Hero Lab - do you use it?

Olive

Explorer
So one thing that totally burned me out on D&D was the difficulty of making interesting stat blocks at higher levels: templated creatures, monsters with class levels, etc.

But Hero Labs looks like the sort of thing I would have enjoyed using and would have taken the fiddle out of it. So have you used it? Does it work well?
 

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several people in my group use it. my dm found it easy to make npc quickly. it gets some things wrong but does a good job otherwise. I am waiting for it to come outbon the iPad which sill be after their Mac version is finished.. though probably a while after.
 

Our group of seven players all have a copy of Hero lab and it works great. They have a fairly good community that will help answer questions and you can set a lot of house rules and custom items. I would certainly recommend it.

(We actually all have netbooks and run the program live for each player at the table and do not use the printed sheets. This allows us to turn on and off spell effects, conditions, feats, and other adjustments for live numbers on skills, feats, saves, etc.)
 

This is one of the better tools for DM's and players alike out there right now when in regards to Pathfinder. As a DM I use this software exclusively. It allows me as a DM to bring in any of the creatures from either of the bestiarys and then apply any type of template, advancement, ghost, undead and so on... not to mention I am able to apply levels of any of the classes from either the core rules or even the Advanced Players Guide.

This software as a tool during the game as a DM is very nice too. It is allows me to open the Tactical Console, which then I can apply any manner of condition, adjustment and or anything else I may need. It also allows me to bring in other NPC's, creatures or characters from other portfolios I have created or from stock portfolios that the developers created. This might not seem like much but when I am running an adventure for my group, I input their characters before the gaame and then during the week I go through the adventure either as I am writing it or reading through it, and then take each NPC, creature and then give it it's own portfoilio labled by the name of the encounter and then as I am running the game. I can inport the encounter to the group (groups charcters) I already have opened on my laptop/netbook. then onc ethe encounter is done I can remove the NPC or creature from the game. Making a little note about the outcome of the encounter :)

As a player, this is amazing software too. Imagine sitting there thinking up a concept for a character yet you have no true idea how you want to build it fromn idea to reality. While looking at the book gives you some wonderful ideas it does not conceptualize quite as well as does Hero Labs. HL allows you to addd levels from any of the classes from either the Core rules system, the 6 from the APG or even the new play test characters that are out right now such as the Magus and the alternate characters such as the Ninja, Samurai, and Gunslinger, not to mention the Sable Company Marine Archetype too. You can go through and see each feat, special powers/class abilities and the like that you can add or can't even. you can add levels up to 20th level if you want and check out each indivdual thing that your character can have and or can't even the Traits, Feats, Skills, Prestige classes, spell like abilities and practically anything you can think of involving the class/character/race you are currently working on.

Also there is the strongest thing I think about with Hero Labs and that is the Editor, Thed editor allows you as a player/DM or just plain user of this software to open the editor and create custom creations, be it classes, races, creatures, items, magic items, custom gear, Abilities, feats or pretty much anything that the game has that you want in it you can do with this program. Now keep in mind there is a little bit of a learning curve with this editor but there are numerous tutorials out there for that as well as the great Hero Labs community that is more then willing to help if asked nicely. :)

As you can tell I am fairly passionate about this software and while it can get things wrong occasionally the one thing you have to keep in mind if it does get something wrong and you catch it, PLEASE report this in the bug section on their forums under Pathfiner so it can be corrected and then not get it wrong any longer :) This software is developed by humans so they occasionally are not perfect hehe. :)

Hope I answered your question/s?
 


After reading this thread, a quick google with some screenshots made me download it. This is the kind of thing I want, and I haven't even started our campaign yet (Kingmaker)..
 

I use Hero Lab, but only the demo. The demo still allows me to create npc/monsters, which I then write down on a 3x5 card, because I don't like having my laptop on the gaming table, as I'm DM. Hero Lab's pretty awesome, though, so I'm thinking about buying it.
 

The feature i like best is Herolabs integration with the D20Pro Virtual table top application. Its makes prep for my online games really simple
 

Hero Lab is very good. They continue to add features and content to the PF version of the software. I highly recommend it.
 

So one thing that totally burned me out on D&D was the difficulty of making interesting stat blocks at higher levels: templated creatures, monsters with class levels, etc.

But Hero Labs looks like the sort of thing I would have enjoyed using and would have taken the fiddle out of it. So have you used it? Does it work well?

I have it and use it. I have been using it since before Pathfinder for 3.5 AND Mutants & Masterminds. It's invaluable for prepping my COTCT game. The PC's started out a litter higher level than the 1st Mod so I had to adjust a few of the encounters some and Hero Lab made it very easy to do so. After adjusting I print the NNPC or adjusted monster as a PDF, print and tuck it into my DM notebook for the game.

I loves me some Hero Lab.
 

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