D&D Insider - My main beef

[Destil]

I refuse to use it because it requires a version of .NET which neither FreeBSD nor any of my Linux distros can emulate.

I've heard good thinks about the most recent versions of Mono, but good luck ever getting anyone to develop for it. MS sort of screwed cross-platform support with .NET by just making lip-service to it.

 

[Odysseus]

Very simply, the inability to add new stuff like new races, class, feats, powers, magic items, etc. I see you can technically add new stuff, but there is no way to put in stats for it. So you could be a "Xygorthian" race, but there would be no way to add Racial Traits, other than manually, and then I don't think you could have them impact other stats.

Am I missing something here? Or does Wizards have big plans to change this?

You could use one of the other character builders heroforge or herolab.
HeroForge Software

Hero Lab - Lone Wolf Development

 

[ForceUser]

That's my wife's complaint about the system as well. I like so many things about the game that I've accepted it as an acceptable evil, but it continues to chafe a little.

/grognard

This is becoming my problem with 4E as well, now that I'm diving into it full steam. I've tinkered with the rules in every edition, but in 4E people give me dire warnings about "messing with the math." There's a lot to like, but I have never wanted to adopt all the rules of any game system, and I'm not about to start now.

 

[Turtlejay]

Seeing as WotC is still working on getting the software to work right with their own product, and that product is every-changing. . .yeah. I don't see 3PP support as even on the horizon even *if* it was a goal of theirs. A lot of talk about 'just allowing access' and whatnot, but if the current state of the CB is broken, how many small 3PP are gonna want to mess with it?

I'm all for openness though, and allowing houseruling support to be more native is a definite plus. It would be a great not to their most vocal fanbase, the DM's of the world. Like I said above though, I'm still not sure the basic functionality is close to finished.

And where the hell is my virtual gaming table!?!?!

Jay

 

[Nahat Anoj]

This is becoming my problem with 4E as well, now that I'm diving into it full steam. I've tinkered with the rules in every edition, but in 4E people give me dire warnings about "messing with the math." There's a lot to like, but I have never wanted to adopt all the rules of any game system, and I'm not about to start now.

Well, that's not a problem with 4e so much as it's a problem with a group of people who play 4e. Ignore those warnings - I've played 4e enough to know that giving that level 1 PC the level 8 magic sword won't ruin things at all. As a matter of fact, one of my players ran a Charisma-based avenging paladin for a while and it worked well. IMO, statements saying that 4e is some ultra-delicate system with precariously balanced math are misinformed.

Now, I'd hesitate to give a level 1 PC a level 25 magic weapon, sure. But in earlier editions I wouldn't have given the level 1 fighter a +5 sword, either. If that's the order of "tinkering" that you'd like to do, then I'd probably be cooler to that.

My problem is that right now there's no way to implement our custom powers, feats, items and other fiddly bits into the CB and have the computer calculate modifiers, damage, and the like. As a result, home brew elements are pretty much squashed, as players - in my group, at least - detest not using the CB.

 

[keterys]

Speaking as an inveterate hacker, tweaker and modify-er of several decades standing (gosh!), I have to say that 4e is the hardest to house rule of any edition of D&D on anything other than the most trivial of levels in my experience.

This is extremely interesting. If we ignore the character builder for a moment*, can you give more information on this?

This totally sounds like some kind of challenge, and I've been desperately wanting an Unearthed Arcana style product, so now I'm really wondering what kind of things people think don't work and why, etc.

* Because it has its own problems. Though I could have sworn there was a way to mess around with xml to put some things into it...

 

[Markn]

This totally sounds like some kind of challenge, and I've been desperately wanting an Unearthed Arcana style product, so now I'm really wondering what kind of things people think don't work and why, etc.

I think this is best left to another thread. Otherwise you are going to get one person saying peanut butter, another saying jelly, and this thread will completely derail.

 

[drothgery]

Very simply, the inability to add new stuff like new races, class, feats, powers, magic items, etc. I see you can technically add new stuff, but there is no way to put in stats for it. So you could be a "Xygorthian" race, but there would be no way to add Racial Traits, other than manually, and then I don't think you could have them impact other stats.

Am I missing something here? Or does Wizards have big plans to change this?

It would be pretty difficult to do this, except to perhaps by letting you construct a new set of racial traits from things granted to existing races. That's about the most I could see ever happening with custom powers, too.