Hero Lab Character Creator Is Coming To 5E Very Soon!

Yesterday, I reported that popular character builder Hero Lab support for D&D 5E was very likely to be coming. Then WotC announced their new SRD and OGL - at which point, Lone Wolf announced that Hero Lab support for D&D 5E is DEFINITELY coming, along with the Realm Works campaign management tools. Not only that, but they anticipate that it'll be here pretty soon - they've already done a lot of the work. It'll cost you $20 to add 5E to your existing Hero Lab license. This is all based on the SRD - they are still talking to WotC about upgrading that to an official license; using the OGL and the SRD, they won't be able to use the brand names and other trademarks, so I'm guessing it'll just be called "Hero Lab 5E" or somesuch.

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The image above is from the Pathfinder version, but it should help give you an idea of what Hero Lab looks like if you're not already familiar. It enables you to create characters, and to manage them in-play. I used it for a recent Pathfinder campaign, and it's great to be able to toggle statuses and spells and other things on and off and have everything auto-calculate.

"When will it be available? The SRD has been openly discussed by Wizards of the Coast for over a year, so we’ve already built preliminary Hero Lab data files for D&D 5th Edition. We’re currently poring through the SRD to figure out what we have to omit and what holes we need to fill. We’ll provide a more informed release estimate by the end of the week, but we expect it to be a pretty short wait."

Realm Works is another beat entirely - it's a campaign management suite. It will soon be launching its own Content Market with loads of Pathfinder material. They say "We’ll obviously be making the D&D 5th Edition SRD available as well. Beyond that, the SRD will allow us to work with publishers to offer D&D 5th Edition adventures, settings, and more."

More news as/when I hear it! In the meantime, here's Lone Wolf's website, where you can find out more about both packages.

 

[LWDLiz]

The best thing Lone Wolf could do is enable monster creation. Enter the numbers and have it spit out an approximate CR.
That and an encounter builder might be worth the price of admission.

Hero Lab will have both an encounter builder and a tactical console for GMs.

 

[pukunui]

Hero Lab will have both an encounter builder and a tactical console for GMs.

But not a monster builder? That's the only bit of software I want right now.

 

[LWDLiz]

But not a monster builder? That's the only bit of software I want right now.

An automated monster creator like the one we have for Pathfinder is something we're not quite sure on yet. We're looking into our options during our initial assessment of the SRD. That will also require some additional work on our end to implement, so even if we put that on our to-do list it won't be a part of the initial launch.

That said, monsters will definitely be possible to create through the Editor feature in Hero Lab.

 

[pepticburrito]

The rules for creating a level one character are completely missing from the SRD. A few very important rules found only in the introduction and the PHB chapter 1 are also not included. Technically, there isn't enough info in the SRD to actually make characters and run the game. I wish them luck getting around this fact.

 

[Morrus]

The rules for creating a level one character are completely missing from the SRD. A few very important rules found only in the introduction and the PHB chapter 1 are also not included. Technically, there isn't enough info in the SRD to actually make characters and run the game. I wish them luck getting around this fact.

So they write them themselves. The character creation and advancement rules weren't in the d20 SRD either, but Paizo still managed to put character creation rules in Pathfinder. Just means there's no text they can copy; they have to write their own. Which, with software, isn't that much text anyway. It's all code.

 

[pukunui]

That said, monsters will definitely be possible to create through the Editor feature in Hero Lab.

I can do that myself already. I want something that's more plug-n-play. I'd love to be able to take something like the NPC veteran statblock, select "dwarf" for race, and have it plug in all the dwarf racial traits for me so I don't have to type it out myself. And I'd love to be able to tweak equipment and have it recalculate AC, CR, etc for me.

I know it's a big ask, and I'm not actually expecting anything like that any time soon. But it sure would be a real timesaver for me, as I'm finding customizing statblocks to be by far the most time-consuming part of DMing a 5e campaign (not as time-consuming as it was with 3e, but more time-consuming than it was for 4e - which did eventually have some handy digital tools for monster building and such).

 

[LWDLiz]

I can do that myself already. I want something that's more plug-n-play. I'd love to be able to take something like the NPC veteran statblock, select "dwarf" for race, and have it plug in all the dwarf racial traits for me so I don't have to type it out myself.

That'll definitely be possible once this releases. You'll be able to swap out races, and Hero Lab will recalculate stats as needed and add appropriate traits.

(I edited my answer to make this clearer.)

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Well this is great timing for me. The 5E SRD was released yesterday, just as my group played its first ever 5E session and now Hero Lab announce that their 5E character creator will be released shortly.

I'll definitely be ponying up my $20 for it. I expect it won't take long at all before other users fill in the SRD gaps and/or Lone Wolf strike a deal with WotC.

 

[EthanSental]

Our group played PF and Hero Labs was NEEDED to keep up with the bloat of that game, 1700 feats when last we stopped playing. For 5E, I'd like the level up ability like they had in PF in the later release. Granted I've been enjoying the old pen and paper but who can forget the night mare of rubbing through your character sheet from all the HP changes

I'll probably get it but not because it's needed like it is for PF but something to check out. I was getting used to not having Ipad and laptops fighting for space on the table, much less all the cords running to a power outlet..but that's just me.

 

[DeanP]

Wonderful news!