D 20 Hero labs licencing

Hey Wargoth,

I'm not 100% sure, but if I understand what you're asking right, then I've gotta tell you, the link between d20Pro and Hero Lab doesn't work the way you think it does. When using Hero Lab to create a d20Pro creature, you create the character in Hero Lab, then you export a file with the .hld20pro extension. After opening d20Pro, you then import the character into d20Pro. The connection between d20Pro and Hero Lab is not live.

Most groups use this in one of numerous ways:

1) GM is only one with Hero Lab and d20Pro GM lisence: The players will create their characters with the GM, who uses Hero Lab. After the character has been created, the GM will export the Hero Lab file and import it into d20Pro, modifying it to complete the stats or correct any that didn't import correctly.

2) Players have Hero Lab, but no d20Pro GM lisence: The players will create their characters in Hero Lab, then send the GM either the Hero Lab .por file, or the exported .hld20pro file. The GM will then import them into d20Pro and complete the character.

3) Players have Hero Lab AND a d20Pro GM lisence: The players will create their own characters, export them, import them into their own d20Pro, modify the character to complete it to their satisfaction, then export the creature as a .ctr file (the d20Pro file extension for creatures), either e-mailing it to the GM, or uploading it using the game tools once they've connected as a player to the GM's d20Pro.

Using Hero Lab is somewhat redundant WHILE in session with d20Pro, as the d20Pro version should have all statistics, though I do because it allows you to look at rules details that most people don't program into their d20Pro creatures.

 

I'm playing with option 1 with my group. When the party is created or when the party levels I go through the Hero Lab with them and make sure they have everything right. I then make a "Save as PDF" for their characters and send it to them and import the characters into D20Pro. For Non-magic using characters it is a snap, for magic users I then have to go through their tokens and add in "Abilities" and Attacks with the magic effects on them. It's actually kind of a pain, but it's faster then doing the whole token by hand. The main reason I use Hero Labs is for Monsters. For Pathfinder there are some files on http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ that have the Bestiary and APs NPC's already figured in Hero Lab and it's then just a quick import into D20Pro and a once over to make sure all the stuff imported properly. That is where the Hero Labs/D20Pro partnership really shines.

One Thing to keep in mind with Hero Labs if you're using Hero Labs for a game like Pathfinder that has multiple rule books you either have to purchase all the additional rules add-ons in Hero Labs or restrict what rules your players could use. Otherwise Hero Labs will be grumpy all the time about the things that don't line up with the rules it has installed.

 

We played a long time with option 4: all characters are created from scratch inside d20pro by people that have the judge licence.

We now sometimes use PCGen which has a semi-working import/export for d20pro now (you have to adjust the attacks and CMD-stuff for Pathfinder manually).

 

Our group didn't have everyone with a judge license. So we used to have to meet up once a month to configure updates in the tokens for each player. We have since migrated to using a combination of things. Hero Lab for updating character sheets, even for spell casters it's a snap and once I finally do complete my spell lists for the base classes in classes.txt and spells.txt it will be even easier. I do plan on adding in some other classes as well that people have shown interest in.

We use Drop box to upload and share files between users. This helps because everyone can just export their characters from hero lab, drop it into their folder at their own leisure and then just let me know to update their character with the new one. It is a snap this way. I also share a couple of spreadsheets for mostly my reference and "future" reference if someone forgot to write down xp or loot. I use Lute and a really nice experience calculator spreadsheet. All I need to do is just punch in the numbers and magic happens. It saves a lot of time.

I believe now all but one of us use hero lab exclusively for character creation/updating. I personally love Hero Lab. Once you delve into the more "Dark side" of hero lab though you can see a lot of things are possible, and its only a matter of going into d20pro and making magic happen there too. Its a very handy tool and saves a boat load of time.

There are some bugs from exporing and importing, no where near as bad as PCgens current export/import. It misses a lot of stuff on the import.