.

The styles aren't perfect; once a stat block has been generated, it might need a slight amount of clean-up.

I have attached a PDF that shows sample output from the tool.

For the attack type (i.e., melee, ranged, close, etc.), you will have to enter it by hand. I pasted in the attack icons on the sample PDF; you can do this however works best.

The color scheme is not exact, but semi-close (in the ballpark, perhaps).

Comments, suggestions, questions welcome.

 

[firesnakearies]

This looks great! Awesome job.

 

[Is_907]

Looks great... just doesn't work with iWork 08 =/ The stat block is pretty, though!

 

[MarkAHart]

Just realized the Excel data sheet contains an error in the calculating fields for Ability bonuses...I forgot to add in 1/2 the monster's level to the total bonus. I hope to upload a corrected version a bit later...

 

[MarkAHart]

Just FYI, I added the revised, corrected Excel data sheet, so the ability bonuses now include 1/2 the monster's level.

 

[nightspaladin]

It looks great but how do i get excel to output it into the template?

 

[MarkAHart]

It looks great but how do i get excel to output it into the template?

First, a note: I use Mac MS Word 2004; the specifics might vary for XP or other versions...

After you've entered monster data into the Excel data sheet (one row per monster):

Open the MS Word document you want to use (either the simple monster version, or the complex version).

Turn on Word's "data merge manager."
Within the data merge manager, go to "Get Data" and select "open data source" -- select the Excel data sheet file. (Basically, you want Word to look to the Excel sheet to fill the data fields.)

Under "Merge," select "merge to new document." This creates a new Word document with a formatted stat block for each row of monster data you entered in Excel.

I apologize if this doesn't make sense; every version of Word seems just different enough to make things confusing. Hopefully, this helps.

 

[Madmaximus]

This looks like it could be an awesome tool, but I can't get it to work with Word 2007. What could I be missing.

 

[Madmaximus]

Never Mind I figured it out, it works great.

 

[EP]

Very nice. Hope you don't mind but I posted a link to this thread on the CA News page.