Software for applying class templates to Monsters & generating a stat block

[kevtar]

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone knows of, or knows how to develop, a program that will take an existing monster, slap a class template on it, and output that things as a statblock.

I know. I know - my brain.... but apart from that, has anyone heard of such a thing?

I like having the occasional bad guy to break out an encounter power that the PCs recognize and think - "Oh crap! He's a warlord." I've done this before, and with one monster it works out alright, but with multiple monsters I think it might make running the encounter more complex than necessary. If I could get a stat block with the class template features already built in, then that would simplify things a lot.

Unfortunately, I'm not very adept at writing programs and have a very limited knowledge of any kind of programming language. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mort_Q]

Do you have a D&DI subscription? Have you tried the D&DI Monster Builder?

I'm just downloading it now, so I can't say for sure it'll do what you want, but you got me curious. I'll let you know what I find out.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

The DDI Monster Manual doesn't have a 'template' function, but it would be very easy to look at the book and add those elements to a monster, save it and print it.

I think a template option would be one of the first things to add to the program.. running the War of the Burning Sky would have been much easier if I could have just dropped a 'Dark Pyre' template on the half dozen creatures instead of having to mod each one individually.. but on the flip side, that still only took me about half an hour

I highly recommend the monster builder, and recommend validating published module monsters against it {Hamlet of Homlett Crayfish.. I am looking at you!}

 

[Mort_Q]

Just played with the Monster Builder for a bit. It might take an afternoon to get used to, and there are already a few "Warlord" type creatures there. Swapping around some powers, or adding your own iconic ones seems simple enough.

The question is, do you think D&DI is worth the investment?

 

[Mentat55]

I personally have found that the Character Builder, Monster Builder, and Compendium alone make my DDI subscription worth it. I only occasionally read the Dragon and Dungeon articles, since there are so many these days and most don't directly apply to the game I am running. But since all the crunch that appears in those articles makes its way to the tools eventually, I still see a lot of it.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

The question is, do you think D&DI is worth the investment?

Yes. Not only do I have a handy way to validate my players characters, their powers get the errata and rules updates. And the monster builder makes conversions and encounter prep easy... instead of having to find the right monster of about the right CR, simply take the right monster and make it the right CR. That way my 1st level heroes can fight a Treant or a Golem instead of just kobolds and orcs.
... and my 15th level heroes can still fight orcs!

Oh.. and sometimes I read the dragon/dungeon articles

 

[renau1g]

Be careful about de-leveling too much as auras, regen, and a bunch of other stuff doesn't get corrected as they're de-leveled.