Short Changing Humans on Feats? (E-Tools)

[JDragon]

Just started messing around with E-Tools and noticed something, is this just me or is it a known problem.

THe human fighter below got short changed one feat. He should have 3 as a human 1st level Fighter, right? (1st- normal, 1st bonus fighter, bonus human) He appears to only have 2. (see below)

JDragon

Torg (1): Male Human Ftr1; Medium Humanoid ; HD 1d10+2 (Fighter); hp 12; Init +1; Spd 20; AC 18; Atk +3 base melee, +2 base ranged; +5 (1d10+2, Sword, bastard, Masterwork); +2 (1d8, Longbow, composite); AL CE; SV Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +1; STR 15, DEX 13, CON 14, INT 10, WIS 12, CHA 8.
Possessions:
Weapons: Sword, bastard, Masterwork; Longbow, composite.
Armor: Splint mail.
Shields: Shield, large, steel.
Goods: Arrows (20).
Magic: Potion: Cure Moderate Wounds (3).
Skills:
Climb-3, Jump-3.
Feats:
Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Sword, bastard, Weapon Focus: Sword, bastard.

 

[Feaelin]

How did you come up with the fighter? Were you using the character editor or was it the character generator?

Those stats look like the results of the character generator, which is bassed on the NPC tables in the DMG, since those tables are non-race-specific, the extra feat for being human isn't included on those tables.

I'm betting that this is working as they intended. You might think "why didn't they put a extra something in the NPC generator to select a feat for humans"...I suspect the answers are: 1) Because they were trying to follow the book as closely as possible, 2) It wouldn't actually be that straightforward, since the program would have to make somewhat of an intelligent guess as to what feat to choose for a given class & race combination. (the default human may not be the only one to get free feats at first).

It's easily solved by the user, though. Generate a human NPC, when it's generated, hop to the character editor using the handy "jump to...", and select the addtional feats, and probably some other things you'd want to customize anyway...like replacing the generic "Sword, bastard" feats with something more interesting.

Feaelin

 

[JDragon]

Thanks

Feaelin,

Thanks for the info. You explination makes sense, kinda annoying but like you said, by the book.

JDragon

 

[Thorkull]

Those stats look like the results of the character generator, which is bassed on the NPC tables in the DMG, since those tables are non-race-specific, the extra feat for being human isn't included on those tables.

Actually, IIRC, the DMG states that humans should get an extra feat, and to just select the next one the character would otherwise get. It also has race-based adjustments for a number of different races at the end of that section.

Not flaming, just clarifying that the DMG does include rules on the subject, so if it's just following the tables in the book, then it has been implemented incompletely.

 

[Feaelin]

Ah, I missed that section.

I never use those tables anyway.

 

[Sm!rk]

Not flaming, just clarifying that the DMG does include rules on the subject, so if it's just following the tables in the book, then it has been implemented incompletely.

Talk about splitting hairs, doesn't it bother you more that the character always has the same feats and is always named *Torg*!?

 

[Thorkull]

Talk about splitting hairs, doesn't it bother you more that the character always has the same feats and is always named *Torg*!?

Random name generation is neat, but I have yet to run into a game that does it well -- it really needs to be culture specific... anyway, not really the topic.

If you look at the DMG, the characters generated by the random NPC system do tend to look a lot alike -- in fact, they're usually duplicates. I believe that's because the intent is to provide DMs with a baseline, not a fully fleshed-out NPC. Alternately, when the DM needs "generic fighter #3" he can pull one out fairly quickly with these tables.

Anything more requires quite a bit more effort, and wouldn't be handled quickly or easily in a paper product. A software product is a different story, but since Fluid only has the license for translating the core books into a character builder at this point, and they were over budget and behind schedule thanks to snafus that have been elaborately discussed elsewhere, I really can't fault them for not including a complete random NPC generator. Of course, I haven't actually seen the E-Tools software yet (still trying to decide whether it's worth the $30), so they may have a fully random yet rules-compliant character generator in the package.