4th Ed. D&D Charater Generation software

[johnnype]

Will it really do everything WotC is implying? I have my doubts. Will I really be able to create a dwarven 10th level ranger/ 15th level rogue with all his feats, skills, magic items and equipment and perhaps a template or two (if such things still exist in 4th edition) and have it all calculate correctly? D&D is such a complex game that I don't know that a piece of software can accurately model everything I'd want it to. Core rulebooks, expansions and user created content (although I don't really care about the last)? Sounds like a tall order, at least to me. Admittedly my experience with computers and databases is limited so others may be better suited to discuss this with any sort of authority but from where I'm standing it looks like a program of this sophistication would require constant and heavy development. I foresee delays, complications and quite a few compromises.

Unless of course the software is just a blank PC sheet that allows you to use drop down boxes to fill lines in without actually auto-calculating anything for you. Useless.

I know there are a couple pieces of software out there that supposedly do this already but how well do they really work? Are they easy to use? How up to date are they? Do they have any significant bugs?

Data sets, costs for conversion...I dunno...As much as I'd love to see it happen I am hesitant to get my hopes up. Perhaps the computer experts can step in here and convince me otherwise.

 

[Mort]

The calculations for 4e are unlikely to be more complicated than the ones for 3.5 and the Heroforge series of spreadsheets for 3.5 work great (auto-calculates almost everything, indispensable for spells, etc.)
If WoTC got a dedicated development team to make 4e generators as good or better, I'd be pretty happy.

 

[(contact)]

I haven't heard anything at this point that indicates the online charcter builder will calculate for you. All I've seen is that it will be an online character sheet that will allow access to the WotC database of new feats, spells, etc. (which alone would be great).

Depending on how compex character creation can be, it might be entirely possible for it to restrict (for example) feat choices to possible choices based on class/level/race/whatever combinations, and otherwise simplify a "rules-accurate" PC build.

I'll be very interested to see how it shapes up!

 

[delericho]

Will it really do everything WotC is implying? I have my doubts. Will I really be able to create a dwarven 10th level ranger/ 15th level rogue with all his feats, skills, magic items and equipment and perhaps a template or two (if such things still exist in 4th edition) and have it all calculate correctly? D&D is such a complex game that I don't know that a piece of software can accurately model everything I'd want it to.

Actually, this is exactly the sort of thing computers thrive on. Provided they get a decent team in to do the job, and don't waste all their time putting a pretty front end on it instead of getting the core right, there is every chance they'll end up with a very useful tool.

Now, there may come a time when the expanded options become sufficiently offbeat to create problems, and it is also almost certainly the case that the character generator won't handle house rules well (or, most likely, at all)... but at least initially, I suspect it will be a solid piece of work.