Potential for new Character Builder

[zoroaster100]

I know there are a number of annoying bugs and missing features with the new online Character Builder, and agree WOTC needs to fix those issues as soon as possible. But I am also hopeful for some potential for improvements the new design represents, if WOTC maximizes that potential. In particular I was excited to see the screen for selecting a "Campaign". Right now the way it is restricted and limited in use is a bit annoying, in that as far as I can tell you pick Dark Sun, or Eberron, etc. or Home campaign but that restricts you to a set of predetermined choices. That could be fixed and actually made awesome if Home campaign actually allows a DM to select:

1) Whether themes are available in the campaign and which ones are available
2) Which classes and races are available for PCs
3) Which powers and feats are available, allowing, for example to exclude Dragon content if the DM deems if poorly designed compared to other content
4) Which common magic items are available at character creation for characters over 1st level, etc.

But for this to be useful, there has to be a way for players to select their DM's Home campaign as a campaign option when they pull up the online character builder in their own account. Is that a realistic possibility to hope from WOTC. I hope so, but I don't know enough about online applications to know whether this is feasible.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Presumably they can add any feature to it. I'd point out though that the OLD CB allowed you to establish a campaign profile and decide what stuff was allowed, add some minor custom stuff, etc. It was pretty basic but like most of the features in the old CB it was a bit better than what the new CB has.

As far as opportunities for the new CB to be awesome and provide some cool new features, yes, it can, and yes it probably will. Personally I don't think its current state is a big deal. What is more of a big deal was the discontinuation of the old CB while the new one is still far less functional. That was bound to rile people up. I'd imagine there were various reasons why that was done (piracy fears, desire not to work on something that is now at end of life, staff time limitations, etc). It is unfortunate though and WotC is going to have to bear the slings and arrows of the outraged masses for a while until they reach feature parity. OTOH people that complain will always find something to complain about, so from their perspective I imagine it is not so much of an issue.

 

[zoroaster100]

You make good points. But with the old CB, unless the player and the DM were sharing the DM's CB, or unless the DM took the time to help the player customize their CB, I don't think there was a way for the DM to implement options for the DM's campaign and have the players use their own CB to create characters within those guidelines. If the online CB gets to have this capability, it would theoretically be possible for each DM to create a campaign with its own guidelines and for the player to select the DM's campaign when creating characters, perhaps by entering a code provided by the DM, so that those options are the ones presented when creating characters.

 

[Oldtimer]

You make good points. But with the old CB, unless the player and the DM were sharing the DM's CB, or unless the DM took the time to help the player customize their CB, I don't think there was a way for the DM to implement options for the DM's campaign and have the players use their own CB to create characters within those guidelines. If the online CB gets to have this capability, it would theoretically be possible for each DM to create a campaign with its own guidelines and for the player to select the DM's campaign when creating characters, perhaps by entering a code provided by the DM, so that those options are the ones presented when creating characters.

That feature isn't present in the new CB, but could be added.
That feature wasn't present in the old CB, but could have been added.

I really don't see the difference. There is no more potential in the new CB than in the old. Only a lot of development effort wasted in re-implementing the same functionality for a new platform.

 

[Obryn]

You make good points. But with the old CB, unless the player and the DM were sharing the DM's CB, or unless the DM took the time to help the player customize their CB, I don't think there was a way for the DM to implement options for the DM's campaign and have the players use their own CB to create characters within those guidelines.

Sure there was. DMs could manage their campaign settings, save them, and share that settings file with their players through whichever means they wished.

You could restrict classes, races, sources, etc. It took some doing, but it worked.

-O

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

Before becoming enthusiastic about the damn thing's potential, I'll need to be able to successfully complete at least one PC...

Things work well enough until it's time to select powers and then nothing loads. I see a nice 'Select Powers' headline with no options under it. Super.

 

[BobTheNob]

Customization of settings is a big point for me. I want to (easily) be able to
* Exclude certain feats and powers
* Include houseruled feats and powers
* Alter campaigns. For instance, I consider Earth and Sun Warpriests thematically correct for Darksun, yet if you pick a darksun campaign they are not available as they are divine.

I totally agree with the original post.

Now, the other thing I want...more help for creating character mechanical themes. For instance.

Player : "I already have toughness and durability and I really want to make my character able to take more damage",
DM : "Well, you need feats that grant temp hp or DR. Now, load up the builder and go through the ludicrously massive list of feats one at a time till you find something you want. I will come back and check your progress in 2 hours"

It really needs smarter search facilities, so in the above case the players can just search for feats related to Temp HP and DR. The potential for what can be searched on is massive, but this comes up EVERY time we level. The players know their characters and know what they need, they just dont know the feat/power which fills that need and it would be great if the builder could help them find said feat/power without me, the DM, needing to hold their hand through the process.

 

[Thac0 the Barbarian]

Of note, there is some of that guidance in the online builder. At least with many of the essential feats, they are classified as "fast reaction" feats and the like. There is still quite a ways to go, but I found it to be a useful feature, particularly because play & character build rarely.

 

[BobTheNob]

Of note, there is some of that guidance in the online builder. At least with many of the essential feats, they are classified as "fast reaction" feats and the like. There is still quite a ways to go, but I found it to be a useful feature, particularly because play & character build rarely.

Acknowledged. I have seen that (both in book and in builder) but its only currently the essentials feats. There is still the exhaustive list outside of this.

They can also end up with dual purposing. For instance, a fighter feat which gives a bonus Temp HP in a certain circumstance...is that classified as durability or as a fighter feat?

Maybe all they need is that existing feats are organized essentials style and that is one of the sorting options given.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Acknowledged. I have seen that (both in book and in builder) but its only currently the essentials feats. There is still the exhaustive list outside of this.

They can also end up with dual purposing. For instance, a fighter feat which gives a bonus Temp HP in a certain circumstance...is that classified as durability or as a fighter feat?

Maybe all they need is that existing feats are organized essentials style and that is one of the sorting options given.

Yup, this is something that really needs to be figured out. Creating a sensible taxonomy of feats is the first step. Now organizing them all according to that taxonomy is the next step. I'm thinking that WotC is aware of this one. They at least have improved that for Essentials and it seems reasonably easy for them to go through the rest of the feats and do the same. More facets would be good as well, so you basically have multiple 'tags' for every feat, each attached to a facet that can be used to organize them in different views. Pretty standard stuff these days in information systems design. I guess we'll see soon enough how well WotC groks that art.