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3 years ago ::
Nov 12, 2010 - 10:34AM
#441
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Date Joined:
Mar 17, 2001
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Though I know this won't help many, I have settled on the solution that will work best for me (and, frankly, for my group):
1) I let my D&Di subscription expire (and, in fact, despite the fact I turned off auto-renew, it renewed today, though it was a glitch with a previous subscription, so no biggie.)
2) I am going to create my characters using... pen/pencil and paper.
Ta-da! No character limit, no worrying about bugs or missing features. I only need to worry that my (a) math is correct and (b) I keep up-to-date on the rules.
Beyond that, the CB (whether stand alone on my machine or web-based) does nothing for me that I cannot do for myself. If I felt so inclined, I'd just do what I did for 3.x and make an excel spreadsheet that did all this stuff, but it really isn't necessary. With the appropriate card designer (and you can find a billion of them on-line), I can make my own power cards.
And the best part? It's FREE.
No, this isn't the solution for everyone - I get that. But, if the strictures of the web-based (or heck, even the downloadable version) are too much for you, just go back to the way people have always done it. It works just fine (sort of like telling my students they cannot use laptops in class - hey, people have taken notes for centuries with a writing instrument and writing surface - surely today's students can do that, too.) :-)
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3 years ago ::
Nov 12, 2010 - 10:38AM
#442
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Date Joined:
Aug 24, 2005
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I am going to create my characters using... pen/pencil and paper.
Glad you found something that works for you. 
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3 years ago ::
Nov 12, 2010 - 10:40AM
#443
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Date Joined:
Mar 17, 2001
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I am going to create my characters using... pen/pencil and paper.
Glad you found something that works for you.
Don't get me wrong - if I had my druthers, I'd use a computer to do it - it IS more efficient, less prone to error, and looks better than my handwriting (although I print everything in block letters, so it's pretty clean anyway.)
But, at the enc of the day, WotC's solution seems like a far bigger headache than it's worth (at the present.)
Of course, I never have more than 3 to 4 characters at a time, so the 20 character limit doesn't bother me.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 12, 2010 - 10:43AM
#444
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Date Joined:
Aug 24, 2005
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WotC's solution seems like a far bigger headache than it's worth (at the present.)
Fair enough. I'm going to wait until the new builder is out before I pass judgement. I'll give it a fair chance, and then decide what to do.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 12, 2010 - 11:30AM
#445
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Date Joined:
Jan 15, 2008
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Though I know this won't help many, I have settled on the solution that will work best for me (and, frankly, for my group):
1) I let my D&Di subscription expire (and, in fact, despite the fact I turned off auto-renew, it renewed today, though it was a glitch with a previous subscription, so no biggie.)
2) I am going to create my characters using... pen/pencil and paper.
Ta-da! No character limit, no worrying about bugs or missing features. I only need to worry that my (a) math is correct and (b) I keep up-to-date on the rules.
Beyond that, the CB (whether stand alone on my machine or web-based) does nothing for me that I cannot do for myself. If I felt so inclined, I'd just do what I did for 3.x and make an excel spreadsheet that did all this stuff, but it really isn't necessary. With the appropriate card designer (and you can find a billion of them on-line), I can make my own power cards.
And the best part? It's FREE.
No, this isn't the solution for everyone - I get that. But, if the strictures of the web-based (or heck, even the downloadable version) are too much for you, just go back to the way people have always done it. It works just fine (sort of like telling my students they cannot use laptops in class - hey, people have taken notes for centuries with a writing instrument and writing surface - surely today's students can do that, too.) :-)
you know what. i did that last night, 3 times. and it was a major pain in the butt. I spent 90 mins on 3 chars. With the CB I'd be done in 15 mins and on to something more productive.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 12, 2010 - 12:11PM
#446
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Date Joined:
Jul 28, 2009
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This is the Character Vault disscussion all over again. Give us the ability to save to our own computers, right from the "client" instead of this export/import stuff. Have the 20 character Cloud Nine for "portability" and our own HD for our convinience. It doesn't have to be one or the other.
Jeesh.
Unfortunately, because they are running Silverlight in a browser the character builder won't be able to directly access your hard drive (much like Java web apps, Silverlight runs in a sandbox and is restricted from doing certain things on your computer). The export/import stuff is going to be the only way they can do it.
how about they use the same export/import ability that was in the original character builder? Put the data on the screen and let me copy and paste it into notepad.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 12, 2010 - 12:56PM
#447
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Date Joined:
Mar 17, 2001
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you know what. i did that last night, 3 times. and it was a major pain in the butt. I spent 90 mins on 3 chars. With the CB I'd be done in 15 mins and on to something more productive.
Well, in all honesty, I don't mind taking longer to make my character. In fact, when making a character in the current CB, I spend 30 minutes to an hour or more making one character. It isn't because it's difficult or cumbersome (from a technical perspective, I mean), but because I spend a lot of time reading over options, thinking about those choices, and so on. The CB doesn't really make the process markedly FASTER for me, but it is more efficient in that I have all the stuff I need in one place, that's true.
But, that's just my experience. YMMV.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 12, 2010 - 1:30PM
#448
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Date Joined:
Jan 15, 2008
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you know what. i did that last night, 3 times. and it was a major pain in the butt. I spent 90 mins on 3 chars. With the CB I'd be done in 15 mins and on to something more productive.
Well, in all honesty, I don't mind taking longer to make my character. In fact, when making a character in the current CB, I spend 30 minutes to an hour or more making one character. It isn't because it's difficult or cumbersome (from a technical perspective, I mean), but because I spend a lot of time reading over options, thinking about those choices, and so on. The CB doesn't really make the process markedly FASTER for me, but it is more efficient in that I have all the stuff I need in one place, that's true.
But, that's just my experience. YMMV.
On paper you'd be taking 90 mins. Just so you know I was building Essentials characters too, which have alot less options. it's just cumbersome once youve been using a tool after a while. And honestly I have better thing to do then slowly cultivate my character. I wanna play and have fun not analyze.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 12, 2010 - 1:34PM
#449
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you know what. i did that last night, 3 times. and it was a major pain in the butt. I spent 90 mins on 3 chars. With the CB I'd be done in 15 mins and on to something more productive.
Well, in all honesty, I don't mind taking longer to make my character. In fact, when making a character in the current CB, I spend 30 minutes to an hour or more making one character. It isn't because it's difficult or cumbersome (from a technical perspective, I mean), but because I spend a lot of time reading over options, thinking about those choices, and so on. The CB doesn't really make the process markedly FASTER for me, but it is more efficient in that I have all the stuff I need in one place, that's true.
But, that's just my experience. YMMV.
On paper you'd be taking 90 mins. Just so you know I was building Essentials characters too, which have alot less options. it's just cumbersome once youve been using a tool after a while. And honestly I have better thing to do then slowly cultivate my character. I wanna play and have fun not analyze.
I think that's really why it's taking you longer: that you're accustomed to the builder. If you had been making characters by hand, you would have continually reinforced in your mind what things are in what sections of what books. It becomes a lot easier to find stuff in the books if you've been using them for a while.
Why Mechanics-Alignment Integration is Bad
Show
so why even play a fighter if you can play the paladin the exact same way behaviorally and get added power to boot. "Paladin" is about accepting better game-enhancing mechanics at the price of more rigid in game behavior.
Really? So it goes something like this?
Fighter: "I want to be a paladin."
NPC: "Really?"
Fighter: "Yes."
NPC: "Very well." Starts reading from a holy book while still in-character "Do you accept having to choose and stick to the lawful good alignment, eventhough neither of us actually knows that it exists or what it is?"
Fighter: "I do."
NPC: "Do you reject good game balance because you accidentally rolled a high Charisma?"
Fighter: "What?"
NPC: "I don't know what it means either."
Fighter: "Oh. Umm, ok I do."
NPC: "In the name of all that is metagamey and broken, accept these better game enhancing mechanics."
Fighter: "These what?"
NPC: "Just get out there and try to fulfill a million different people's notion of good while not violating and part of any of them."
So the system is designed such that every single hit needs to be described to avoid confusion? Here's a scenario. The players are nudists, everybody in the world are nudists, it's not weird, it's totally normal in this land. They are naked and they fight drakes taking damage throughout, but healing up with surges. Later they meet the guy who raised the drakes.
Part 1: I didn't describe any of the hits. What does he see?
Part 2: Lets say I described the drakes as biting the players, yet they healed up. What does he see?
D20 Modern Toon PC Race.
Mecha Pilot's Skill Challenge Emporium.
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3 years ago ::
Nov 12, 2010 - 1:41PM
#450
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Date Joined:
Jan 15, 2008
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I know where everything is in the books, and I know what I need. The problem is it's all over the place. And all the math is a pain. I don't want to think about that, I want to play the game. CB is 5 mins and I have a char. Gaming for me about having a fun RP experience, not theorycrafting my chars.
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