E-Tools Preview

[Plane Sailing]

The concrete information that is starting to appear looks very interesting.

One question for Eric if I may - Is there any "in program" way of changing character class details? This can be important for tweaked character class concepts (ala PHB and DMG) or for campaign specific examples like I have in my campaign.

(from your earlier comments I'm guessing that this might not be possible)

Cheers

 

[Davin]

Is there any "in program" way of changing character class details?

To date, that's not been advertised as possible. Therefore, that's the other major piece to the utility I'm writing -- the user-friendly ability to add and edit class definition information (within limits of what's actually being stored in the database).

 

[Plane Sailing]

I can't just vampirify a character?
That sucks.

Ho Ho Ho!

 

[uv23]

My main reason for buying this app would be to create new monsters with acurate CRs. Eric, in your opinion, is this a strength or weakness of e-Tools? The bit about not being able to be specific about special abilities and special qualities has me concerned.

 

[EricNoah]

My main reason for buying this app would be to create new monsters with acurate CRs. Eric, in your opinion, is this a strength or weakness of e-Tools? The bit about not being able to be specific about special abilities and special qualities has me concerned.

ETools does not *calculate* CRs. That's because there is no formula for doing so in D&D. You enter the CR for the creature as you would any other stat.

I share your concern about the imprecise nature of the SA and SQ selection areas. There is a place to type free text (monster description, etc.) but where that outputs is unknown to me (it doesn't appear on a stat block).

 

[uv23]

ETools does not *calculate* CRs. That's because there is no formula for doing so in D&D. You enter the CR for the creature as you would any other stat.

Thats the most dissapointing thing I've heard in a while, especially considering 3e is so focused on CR as the foundation of encounter balancing. Oh well, I won't be buying this one. Thanks for the info.

 

[EricNoah]

The closest thing that exists to a formula is in Skip Williams' "How to Create a Monster" article. You can download it here:

http://www.enworld.org/cc/downloads/main.html

Even then though that's just a guesstimate. You have to playtest the monster to find an appropriate CR.

 

[Cougar]

Eric, thank you very much for posting info and opinions about this tumultuous program. I am a regular at the Wizards boards and there is little there but speculation, as I am sure you know.

One question from me: Is there a way to age your character after they are created, like from adulthood to middle aged? I don't think there is a program that does this yet.

 

[uv23]

Thanks for the link Eric. I guess I had some misconceptions about what this product was actually going to offer. Much appreciated.

 

[EricNoah]

Eric, thank you very much for posting info and opinions about this tumultuous program. I am a regular at the Wizards boards and there is little there but speculation, as I am sure you know.

One question from me: Is there a way to age your character after they are created, like from adulthood to middle aged? I don't think there is a program that does this yet.

You're welcome. It has been somewhat painful to visit the official boards at times especially when we were deep into beta testing and I knew a bit of info but couldn't really say anything. Now that it appears that our testing duties are over I feel a little less worried about saying what I can about the program.

Please understand, however, that I am not trying to convince anyone to buy this program. It has some flaws, it has some gaps, but for *me*, E-Tools plus Bob Fitch's and Steve Mulhern's spell sheets make a complete set of tools to serve *my* needs. But then people seem to be ga-ga over prestige classes, and I almost never use them, so I'm not running into that limitation constantly as other users might. And if I were doing a psionics-heavy campaign it would be worthless to me in that regard.

As to aging, I fired up the beta, advanced my dwarf PC to 125 years old and his STR, CON and DEX dropped by 1 while his mental attributes went up by one. So I think the answer is "yes" to your question.