I've been tinkering with E-Tools now for 2 days, entering monster stats from the Monsters of Faerun supplement. I have to say that E-Tools does a great job at handling everything, so I wanted to pass off some tips and gotchas. The only discrepancies between E-Tools and the MoF have been decided that E-Tools is correct and either the creator in MoF fudged the numbers or made a calculation error. ('Oversights' as the help in E-Tools calls them.)
Creating a Race is the crux of the whole program. After you create the Race, you can create the Monster and/or Character.
In the Type screen, you must get this right the first time! I don't know why, but once you select your Type you cannot go back and tweak it! You must start all over. I learned the hard way when I forgot to give a completed Abishai the (Lawful, Evil) subtypes... Had to start over because I found this error on the 5th of 5 types of Abishais... Grrr...
Skills: Only add the skills that are listed in the Skills section. Do not assign points, unless in the description it says "This creature gets +4 Racial Bonus to Blah checks".
Feats: Same thing. You usually do NOT add feats here, unless stated in the description. Unfortunately it is sometimes trial and error because the description actually never tells you... When you create a monster based off of this race, add the Feats as necessary. If you run out of choices, one or more of those is a Racial Feat.. As a hint, it is usually Multiattack and/or Flyby Attack.
Attacks, Special Attacks, Special Qualities: If you really want the stat block & sheet to look correct, you will have to go into Access and add records to the 'Race Attack, Race Special Attacks, and Race Special Qualities' tables. However, for Spec Attacks & Qualities, E-Tools does provide an 'Other' category for those of you who don't or can't fiddle with it. The downside is you will have to enter these each time you make a variant race.
One thing that annoyed me was the 'Resistance: Spell' Quality. Great, they have SR... But how much!? That means I have to go back to my MM to find out; and the less of that, the better. So, I added Resistance: Spell 10, 11, 12, etc.. to the database. Did the same for Damage Reduction.
When you think you've got the Race down, go and save it... Then create a Monster based off of it. Assign the Skills and Feats. Check the Saves; do they match? If they don't it is usually because you need to fiddle with the 'Good Saves' in the Race Editor. If you make a Humanoid, Animal, or Elemental, beware that they can have one of several 'Good Saves' settings (As per MM13). You may need to tweak these to get the Saves to look correct.
When creating a Monster based off of a Race, beware of changing the Race afterwards as it may corrupt your Monster. I've found that some changes affect it, and some don't, but I haven't sat down to try and figure out what the causes are. With that in mind, try and make sure your Race is up to snuff before building a legion out of them.
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Templates: A template is where two 'Races' are combined to create a new race. Example would be a 'Elf' race is combined with the 'Vampire' race. To create this, you need to make a new Race (e.g. Vampire, Elf) and add into it all the racial items that both receive. Then, you can go off and create your character based upon it,
Thats it for now... =)
Creating a Race is the crux of the whole program. After you create the Race, you can create the Monster and/or Character.
In the Type screen, you must get this right the first time! I don't know why, but once you select your Type you cannot go back and tweak it! You must start all over. I learned the hard way when I forgot to give a completed Abishai the (Lawful, Evil) subtypes... Had to start over because I found this error on the 5th of 5 types of Abishais... Grrr...
Skills: Only add the skills that are listed in the Skills section. Do not assign points, unless in the description it says "This creature gets +4 Racial Bonus to Blah checks".
Feats: Same thing. You usually do NOT add feats here, unless stated in the description. Unfortunately it is sometimes trial and error because the description actually never tells you... When you create a monster based off of this race, add the Feats as necessary. If you run out of choices, one or more of those is a Racial Feat.. As a hint, it is usually Multiattack and/or Flyby Attack.
Attacks, Special Attacks, Special Qualities: If you really want the stat block & sheet to look correct, you will have to go into Access and add records to the 'Race Attack, Race Special Attacks, and Race Special Qualities' tables. However, for Spec Attacks & Qualities, E-Tools does provide an 'Other' category for those of you who don't or can't fiddle with it. The downside is you will have to enter these each time you make a variant race.
One thing that annoyed me was the 'Resistance: Spell' Quality. Great, they have SR... But how much!? That means I have to go back to my MM to find out; and the less of that, the better. So, I added Resistance: Spell 10, 11, 12, etc.. to the database. Did the same for Damage Reduction.
When you think you've got the Race down, go and save it... Then create a Monster based off of it. Assign the Skills and Feats. Check the Saves; do they match? If they don't it is usually because you need to fiddle with the 'Good Saves' in the Race Editor. If you make a Humanoid, Animal, or Elemental, beware that they can have one of several 'Good Saves' settings (As per MM13). You may need to tweak these to get the Saves to look correct.
When creating a Monster based off of a Race, beware of changing the Race afterwards as it may corrupt your Monster. I've found that some changes affect it, and some don't, but I haven't sat down to try and figure out what the causes are. With that in mind, try and make sure your Race is up to snuff before building a legion out of them.
--
Templates: A template is where two 'Races' are combined to create a new race. Example would be a 'Elf' race is combined with the 'Vampire' race. To create this, you need to make a new Race (e.g. Vampire, Elf) and add into it all the racial items that both receive. Then, you can go off and create your character based upon it,
Thats it for now... =)
