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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2009340" data-attributes="member: 18387">I've been using e-Tools for about a week now.  I've used it to create characters from scratch, convert existing characters, add new races, create magic items from scratch, randomly generate treasures for my encounters, add spells (from the WOTC Web Spellbook) and create a monster from scratch.  I used e-Tools at the table during a recent DM session in my ongoing Forgotten Realms campaign.  The program has some strengths and some weaknesses, and may not be for everyone.  On the whole, I find it a positive addition to my DnD tool set.   The application is a bit quirky.  One aspect of good GUI design is that the GUI helps the user accomplish basic or expected tasks, or conversely walks people through complex concepts.  Fluid missed the boat on both accounts, in that the simple GUI only provides access to the applications various functions, but does nothing to help a new user.  Tooltips are just about de rigeur in modern interface design, and their lack in e-Tools is an amazing oversight.  The help file, while an excellent resource on the core books, does not provide much support in learning how to use the program.  For example, the overview of the Table Editor claims that it can be used to generate weather.  How?  It would have been really helpful if Fluid had included a walkthrough that shows one how to create a weather generation table.  Much has already been said on the messageboards about the inability to create new prestige classes, so I won't add to that discussion.  I am more concerned about the lack of monster templates.  Werewolves are a staple monster, but they cannot be created in e-Tools (at least not in the production version.)  The templates which were included in the Monster Manual should have been included in the program, perhaps as untemplated races, until Fluid figures out how to add templates to its monster/character creation engine.A minor nit is the colors.  I understand it is possible to change the color scheme.  I've not done this yet, but given the number of programs out that that use skins, it seems like 'skinning' should have been included, if for no other reason than to remove the burden of picking the colors from the application designers and programmers.The application is fairly buggy, and it has crashed on me several times.  It is reasonably well-behaved in that a crash has yet to adversely impact my system.  I simply have to restart e-Tools to get back to work.  On the other hand, what the program does, it does very well.  It is reasonable fast, especially compared to Java-based applications like PCGen.  Since you can check the stats at any time during character creation, it is fairly transparent what your different decisions are having on the character's stats.  I really like the fact that one can select from a number of included graphics to include on the portrait sheet.  While to my personal taste the included PC portraits are not attractive, the fact that one can include whatever one like's as a PC portrait is a strength.   My bottom line is that I like e-Tools, and I will continue to use it.  I hope Fluid and WOTC give e-Tools all the support it needs.  Is it the last word in 3rd Edition DnD software support?  No.  Will it ever be?  Perhaps not, but it is a capable character/NPC/encounter/treasure generator, and with DND community support from such capable individuals like Eric Noah, it is getting better every day.</blockquote>

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