# E-Tools Preview



## Eternalknight (Jun 8, 2002)

Hey gang, you can find a preview of D&D E-tools at Wizards of the Coast.  Looks interesting, with a lot of customization options available.


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## Talaysen (Jun 8, 2002)

This line makes me very nervous:

"And, since you can change everything about a monster, that kinda means you can create new ones, doesn't it?"

No. No it doesn't. Not unless there's actually a "new monster" button or "copy monster" button. It sounds to me like they're saying "You can swap out monsters, perhaps, by changing everything about a given critter, but you'll always be limited to the number in the Monster Manual."

Please, if anyone from WotC cares to correct me (assuming I AM wrong), do feel free.

Still...the rest of the tools do sound very useful. I'll probably buy it. I would have liked a decent built-in map-maker (the one in the first AD&D Core Rules program was pretty awful; the generic one in the later version was about as bad; the stripped-down version of Campaign Cartographer included as an alternate map-maker was too difficult for me to master), but frankly, I have yet to see an RPG utility from any company that meets all my demands, and I doubt I ever will.


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## Eternalknight (Jun 8, 2002)

Talaysen said:
			
		

> *This line makes me very nervous:
> 
> "And, since you can change everything about a monster, that kinda means you can create new ones, doesn't it?"
> 
> *




I was wondering if anyone else felt the same way about that line.  I too agree that it means you can change monsters, probably to a great extent that they look like new monsters, but you lose the original monster.


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## Ranger REG (Jun 8, 2002)

I don't mean to rain on your parade but ... shouldn't this thread be in the *D&D Software* forum?


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## Eternalknight (Jun 8, 2002)

My bad.  Oh well, it's there now


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## thalmin (Jun 8, 2002)

Maybe I missed it, but does E-Tools let you randomly generate an NPC, equipment and all?


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## Neowolf (Jun 8, 2002)

Pardon my ignorance, but is this the same thing as Master Tools with a new name?


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## Eternalknight (Jun 8, 2002)

Dungeons & Dragons E-Tools is the name for what was originally supposed to be Master Tools.  Becuase the current program is so different from what Master Tools was originally supposed to be, they changed the name to avoid confusion.

Thalmin:  From what I understand, there is no random NPC generation in E-Tools.


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## EricNoah (Jun 8, 2002)

Talaysen said:
			
		

> *This line makes me very nervous:
> 
> "And, since you can change everything about a monster, that kinda means you can create new ones, doesn't it?"
> 
> ...




Glad to do so.  The Race Generator button (what he's calling the Race Editor)  takes you to a place where you create, really and truly, a completely new monster.   You start with what type it is (outsider, animal, magical beast), give it some hit dice, pick any subtypes, then you enter the rest of the Race Generator screen where you enter its average STR, CHA, etc., select any bonus feats, select the creature's skills and add any racial skill bonuses, set its speed(s), languages, CR, alignment tendencies, face/reach, treasure options, advancement ranges, natural attacks, pick special attacks, pick special qualities, enter a text string for either that aren't already on the list, put in age categories, set base height/weight and how to generate them randomly, pick racial deities, pick what weapons the race is automatically proficient with, decide if this race can be enabled as an animal companion, paladin's mount, familiar, etc.; and pick a portrait.  The files created here are *.rac files (race files).

You'll note there's nowhere to purchase and equip items -- that's because once you're done generating the base race, you save your file, then there's really two ways to go from here.  If you're intending that this race is going to be used by PCs and NPCs, this race will be available in the Character Generator portion.  If you want this race to be encountered as a critter, you then go into the Monster Editor, select your custom race, and you do three important things to it:  select feats and spend skill points (its number of feats and skill points are based on its "type" and its HD and/or intelligence, as outlined in Skip Williams' article) and give it some equipment if necessary.  If you don't do this you end up with an orc with no greataxe and no armor and no ranks in any skill or any feats.    When you Save here you've now got yourself a *.mon file (monster file).  

Now that you have your monster set up as it would typically be encountered, you can then find it on your list of monsters in the Monster Generator.  This is where you can pick your pre-fab monster and tweak it.  Give it max hit points.  Give it a magical axe instead of the standard one.  If it can be advanced by HD, you can do it here (size changes, HD increases, more skill points and feat slots appear and you need to spend those here so the advanced critter can take advantage of them).  This is where you would grab a stat block from the stat block screen, as well, or send it to the printer as a block or a character sheet.  

Finally, there is sort of a "copy monster" option -- you can use the Open File command, browse to the folder where all of the core monsters are, pick one you want, and voila you're in the Race Generator, ready to tweak it.  One "Save As" later, you've got yourself a modified monster.  The only things you can't change like this (without creating a whole new race) would be type, base HD, and subtypes (those are locked in).  

The only real weakness with this setup is that the Special Qualities and Special Attacks info is somewhat limited.  You can pick "Resistance: Fire" off the list, for instance, but there's nowhere to say how much resistance (5? 15?).  The place where you can type in a special quality or attack is fine but that doesn't appear on a stat block .  Since the output is customizable (in theory, as it's XML) I'm hoping that a clever user will create a custom stat block that includes that SQ or SA text string and share it with the world.


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## EricNoah (Jun 8, 2002)

thalmin said:
			
		

> *Maybe I missed it, but does E-Tools let you randomly generate an NPC, equipment and all? *




In the last two beta versions there was a greyed-out button that appeared to be ready to lead to a random character generator.  We never got to test it out though so I don't know if it made it in.


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## Eternalknight (Jun 8, 2002)

So, Eric, can you answer the following question for me:  The three core rule books are supported in E-Tools.  Is it possible to add feats from, say, Song and Silence, magic items and spells from Magic of Faerun, monsters from Oriental Adventures.... etc?  Is it fully customizable that way?


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## EricNoah (Jun 8, 2002)

Eternalknight said:
			
		

> *So, Eric, can you answer the following question for me:  The three core rule books are supported in E-Tools.  Is it possible to add feats from, say, Song and Silence, magic items and spells from Magic of Faerun, monsters from Oriental Adventures.... etc?  Is it fully customizable that way? *




First, there is at least one area of the core rules that is not really supported by Etools -- and that is monster templates.  There is no one-click templating, and that's definitely a weakness.  You can "sort of" do it by opening an existing .rac file and tweaking it, that works pretty well except that some templates (notably Vampire) also change your type, and you can't do that when editing a .rac file.  But I used it to make fiendish stirges of Xvim (two templates there) for my campaign, for instance, and that worked out fairly well.  

Now to customizing:  Some of the customizing is "fully functional" -- a new weapon, new armor, new spell, new language, new skill, for instance, will act just like a core one.  But some of the customizing is "text only" in a sense.  That's the case with feats.  You can give the feat a name, determine some kinds of prerequisites, give it a description, categorize it (metamagic, etc. if necessary), but the feat will have no impact on your stats.  So, for instance, I added the Dash feat from Song & Silence for my rogue character -- it appears on my list of feats but does not change my speed.  There are just too many crazy things that a feat could do, I guess.  The "text only" customizing includes feats, magic items (new magic weapons and armors and shields do have functional enhancement bonuses though), and domains (custom domains can be assigned to a god, and can have spells assigned, but domain abilities are "text only").  

All is not lost, however.  Let's take feats for example.  There are a number of ways to "trick" Etools into calculating various bonuses and penalties associated with custom feats. If you have created a feat that improves initiative, saving throws, or armor class, you can manually adjust these stats on the Stats screen of the Character Generator for a character knowing the custom feat. If you have created a feat that improves one of the six attributes or grants bonus hit points, you can manually adjust that on the Adjust Stats screen. If you have created a feat that provides a bonus to a skill, "overspend" the necessary skill points on the Skills screen. All of these user-adjusted statistics will appear on the DM screen, so you'll need to be able to justify these adjustments to your DM. If your custom feat impacts some other facet of your character, you will need to make a note of it on your character sheet.


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## Eternalknight (Jun 8, 2002)

Thanks Eric.  Just clarifying something:  with your Dash example, is it possible to change a characters speed on the stats screen?  I'm assuming not, but just want to clarify


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## EricNoah (Jun 8, 2002)

Eternalknight said:
			
		

> *Thanks Eric.  Just clarifying something:  with your Dash example, is it possible to change a characters speed on the stats screen?  I'm assuming not, but just want to clarify  *




No, speed is one of the few things on the stats screen you can't manually change.  Not sure why...


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## Eternalknight (Jun 8, 2002)

Another question for you Eric (I'll quit bothering you in a minute):  How would you rate E-Tools overall?  I use many different sources in my games; would it be worth it to me?  How much work would I have to do to get it to work for my campaigns?


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## EricNoah (Jun 8, 2002)

It totally depends on the campaign.  I seldom if ever use prestige classes, but I often use tweaked or advanced monsters as well as monsters with character classes.  For me it is a must-have.  If you find PC Gen's interface and output to be adequate, that program is superior in many ways, mostly in the amount of data from non-core sources included.  Even then you might find E-Tools to be worth it for the monster-related stuff it can do alone.  I mean, really, $30?  It's not much to pay for a great deal of convenience.  

For tomorrow's game I wanted to put together a fey'ri rogue/sorcerer/fighter/spur lord character.  (Fey'ri are elf/tanar'ri tieflings, and Spur Lord is a prestige class from Lords of Darkness).  It was a snap to put together the fey'ri race with the race generator.  It was a snap to put together the rogue/sorcerer/fighter part.  Then what I did was copy and paste the stat block from the stat block screen, and then in my word processor I added the hit dice, hit points, skill points, base attack bonus, special abilities and saving throws that came with the levels of Spur Lord.  That part was not so convenient, but was still not bad at all to do.  Certainly a lot easier than building the whole thing by hand.  And for me easier than using PC Gen even if that race and PrC were already built in (which they might be, I don't know).  Your mileage may vary.


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## bushfire (Jun 8, 2002)

Eric,

Thanks a lot for answering questions. It is really nice to hear concrete answers from someone who has actually *used* the program about it's functionality.

It is one thing to hear that you can advance or tweak a monster, it is another to hear *how* it can be done.

By the way is the NDA on the beta testers lifted or are you answering based on the Gen Con preview?


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## Malcor Sylverwood (Jun 8, 2002)

FYI, the fey'ri and spur lord are included in PCGen.


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## drakhe (Jun 9, 2002)

Eric, could you clarify one thing pleace: The customizing you talked about, was that what's possible INSIDE the program or did you do the customising in the data files using Access (I understand Access is used to contain the main data base ?)


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## Eternalknight (Jun 9, 2002)

Thanks for the answers, Eric!  Personally, I do use PC Gen, and I find it a breeze...  I will reserve judgement on E-Tools until I see it though.  If customization is available, it may well be worth it, even with having to do a bit of work.


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## Charwoman Gene (Jun 9, 2002)

EricNoah said:
			
		

> *
> 
> First, there is at least one area of the core rules that is not really supported by Etools -- and that is monster templates.  There is no one-click templating, and that's definitely a weakness.  You can "sort of" do it by opening an existing .rac file and tweaking it, that works pretty well except that some templates (notably Vampire) also change your type, and you can't do that when editing a .rac file.  But I used it to make fiendish stirges of Xvim (two templates there) for my campaign, for instance, and that worked out fairly well.
> 
> *




I can't just vampirify a character?
That sucks.


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## Charwoman Gene (Jun 9, 2002)

EricNoah said:
			
		

> *It totally depends on the campaign.  I seldom if ever use prestige classes, but I often use tweaked or advanced monsters as well as monsters with character classes.  For me it is a must-have.
> *




Yes!

BUt does is support alternate cube role methods?


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## EricNoah (Jun 9, 2002)

bushfire said:
			
		

> *
> By the way is the NDA on the beta testers lifted or are you answering based on the Gen Con preview? *




Uh, neither?


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## EricNoah (Jun 9, 2002)

drakhe said:
			
		

> *Eric, could you clarify one thing pleace: The customizing you talked about, was that what's possible INSIDE the program or did you do the customising in the data files using Access (I understand Access is used to contain the main data base ?) *




The customizing I talked about was inside the program.  

I did do some experimenting with the Access database and was actually able to create the Red Wizard prestige class with it.  Unfortunately I never did figure out how to do the "+1 spellcaster level" thing so it didn't work out.  So I think there will be some ways to tweak things even more outside the program by manipulating the database.


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## EricNoah (Jun 9, 2002)

Charwoman Gene said:
			
		

> *
> 
> I can't just vampirify a character?
> That sucks. *




Agreed!  It would certainly be near the top of the list of things I'd want to see in an expansion or patch.


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## Sayburr (Jun 9, 2002)

I have a question for you all...

Lets say I take my Kalamar Player's Guide and I enter all of the new classes and races and feats and spell... ect.

OK, that is great for me, but can I get this information to the players without having to build it all over again?

I must admit, I don't know alot about this program, but I am assuming since you can edit the database it can just be sent to you players so they can build their characters, right?

So, if this is possible can a person just post a modified database on the web for everyone to use?


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## EricNoah (Jun 9, 2002)

a) there isn't an in-program way to add new classes.  You'd have to do that through the database and I'm not even sure it's totally possible.  

b)  If your whole group were going to want the same data, then yes it would make sense for you to make a copy of your custom database and just replace the one that ships with MT on the other users' computers.  I don't know that posting it on a website would be legal/fair use but I think sharing the DB with your group (assuming they'd each paid for a legal copy of E-Tools) would be fine.  As I mentioned above, Etools doesn't ship with an import-export feature.  Someone else above thinks there's someone working on a fan-created tool for doing that, though.


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## Sayburr (Jun 10, 2002)

Well, as a Core Rules character generator it sounds great and if it came out two years ago with the core books it would have been a huge seller.  I am afraid my games have moved away from the core rules over the last two years and it doesn't look like there is a valid reason to buy this.

I am using feats and spells from other sources and in one case a class from another source...

I will, however, reserve judgement for when the product is actually released and I hear more about it.  A lot can change between a Bata and an actual release.

Thanks, Eric, for the reply.


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## talmar (Jun 10, 2002)

Yes Eric,

Thank you very much.  This is exactly what I have been waiting for.  Some sort of concrete information about E-Tools.

This has solidified my resolve to purchasing this product.

I look forward to its release.


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## Davin (Jun 10, 2002)

Sayburr said:
			
		

> *Lets say I take my Kalamar Player's Guide and I enter all of the new classes and races and feats and spell... ect.
> 
> OK, that is great for me, but can I get this information to the players without having to build it all over again?*



Actually, I'm working on something to do that.  I worked out the following concept for it almost two years ago:

When you add information to the database, it would be marked as customized (non-core) changes.  My program would allow you to go through and find all those changes (even with some selection and "naming" options) and write just those changes to an XML file.  You could then ship that file to anyone you wanted (or just post it openly) because it didn't contain any of the core information.  (Warning: There can still be copyright issues involved if you just type in something out of a purchased book!)  Then, anyone that wanted your changes could just import the file you sent them (again with my program) and it'd be ready to use.  You can also use this technique on your own machine to import a particular rules set (say, F.R.) for a campaign and then delete it again for a different campaign that doesn't use those rules.

Would that make you happy?


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## Plane Sailing (Jun 10, 2002)

The concrete information that is starting to appear looks very interesting.

One question for Eric if I may - Is there any "in program" way of changing character class details? This can be important for tweaked character class concepts (ala PHB and DMG) or for campaign specific examples like I have in my campaign.

(from your earlier comments I'm guessing that this might not be possible)

Cheers


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## Davin (Jun 10, 2002)

Plane Sailing said:
			
		

> *Is there any "in program" way of changing character class details?*



To date, that's not been advertised as possible.  Therefore, that's the other major piece to the utility I'm writing --  the user-friendly ability to add and edit class definition information (within limits of what's actually being stored in the database).


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## Plane Sailing (Jun 10, 2002)

Charwoman Gene said:
			
		

> *
> 
> I can't just vampirify a character?
> That sucks. *




Ho Ho Ho!


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## uv23 (Jun 10, 2002)

My main reason for buying this app would be to create new monsters with acurate CRs. Eric, in your opinion, is this a strength or weakness of e-Tools? The bit about not being able to be specific about special abilities and special qualities has me concerned.


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## EricNoah (Jun 10, 2002)

uv23 said:
			
		

> *My main reason for buying this app would be to create new monsters with acurate CRs. Eric, in your opinion, is this a strength or weakness of e-Tools? The bit about not being able to be specific about special abilities and special qualities has me concerned. *




ETools does not *calculate* CRs.  That's because there is no formula for doing so in D&D.  You enter the CR for the creature as you would any other stat.  

I share your concern about the imprecise nature of the SA and SQ selection areas.  There is a place to type free text (monster description, etc.) but where that outputs is unknown to me (it doesn't appear on a stat block).


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## uv23 (Jun 10, 2002)

EricNoah said:
			
		

> *ETools does not *calculate* CRs.  That's because there is no formula for doing so in D&D.  You enter the CR for the creature as you would any other stat.  *




Thats the most dissapointing thing I've heard in a while, especially considering 3e is so focused on CR as the foundation of encounter balancing.  Oh well, I won't be buying this one. Thanks for the info.


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## EricNoah (Jun 10, 2002)

The closest thing that exists to a formula is in Skip Williams' "How to Create a Monster" article.  You can download it here:

http://www.enworld.org/cc/downloads/main.html

Even then though that's just a guesstimate.  You have to playtest the monster to find an appropriate CR.


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## Cougar (Jun 10, 2002)

Eric, thank you very much for posting info and opinions about this tumultuous program. I am a regular at the Wizards boards and there is little there but speculation, as I am sure you know.

One question from me: Is there a way to age your character after they are created, like from adulthood to middle aged? I don't think there is a program that does this yet.


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## uv23 (Jun 10, 2002)

Thanks for the link Eric. I guess I had some misconceptions about what this product was actually going to offer. Much appreciated.


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## EricNoah (Jun 10, 2002)

Cougar said:
			
		

> *Eric, thank you very much for posting info and opinions about this tumultuous program. I am a regular at the Wizards boards and there is little there but speculation, as I am sure you know.
> 
> One question from me: Is there a way to age your character after they are created, like from adulthood to middle aged? I don't think there is a program that does this yet. *




You're welcome.  It has been somewhat painful to visit the official boards at times especially when we were deep into beta testing and I knew a bit of info but couldn't really say anything.  Now that it appears that our testing duties are over I feel a little less worried about saying what I can about the program.  

Please understand, however, that I am not trying to convince anyone to buy this program.  It has some flaws, it has some gaps, but for *me*, E-Tools plus Bob Fitch's and Steve Mulhern's spell sheets make a complete set of tools to serve *my* needs.  But then people seem to be ga-ga over prestige classes, and I almost never use them, so I'm not running into that limitation constantly as other users might.  And if I were doing a psionics-heavy campaign it would be worthless to me in that regard. 

As to aging, I fired up the beta, advanced my dwarf PC to 125 years old and his STR, CON and DEX dropped by 1 while his mental attributes went up by one.  So I think the answer is "yes" to your question.


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## DoctorB (Jun 11, 2002)

So no way to add Prestige classes in the program?
That would be a disappointment.
I assume the classes from the DMG will be there at least.

ALL of the players in my game now have prestige classes (one of them home-brewed).  This is an important feature to me...

Thanks for all the great info, Eric!


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## Agamon (Jun 11, 2002)

You can't add classes?  Ouch.  3 of my players have homebrew PrCs.  I can use it for some players and not for others.  That's not going to work.  The one thing that I'd want customizable would be the classes.  All the other things you can just kinda write on the sheet of you have to, but the class is the basis of the PC.

Oh, well.  I was looking forward to the 3E version of Core Rules, but I guess I've done alright without thus far.


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## Davin (Jun 11, 2002)

Agamon said:
			
		

> *You can't add classes?  Ouch.  3 of my players have homebrew PrCs.  I can use it for some players and not for others.  That's not going to work.  The one thing that I'd want customizable would be the classes.*



(sigh) Just because the program out of the box won't do it doesn't mean you won't have 3rd-party programs capable of adding most PrCs.


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## EricNoah (Jun 11, 2002)

The DMG prestige classes are in.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, by mucking around with the Access database I was able to re-create the Red Wizard PrC from the FRCS, except I couldn't figure out how to do the +1 spellcaster level thingy.  But I'm not that great with Access (I mostly did some copying and pasting from a similar class, the Loremaster) so it may be that someone will figure out an interface to do it, or that it might be done as part of a future product.


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## Nine Hands (Jun 12, 2002)

EricNoah said:
			
		

> *The DMG prestige classes are in.
> 
> As I mentioned earlier in the thread, by mucking around with the Access database I was able to re-create the Red Wizard PrC from the FRCS, except I couldn't figure out how to do the +1 spellcaster level thingy.  But I'm not that great with Access (I mostly did some copying and pasting from a similar class, the Loremaster) so it may be that someone will figure out an interface to do it, or that it might be done as part of a future product. *




Well since the Loremaster increases your caster level, there must be some functionality in there.  Hopefully it is easy to get at and not "hard coded".  From your posts I may pick this up, even though it does not do everything I want.  

I wonder how long it would take to create a PCGen export so I can create a race in E-Tools and export it to PCGen


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## Ranger REG (Jun 12, 2002)

Trust me, the Wizards' official _E-Tools_ message board is not for the prude.


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## EricNoah (Jun 13, 2002)

EricNoah said:
			
		

> *
> 
> In the last two beta versions there was a greyed-out button that appeared to be ready to lead to a random character generator.  We never got to test it out though so I don't know if it made it in. *




Update: I've just heard that the random character generator IS in and functional in the release build of the program.  Even picks and equips items for you, apparently.


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## thalmin (Jun 13, 2002)

EricNoah said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Update: I've just heard that the random character generator IS in and functional in the release build of the program.  Even picks and equips items for you, apparently. *




This is great news! 
With a random generator, my job as DM just got sooooo much easier.


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## Agamon (Jun 13, 2002)

EricNoah said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Update: I've just heard that the random character generator IS in and functional in the release build of the program.  Even picks and equips items for you, apparently. *




Ooh, cool.  Maybe I will pick this up.  I've figured out how to use all the other MS Office programs, I suppose I could muck around with Access until I figure it out *shrug*


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## bolen (Jun 15, 2002)

could a publisher write all the access code for their book and then post it (or put it on a disk in the book) so users could use it in E-tools


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