# Please critique my Summon Monster spreadsheet



## paranoid (Oct 16, 2003)

Thought I'd share this with you, I find it helpful. I created this because I always found it ardous to calculate the final stats of summonable monsters time and again. Ever tried to find out the poison save DC for a gargantuan fiendish monstrous scorpion that was summoned by someone with the augment summoning feat in the heat of a battle? Then you should try out this customizable, printable sheet where everything is done for you already (heh, sounds like I try to sell you something, but believe me, it's free ).

If you are interested, please try it out and post any critique, suggestions for improvement or errors into this thread or to the e-mail address provided in the spreadsheet.

[EDIT: newest version attached]

-p.


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## KeithHays (Oct 16, 2003)

Looks good!  Oughta get that first period out of the filename, though.  It doesn't save as a zip file that way.

Thanks!


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## Dr.Dan (Oct 17, 2003)

Just for the record, I despise MS Excel. I just downloaded your sheet (looks nice, BTW) and accidentally changed some formula while looking around. I couldn't undo more than one step back, so I tried to quit the program without saving the  changes. IT WOULDN'T LET ME QUIT!!! It kept displaying the message, "you can't quit Microsoft Excel." Grrrrrr!


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## Storminator (Oct 17, 2003)

Dr.Dan said:
			
		

> Just for the record, I despise MS Excel. I just downloaded your sheet (looks nice, BTW) and accidentally changed some formula while looking around. I couldn't undo more than one step back, so I tried to quit the program without saving the  changes. IT WOULDN'T LET ME QUIT!!! It kept displaying the message, "you can't quit Microsoft Excel." Grrrrrr!




CTRL-ALT-Delete... End Task....

PS

edited to hide my own stupidity...


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## paranoid (Oct 17, 2003)

KeithHays said:
			
		

> Looks good!  Oughta get that first period out of the filename, though.  It doesn't save as a zip file that way.
> 
> Thanks!




Thanks for the hint, filename changed.



			
				Storminator said:
			
		

> CTRL-ALT-Delete... End Task....



That would certainly do it. I thought about write-protecting the whole spreadsheet in order to prevent accidental editing, but decided against that, I didn't want to incapacitate you folks... But if bad comes to worse and you can't undo, just download the file again.  

cheers,

-p.


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## KnightFever (Oct 17, 2003)

Nice and handy spreadsheet. Any plan to do the same with Nature's Ally spells ?


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## Chacal (Oct 17, 2003)

paranoid said:
			
		

> I thought about write-protecting the whole spreadsheet in order to prevent accidental editing, but decided against that, I didn't want to incapacitate you folks...




I believe you can write protect the zones with formulas without putting a password. This way It doesn't incapacitate anyone.

Thanks for the time and efforts ! 
Staroffice isn't converting it completely so I'll Check it later with Excel.

Chacal


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## gfunk (Oct 17, 2003)

The damage for the Elder Eath elemental should be 2d10+11, but that's minor.

Otherwise, very good job.  Personally, I'm still kind of surprised at the utility and power of Summon Nature's Ally over Summon Monster.


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## Pielorinho (Oct 17, 2003)

Very cool!  A couple suggestions:
-Put a fieldname row across the top and lock it.
-Apply light shading to every other row, to make it easier to follow one record all the way across.

Daniel


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## Piratecat (Oct 17, 2003)

I'll slide this over to the correct forum.

Very nice!


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## paranoid (Oct 18, 2003)

[Edited attachment on my initial post to the most updated version]



			
				KnightFever said:
			
		

> Nice and handy spreadsheet. Any plan to do the same with Nature's Ally spells ?



Plan - yes, time - not in the moment... But hopefully at some timepoint in the future...



			
				Chacal said:
			
		

> I believe you can write protect the zones with formulas without putting a password. This way It doesn't incapacitate anyone.



Unfortunately, if I write protect the whole sheet, one cannot select something from the drop-down menus anymore. The solution would be to protect only certain areas, but I don't know how. Any ideas?



			
				gfunk said:
			
		

> The damage for the Elder Eath elemental should be 2d10+11, but that's minor.



Yeah, I was wondering already where I could buy a d11...   Thanks!



			
				Pielorinho said:
			
		

> -Put a fieldname row across the top and lock it.



Sorry, I don't get what you suggest. Perhaps it's because I'm using the german Excel version and all functions have other names. I already locked the first row on the "Summon Monster table", so that you can always see it if you scroll down. Or do you mean on the print-out? If yes, can you please tell me how to do it, that would be cool.



			
				Pielorinho said:
			
		

> -Apply light shading to every other row, to make it easier to follow one record all the way across.



Excellent Idea, done!

thanks for all the input, keep it coming!
-p.


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## Silveras (Oct 18, 2003)

*Tip and Comment*

Tip: To repeat the header rows on all printed pages, File|Page Setup, select the Sheet tab, and there are boxes for  "Rows to repeat at top" and "Columns to repeat at left". 

     Comment: I like the layout, and it is nice to have the standard options pre-calculated.


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## paranoid (Oct 19, 2003)

[Editet initial post attachment to newest version]



			
				Silveras said:
			
		

> Tip: To repeat the header rows on all printed pages, File|Page Setup, select the Sheet tab, and there are boxes for  "Rows to repeat at top" and "Columns to repeat at left".




Ah - THERE is the option I was looking for! Thanks a lot!   

-p.


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## gariig (Oct 19, 2003)

If you pick augmnet summoning does it change all of the damage, tohits, HP, saves, etc?  It didn't seem like it, but maybe I was missing something.

Gariig


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## paranoid (Oct 20, 2003)

gariig said:
			
		

> If you pick augmnet summoning does it change all of the damage, tohits, HP, saves, etc?  It didn't seem like it, but maybe I was missing something.




A.S. changes all of the damages (the amount varies depending on whether it's a primary, secondary or solitary natural weapon) and HP. Regarding saves, only the Fort save is changed...  The to-hit bonuses are not changed if the monster has weapon finesse (and a higher Dex than Str score after application of A.S.).
Perhaps you didn't recalculate the sheet? If you change something on the Caster Info page (including picking A.S.), remember to select "True" again in the upper left-hand corner of the Summon Monster table.

-p.


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## gariig (Oct 20, 2003)

I must be kind of dumb.  I can't figure out where any of your calculations are done.  If you want to keep this a secret, that is fine.  I was going to poke around at the feasability of adding onto it.

Gariig


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## paranoid (Oct 20, 2003)

gariig said:
			
		

> I must be kind of dumb.  I can't figure out where any of your calculations are done.  If you want to keep this a secret, that is fine.  I was going to poke around at the feasability of adding onto it.




Sorry if I was unclear. I don't want to keep anything secret. The augment summoning calculations are NOT calculated on the sheet, I pre-calculated them and just typed them as plain text into each cell. Basically, there are two rows for each monster, one with a.s. and one without (you can see them if you select "All" on the drop-down menu on the summon monster sheet). It might have been more elegant to let Excel calculate every to-hit and dmg bonus, but I just didn't deem the effort necessary   .

-p.


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## gariig (Oct 20, 2003)

Ahh, I get it now.  Pretty neat idea.  Thank you for the clarifications.

Gariig


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## Pielorinho (Oct 20, 2003)

paranoid said:
			
		

> Sorry, I don't get what you suggest. Perhaps it's because I'm using the german Excel version and all functions have other names. I already locked the first row on the "Summon Monster table", so that you can always see it if you scroll down. Or do you mean on the print-out? If yes, can you please tell me how to do it, that would be cool.



Hmm -- I just looked at the most recent version, and the headers were locked after all.  Maybe in poking around the original version I managed to delete the first row or something.

Great resource -- thanks!
Daniel


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## jamespb1@hotmail.com (May 11, 2015)

Hmm, this thread has been dead for a long time... But the Spreadsheet is brilliant  Thanks a lot!

Now to edit it for a pathfinder version


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