After another bout of PCGen just plain getting stuff wrong, I'm looking for another d20 character generation program. I need something that's flexible enough to handle the splatbooks and ITCK psionics (though I'm happy to do the customizing myself). I have not heard good things about e-tools...but maybe it's better with the patch, who knows. Is there anything else out there?
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Alternatives to PCGen
- Thread starter Galfridus
- Start date
Henry
Autoexreginated
Roleplaying Master and Twin Rose's Campaign Suite are good choices. I will post the links in a minute.
www.twinrose.net
www.roleplayingmaster.com
As for the splatbooks, are you by chance using the old PCGen files right now (pre 3.0) to do those?If so, it is far better to put those in manually than to add those files, because of all the changes that even the .LST converter cannot handle.
www.twinrose.net
www.roleplayingmaster.com
As for the splatbooks, are you by chance using the old PCGen files right now (pre 3.0) to do those?If so, it is far better to put those in manually than to add those files, because of all the changes that even the .LST converter cannot handle.
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(Sorry for posting this in the wrong place!)
I'm using the old files as a baseline, but making manual changes as needed (i.e., rather than fix all the prestige classes, I've fixed the ones that are being used in my campaign). It's possible that these files are responsible for some errors, but PCGen is also goofing up some plain vanilla characters (a dwarvish fighter, for example).
I'm using the old files as a baseline, but making manual changes as needed (i.e., rather than fix all the prestige classes, I've fixed the ones that are being used in my campaign). It's possible that these files are responsible for some errors, but PCGen is also goofing up some plain vanilla characters (a dwarvish fighter, for example).
merton_monk
First Post
A lot of ETools users have found Davin's ETools Helper to be a great, um, help. 
ETools Helper makes adding stuff to the database quite easy, and it makes sharing files (like the splat books) possible as well. I'm not sure what all splatbooks have been made into files for use with ETools, but I'm sure someone here can post a link to the site where they have been gathering them.
TwinRose's CampaignSuite is for sale (i.e. not free) and includes a lot more than just a character generator, though if all you want is a character generator, I think that portion of it is free.
RolePlayMaster is also for sale and does more than just character generation. I'm not sure of the price nor if there's any kind of free 'trial period' of if it's character generator portion is free.
I've heard of various excel character sheets where you can type in the info and its all updated for you, other than that I'm not aware of any other character generators. Oh, there's always Jamis Buck's nifty generator, but that was only for the races/classes/etc in the PHB. Did he ever include more? I know he was recently talking about getting back into it again, and his generator had a working connection to PCGen. It'd be nice if he updated it for use with more material and updated the connection to PCGen.
Oh - btw - what exactly did PCGen get wrong? I've never known a piece of software to be without bugs, but I like to be given the chance to fix whatever is wrong with any software I write.
Bryan McRoberts
Code Monkey Publishing, Co-Founder (www.codemonkeypublishing.com)
Benevolent Dictator of PCGen (pcgen.sourceforge.net)
ETools Helper makes adding stuff to the database quite easy, and it makes sharing files (like the splat books) possible as well. I'm not sure what all splatbooks have been made into files for use with ETools, but I'm sure someone here can post a link to the site where they have been gathering them.TwinRose's CampaignSuite is for sale (i.e. not free) and includes a lot more than just a character generator, though if all you want is a character generator, I think that portion of it is free.
RolePlayMaster is also for sale and does more than just character generation. I'm not sure of the price nor if there's any kind of free 'trial period' of if it's character generator portion is free.
I've heard of various excel character sheets where you can type in the info and its all updated for you, other than that I'm not aware of any other character generators. Oh, there's always Jamis Buck's nifty generator, but that was only for the races/classes/etc in the PHB. Did he ever include more? I know he was recently talking about getting back into it again, and his generator had a working connection to PCGen. It'd be nice if he updated it for use with more material and updated the connection to PCGen.
Oh - btw - what exactly did PCGen get wrong? I've never known a piece of software to be without bugs, but I like to be given the chance to fix whatever is wrong with any software I write.
Bryan McRoberts
Code Monkey Publishing, Co-Founder (www.codemonkeypublishing.com)
Benevolent Dictator of PCGen (pcgen.sourceforge.net)
Here's what my players noticed wrong last night -- I'm sure there's other stuff as well.
1) Damage wrong for the archer: +1 magic +1 Mighty longbow, Weapon Specializaiton, Point Blank shot, normal arrows, PCGen lists damage as 1d8+7 at 30 ft and 1d8+4 at other ranges. By my math it should be 1d8+5 and 1d8+3.
2) Somehow over versions, the stats for a dwarf character were altered -- most went up by 1 inexplicably.
3) Attack bonuses for the dwarf character were off -- I'm still looking into the details on this one.
I would love to see these fixed, but PCGen has had nagging issues like this for a while. It's hard to use the program if I can't trust the basic numbers on the character sheets.
1) Damage wrong for the archer: +1 magic +1 Mighty longbow, Weapon Specializaiton, Point Blank shot, normal arrows, PCGen lists damage as 1d8+7 at 30 ft and 1d8+4 at other ranges. By my math it should be 1d8+5 and 1d8+3.
2) Somehow over versions, the stats for a dwarf character were altered -- most went up by 1 inexplicably.
3) Attack bonuses for the dwarf character were off -- I'm still looking into the details on this one.
I would love to see these fixed, but PCGen has had nagging issues like this for a while. It's hard to use the program if I can't trust the basic numbers on the character sheets.
scarymonkey
First Post
When I tried it, it always gave me the wrong number of feats allowed. It gave everyone 3 feats at first level.
merton_monk
First Post
In 4.2.6 there is an issue with Arcane Archers getting magical arrow bonuses added to their class ability for enchanted arrows if you load the magical arrows into your bow. I believe this has already been addressed. The output sheet was changed and resulted in a great many improvements and this one bug. Most software is like that, we do our best to test for quality assurance, but due to the scope of the material we provide and the amount of custom material our users have, it's impossible to check everything. Generally when we add something new and it breaks anything old, fixing that is our top priority and it's usually fixed that day.
I'm not aware of dwarvish stats all going up by 1. Are you referring to Str, Int, Wis, etc.? From which version to which version did you notice this change? That could lead to a change in your dwarf's attack bonus.
I'm also not aware of an issue with everyone getting 3 feats at first level. First level human fighters do (one of them is from the fighter-list of feats, but PCGen lets you cancel out of that and use the feat selection from the total list of feats if you so desire which would result in 3 choices). Version number and race of characters would be useful details to look further into this problem.
We have a very active board at http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/pcgen where most questions are answered fairly quickly. There are a lot of knowledgeable users who are glad to help with learning to use PCGen, and many of the code monkeys hang out there looking for bug reports. The documentation in PCGen has been vastly improved over the last couple of months, so between the documentation and the yahoo group, support is pretty well covered.
Bryan McRoberts
Code Monkey Publishing, Co-Founder (www.codemonkeypublishing.com)
Benevolent Dictator of PCGen (pcgen.sourceforge.net)
I'm not aware of dwarvish stats all going up by 1. Are you referring to Str, Int, Wis, etc.? From which version to which version did you notice this change? That could lead to a change in your dwarf's attack bonus.
I'm also not aware of an issue with everyone getting 3 feats at first level. First level human fighters do (one of them is from the fighter-list of feats, but PCGen lets you cancel out of that and use the feat selection from the total list of feats if you so desire which would result in 3 choices). Version number and race of characters would be useful details to look further into this problem.
We have a very active board at http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/pcgen where most questions are answered fairly quickly. There are a lot of knowledgeable users who are glad to help with learning to use PCGen, and many of the code monkeys hang out there looking for bug reports. The documentation in PCGen has been vastly improved over the last couple of months, so between the documentation and the yahoo group, support is pretty well covered.
Bryan McRoberts
Code Monkey Publishing, Co-Founder (www.codemonkeypublishing.com)
Benevolent Dictator of PCGen (pcgen.sourceforge.net)
Ysgarran
Registered User
This is what I'm most curious about and what I'm waiting for:merton_monk said:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen/message/54462
As the note says, there isn't much to say on this front. Although I should note that once some of the supporting editors are (plural?) finished adding your own information should be much easier.
Ysgarran.
The archer character is a Fighter 4/Rogue 3/OOBI 1/DS 1 with no magical arrows in their inventory. I also just tried this with the latest autobuild and it was still happening. 
Believe me, I do understand that bugs are an inherent part of the software life cycle. It just seems to me that PCGen has more than its share of bugs that affect core numbers on the sheet -- to me, keeping those base numbers accurate should be the #1 priority. Often, this doesn't seem to be the case.
As for the dwarf issue: the actual characteristics (Str, Dex, etc.) went up by 1, probably when loading from an older version (4.2.2 or so). You're right that this probably is what messed up the BAB.
Believe me, I do understand that bugs are an inherent part of the software life cycle. It just seems to me that PCGen has more than its share of bugs that affect core numbers on the sheet -- to me, keeping those base numbers accurate should be the #1 priority. Often, this doesn't seem to be the case.
As for the dwarf issue: the actual characteristics (Str, Dex, etc.) went up by 1, probably when loading from an older version (4.2.2 or so). You're right that this probably is what messed up the BAB.
merton_monk
First Post
Hm - could you email me your archer's pcg file? send it to merton.monk@codemonkeypublishing.com and I'll debug it tonight. Keeping the character sheet numbers correct is our #1 priority, but collateral damage does occur. When it's significant enough we do an emergency release outside of the regular wednesday-night release cycle. This doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Could you give me details on what your dwarf's stats *used* to be? Maybe I can figure out why they suddenly went up by 1.
As for ysgarran's wondering about the post he referenced... I could tell you, but then I'd have to send a fleet of Summoner Assassins after you. My chief assassin, Buttercup, is currently level 10 and wields a nasty wakasashi!
Bryan McRoberts
Code Monkey Publishing, Co-Founder
Benevolent Dictator of PCGen
As for ysgarran's wondering about the post he referenced... I could tell you, but then I'd have to send a fleet of Summoner Assassins after you. My chief assassin, Buttercup, is currently level 10 and wields a nasty wakasashi!
Bryan McRoberts
Code Monkey Publishing, Co-Founder
Benevolent Dictator of PCGen
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