Random Character Flops

Almost two years ago, back when Dungeon Delve was released, a then friend of mine wanted to try running the level 30 delve to see what end-game was all about. I can’t remember if the offline Character Builder was out of Beta at this time, but after spending an hour or so building my own party I decided to let the program have a crack at a character. The result was…terrifying; a waforged fighter, somehow multiclassed into both paladin and warlock. I think the warlock spells had like, +13 versus NADs. Calling it substandard would be a compliment: I’ve seen blind kobold wizards wearing full plate with an Intelligence of 6 in 3rd Edition that were more viable.

Having tinkered around with the online Character Builder, it sometimes did alright in picking elements for me once I’d started doing some of the leg work. As a simple exercise, I decided to give it a shot at calling the shots. What I got was a human  shielding swordmage with a Constitution of 11, Alchemist and Implement Focus (talenta sharrash) for feats, but a longsword for a weapon. To make matters worse, the encounter spell is fox’s feint, which gets a kicker effect for having Aegis of Ensnarement. The only ability that makes sense is greenflame blade since it gave me a Strength of 14 (despite the fact that Aegis of Shielding is keyed to Constitution).

I find that it’s pretty hard to make a 4th Edition character this shitty. You get no bonus to your marking class feature, a feat for a weapon you don’t own, and a secondary stat that you weren’t using in the first place. Unlike the older Builder, this wasn’t generated all at once. No, you gotta go step by step through the ropes in order to gradually auto-build a character. While this is all pretty bad, mind you, this is only level one. I’m sure if I gave this thing 30 levels we could see some serious damage.

Make Your Very Own Character Builder Button

If for some reason you’d like to be able to just click on a desktop icon to launch Character Builder–as you did before–here’s how:

Navigate to Character Builder page and add it to your bookmarks (any bookmark will do, actually, as we’re going to change the URL it points to), and drag the shortcut to your desktop (or wherever you want your icon).

Launch Character Builder, and then highlight and copy the URL.

Right-click on the shortcut and select Properties, then paste the previously copied URL in the URL field.

Booyah (to get the old CB icon, you’ll have to go to Change Icon and navigate to the folder where you installed the old CB, and select one of the .exe files).

New Character Builder

I just spend about half an hour creating random characters with the refurbished, online-only Character Builder, and I have to say that I like it a lot more than the other one.

Don’t Like

• Takes about as long to load as the other Character Builder (and the loading image is grainy).
• Backgrounds are no longer organized by terrain or race. You can uncheck Name Only and filter results by the skills, location, race, etc, however.
• Double-clicking de-selects options; I preferred it when I could right-click.
• Choose For Me is still wonky: it gave me a 20 in an ability score when I made a tiefling psion, which is generally not a good idea, but when I rolled a changling rogue (artful dodger) it gave me an 18 Dexterity, picked Intelligence for the racial bonus (boosted it to 12), gave me a Strength of 14, and a Charisma of 11 (boosted to 13 by racial mods). What. The. FUCK?
• There’s a delay when you increase/decrease ability scores using the plus/minus buttons. While minor, it adds up if you are trying to buy a stat up to 16. Thankfully, you can key in a value instead.
• Crashed after I’d completed my second character (loaded up again alright, though).
• The Marketplace graphic looks grainy, too.

Like

• Layout and image usage usage looks a lot better, and it seems a lot friendlier to new people (or those that don’t keep up as much with the game).
• You can sort classes by role, power source, primary ability score, or book.
• Classes and races have descriptions; you don’t have to click on them to get the gist of what they’re about.
• Mannerisms and traits are in step 3, not consigned to some easily overlooked tab at the ass end of the application.
• Dark Sun themes are in.
• Choose For Me picks skill that you’d probably pick yourself.
• Portraits can be sorted by race or class.
• Buying equipment is much easier, as you can filter items by category, specific item, rarity, keyword, and level (or level range). If you want to shop for stuff you can’t use, uncheck Show suggested items at the top.

The Internet is All Gone?

Trawling the RPG.net forums I found a thread questioning about whether or not people upset at Wizards of the Coast logically protecting their intellectual property from piracy–while at the same time making it easier to implement updates–by adopting an online-only model, would cause fans of 4th Edition to cancel their DDI subscriptions and/or say fuck-all and go play Pathfinder (and not one of many other fantasy-based role-playing games). Frankly, I don’t want to know anyone who would follow that bizarre logical train wreck.

I don’t play 4th Edition because it’s new, or it has all of its crunch-content condenses into one software application. On a similar note, I don’t dislike 3rd Edition Pathfinder because it doesn’t have its own variant of Character Builder, and I certainly wouldn’t go back there if the entirety of 4th Edition imploded out of existence. No, I would have to be the kind of irrational person that boycotts a company because they slightly altered the accessibility of an entirely unnecessary–yet agreeably convenient–facet of their entire product line.

Using internet access to determine legitimacy as well as usability is not new, and in fact has proven successful for more than a few companies like Blizzard Entertainment or Valve. Some people like that Character Builder can be used offline, which has some merit in terms of flexibility in case you like to cart a laptop out into the wilderness and build characters by firelight. In all seriousness, I too have used Character Builder offline in order to browse magic items, but only because I didn’t want to bug Randy for a few minutes about his router’s information. I guess on the 16th I’ll have to set aside a blip of time to get it all sorted.

*sarcastic sigh*

My laptop, as well as most laptops, have WiFi capabilities. So do most routers. This means that at home I can flip it open, get online, and do…whatever, wherever. Theoretically, were I for some reason to go elsewhere and desire to tinker with it, then my options would be limited to coffee shops, most major grocery chains (Fred Meyers, Safeway, etc), any community college campus, any of my friend’s houses, and book stores. In other words, far more places than I would care to go and create characters, monsters, or do adventure writing. Were I to find myself stranded out in the middle of nowhere and find myself arrested by the urge to write, I can always fall back to the archaic process of putting pencil to paper and writing.

This is why I wouldn’t care even if I lacked all the modern commodities of today; I can still jot down notes, go home, and then write it up to look all official-like. While your mileage (or availability) might vary, I think the real reason people are up in arms is the whole piracy angle. Some people only wanted Character Builder and/or Adventure Tools, but couldn’t stand for the seven or so bucks a month that Wizards charged you for essentially all the crunch content of all the books they’ve ever made, and waited for updates to show up on torrent sites. Since Wizards really couldn’t track this offline, it was easy to get away with it. Now, it’s going to be harder, and people might actually have to pay for something.

Web-Based Character Builder

Note: There’s apparently some confusion about my stance on the whole web-based direction that Wizards of the Coast is taking Character Builder. First, I don’t mind if it requires internet access. That’s a perfectly acceptable response to some fans’ stance of picking up a month of DDI a year, or every so often, to get a shitload of content for an incredibly low price. Second, I like the fact that my character is saved server side, as it means that I can access it from anywhere instead of having to transfer character files back and forth between PCs, and I don’t have to worry about losing my data.

You can read up on what details are revealed here, and bitch about it here. Since it’s web-based you’ll need an internet connection and Silverlight to use it (they’re also pulling Character Builder from the site when it rolls out, so no more offline support, period). On the plus side, there will be immediate support for both Dark Sun and Essentials, and character files will be stored server side. Oh, and all previous content will be there, including the option to import older characters.

The new design looks a bit friendlier, though I’ve never under understood their obsession with “jagged” graphics, which contrasts with the smoothed borders that the buttons use. I just wish they’d pick a style and stick with it. Something actually fantasy would also be great. There’s not a lot shown, but picking from styles would probably be handy to help narrow things down for new people.