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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Luke" data-source="post: 456198" data-attributes="member: 602">Now there's one of the big questions.I'll speak as somebody whose done it (in RolePlayingMaster).For me, adding a template to a Race is pretty much a case of applying more than one race definition to a creature. It's not *that* hard - at least with the environment I built up as an RPG engine.I suspect that one of the big issues is that Fluid went for a total data configuration solution, as opposed to a combination of database configuration with scripting.I suspect that this is an issue because up until you start looking at prestige classes and templates, the rules seem to be reasonably coherent, and capable of being expressed as data (as opposed to script code).Prestige classes are, by the way, the other big hole.  Certainly there are some clear reasons why Fluid may have opted for a database configuration:- Its easier for them. Throwing scripting in complicates things siginificantly more than building user interfaces around a database.- Its easier for users. Joe Average user is more likely to avoid trouble adding database fields through a user interface, than if he tries his hand at a scripting language. That said, I'll wager that Joe Average Pen-and-paper user would be statistically more adept then Joe Average NeverWinterNights players (which also offers scripting).  Certainly, without scripting, I don't think that E-Tools was ever going to live up to (perhaps unfair) expectations:- E-Tools barely copes with straight, core D&D. If you think it'll handle generic D20 well, you'll be sticking to a very limited subset of whats available.- The more loose the rules become (prestige classes and templates as an example), the more complex the database structures and relationships you need to evolve to cater for them. You reach a point of diminishing returns, where it becomes more complex than a simple script. I'll bet the qualifying criteria for the LoreMaster prestige class is hard-coded into E-Tools. So, if LoreMaster wasn't part of core D&D, and you tried to enter it as a D20 prestige class, you're stuck.Will templates be in the patch?Possibly. Fluid have the ability to hard-code in any of the hard bits, and they've also had time to extend their database configuration structure to cope with a specific set of templates (ie. the core ones).If templates are in the patch, it'll be a test, to a degree, of how committed the product owner is to the future of E-Tools. A hard-coded solution is easier, but a dead-end to the product's future (since it only handles core D&D). Taking the high road of extending the database structures (which probably creates backwards compatibility work for current E-Tools owners) shows a commitment to opening up capabilities for D20.To be fair about being dedicated to the product's future, there probably hasn't been enough opportunity to do the fully half correct solution.What the product really needs is to embrace scripting, and I'll be mega-surprised if they've done that.Third-party developers (like me) are lucky, in a way, that licensing restrictions virtually force you to implement scripting anyway, for any really decent product.[Please, don't throw any counter examples at me publicly. Lack of scripting in anything decent implies very serious questions of being genuinely license-compliant. Just because Wizards don't spot it doesn't mean its genuinely, technically, compliant].</blockquote>

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