E-Tools now?

[JoeGKushner]

Someone mentioned E-tools in another thread.

Got me thinking about it.

Is anyone using it? Is it 3.5 now? How's it working for everyone? I was severly underwhelmed with the original and don't even use it now to do general monsters and NPCs.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Yes, it has been updated by CMP to 3.5.

I use it all the time for generation of characters and monsters and such. Works great.

 

[diaglo]

it looked so promising when the 2000ed PHB was released and the free CD had Master tools.

but like you i was severly underwhelmed by the actual product.

i don't normally get rid of D&D products but i did this one. traded it in for a demo for some indie rock group in my town.

 

[fafhrd]

Etools today doesn't resemble the program that came in the back of the 3.0 PHB. My players and I use it for just about everything we can. It's been a huge time saver, especially for quickly crafting npcs. It runs in 3 and 3.5 modes(if you have the datasets it also runs in Eberron and Dragonlance mode). Templates are supported and are customizable.

The downsides are that its gotten so huge that it's gotten really sluggish on my machine. As was recently noted elsewhere, the codebase can't handle a variety of quirks that WotC designers have thrown at them. Hopefully the next incarnation, RPG Toolkit, will take care of both of these issues.

Certain features still aren't implemented, like customizable classes and PrCs. Again, hopefully RPG toolkit will take care of that.

All in all, it makes my life a hell of a lot easier, but there are some kinks. My SO still has to handwrite her sorceress/human paragon for instance.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'd say its pretty effective right now. I'd like it to be a little easier and built-in to create templates, PrC's etc., but overall its pretty handy. I use it more for standard NPC builds (without PrC's, many of which can be gotten through add-on products for fairly cheap) and for advancing monsters (I've hardly ever advanced a monster without using e-Tools, actually - click a button and presto!) than for PC's with prestige classes or non-standard weapons.

 

[Mystery Man]

Nothing beats using your brain, pencil and paper.

When I first started a campaign a couple years ago I couldn't figure out why I was the only one who knew the rules. ETOOLS!!

The next campaign I started I made everyone do their sheets by hand and every time they level. It was amazing how all of a sudden everyone was using the rules instead of staring at me waiting to tell them what to do.

On a positive note, it makes the DM's life a little easier in that it shortens prep time, with NPC creation.

 

[Dungeonmaster P]

Actually I use it for almost everything concerning monsters and NPCs. After the patches and the new datasets it´s a whole new program that don´t crash and lets me finish the stats almost on the fly.

Creating a lvl 12 fighter using pen and paper take me too long time to feel worth it. With E-Tools I can create and equip him in under two minutes. Want Your troll to have 10 extra HD and a Vampire template.? It takes one minute.

In short the program is a real timesaver and I never regret buying it. (Well in the first year I did.. but after some patching it´s great.)

 

[JoeGKushner]

RPG Toolkit? Man, another version? Is this going to be in addition to E-tools or replacing it?

For the original, I had Microsoft Access 2000 so hacked into the database for all sorts of things. Of course that lead to other problems, but at least characters who had customized weapons could actually use them.

What's e-tools running now? What the heck are these data sets I keep hearing about? Are they like add ons? How much are they? If it's not too bad, I may take another whack at it. NPCs are such a pain to write up... especially in terms of meeting PrC requirements that require you to multi-class.

 

[Fast Learner]

Also, see many threads asking this same question, with lots of useful answers, in the Software forum (where this belongs).

 

[EricNoah]

As someone who has followed it since the beginning, I can say that a) I use it all the time and couldn't DM without it, and b) it doesn't always live up to my expectations. There are still too many quirks, things that just don't work, bad/incorrect/incomplete data for me to recommend it whole-heartedly. If you don't mind putting in some effort, and learning some of the tricks that a long-time user knows (using the third-party ET Helper to do certain things, learning how to use custom character sheets and stat blocks, using the House Rules editor, etc.), and waiting a substantial amount of time for some of the official data sets to come out, it is worth it. I realize that some of this comes from the legacy of the old Fluid-made eTools, but that doesn't change the fact that it can be frustrating to use for a variety of reasons.