Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder outselling D&D

[ShinHakkaider]

So in a year to 13 months hero lab is the better deal!!!

Actually HERO LAB is a great deal now because I play Pathfinder and M&M and not 4E. So the DDI would be useless to me anyway. Also you dont NEED to buy everything for Pathfinder. and If you were so inclined you could enter in the data for the things that you wanted to use in various books yourself.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

You'd have to factor in the value of the dungeon and dragon and other bundled tools, and Dannager was being generous to Hero Lab by using the monthly fee for DDi not the 1 year subscription price. On the flip side you also have to factor in the owning vs renting thing and the risk of the subscription service disappearing at some point, or the risk of hero lab becoming obsolete (if say ipads start to cost 50 bucks or those lcd gaming tables become common) etc... etc..

The guys at HERO LAB have mentioned that after they are finished with the OS X version they're probably going to get to work on the ipad version of HERO LAB. And the OWN not RENT thing is a huge factor for me so...

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Or just get PCGen (for free)


BTW, stop by our booth at GenCon #1734

Now PCGen on the other hand....

The Auld Grump

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Not in the longterm, and you actually own the program and your characters instead of renting both.

In the long term Pathfinder comes out with expansions frequently enough, and Lone Wolf will charge you enough for the add on to use with Herolab, that I would still take DDi.

Not a fan of Lone Wolf, no sir. Got annoyed with them for the licensing on Army Builder 3, got more annoyed when they got pissy about folks using the term 'army builder' in a generic sense on a web forum (when they have built their own programs around using other people's intellectual properties) that they can go pound sand as far as I am concerned.

I had just forgotten that Herolabs is one of their programs, otherwise I would not have been interested to begin with.

But, as mentioned above, there is always PCGen. It may not be quite as up to date, but it's free and it's pretty danged decent.

The Auld Grump

 

[IronWolf]

And, even if it were on sale, getting all of the available Pathfinder content runs you a cool $105 (in reality, $120 since it's not actually on sale), with another $10 tacked on if you want to get ahold of the data for Ultimate Combat when it comes out.

You don't *need* all the option packs though. And at the very least you can spread the cost out over a much greater time than DDI. I use Hero Lab and find it quite useful and well worth the price. I have the core package and the APG and have had it for a little over a year. Right now, even if I decide I want Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Combat I have still spent less money than I would have on DDI.

Even with all the packages over the course of time it still ends up being less expensive.

Access to the full-featured DDI character builder? $10 per month. Oh, and that gets you everything else that DDI comes with, too.

True. DDI does come with more than just a character builder. But I thought we were just talking about the existence of a character builder for Pathfinder.

Of course if cost is really an issue then I would make better use of PC Gen and any number of other freely available tools to support my Pathfinder game. I'm not certain what DDI has that I cannot obtain for Pathfinder via a choice of tools.

 

[IronWolf]

... or the risk of hero lab becoming obsolete (if say ipads start to cost 50 bucks or those lcd gaming tables become common) etc... etc..

Yeah, the Lone Wolf guys seem quite likely to look at a tablet based version once they wrap up the Mac OS X version which they have been demoing recently.

 

[IronWolf]

In the long term Pathfinder comes out with expansions frequently enough, and Lone Wolf will charge you enough for the add on to use with Herolab, that I would still take DDi.

You can add your own data sets with Hero Lab if one is so inclined and really want to avoid the cost of a data pack. It also means you can customize things with house rules if one is motivated enough.

But, as mentioned above, there is always PCGen. It may not be quite as up to date, but it's free and it's pretty danged decent.

Yep - PC Gen is a nice option for Pathfinder as well.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

You can add your own data sets with Hero Lab if one is so inclined and really want to avoid the cost of a data pack. It also means you can customize things with house rules if one is motivated enough.

But would also involve doing business with folks that I would not want to have anything to do with - I consider them hypocrites who are both two faced and arrogant. No thank you, I'd rather see them rot.

The Auld Grump

 

[Dannager]

So in a year to 13 months hero lab is the better deal!!!

That depends. How many more Pathfinder supplements do you think will come out over the next 13 months, and how much do you think those will cost to add? We're at $120 already, and Pathfinder's already been out for two years. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect about another $50-60 worth of data sets in thirteen months' time.

They'll probably catch up to each other at a little past the two-year mark. Not counting the rest of DDI, of course.

 

[Dannager]

You don't *need* all the option packs though. And at the very least you can spread the cost out over a much greater time than DDI.

Paying piecemeal for each individual data set is spreading the cost out over a greater time than $10 per month is? The entire point of a subscription is that you're spreading the cost out.

I use Hero Lab and find it quite useful and well worth the price. I have the core package and the APG and have had it for a little over a year. Right now, even if I decide I want Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Combat I have still spent less money than I would have on DDI.

Even with all the packages over the course of time it still ends up being less expensive.

Sure. Eventually.

True. DDI does come with more than just a character builder. But I thought we were just talking about the existence of a character builder for Pathfinder.

We were. I just mentioned the rest for kicks. You can ignore them if you feel it helps your argument.

Of course if cost is really an issue then I would make better use of PC Gen and any number of other freely available tools to support my Pathfinder game. I'm not certain what DDI has that I cannot obtain for Pathfinder via a choice of tools.

Convenience.