How to update Character Builder?

[tinkerer]

Forked from: Alternatives to the feat-tax solution to to-hit and F/R/W defenses

I've been trying to fine tuning my house rules on this.

1) +1 to hit and to FRW defenses at levels 5/15/25.

2) At levels 4,8,14,18,24,28, characters get +1 to three ability scores, not two ability scores.

3) Monster damage is too low, so Paragon level creatures do one extra die of damage and Epic level creatures do two extra dice of damage.

4) Drop Expertise and Epic level Defense feats (including Robust Defenses).

Recently my characters have started using the character builder and are starting to become co-dependent on it. If I decided to adopt the house-rules proposed above, how does one make the changes needed in the character builder?

 

[Garthanos]

4) excluding feats are easy,(Find the right checkbox on the Campaign tab)
3) changing monster damage is done elsewhere
2) increasing ability scores is just increasing ability scores... it isnt automated though.
1) not sure how to do number one...

 

[Garthanos]

A related question does anyoe know if there is away to allow an Extra power ... for instance if I want all races to get an extra at-will out of the box?

 

[KarinsDad]

A related question does anyoe know if there is away to allow an Extra power ... for instance if I want all races to get an extra at-will out of the box?

There is a little button on the right hand side for adding a power, but it is not race related. You'll have to do it for each PC manually.

 

[KarinsDad]

4) excluding feats are easy,(Find the right checkbox on the Campaign tab)

Campaign tab?

Wouldn't this drop the entire book (e.g. PHB II), not just specific feats?

 

[Garthanos]

I am not currently in front of it but they toggle open and I thought had check boxes on individual items..

 

[Odysseus]

Campaign tab?

Wouldn't this drop the entire book (e.g. PHB II), not just specific feats?

it lets you drill down to the individual elements. So you can drop the whole book, or just parts of it.

 

[Garthanos]

it lets you drill down to the individual elements. So you can drop the whole book, or just parts of it.

yup just what I said... ;-), it would be a pretty silly thing to not allow it. I did find the button that allows an extra to be added to the power list. Though I would like to always enable 3 at-wills by default, the tool is pretty nice as is though. I understand what the poster means by people being dependent on it.

 

[tinkerer]

For (1) I'm leaning towards doing the following...

Using the house-rule override in the feats tab to grant each player as many extra feats for weapon expertise and implement expertise as needed to cover their gear. These feats would be house-ruled in once a character attains 5th level.

Using the house-rule override in the feats tab to grant each player
(a) paragon defenses at 11th; then swap to great fort, light ref, iron will at 15th; then swap to epic FRW at 25th
(b) gr.fort, light ref, iron will at 11th; then swap to epic FRW at 25th

Neither (a) nor (b) would follow the +1 at 5/15/25 identically but it would close and be reflected in the character builder without needing hand edits post-printing

Not sure if I would house-rule in the third ability boost or not at 4/8/etc. For my two current games I allowed a 26 pt buy up front instead of 22 pts. I know that is not as much as would be gained from the third ability boost. It just seems the extra ability boosts is more prone to error and harder for me to double-check especially for my less hard core players who like the extra help.