E-Tools Preview

[Eternalknight]

Hey gang, you can find a preview of D&D E-tools at Wizards of the Coast. Looks interesting, with a lot of customization options available.

 

[Talaysen]

This line makes me very nervous:

"And, since you can change everything about a monster, that kinda means you can create new ones, doesn't it?"

No. No it doesn't. Not unless there's actually a "new monster" button or "copy monster" button. It sounds to me like they're saying "You can swap out monsters, perhaps, by changing everything about a given critter, but you'll always be limited to the number in the Monster Manual."

Please, if anyone from WotC cares to correct me (assuming I AM wrong), do feel free.

Still...the rest of the tools do sound very useful. I'll probably buy it. I would have liked a decent built-in map-maker (the one in the first AD&D Core Rules program was pretty awful; the generic one in the later version was about as bad; the stripped-down version of Campaign Cartographer included as an alternate map-maker was too difficult for me to master), but frankly, I have yet to see an RPG utility from any company that meets all my demands, and I doubt I ever will.

 

[Eternalknight]

This line makes me very nervous:

"And, since you can change everything about a monster, that kinda means you can create new ones, doesn't it?"

I was wondering if anyone else felt the same way about that line. I too agree that it means you can change monsters, probably to a great extent that they look like new monsters, but you lose the original monster.

 

[Ranger REG]

I don't mean to rain on your parade but ... shouldn't this thread be in the D&D Software forum?

 

[Eternalknight]

My bad. Oh well, it's there now

 

[thalmin]

Maybe I missed it, but does E-Tools let you randomly generate an NPC, equipment and all?

 

[Neowolf]

Pardon my ignorance, but is this the same thing as Master Tools with a new name?

 

[Eternalknight]

Dungeons & Dragons E-Tools is the name for what was originally supposed to be Master Tools. Becuase the current program is so different from what Master Tools was originally supposed to be, they changed the name to avoid confusion.

Thalmin: From what I understand, there is no random NPC generation in E-Tools.

 

[EricNoah]

This line makes me very nervous:

"And, since you can change everything about a monster, that kinda means you can create new ones, doesn't it?"

No. No it doesn't. Not unless there's actually a "new monster" button or "copy monster" button. It sounds to me like they're saying "You can swap out monsters, perhaps, by changing everything about a given critter, but you'll always be limited to the number in the Monster Manual."

Please, if anyone from WotC cares to correct me (assuming I AM wrong), do feel free.

Glad to do so. The Race Generator button (what he's calling the Race Editor) takes you to a place where you create, really and truly, a completely new monster. You start with what type it is (outsider, animal, magical beast), give it some hit dice, pick any subtypes, then you enter the rest of the Race Generator screen where you enter its average STR, CHA, etc., select any bonus feats, select the creature's skills and add any racial skill bonuses, set its speed(s), languages, CR, alignment tendencies, face/reach, treasure options, advancement ranges, natural attacks, pick special attacks, pick special qualities, enter a text string for either that aren't already on the list, put in age categories, set base height/weight and how to generate them randomly, pick racial deities, pick what weapons the race is automatically proficient with, decide if this race can be enabled as an animal companion, paladin's mount, familiar, etc.; and pick a portrait. The files created here are *.rac files (race files).

You'll note there's nowhere to purchase and equip items -- that's because once you're done generating the base race, you save your file, then there's really two ways to go from here. If you're intending that this race is going to be used by PCs and NPCs, this race will be available in the Character Generator portion. If you want this race to be encountered as a critter, you then go into the Monster Editor, select your custom race, and you do three important things to it: select feats and spend skill points (its number of feats and skill points are based on its "type" and its HD and/or intelligence, as outlined in Skip Williams' article) and give it some equipment if necessary. If you don't do this you end up with an orc with no greataxe and no armor and no ranks in any skill or any feats. When you Save here you've now got yourself a *.mon file (monster file).

Now that you have your monster set up as it would typically be encountered, you can then find it on your list of monsters in the Monster Generator. This is where you can pick your pre-fab monster and tweak it. Give it max hit points. Give it a magical axe instead of the standard one. If it can be advanced by HD, you can do it here (size changes, HD increases, more skill points and feat slots appear and you need to spend those here so the advanced critter can take advantage of them). This is where you would grab a stat block from the stat block screen, as well, or send it to the printer as a block or a character sheet.

Finally, there is sort of a "copy monster" option -- you can use the Open File command, browse to the folder where all of the core monsters are, pick one you want, and voila you're in the Race Generator, ready to tweak it. One "Save As" later, you've got yourself a modified monster. The only things you can't change like this (without creating a whole new race) would be type, base HD, and subtypes (those are locked in).

The only real weakness with this setup is that the Special Qualities and Special Attacks info is somewhat limited. You can pick "Resistance: Fire" off the list, for instance, but there's nowhere to say how much resistance (5? 15?). The place where you can type in a special quality or attack is fine but that doesn't appear on a stat block . Since the output is customizable (in theory, as it's XML) I'm hoping that a clever user will create a custom stat block that includes that SQ or SA text string and share it with the world.

 

[EricNoah]

Maybe I missed it, but does E-Tools let you randomly generate an NPC, equipment and all?

In the last two beta versions there was a greyed-out button that appeared to be ready to lead to a random character generator. We never got to test it out though so I don't know if it made it in.