Status of Monster Builder?

[the Jester]

I have a couple of questions re: the current state of the Monster Builder tool.

1. Does it still have a relatively low limit on the number of monsters any given account can save? What is the limit?

2. Can it export to rtf or other "insertable into a Word or OpenOffice document" format? An editable format (say you want to make a stat block for Goblin Emissary, but in the adventure you want to change the name to "Goblemz, goblin emissary)?

Thanks!

 

[Burgonet]

I am also interested to know what the situation is currently with the Monster Builder.
I'm contemplating a subs for DDI for a few months primarily for the Monster Builder.

So how does one export the stats you create using it and what sorts of limits are there in how many monsters you can create at one time using the same account?

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

I have a couple of questions re: the current state of the Monster Builder tool.

1. Does it still have a relatively low limit on the number of monsters any given account can save? What is the limit?

2. Can it export to rtf or other "insertable into a Word or OpenOffice document" format? An editable format (say you want to make a stat block for Goblin Emissary, but in the adventure you want to change the name to "Goblemz, goblin emissary)?

Thanks!

1. I'm not aware of a limit on number of custom monsters. I have a few dozen on my account and have had no problems.

2. Export sucks! No good editable format. However, the tool itself provides pretty good support for editing a monster (including name, stats, flavor text, etc.). I save my monster, use the "preview" mode to get a good clean view of the monster and cut/paste using my favorite picture editor to get into a document of my own to print or use as my Monster Manual at the table.

I am also interested to know what the situation is currently with the Monster Builder.
I'm contemplating a subs for DDI for a few months primarily for the Monster Builder.

So how does one export the stats you create using it and what sorts of limits are there in how many monsters you can create at one time using the same account?

Export still sucks. It's an XML file, which you can definitely edit by hand, but I'm not sure how useful that is without using their tool or at least their CSS to view the files.

I just checked. I have 37 custom monsters in the tool and have never heard it cry about a limit on custom. I just created and save a 38th and worked fine.

 

[Obryn]

FWIW, Masterplan can accept imports from both the new and old builders.

The online one is actually easier to export from; you can do it straight from Preview without making a copy of the monster first. Also, it's much more updated, of course.

-O

 

[MerricB]

I "print" monsters to PDF and then cut & paste from the PDF. Works fairly well.

Cheers!

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yeah, I often do that too. OTOH I find doing a print screen and capturing just the stat block out of the builder or compendium works well too, at least for the smaller stat blocks.

I think the main problem with stuff like RTF is just that getting a block to format is beyond what RTF can handle. They could have HTML export, but I think they figured the XML is no harder to style and is much easier for other programs to work with.