Character Builder Download Update
Honestly, this program has helped a tabletop RPG noob like myself get off the ground with a running start. Whenever my DM says 'Make a new character!' I'm there, I know what I have to do and when to do it thanks to the summary screen. However, now that I have been playing regularly for a while now (great way to get in some much needed face to face social interaction for the week) I really need Deity and Demigod information. When I create my character(s) there's a place to input deity but it's a drop-down menu that just says 'None' even when I want Olidamara for my new rogue or Pelor for my new Paladin. Instead of seeing that deity's name on my character sheet, there's 'None' there instead. This makes keeping my various character's religion straight, they're faithless instead. How does a Paladin go on living when they're faithless? How does a monk theologize? These questions are best answered by having a more accessible deities list at character creation. Thanks for reading! Oh, and as for the 'Support' category in my rating, it's simply a 3 because I don't know how awesome or devious your support rating actually is.
Thanks for making this great application!
This application has been very handy in starting a new campaign.
Very simple to use. Very useful to your games.
Character Builder Download Update Pack
Character Builder Update. When you download the update. After you’ve finished the monthly update, you’ll be able to make Characters using data from the.
Read more reviews >* Most house rule support [the online CB allows custom stat arrays or rolled stats, but not free feats, such as giving expertise to everyone, for example]
* Unlimited character storage [the online CB is limited to 20. They have said they will consider increasing this in the future. Some speculate that they may charge for additional slots.]
* Export character summary to plain text [the online CB allows you to print your character. If you want a PDF, you need a virtual PDF driver such as Cute PDF. Exporting to .dnd4e is planned for release.]
* Easily share characters with friends (either by e-mailing .dnd4e files or copy / paste the summary text) [This will probably coincide with the above.]
* Custom character portraits [This should be a relatively simple feature, and it disappointed a lot of players who do have custom art for their characters, or even those who can't find a built-in picture of the correct race and gender. A severe oversight.]
* Ability to remove select power cards before printing
* Power cards calculated with multiple / different weapons
* Customize layout of character sheet [The online CB has two sheets you can choose from, and there are plans to add more.]
* No ability to 'keep' the builder when your subscription runs out
* Cannot run builder without active internet connection
* Cannot track in-play stats like current HP, surge uses, etc.
I might have missed a few features, but at least you can start to get the idea. The single largest new feature was the new content, and numerous features that were present in the old builder were lost in the conversion.
There is an extensive list of known issues. It's almost painful to read.
Performance
When I tested it Tuesday afternoon, shortly after launch, the product was very slow and lagged horribly. It took approximately 30 seconds after selecting my character's gender before I could do anything else in the builder. Approximately 45 to 60 seconds elapsed after selecting a deity before I could continue working. When I tested again for this review, performance was much better. Many users have reported frequent crashes, but I have not experienced these myself while using Chrome.
Why change?
According to one episode of the official podcast, one important reason they decided to make this change was to prevent piracy. Since the product is less than a week old at this point, the jury is still out on that one. While you almost never convert pirates into paying customers, you might get a few groups who were illegally sharing one subscription to pay for more than one subscription now, but since you can sign in from multiple locations at once, I'm not clear how this is supposed to stop anyone. (I have not studied the current terms of service for the new builder, so I'm not going to speak to the legality of sharing your account.)
Fan reaction
What the jury is not still out on is the large number of fans who were very dissatisfied with the way this was handled. Leaving aside the PR fiasco that was the announcement, launching a product with as many bugs as the current version seems like poor planning.
My take
I liked the old character builder. It did what it had to do, and it did it well. Our characters are level 13 now and so the lack of essentials of dark sun didn't seriously affect us. In fact, we'll be continuing to use it for the foreseeable future. Our group relies heavily on house rules -- we give out Weapon/Implement Expertise and several other feats for free. Also, each player sends their character builder file to the DM periodically for review. While they could still send us PDFs, sometimes it's easier just to fix the file directly and send it back, saying something like 'you still had your +2 longsword in your inventory but you upgraded that, and you forgot to subtract the 300 gp you spent on [rituals equipment ale & wenches]'
I would have been OK with the online builder if it at least had all the features the old one had, and then some. But in its current feature-lacking state, I can't justify $6 / month (at minimum, that's the price if you buy an annual subscription) for what effectively amounts to beta software.
Bottom line
A very poor replacement for the character builder classic. If you own a Windows-running PC and don't need Essentials or Dark Sun content, 3 / 10. Otherwise, 5 / 10. The product feels about half-finished, so scoring half of perfect might even been too generous.
- 17
- 1.50
- [+] Dice rolls