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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dok" data-source="post: 2009446" data-attributes="member: 12780">After reading initial reviews, I was ready to hate this product. I recieved a copy of it for free to look it over, and I was ready to feel like I'd paid too much. Here lies the problem for the good folks over at Fluid Entertainment. I cannot in any fairness judge this program without context. And the current context is what's available already, for free. And that's what really hurts this product.The creators have been quoted as saying "you'll love with it does, and hate what it doesn't do", and they're totally right. Well, almost right. You'll also hate the numerous bugs and incomplete sections as well. I'm lienient on those who try to write software for D&D, simply because of the complexity of it all. Monsters using natural attacks never get iterative attacks due to a high BAB, but they do get multiple attacks when using a weapon. Advancing a monster by 50% of it's Hit Dice increases it's CR by +1. Mythral armor decreases armor check penalties by 2; the armor check can only be 0 or lower. Given all that and more, I'm inclined to be somewhat tolerant of bugs, especially if there are patches in place. Are there items in Sword & Fist that you simply can't input due to the interface? Yes. Do some magic items come up in randomly rolled treasure that have a listed gp value of 0? Yes. Will these kinds of mistakes happen with V1.0 software? Sadly, yes.What I was less thrilled about were the 'missing' portions of the software. No 'one-click-add-tempate' feature. No 'create class/create prestige class/modify class' feature. The Help Manual... oh the Help Manual. "Before using the Create Race system, familiarize yourself with the Create Character system, as they are very similar." If they're really similar, why not cut, paste, & replace that section of the manual, then edit for clarity?(Somehow, I thought technical writers were not that hard to hire.)  In the "questions" section, the hypothetical question is asked "Do I need to input any monsters?" and the answer is "No, all the monsters from the Monster Manual are present" when, in fact, they are not. Now, because it uses Access, someone familiar with the program and/or the XML language could edit out these bugs by hand, and on the web are many, many downloadable, user created enhancments to the program. But the trouble is, I'd be extremely mad if I had to pay $30-$50 for a program that I had to debug myself and search the web for suppliments to make it usable.  And that's what really kills e-tools. It's a modest program, with unfortunate, severe limitations and missing elements, the 'to-be-expected' bugs of a 1st version, being offered in a market with multiple bug-free downloadables. It's a very tough sell to argue that e-tools is a good product at it's price when you can get the same functions for free, without the bugs, with more features, and only have to give up the single GUI interface of having it all bundled into one program.</blockquote>

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