D&D 3E/3.5 The way forward 3.5 or 3.75 Pathfinder

[dingle]

Well, I wouldn't be interested in paying for npc / monster creation tools, unless they offered A LOT more than what is currently available in your free tools.

In fact, while I tried using them to create the statblocks for my next 3E adventure, I quickly switched back to creating them manually because there's simply too many things that (currently) aren't supported (or at least I couldn't figure out how to do it).
Some crucial things:
- all relevant details to run the monster/npc should be in the stat block
- support for buffed/unbuffed versions

But the biggest problem is frankly that I want to use and have access to all of the non-SRD material I own.

As an outlook: I expect my 3E campaign to come to an end within the year. In September my group will give 4E a try. I assume (and hope) at least some of them will be interested in continuing to play 4E which would end my interest in 3E tools.

While I'm considering to pick up the Pathfinder rpg, I don't expect to actually use it. It's just to sate my curiosity.

I am planning on allowing users to populate their personal monster database which will be then available in their monster selections. You can then create and level up your own designs. (or create similar ones to those in the other books).
Buffed/Unbuffed verions are a good idea (I could add a spells cast/Potions taken flag), I'll look into this.

 

[azhrei_fje]

Well, for me it is Pathfinder only, however YMMV.

The one tool that I would pay a lot for is a combat tracker. Lets me enter PCs, NPCs, monsters, tracks spell durations, allows me to roll init for NPCs & monsters and enter init for PCs, conditions on everyone, etc, etc. etc.

You should check out MapTool since it has all of that (and much more) when you use the user-contributed "D&D/PF Campaign Framework" that you can download from the forums. And it's all free. And networked.

 

[Bungus]

Not sure what I will be doing yet. Most likely headed to Pathfinder. Could be sticking with 3.5, though. Who knows?

 

[Aus_Snow]

Honestly, if I were you, I'd go Pathfinder. But I'm not you, so what do I know.

But I will say this: 'In print!' is a siren call with a pretty damn impressive sway over the TTRPG crowd, speaking generally of course. Sometimes, to the extent that I find it mildly depressing, or disheartening at least. But never mind that.

Back to Pathfinder. . . I think it will be very successful, and will essentially become the new de facto 3e. But hey, I could be wrong!

 

[Muaadeeb]

3.5 is continued with Pathfinder - so we will be using that for a continuation of material & rules.

 

[kitsune9]

My thanks to all of you who have visited my site to create NPC/Monsters http://www.dinglesgames.com/ I have now just about created the NPC Generator as how I envisaged it. I just need to add in the automatic monster adjustments per hit dice (Str, Dex, Nat armour, etc) and add in the ability to save your creations to edit at a later stage.

soon I will at a bit of a crossroads
1. I can either concentrate on more 3.5 tools. E.g. random encounter generators; add in automatically generated treasure and feats to the NPC generator; Create Dungeon generators, Town generators, etc...

2. OR Concentrate on Pathfinder (D&D 3.75) tools. Create a new Monster/NPC Generator for Pathfinder and be ahead of the game.

I very much would like to know your opinions.

I am hoping to make a living on creating tools for D&D . I will be working on this Full-time for the rest of this year (and then until my savings run out)
I will soon be putting a cap on the NPC Generator and any other new generators, the Monster Generator will remain free (but will not be upgraded)
I will be charging a small fee for the full version (A one time life time, a yearly, or a half yearly fee).
It is my hope that I can make a living out of something I enjoy doing, and is useful to the growing D&D community.

If I had to choose, go for Pathfinder!

 

[dingle]

Well, I wouldn't be interested in paying for npc / monster creation tools, unless they offered A LOT more than what is currently available in your free tools.

In fact, while I tried using them to create the statblocks for my next 3E adventure, I quickly switched back to creating them manually because there's simply too many things that (currently) aren't supported (or at least I couldn't figure out how to do it).
Some crucial things:
- all relevant details to run the monster/npc should be in the stat block
- support for buffed/unbuffed versions

But the biggest problem is frankly that I want to use and have access to all of the non-SRD material I own.

As an outlook: I expect my 3E campaign to come to an end within the year. In September my group will give 4E a try. I assume (and hope) at least some of them will be interested in continuing to play 4E which would end my interest in 3E tools.

While I'm considering to pick up the Pathfinder rpg, I don't expect to actually use it. It's just to sate my curiosity.

I've added a Monster creator tool to the website so you can add in none SRD monsters.
http://www.dinglesgames.com/
I'd be interested to know what your group thought of 4.0. We've just run a 4.0 campaign that ended in a total party kill at level 5. The thing is I was not too bothered about it, I never got attached to the character.
It fealt to much like a table top war game (that I lost) than a rollplaying game.
So back to 3.5 (or 3.75) for me.

 

[Jhaelen]

I've added a Monster creator tool to the website so you can add in none SRD monsters.
http://www.dinglesgames.com/
I'd be interested to know what your group thought of 4.0. We've just run a 4.0 campaign that ended in a total party kill at level 5. The thing is I was not too bothered about it, I never got attached to the character.
It fealt to much like a table top war game (that I lost) than a rollplaying game.
So back to 3.5 (or 3.75) for me.

Thanks for the update! I'll have another look at it.

Our 4E test week was quite successful, maybe even too successful:

All except one player liked it a lot and started discussing the merits of converting our 3E campaign to 4E - not something I anticipated or wanted. The one player who didn't enjoy it wasn't satisfied with his character (a cleric) but would be willing to give it another try playing a different class/role.

Everyone agreed that the combats were about as engaging and tactically challenging as in 3E, which is quite amazing considering the 4E characters were only level 1 and the 3E characters are at level 13.

We've had two 3E sessions since and while my players agreed after the first session that 3E is still fun, after the last session they mentioned that combat seems to be a lot more static and sometimes dragging on. In 3E a combat turn takes a lot more time and there are fewer ways (and reasons) to pay attention during other players' turns.

They also liked how it was easier to successfully use a variety of skills in 4E. However, skill challenges didn't do much for anyone.
They liked how everyone was able to contribute in every situation and felt 4E encouraged team play more than 3E.
Finally they liked that magic items are more easily available and made good use of rituals. I guess in part this can be attributed to the setting we used (Eberron) rather than the new ruleset.

My conclusion is that the streamlined and more dynamic combat system is where 4E really shines. I found it also interesting and kind of nice that the one player who's never playing anything but fighters in 3E played a wizard in our 4E game - and was enjoying himself immensely after figuring out how to use his powers.

Of the three players who didn't participate in our 4E test, one will probably drop out of the group, one doesn't really care which edition we play, and the third would prefer continuing to play 3E but would be willing to give 4E a try, should we choose to switch.

I'll give it a bit more time and see how we feel after finishing the current adventure. For a DM 4E clearly has its advantages and I think I had more fun DMing it, but that could have been the attraction of the new and shiny. I'd rather end the 3E campaign early, however, than convert it to 4E. A fresh start would definitely be preferable for me.

 

[fellus]

pathfinder additions

your calculator needs one thing added onto animated objects: cp (construction points)
oh and medium animated objects are CR 3 not 2