# Character Builder is Live



## Shroomy (Jan 27, 2009)

Apparently, the Character Builder is live.

Character Builder is LIVE!! - Wizards Community


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## Arivendel (Jan 27, 2009)

Thats sounds good, Im not a DDI subscriber but I kept reading so much complains about this because it was being delayed to no end, glad to see scott came through, interesting thing, one of the posters mentions that all clases now reach level 30 even the ones you previously had data for up to level 3, Does that mean Wardens, Artificers, Barbarians and all the others have been updated?? that would be a HUGE spoiler if true


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## Spatula (Jan 27, 2009)

Found my first bug... if you have to cancel the initial download for some reason, you can't run the downloader again.  You get an error that you can't have more than one process running at once (even though the download process isn't running anymore).  I had to go into the registry and delete some keys to get it working again.  Won't affect most people, I'm sure.

This is the list of remaining known issues that's shown when downloading the full app, if anyone is interested:
[sblock]This is the list of Known Issues with our Character Builder. We are going to work on these issues on an ongoing basis, and address them in the coming months.

Character Sheet Known Issues:

 Journal entries can’t be printed on the character sheet as a separate page.
 Dexterity and Intelligence Bonus for AC are listed under Misc section in Defenses.
   Resistance gained from feats or magic weapons do not display in the resist list field.
   Rest reset function does not reset the magic item usage check box or the death check boxes.
   When checking the "Show All weapons" option to display all weapons in your inventory on your power cards, this setting does not persist when you close the character sheet.
   Notes added to character sheet fields (like skills, …) are not printed anywhere. 
Powers and Power Cards Known Issues:

   Some powers that have non-standard formats do not have their stats properly calculated in every possible cases (moonfire, tears of selune, rain of steel, unyielding avalanche, armor piercing thrust).
   Power stats only calculate attack and damage. The builder does not yet calculate the stats for the off-hand weapon in dual-wield powers, temporary hit points, nor healing. We also do not modify the power when feats or class features change the range of powers.
   Dragonborn Breath does not show details on the Power Card.
   The attack power from feral armor does not show up on a character's list of powers.
Feats Known Issues:

   Gnoll feat "Claw Fighter" does not "equip" claws, and lists unarmed damage instead of claw damage.
   The Improved Razor Storm feat adds the improved power in addition to the original power instead of replacing the original power. 
Campaign Pages Known Issues:

   Check box on campaign pages should show partial selection.
   The campaign settings page does not yet have a way to make the Forgotten Realms deities count as their corresponding core deity for the purpose of taking feats (as described in the LFR rules). 
Other:

   If you have used the closed or the open Beta, we recommend uninstalling these applications before installing the full release application.
   When auto-building a character higher than level one, the magic items such a character is entitled to are not auto-generated.
   Taking a paragon multiclass without having a class-specific multiclass feat (or removing it after having made the selection) will crash the application.
   To be able to select Harper of Legends epic destiny without crashing the application, you need to have a class-specific multiclass feat.
   If you character is level 13 or higher, and you have not chosen powers before you use Auto-pick in the ability page, the application will crash.
   Feral armor levels are incorrect.
   Items or equipment can’t be renamed by the user.
   Summary section should separate Rituals from Alchemy.
   Equipment, Mounts: Warhorse is listed twice, with two different prices.
   A bundled Item (adventurer’s kit, climber’s kit) can’t be unbundled and separated in different items.
   The equipment page does not have containers.
   Warforged components are not supported.
   Custom equipment can’t be assigned a weight, and standard equipment weight can’t be customized.
   Vehicles are not available.
   Alchemical ammunition is not yet implemented.
   Characters above level 3 created with the full version can’t be loaded in the character sheet viewer with the demo version.
   The spiked shield functions as a weapon but does not properly also function as a shield.
[/sblock]

I'm intrigued by this talk of custom items... off to experiment!


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## Keefe the Thief (Jan 27, 2009)

Installing right now. According to the readme it has two of the previewed classes up to level 30! Still some known issues listed. Its still a beta release, but 1-30 for all standard classes. Woot! 

(Cue some poster saying "a-ha, i knew they would screw it up).


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## thalmin (Jan 27, 2009)

Arivendel said:


> Thats sounds good, Im not a DDI subscriber but I kept reading so much complains about this because it was being delayed to no end, glad to see scott came through, interesting thing, one of the posters mentions that all clases now reach level 30 even the ones you previously had data for up to level 3, Does that mean Wardens, Artificers, Barbarians and all the others have been updated?? that would be a HUGE spoiler if true



These classes are not available, as yet, except for the rageblood barbarian, which was given 30 levels in Dragon 368. Material from modules and almost all of the books are included except Open Grave.


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## Kzach (Jan 27, 2009)

Well, colour me impressed that they managed to get it out when they said they would.

Now to mercilessly tear it apart, bit by bit, examine every minute piece of it, and criticise it until the developers weep for mercy.

Evil? Who me?


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## Keefe the Thief (Jan 27, 2009)

Still Power Card errors with the Rageblood Barbarian, but it flawlessly built me a level 30 invoker without a problem. My players will lurve this! However, there is still a lot of work to be done. But its already useful enough to cure my "aagh, eTools!" bug. I´m happy that they released the generator buggy but with 30 levels for nearly anything.


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## Kzach (Jan 27, 2009)

My first major complaint. I'm a subscriber. I downloaded whilst logged in. And yet I only have the demo options :/

EDIT: Bleh, I had to restart it and redownload the full version after logging in.


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## Keefe the Thief (Jan 27, 2009)

Thats strange. I just downloaded it and then the Charbuilder gave me an upgrade window where i had to enter my login information to download the lateset data set.

Oh, btw, the charbuilder says that every month there is a data set coming out and that you can download the complete full version five times during that time period. So it resets after the next release - that should be enough for most groups / campaigns.


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## Dire Bare (Jan 27, 2009)

Shroomy said:


> Apparently, the Character Builder is live.
> 
> Character Builder is LIVE!! - Wizards Community




Great, my install already failed.  I don't have time to mess with this now . . . . but it sure is frustrating that I can't even simply download and install the builder.

I keep wanting to give WotC the benefit of the doubt on this project, but I keep running into stupid problems.  Sigh.

I'll try again later when not so frustrated.  Grrrrrrrr.


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## Vael (Jan 27, 2009)

Initial impressions are good. My current PC, a 7th level wizard, got inputted without issue. I did notice the buider does not have the current AV errata, Veteran's armour has its power still, and my wizard uses a +2 Orb of Mental Dominion, and that still has its critical dice.


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## Kzach (Jan 27, 2009)

Full-screen toggle and zoom is purrdy.

Well, so far my only real complaint is a bit of weirdness in the character sheet where it won't allow me to put fields where the whole field doesn't fit and the fact that I can't resize fields.

Otherwise, thumbs up 

As long as I see movement in improving it and eliminating bugs, I can foresee a subscription renewal in my future.


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## Jack99 (Jan 27, 2009)

Worked fine here, didn't even have to uninstall anything first.


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## catsclaw227 (Jan 27, 2009)

Just uninstalled the beta, downloaded the new install file, and then installed.  Now it is running through the updater.

Will let you know how it works in a bit!

EDIT:  Just loaded up some chars built with the beta.  No problems so far!


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## RefinedBean (Jan 27, 2009)

I wuv this program, but the scads of houserules in my games is starting to kill me.  All my characters have house-ruled stuff.  I wish that the Power Cards were re-writable, like parts of the char sheet...writing little notes next to custom feats just isn't cutting it.  

Still, this makes character management convenient and even fun.


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## Alikar (Jan 27, 2009)

So far I like the character builder. Having everything at my finger tips like this is quite amazing. If only I could have a campaign builder to go with it.


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## evilgenius8000 (Jan 27, 2009)

I found that it was necessary to uninstall the Beta version in order to get the full version to update properly (it basically got corrupted and I had to reinstall it). Other than that, it seems fine besides a few minor things. My question of how they were going to prevent people from filesharing the programs has been answered, it seems. You'll need to input your DDI account credentials in order to update the builder (and probably the other apps they're developing, as well).


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## Kzach (Jan 27, 2009)

Sly Dodge won't seem to let me choose a skill when it comes to the skill selection screen.


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## Mustrum_Ridcully (Jan 27, 2009)

How do the Character Sheets look like? I remember some formatting error where you could basically read only the first 3 letters of the text or something. Is that fixed? 

Mustrum "Must wait till he's home to try it" Ridcully


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## Kzach (Jan 27, 2009)

Another bug. It hates non-point-buy characters and won't illuminate the 'Next' button.


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## helium3 (Jan 27, 2009)

Uhhh. Are you folks being serious? This is really not the beta? I just installed it and here's what it looks like on my computer.





The GUI is damn near unusable. I have literally never seen such a piece of junk software. I'm paying actual money for this?


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## Jack99 (Jan 27, 2009)

helium3 said:


> Uhhh. Are you folks being serious? This is really not the beta? I just installed it and here's what it looks like on my computer.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Since a lot of people have no issues, maybe it's on your end there is a problem? I can only say that it certainly doesn't look like that at my end.


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## Sammael (Jan 27, 2009)

It looks compeltely different under XP. Must be a Vista issue.


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## Mustrum_Ridcully (Jan 27, 2009)

Sammael said:


> It looks compeltely different under XP. Must be a Vista issue.



It's probably even more specific than just the OS, but I cannot even guess what it is. Sending the screenshot to customer support sounds like a good idea. 

Helium3, did the Beta work on your PC?


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## Henrix (Jan 27, 2009)

Kzach said:


> Another bug. It hates non-point-buy characters and won't illuminate the 'Next' button.




Yeah, I just noticed. This makes it next to useless for me.


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## Jack99 (Jan 27, 2009)

Sammael said:


> It looks compeltely different under XP. Must be a Vista issue.




I have vista 64 bit, and no issue here, so I am not sure that is the issue.


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## Mustrum_Ridcully (Jan 27, 2009)

Henrix said:


> Yeah, I just noticed. This makes it next to useless for me.




IIRC, you do not need to use the "Next" Button. You can just klick to the next tab. (I remember that this was a thing I found positive in the first place - you are not limited to the step-by-step process.) 

But no promises, I can't test the app at work.


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## Henrix (Jan 27, 2009)

Jack99 said:


> I have vista 64 bit, and no issue here, so I am not sure that is the issue.




Ditto. No problems in Vista x64.

The Updater, however, stops responding every time I try it.


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## Keefe the Thief (Jan 27, 2009)

I just created 3 PCs by either rolling dice or using an array, and the "next"-button highlighted for me. And i use Vista. What Race and Class combination were you using?


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## Echohawk (Jan 27, 2009)

Henrix said:


> Yeah, I just noticed. This makes it next to useless for me.



You do know you can just click on the tabs at the top to move to the next stage, instead of clicking on "Next", right?


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## Fallen Seraph (Jan 27, 2009)

While I haven't been screwing around with it, that much so far no issues. Downloaded fine, installed fine, updated fine and everything is looking fine when running the program. I am using Vista 32.


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## Klaus (Jan 27, 2009)

Downloaded it, installed it, loaded a Beta-built PC and leveled up to 4th level. Only bugs I found so far:

Sly Lunge only shows text in the card if no weapon is chosen. In fact, if your choice of weapons makes the card text larger than the card space, the text resets to a large font and doesn't show up.

Character Portrait doesn't show up in the character sheet box.


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## Henrix (Jan 27, 2009)

Echohawk said:


> You do know you can just click on the tabs at the top to move to the next stage, instead of clicking on "Next", right?




Duh! Thanks!


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## Obryn (Jan 27, 2009)

RefinedBean said:


> I wuv this program, but the scads of houserules in my games is starting to kill me.



In both 3e and 4e, this is one of the main reasons I keep my house rules to a minimum.

Spreadsheets and programs, like HeroForge for 3e, and now 4e's Character Builder, are far more appealing to me than a book of house rules.

-O


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## Obryn (Jan 27, 2009)

Henrix said:


> Ditto. No problems in Vista x64.
> 
> The Updater, however, stops responding every time I try it.



If the Updater stops responding, it could be a Vista x64 security issue.  The Character Builder installs itself in one of the Program Files directories, which are given special status in Vista x64, and trying to modify files there might send up red flags.

Right click the icon and Run as Administrator.  Confirm it's okay to do this, then let it go.  It may have better luck updating - it did for me, anyway.  If this does work, change the shortcut properties to always run it as an administrator.

-O


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## Shroomy (Jan 27, 2009)

I installed the Character Builder last night without any issues and it works fine on my laptop which runs Vista.  I built my 8th level artificer, and other than some missing rituals (for some reason, Wizard Sight and Transfer Enchantment were missing from the Ritual List) and some power cards missing information, it worked fine.  I really like it and definitely plan to use it going forward, even if I have to manually add some info for the timebeing.


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## Henrix (Jan 27, 2009)

Obryn said:


> If the Updater stops responding, it could be a Vista x64 security issue.  The Character Builder installs itself in one of the Program Files directories, which are given special status in Vista x64, and trying to modify files there might send up red flags.




Ah, of course! That seems to work.



The problem with writing in your own stats (instead of rolling) still is annoying. After I have used the tabs to go forward it goes back to the stats page whenever I press 'Next'. Not a big thing, but a little annoying.


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## Nebulous (Jan 27, 2009)

I didn't uninstall the Beta, just installed the full over it and it seemed to work fine.  I got a wonky error message at first, but it seemed to plow over it and install anyway.  If they can keep this thing mercilessly updated and bug free, i'd say it's the best online gaming resource to come out in many, many years.


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## catsclaw227 (Jan 27, 2009)

I haven't had any problems.  Installed on Vista x64.  One thing I noticed is that it had a weird issue with my custom Vista install.  

I have moved some of the public and my Documents folders to another drive, using Vista's file management.  When the initial download of the ddisetup.exe file was put in the Desktop folder WOTC Games, but my "desktop" folder (and My Music, My Videos, etc) is found on a separate hard drive.

It tried to go to my "assumed" root folder of c:\Users\.... instead of the one on my z:\Users\ folder. 

I just had to open the WotC Games folder and launch ddisetup.exe.

I had no problems updating and opening beta character sheets.


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## Zaukrie (Jan 27, 2009)

Great program. I run vista. No issues installing and updating. There are minor bugs here and there, but that is to be expected at this point (and in the future). This is a massive information effort, there will be minor bugs and glitches. Next to the books, this is up there with the compendium as the best D&D tool ever.


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## Bold or Stupid (Jan 27, 2009)

The only issues I'm having are problems with multiclass feats actually carrying through (I picked a power swap, why can't I swap). Plus there are still some problems with it picking up some details of the MP fighter features (the ones in chainmail).


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## Obryn (Jan 27, 2009)

Henrix said:


> Ah, of course! That seems to work.



Glad to help! 

-O


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## thalmin (Jan 27, 2009)

Kzach said:


> Another bug. It hates non-point-buy characters and won't illuminate the 'Next' button.



If you are creating a human, you must use the drop-down to pick your bonus stat. It may be waiting for your choice. This worked on the first character for which I decided to input stat.


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## Nebulous (Jan 27, 2009)

Klaus said:


> Character Portrait doesn't show up in the character sheet box.




oooh...not good.  I was just getting ready to try that.  How easy is it to import your own art?


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## vagabundo (Jan 27, 2009)

The DDI future looks bright indeed. I'm happy I jumped, these and the tools and the content is more than worth it to me.


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## Kzach (Jan 27, 2009)

The art thing only happens to me if I don't manually choose a portrait. I've imported dozens of pictures and the handler has done an excellent job of resizing and putting the picture into the character sheet.


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## helium3 (Jan 27, 2009)

Jack99 said:


> Since a lot of people have no issues, maybe it's on your end there is a problem? I can only say that it certainly doesn't look like that at my end.




Hrm. How to say this. 

It's very definitely a "problem" on my end. The software is having a weird reaction to something specific about my laptop. That being said, I've been running Vista (business version, which might be the cause) for a year and a half now.

I've never seen any of the problems with the new OS that others have complained about. I've installed lot's of software from other manufacturers and I've downloaded lot's of open source software. I've never seen a piece of technology malfunction as massively as their character generator has. On rare occasion Adobe Acrobat 9 has a loosely similar problem, but it's never extreme enough to make the software more or less unusable.

I'll have to see what customer service says.


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## malraux (Jan 27, 2009)

Gee, I wish my DDI account weren't screwed up.  This was one of the things I was really looking forward to.


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## Plane Sailing (Jan 27, 2009)

Have they fixed the bug I reported?

Bracers of perfect shot didn't add to the damage of magic missile and eldritch blast (which it should, since they are ranged basic attacks)

Cheers


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## davethegame (Jan 27, 2009)

Bold or Stupid said:


> The only issues I'm having are problems with multiclass feats actually carrying through (I picked a power swap, why can't I swap). Plus there are still some problems with it picking up some details of the MP fighter features (the ones in chainmail).




I had the same issue with power swap. It's a bit weird- you go to the retraining area, pick which power to drop, click the drop option button, then there's a box in the lower right which lists power swap options.


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## Admiral Caine (Jan 27, 2009)

I run XP and installed the first time with no problems. Easy as pie.

A good friend installed, also running XP, and it repeatedly failed to update after the 1-3 installation. He had uninstalled too. He went back, uninstalled again, deleted his characters, deleted all downloaded files, and cleaned his Registry of everything that appeated to be WOTC or DDI related.. then it installed fine. But only then.

A third friend had the same problem. He was running Vista. He did like the second friend, and then it installed smoothly.

Me? I just did the basic uninstall, and I kept my old characters to boot.

Unusual.


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## Mengu (Jan 27, 2009)

After building a character, check your numbers carefully. There are still some known and unknown bugs. I'm really not trusting it yet to do all my calculations for me. I created my Warlord, and it was adding weapon enhancement bonus to damage with Furious Smash, which does not have a damage roll and should not be added.

I hate having to take a pen to the character sheet after I print it, but I guess that's the way it has to be until all the kinks are smoothed out.


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## Shroomy (Jan 27, 2009)

The CB actually pointed out a pair of mistakes that I had made manually on the my character sheet, one of which I reported as a bug before I figured out the discrepancy!  Sorry developers if you're reading this.


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## Caliber (Jan 27, 2009)

Plane Sailing said:


> Have they fixed the bug I reported?
> 
> Bracers of perfect shot didn't add to the damage of magic missile and eldritch blast (which it should, since they are ranged basic attacks)
> 
> Cheers




Yes, my Warlock's Bracers were included in the total for his Eldritch Blast. I'd imagine the same fix was applied for Magic Missile, although I can't verify ...


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## disarray2 (Jan 27, 2009)

I can't get it to retrain feats.  It doesn't give me the option for anything other then skills and spells on the retraining tab.  If I try do it on the feats tab it won't let me pick the higher level feats.  According to the book, I'm suppose to be able to.


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## davethegame (Jan 27, 2009)

I tried making a level 10 Druid, and it looked like it only showed the 1-3 level powers that were in the preview, but I'm not 100% sure. Anyone else tried, or a high level Bard or Invoker?


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## Spatula (Jan 27, 2009)

davethegame said:


> I tried making a level 10 Druid, and it looked like it only showed the 1-3 level powers that were in the preview, but I'm not 100% sure. Anyone else tried, or a high level Bard or Invoker?



You can make a 30th level whatever, but there's no "new" powers contained in the Builder.  Only the ones that have already been previewed.


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## Scribble (Jan 27, 2009)

Hey are the characters importable into another instance of the program?

Like if say I make a dude over at a friend's place can I bring him home and do my updates and stuff at my own house? (Obviously provided we both have the full program.)


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## Oldtimer (Jan 27, 2009)

Well, duh!

They still have the same installation bug I reported a month ago. Now I have to disassemble the MSI database again and fix it before I can install.

Not happy with their quality control here!


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## mach1.9pants (Jan 27, 2009)

Henrix said:


> Yeah, I just noticed. This makes it next to useless for me.



How so? Just roll the dice for real (or use an app) and add it in. There are no maximums to what you put on the PC ability scores...

EDIT: AFAIK the characters are transferable as well


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## Enforcer (Jan 27, 2009)

Everything works fine for me. I run a virtual copy of Vista Basic using VMWare Fusion on my iMac. Installation and use are both without a hitch on my end.

My favorite update is that customizing the Attack, Damage, and Basic Attacks sections now saves properly so you don't have to redo it when you view the character sheet again. Thank goodness. 

And they added a checkbox for Unarmed for Basic Attacks! I love this program.


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## Echohawk (Jan 27, 2009)

Scribble said:


> Hey are the characters importable into another instance of the program?



Yes.

(Or rather, you could move a .dnd4e file from one machine to another using the demo version and I think it is highly unlikely that that's changed for the full version, but I haven't tested this.)


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## Scribble (Jan 27, 2009)

Oldtimer said:


> Well, duh!
> 
> They still have the same installation bug I reported a month ago. Now I have to disassemble the MSI database again and fix it before I can install.
> 
> Not happy with their quality control here!




What is the issue you are having? 



			
				Echohawk said:
			
		

> Yes.




Werd.


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## RefinedBean (Jan 27, 2009)

Obryn said:


> In both 3e and 4e, this is one of the main reasons I keep my house rules to a minimum.
> 
> Spreadsheets and programs, like HeroForge for 3e, and now 4e's Character Builder, are far more appealing to me than a book of house rules.
> 
> -O




Your unwarranted opinion fills me with delight, Obryn.  

The houserules are mainly campaign-specific, stemming from a conversion from 3.5 to 4E, 's all.  They just happen to be centered around individual characters (like mine), which lessens the utility of the character builder somewhat.

I don't see why you can write in your own stats and skill bonuses, but can't customize the Feats section or the power cards from the character sheet.  WotC = Teases!


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## catsclaw227 (Jan 27, 2009)

I found one bug.  Grasping Claws (Druid 1 at-will) shows "Wisdon vs. Reflex" instead of "Wisdom vs. Reflex" and it is not catching the spelling error and returning an attack bonus of +0 when it should be +5.

Odd, one would think they would rely on enums and not string matching.


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## Vael (Jan 27, 2009)

Bold or Stupid said:


> The only issues I'm having are problems with multiclass feats actually carrying through (I picked a power swap, why can't I swap).




Power swaps are handled via the retraining tab, not the Power tab. Makes it clumsier to use, as the retraining tab doesn't break down powers by level and takes a little more to find what you want.


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## Oldtimer (Jan 27, 2009)

Scribble said:


> What is the issue you are having?



The installation aborts with this little beauty:







I've traced it to the portraits and sample characters they are trying to install in my user profile, but so far I've failed to figure out exactly why Windows Installer tries to create a folder which already exists. But there are a lot of mistakes in that MSI database, so there are many things to check.


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## Nightchilde-2 (Jan 27, 2009)

Sammael said:


> It looks compeltely different under XP. Must be a Vista issue.




I have Vista and it looks fine here.


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## Caliber (Jan 28, 2009)

Using a macbook and Parallels it works fine (as long as you turn off Parallels hardware video acceleration, which is crap anyway ...)

I've already statted up my character, and didn't notice any problems. I've begun playing with the layout for his character sheet ... I like although I wish I could adjust more than column width and info placement. Anyone have some good custom layouts they want to share? I think it'd be awesome to get a collection of them together and share out the better ones ... this utility seems to demand that type of support.


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## Obryn (Jan 28, 2009)

RefinedBean said:


> Your unwarranted opinion fills me with delight, Obryn.
> 
> The houserules are mainly campaign-specific, stemming from a conversion from 3.5 to 4E, 's all.  They just happen to be centered around individual characters (like mine), which lessens the utility of the character builder somewhat.
> 
> I don't see why you can write in your own stats and skill bonuses, but can't customize the Feats section or the power cards from the character sheet.  WotC = Teases!



Oh, I didn't mean to imply anything for anyone but me 

I respect the folks who put the time and work into customizing their play experience with house rules.  I know I did enough of it!

Now, as my free time steadily decreases, I find that any shortcuts I can make are worth their weight in gold.  Character generators are about the best shortcut ever, IMHO. 

-O


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## Zaukrie (Jan 28, 2009)

So easy to make NPCs now....


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## vic20 (Jan 28, 2009)

*Very, very nice*

I am very impressed! This is better than I was expecting, and I was expecting some quality software. 

There are definitely bugs in the installer, but those should be addressed soon enough. 

Congrats to the whole project team!


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## vic20 (Jan 28, 2009)

*More praise*

Woot. Just woot. 

In my eyes, this is the most productive, practical piece of software I've ever played with for d&d, "official" or otherwise. The few hours I've spent with the Character Builder have really impressed upon me how the 4E architecture patterns dovetail with software architecture modeling patterns. 

Who has the license to develop computer games for d&d again?


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## Mustrum_Ridcully (Jan 28, 2009)

A few "quirks" - technically correct behavior that still has you wondering what is going on: 

- Weapon Focus is its own subtab in the feats. Makes sense in hindsight, but boy, was I searching.

- The builder associates feat slot and levels, so if you are still on your first feats, you don't get Paragon Options, even if you make a 18th level character. You can still later retrain these feats later if you need to. It also seems to keep track of your ability scores over your levels, so if you only qualified for Plate Armor Proficiency at 8th level (to get your Con to 15), you cannot select the feat earlier. 
This can be a little confusing at first, but it makes absolutely sense, since it enforces "legal" characters. 

- Retraining by picking Multiclass feats is done in the Powers Section, as is picking the right feat.

----
I noticed a few errors: 
- I recreated my Dragonborn Warlord. It wouldn't show me his Paragon Path "Sword Marshall". Apparently I don't qualify for it due to the lack of "Heavy Blade Proficiency", even though I have not only military weapon proficiency but also Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword). But if you use the House Rule button, you can also show "illegal" stuff and I got my Paragon Path that way. 
The ways prerequisites are checked might need to be tested more.

- There are some spelling errors. Catsclaws comment might indicate that this could be a problem if it is supposed to be a keyword/rules term like an ability score.

- There are still some powers that are not correctly formatted on the Character Sheet, for example Dragon Breath. I think that's my biggest gripe, since it makes the sheet less useful. 

----
Something I miss: 
- A way to remove the item power cards only from the sheet. I need a shorter description or something, because I don't want to print 6 pages just for a few item powers! 

----
I suppose I should compile my list and send it to Customer Support or their Error Reporting.

Overall, it's fun. I think I will spend a lot of time these weeks to test-drive the app and create more PCs. 




2Oldtimer: Could you figure out what they are using to create the MSI Files? I wonder if that tool is flawed...


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## Klaus (Jan 28, 2009)

Pact Blade's text still don't show up right on the power cards.

Also, I :heart: editing notes for feats and features!


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## Vael (Jan 28, 2009)

Another glitch ... I made a wizard with the Spiral Tower Paragon path, and it hasn't used the magic longsword I equipped the wizard with as an implement in the wizard's powers. It did grant me the AC bonus though (Staff Implement).


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## vagabundo (Jan 28, 2009)

Zaukrie said:


> So easy to make NPCs now....




Something that occured to me too, but would I ever want such a detailed NPC? Unless there was a chance that a PC might run them.


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## Nightchilde-2 (Jan 28, 2009)

Kzach said:


> Another bug. It hates non-point-buy characters and won't illuminate the 'Next' button.




Forgive me if this has been answered already...I'm getting kids ready for the day so I don't have the time to read to see if this has been answered yet.  

I ran into the same issue.  I discovered (almost by accident) that if you enter the stats into the white boxes as opposed to using the blue circles, it'll give you the Next button highlighted, though it will still say the character is not legal point-buy.


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## catsclaw227 (Jan 28, 2009)

Mustrum_Ridcully said:


> I suppose I should compile my list and send it to Customer Support or their Error Reporting.



I think this is key.  I did this with my error and got a response back from the team with a thank you and that they would pass it on to the developers (I don't think it was an auto-response, but it was a form style response.)


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## Plane Sailing (Jan 28, 2009)

Mustrum_Ridcully said:


> Something I miss:
> - A way to remove the item power cards only from the sheet. I need a shorter description or something, because I don't want to print 6 pages just for a few item powers!




Something which I saw as a bug might prove to be a feature for you here...

If you print the character sheet to PDF, it only prints single pages. A real PITA, as I wanted to give someone a pdf of their whole character sheet for printing, and I had to give them 6 separate pdfs.

But... it might work to your advantage (unless they've fixed that issue since the beta)

Cheers


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## Asmor (Jan 28, 2009)

I've done up the 5 characters in my game. I ran into some problems, though.

First and foremost, in my mind, multiclass power swap feats don't seem to work (or at least I can't figure out how to use them...). I was able to remedy this by using the illegal selections open.

Second, I'm having a lot of trouble with custom rules. I've got a dragonborn in my game whose breath is radiant. I put in "Dragon Breath Radiant" as a custom rule for that, and it didn't seem to do anything on the power card.

More importantly, one of my players is playing a custom race. There's no way to add this custom race's racial power or skill bonuses, and the only way to add the racial ability bonuses is by increasing the base stats, which causes the program to get hung up thinking I'm over the point allowance.

Overall, I'm very happy with it, but the multiclass feats seem like they should be a major priority, and I'd really like to see more robust custom options, or at least the ability to manually add in powers and skill bonuses.


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## morgul97 (Jan 28, 2009)

*Problems with the updater?*

It's my understanding that you can download the character generator onto more than one PC, so long as you don't exceed 5 updates in a month.  I had no problems getting it to install on my laptop.  I then tried to install it on my wife's desktop.  I had no problems with the installation phase.  However, when I went to run the updater, it is now telling me it can't recognize the files.  Is this a general installation issue or am I not understanding someting with respect to the licensing / number of updates?


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## reveal (Jan 28, 2009)

morgul97 said:


> It's my understanding that you can download the character generator onto more than one PC, so long as you don't exceed 5 updates in a month.  I had no problems getting it to install on my laptop.  I then tried to install it on my wife's desktop.  I had no problems with the installation phase.  However, when I went to run the updater, it is now telling me it can't recognize the files.  Is this a general installation issue or am I not understanding someting with respect to the licensing / number of updates?



A lot of folks are getting that problem. I just wrote a post about it here with some more info.


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## kenmarable (Jan 28, 2009)

Asmor said:


> Second, I'm having a lot of trouble with custom rules. I've got a dragonborn in my game whose breath is radiant. I put in "Dragon Breath Radiant" as a custom rule for that, and it didn't seem to do anything on the power card.
> 
> More importantly, one of my players is playing a custom race. There's no way to add this custom race's racial power or skill bonuses, and the only way to add the racial ability bonuses is by increasing the base stats, which causes the program to get hung up thinking I'm over the point allowance.



I can imagine that true custom features would come last (as a programmer I know how ugly that can get), but if they are able to implement them at least to a basic extent, then I am not using anything else for character creation again.


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## Agamon (Jan 28, 2009)

Huh, 5 updates per month.  I didn't read the end user agreement, but is this so that a DM can share with his group?


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## catsclaw227 (Jan 28, 2009)

Remember to report your bugs here:  Report a Bug.


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## Arivendel (Jan 28, 2009)

Agamon said:


> Huh, 5 updates per month.  I didn't read the end user agreement, but is this so that a DM can share with his group?



I would assume thats the unofficial reason, officially its to cover possible flash updates for unexpected bugs or what not over 1-2 units (because i think scott knows some players like to keep one updated in their PC's and one in their laptops),


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## Zaukrie (Jan 28, 2009)

I'd never make an NPC that detailed, but now I can get all the base stuff in, put a few of the cool powers in there, and move the pieces around onto one sheet. I can pick which of the 10 powers I want him/her to have, it's all there for me (and when I figure out how to edit, I'll add/change the flavor text to re-skin the tiefling warlock to be more far realms in description of what it's doing).


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## SteveC (Jan 28, 2009)

Plane Sailing said:


> Something which I saw as a bug might prove to be a feature for you here...
> 
> If you print the character sheet to PDF, it only prints single pages. A real PITA, as I wanted to give someone a pdf of their whole character sheet for printing, and I had to give them 6 separate pdfs.
> 
> ...



It's only a workaround, but what I did was use Acrobat to merge the different documents into one. Just use Create PDF from multiple documents, and then select each page...and you've got one document. But this is definitely something that should be updated as well.

--Steve


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## Scribble (Jan 28, 2009)

D'OH!

So I downloaded the program last night, and started to install... The instaling popup screen came up and it said downloading.... and just sat there.

Tried hitting pause, then restart to get it going. Nothing.

So I closed out the program...

Then I noticed what I had failed to notice a moment before. It had teriggered a security request from McAfee asking if it was ok for this random program to use the internet. Silly me. I said it was and ran the program again, but got that silly only one instance can be running at a time error

I reset the computer and this time it ran fine. Same thing happened when I ran the update, but this time I noticed the security request, and avoided all that hassle. 

Maybe that will help others. 

So far I think the progeram is pretty neat. Won't see a ton of use by me now though, as I'm the DM, but my players are stoked!


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## Nebulous (Jan 28, 2009)

SteveC said:


> It's only a workaround, but what I did was use Acrobat to merge the different documents into one. Just use Create PDF from multiple documents, and then select each page...and you've got one document. But this is definitely something that should be updated as well.
> 
> --Steve




I must be missing it, but how do you export to .pdf?  I have Adobe so i can just merge them, not a huge deal, but really something that should be fixed later.


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## Nebulous (Jan 28, 2009)

Scribble said:


> So far I think the progeram is pretty neat. Won't see a ton of use by me now though, as I'm the DM, but my players are stoked!




You know, with me, i think it might be the opposite.  Up until now, as DM, i wasn't really digging the powers and building characters in 4e.  Now, with the ease and utility of this program, i'm really enjoying just messing around with options and throwing together ideas, all in a few minutes, and taking a look at powers from sources i'll probably not ever buy.  I think this is the best thing the DDI has offered yet.


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## Klaus (Jan 28, 2009)

Tried several images, but the Character Portrait isn't showing...


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## Caliber (Jan 28, 2009)

Check the retraining section of the builder to utilize your power swap feats. I just checked to make sure and that is where I swapped out my Warlock/Cleric's level 6 Shroud of Black Steel for a level 6 Bastion of Health.


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## Agamon (Jan 28, 2009)

Klaus said:


> Tried several images, but the Character Portrait isn't showing...




Weird.  It was working in the beta.  I'll have to check this out when I get home.


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## Asmor (Jan 28, 2009)

Caliber said:


> Check the retraining section of the builder to utilize your power swap feats. I just checked to make sure and that is where I swapped out my Warlock/Cleric's level 6 Shroud of Black Steel for a level 6 Bastion of Health.




Well hell, I even checked the retraining page specifically last time, but I missed that.

Thanks!


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## disarray2 (Jan 28, 2009)

I just had the attached card show up. Have to idea how or why. Weird.


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## Plane Sailing (Jan 28, 2009)

Nebulous said:


> I must be missing it, but how do you export to .pdf?  I have Adobe so i can just merge them, not a huge deal, but really something that should be fixed later.




If you have adobe acrobat, it should probably have installed an "Acrobat PDF" printer driver - so you select that as your printer when you print from the application and Bob is the brother of one of your parents, if you follow me.

Cheers


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## reveal (Jan 28, 2009)

Plane Sailing said:


> If you have adobe acrobat, it should probably have installed an "Acrobat PDF" printer driver - so you select that as your printer when you print from the application and Bob is the brother of one of your parents, if you follow me.
> 
> Cheers



But only if you have the full version. Acrobat Reader doesn't create a PDF print driver.


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## Nikosandros (Jan 28, 2009)

reveal said:


> But only if you have the full version. Acrobat Reader doesn't create a PDF print driver.



You can however install some free program, like CutePDF to do the same.


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## Plane Sailing (Jan 28, 2009)

reveal said:


> But only if you have the full version. Acrobat Reader doesn't create a PDF print driver.




I was guessing that because he said he could use acrobat to merge pages, that meant he had the full version (reader didn't use to be able to merge things, although that isn't to say they've not added it in the meantime!)

Cheers


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## malraux (Jan 28, 2009)

Is anyone else having trouble printing in a landscape format?  Currently, I'm getting the landscaped pages sctreched to fit a portrate page.  This worked fine for me in the beta.


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## Remathilis (Jan 29, 2009)

Anyone know why we can create nearly any custom item (Feats, Powers, Races, Paragons, etc) EXCEPT custom deities? Wouldn't that be the EASIEST thing to implement?


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## Nymrohd (Jan 29, 2009)

How exactly are you guys creating custom items? I mean I've seen the houserule section in Campaigns but it just takes text with no formating for me.


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## Protagonist (Jan 29, 2009)

Nikosandros said:


> You can however install some free program, like CutePDF to do the same.




exactly, I use the open source pdfcreator and it does let me save the character sheet as a single pdf btw.


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## Remathilis (Jan 29, 2009)

Nymrohd said:


> How exactly are you guys creating custom items? I mean I've seen the houserule section in Campaigns but it just takes text with no formating for me.




You're looking at it (for now).


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## Nymrohd (Jan 29, 2009)

Ah I thought I might be missing something. Tbh the CB is great as it is, I'd love a good houserule tool, but they are a huge pain to create; I'll be most pleasantly surprised if they pull that off, but not much dissappointed either way.


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## Pbartender (Jan 29, 2009)

Huh...  I'm not particularly interested in much of the other Insider stuff, but $8 for a month-long subscription just to pick up the Character might be worth it.


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## Kzach (Jan 29, 2009)

Nightchilde-2 said:


> Forgive me if this has been answered already...I'm getting kids ready for the day so I don't have the time to read to see if this has been answered yet.
> 
> I ran into the same issue.  I discovered (almost by accident) that if you enter the stats into the white boxes as opposed to using the blue circles, it'll give you the Next button highlighted, though it will still say the character is not legal point-buy.




Ah, cool, that's awesome. Thanks for the heads-up!


Zaukrie said:


> So easy to make NPCs now....



You use PC classes and stats for NPC's?

Why bother unless they're travelling with the party?


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## SteveC (Jan 29, 2009)

Plane Sailing said:


> I was guessing that because he said he could use acrobat to merge pages, that meant he had the full version (reader didn't use to be able to merge things, although that isn't to say they've not added it in the meantime!)
> 
> Cheers



Yes I do. Full Adobe lets you merge files together, and I don't believe this is in the Reader only. The funny thing is that I was just printing some new characters, and I was able to create the whole sheet (all the pages) in one PDF. I'm not sure why I had a problem with it earlier.

--Steve


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## Kzach (Jan 29, 2009)

disarray2 said:


> I just had the attached card show up. Have to idea how or why. Weird.




Haha.

If it's real and not just something you've inputted, then I'll wager it is either an egg or the by-product of one of the dev's sense of humour.

Either way, funny


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## Nebulous (Jan 29, 2009)

Plane Sailing said:


> If you have adobe acrobat, it should probably have installed an "Acrobat PDF" printer driver - so you select that as your printer when you print from the application and Bob is the brother of one of your parents, if you follow me.
> 
> Cheers




Right, gotcha. I have full Adobe, i didn't even think about printing to .pdf, i was looking for an export in the builder.  thanks.


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## ThirdWizard (Jan 29, 2009)

Remathilis said:


> Anyone know why we can create nearly any custom item (Feats, Powers, Races, Paragons, etc) EXCEPT custom deities? Wouldn't that be the EASIEST thing to implement?




If you go to Manage -> Details (the first tab under Manage) you can type in whatever name you want for the deity. Even if you chose another one (for example if you're a cleric) it will show the one you typed in on the character sheet.


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## Nikosandros (Jan 29, 2009)

SteveC said:


> Yes I do. Full Adobe lets you merge files together, and I don't believe this is in the Reader only. The funny thing is that I was just printing some new characters, and I was able to create the whole sheet (all the pages) in one PDF. I'm not sure why I had a problem with it earlier.



Well, in the beta it was like that. Did you also have this behavior with the full version?


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## disarray2 (Jan 29, 2009)

Kzach said:


> Haha.
> 
> If it's real and not just something you've inputted, then I'll wager it is either an egg or the by-product of one of the dev's sense of humour.
> 
> Either way, funny




lol it was/is real.  I had just added a whole bunch of magic items to check my character all decked out.  I figured that was what prompted it if you want to give it a try.


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## disarray2 (Jan 29, 2009)

malraux said:


> Is anyone else having trouble printing in a landscape format? Currently, I'm getting the landscaped pages sctreched to fit a portrate page. This worked fine for me in the beta.




I had the same problem.  I was going to try and print to pdf to see if that changed it but I haven't gotten a chance yet.


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## malraux (Jan 29, 2009)

disarray2 said:


> I had the same problem.  I was going to try and print to pdf to see if that changed it but I haven't gotten a chance yet.




Printing to pdf (via pdfcreator) yielded the same result for me.


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## almuric (Jan 29, 2009)

malraux said:


> Is anyone else having trouble printing in a landscape format?  Currently, I'm getting the landscaped pages sctreched to fit a portrate page.  This worked fine for me in the beta.



I am. But I'm running Windows XP in a Parallels window on my Macbook Pro, so I figured it was just some conflict between Windows/CB/Parallels/Mac OS X. After about 5 or 6 tries I decided to print in Portrait and quit wasting paper.

It sucks that I can't Print Preview, which would save me some money. But I managed to get a usable character sheet and powers out of it, so I can't complain too much, I guess.


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## Zaukrie (Jan 29, 2009)

NPC is a misnomer. I'm thinking "monsters" that are based on classes, like the tiefling they are facing right now. Using the builder, it took me 5 minutes to pick the powers I thought would best evoke what I'm trying to create in an opponent. I then whittle those down to the 3-5 or so he/she might use in an encounter with the PCs. Quick and easy "class based monster" creation. I need to re-examine hps....


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## Phaezen (Jan 29, 2009)

Feature I just noted, which will come in handy with the characters put up in the downloads section is that you can look at the character sheet for previous levels.


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## CAFRedblade (Jan 29, 2009)

SteveC said:


> It's only a workaround, but what I did was use Acrobat to merge the different documents into one. Just use Create PDF from multiple documents, and then select each page...and you've got one document. But this is definitely something that should be updated as well.
> 
> --Steve




Odd, I've used Acrobat 9 to print pdf copies of characters, both portrait and landscape and they do so in one file.  
The only issue I seem to be having printing to pdf is that when set to landscape it squishes the landscape layout to 8.5 inches wide instead of 11 inches wide, as if it was set to portrait...  
Haven't figured out if it is my pdf printing settings or the program.
Full portrait prints to pdf just fine.
*Just caught up on a few others noting that they too are having a problem printing landscape properly, looks like it is the program, 
I'm running Vista Ultimate with Acrobat 9 just for comparison.


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## Alikar (Jan 30, 2009)

CAFRedblade said:


> Odd, I've used Acrobat 9 to print pdf copies of characters, both portrait and landscape and they do so in one file.
> The only issue I seem to be having printing to pdf is that when set to landscape it squishes the landscape layout to 8.5 inches wide instead of 11 inches wide, as if it was set to portrait...
> Haven't figured out if it is my pdf printing settings or the program.
> Full portrait prints to pdf just fine.
> ...




Its the program, which is an interesting bug I must say.


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## Vanuslux (Jan 30, 2009)

I guess I'll be getting a year subscription when my tax return comes in.  I do hope they better implement house rules and custom races/classes/whatever in the near future though because I'm a big fan of 3rd Party Products.


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## Agamon (Jan 31, 2009)

Sooo...there any way to add bonuses to the PCs?  My game's magic-lite, so I'm using the +1 to attacks and defenses per 5 levels rule from the DMG, but I see no way to actually implement that in the builder, except as a houseruled note, which isn't all that useful.


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## RefinedBean (Jan 31, 2009)

Agamon said:


> Sooo...there any way to add bonuses to the PCs?  My game's magic-lite, so I'm using the +1 to attacks and defenses per 5 levels rule from the DMG, but I see no way to actually implement that in the builder, except as a houseruled note, which isn't all that useful.




On the character sheet, you can rewrite the skill totals, attack totals, and...well, most other numerical totals.  It'll come up as a Misc. bonus, and you can add a little note as to why you made the change.


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## Asmor (Feb 1, 2009)

Agamon said:


> Sooo...there any way to add bonuses to the PCs?  My game's magic-lite, so I'm using the +1 to attacks and defenses per 5 levels rule from the DMG, but I see no way to actually implement that in the builder, except as a houseruled note, which isn't all that useful.




You could always just give them +X magic weapons/armor and ignore the word "magic."



RefinedBean said:


> On the character sheet, you can rewrite the skill totals, attack totals, and...well, most other numerical totals.  It'll come up as a Misc. bonus, and you can add a little note as to why you made the change.




Ah, thanks for that! I've been trying to select the misc columns themselves, never occured to me to try the total column.


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