Online Adventure Tools/Monster Builder Up

[RTGoodman]

Hey guys, just saw that the online version of the Adventure Tools is up. It's still just basically the Monster "Builder," but I wouldn't really use that term. It doesn't have the ability to create new monsters (yet?), but you can still customize old one.

The original, downloadable one, however, is still available for a limited time. If you're a D&DI subscriber and haven't downloaded it yet, I'd suggest doing it before they take it away. I've gotten a TON of use out of it, not just for making custom monsters but for slightly changing previous ones.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Tool.aspx...adventuretools

[valadil]

What exactly did you find useful about the old Adventure Tools? IMO it was tedious to use and I never quite figured out how to get its output to go anywhere useful. Were you copying/pasting all the monsters into Word and then printing them?

[Choco]

Thanks for pointing this out, I would have missed it!

@valadil: I personally DM from my laptop, so the output is already exactly where I want it to be

[Jaidu]

What exactly did you find useful about the old Adventure Tools?

Automatic calculations for damage, defenses, and hit points as well as formatting it to an easy-to-read stat block are the reasons I use it.

IMO it was tedious to use and I never quite figured out how to get its output to go anywhere useful. Were you copying/pasting all the monsters into Word and then printing them?

I was doing exactly this, but with OpenOffice. Copying in rich text format and pasting to pages with .25 inch margins and two columns made for pretty compact monster stats.

On the other hand, the old one was super buggy, and wouldn't run on my desktop. I had to use my clunky laptop to run it.

The new "monster builder" is pretty useless. It doesn't let you build monsters, just rename them and their powers and level them up and down. Hopefully it will improve, though.

[Erom]

What exactly did you find useful about the old Adventure Tools? IMO it was tedious to use and I never quite figured out how to get its output to go anywhere useful. Were you copying/pasting all the monsters into Word and then printing them?

Personally, I found the auto-balancing capabilities useful. Want a lvl9 Soldier that's a bit clumsy but tough? Select level, select role, set reflex to "below average" and fort to "above average" and BOOM new monster created that is pretty well balanced right out of the box. Want to add an ability? Chances are you can copy paste it from an existing monster, and the attack bonuses and damage will automatically scale to the appropriate values for the level. Clean, fast, efficient.

Plus, I like copy pasting them to Word and then printing them - it lets me print out one piece of paper with all the monsters I need for that week on it, and I can keep notes like HP and status effects in the margins. It essentially gives me one piece of paper on which I can run all the combat encounters for that weeks session. If that isn't a big improvement over digging through the DMG and MM every week, I don't know what is.

[valadil]

Plus, I like copy pasting them to Word and then printing them - it lets me print out one piece of paper with all the monsters I need for that week on it, and I can keep notes like HP and status effects in the margins. It essentially gives me one piece of paper on which I can run all the combat encounters for that weeks session. If that isn't a big improvement over digging through the DMG and MM every week, I don't know what is.

I'm okay with the result of that, but not the process. I think I'd have been okay with monster builder had they had an export to pdf or doc function for me. All that extra clicking just to get the monsters into a printable form was a big turnoff for me.

[RTGoodman]

Yeah, you have to use Word or something, but that wasn't a big hassle for me.

My normal process was make/find all my monsters, paste them one-to-a-page in Word, and then add in a HP line and a few blank lines for tracking conditions. Made everything look nice and professional, and it helped to keep me organized.