How is this not a feature? Seems like a pretty glaring omission when you consider fighting evil characters and parties is a pretty major part of the game. I'm trying to use the workaround where you create an NPC as a home-brew monster but with all the coding and the terrible interface, it does not feel like a service worth paying for. Why can't they simply have an option to add a pre-created character to an encounter? A variation of this would be to easily add DM-managed NPCs to the party, also a major part of the game.
I don’t really care about the challenge calculator. I just want a tool that lets me track basic combat factors for an encounter (initiative, hit points, attack options, etc). There is a lot to like about the current encounter system but the inability to easily add NPCs (friendly and enemy) is a glaring omission. Looking around the forums I see a lot of people have asked for this feature. Really surprised they haven’t implemented it when the mechanics of it are so simple.
I just want a tool that lets me track basic combat factors for an encounter (initiative, hit points, attack options, etc).
You can do this with character sheet based NPCs as DxJxC explained. Once you've added the 'NPC' to the campaign, they'll appear in the encounter builder when you link the encounter to a campaign. It's recommended you do this _after_ you've balanced the campaign for your PCs otherwise it'll throw off the encounter calculations.
You can then save and run the encounter and the 'NPC' will be listed in the initiative; initiative, hit points etc can be managed from the character sheet itself.
How is this not a feature? Seems like a pretty glaring omission when you consider fighting evil characters and parties is a pretty major part of the game. I'm trying to use the workaround where you create an NPC as a home-brew monster but with all the coding and the terrible interface, it does not feel like a service worth paying for. Why can't they simply have an option to add a pre-created character to an encounter? A variation of this would be to easily add DM-managed NPCs to the party, also a major part of the game.
NPCs in pre made adventures have stat blocks you can add. If you made an NPC as a character, you can add that like you can the party.
The encounter builder may not be able to guage difficulty properly because it is based on the rules and there just aren't rules for PvP or MvM.
Also, I'm pretty sure the encounter builder has been made free for a while now (I'm not 100% sure about that).
I don’t really care about the challenge calculator. I just want a tool that lets me track basic combat factors for an encounter (initiative, hit points, attack options, etc). There is a lot to like about the current encounter system but the inability to easily add NPCs (friendly and enemy) is a glaring omission. Looking around the forums I see a lot of people have asked for this feature. Really surprised they haven’t implemented it when the mechanics of it are so simple.
You can do this with character sheet based NPCs as DxJxC explained. Once you've added the 'NPC' to the campaign, they'll appear in the encounter builder when you link the encounter to a campaign. It's recommended you do this _after_ you've balanced the campaign for your PCs otherwise it'll throw off the encounter calculations.
You can then save and run the encounter and the 'NPC' will be listed in the initiative; initiative, hit points etc can be managed from the character sheet itself.
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but if I add an NPC to the campaign, won't my players see it on the campaign page?
If you used the character builder to make an NPC, yes, which is why you should be creating NPCs using the homebrew tools under Create Monster.
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