Also waiting for this. Sick of having to use the convoluted tools to create NPC characters as homebrew monsters.
Convoluted tools? Homebrew monsters are literally the easiest of the different homebrew tools to use. Once you get the ROLLABLE tag down, you're set. NPCs do not have to be as complicated as PCs. If an NPC is ever as complicated as a PC then that DM isn't playing an NPC, they are playing a DMPC and that is a disservice to themselves and the players.
I believe you are misinterpreting what EvilEdison68 (and the rest of the thread) are saying here.
The problem isn't typing data into a data entry form. That part is, indeed, quite simple.
The complex part is knowing what data to type in. For example:
Using just the information available on the page (that is, no referring to other pages) what is the to-hit bonus should a medium-sized CR5 creature have, on a strength-based attack, if its strength score is 18?
Also waiting for this. Sick of having to use the convoluted tools to create NPC characters as homebrew monsters.
If an NPC is ever as complicated as a PC then that DM isn't playing an NPC, they are playing a DMPC and that is a disservice to themselves and the players.
That sounds like 1) your personal preference in DM style or prep and 2) unwarranted judgement toward everyone here who has shared a desire to use PC classes to create NPC's in their games.
Judging by the amount of people here who have shared their desire to easily convert PC classes to NPC stat blocks, it's clearly not a niche desire, and while that might not be what you think is best/wanted, that doesn't mean they're doing "a disservice" to anyone.
I also would like this. There are lots of reasons to want to be able to use a player character as an NPC:
Maybe for story reasons you show up at a session and give the players new sheets for the night and they have to fight their regular characters.
Maybe a character retires from adventuring because a player left or wanted to try a new character and you want to bring them in as an NPC on occasion.
Maybe a character betrays the party and becomes an NPC because they leave the party.
I get that monsters are designed differently than monsters / NPCs for official content or whatever, but so what. A tool to simplify the process of conversion would not be terribly difficult to implement and would be very helpful for some situations.
After reading the explanations above, I still see no reason not to add a feature that saves users time and effort such as some code that basically copies any available and appropriate information from a Player Character into the Home Brew Create Monster feature, and then the user/DM could take it from there and clean it up to their own specifications. There are fields/columns in the Character and fields/columns in the Monster Creator. It seems like the code could just copy them. And for the fields that can’t or shouldn’t be matched (there are more in the Character than there are in the Home Brew Monster Creator), just omit them and the user/DM can flesh out the details.
I understand the Monster Creator has a predefined formula for calculation things like Proficiency bonus based on CR, and for that, it can just reverse it. Take the Proficiency Bonus from the character and decide a CR based on that Proficiency Bonus, and plug it into the Home Brew Monster Creator. If the user/DM wants to change it, we can just change the CR in the Monster Creator which might cause other changes such as to the Proficiency Bonus, and that’s fine.
It seems like it has nothing to do with official method of converting anything. And it’s for a Home Brew aid anyway. And it probably shouldn’t require any changes to the Monster Builder’s fields or the Character Builder. Just adding a button with some code that pre fills some of the Home Brew Monster creator.
Maybe there are more obstacles than I understand though?
I do not recommend making NPCs using the same tools as PCs. While the PC tools are easier to use right now, it is also really restrictive with little to no creative freedom.
Instead of working on a PC to NPC conversion tool, I think it is better if they just made the NPC creation tool as intuitive to use as the character builder. That way, there is no need to make NPCs in a round about way with the character builder and porting it over to a monster stat block. I do not think it makes sense to waste time and money to create an additional layer of programming and complexity when improving existing homebrew tools would do the trick.
I also would like this. There are lots of reasons to want to be able to use a player character as an NPC:
Maybe for story reasons you show up at a session and give the players new sheets for the night and they have to fight their regular characters.
Maybe a character retires from adventuring because a player left or wanted to try a new character and you want to bring them in as an NPC on occasion.
Maybe a character betrays the party and becomes an NPC because they leave the party.
I get that monsters are designed differently than monsters / NPCs for official content or whatever, but so what. A tool to simplify the process of conversion would not be terribly difficult to implement and would be very helpful for some situations.
Yes, the second and third points are not uncommon.
OK so for hit dice I don't see the method of creation as a stumbling block to the conversion because the number of hit dice and type are known on the PC sheet. They could just be copied over without conversion or recalculation. As a DM that would be my intent.
Same general feedback on proficiency bonus, copy it please
CR OK you kind of have a point. Bail and leave it as something I have to fill in. Odds are DMs already have a pretty good idea how much EXP we want paid out. If that is somehow not acceptable then you could look at your problem based bullet point on the proficiency bonus conundrum as the solution to a conversion method. E.G. Since the proficiency bonus is known on PC sheet and it is normally determined by CR, set the CR to the value indicated by the proficiency bonus.
As such I really don't buy lack of rules as the primary issue and very much assume this is a resource prioritization issue. I believe that any fellow DM that also wants this tool should go to the topic root and like it and get their friends to do so as well rather than pine for a rule set.
Sidekick rules could be used to create an NPC generator. There's been lots of requests for that too but nothing from DDB.
Also waiting for this. Sick of having to use the convoluted tools to create NPC characters as homebrew monsters.
Convoluted tools? Homebrew monsters are literally the easiest of the different homebrew tools to use. Once you get the ROLLABLE tag down, you're set. NPCs do not have to be as complicated as PCs. If an NPC is ever as complicated as a PC then that DM isn't playing an NPC, they are playing a DMPC and that is a disservice to themselves and the players.
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I believe you are misinterpreting what EvilEdison68 (and the rest of the thread) are saying here.
The problem isn't typing data into a data entry form. That part is, indeed, quite simple.
The complex part is knowing what data to type in. For example:
Using just the information available on the page (that is, no referring to other pages) what is the to-hit bonus should a medium-sized CR5 creature have, on a strength-based attack, if its strength score is 18?
That sounds like 1) your personal preference in DM style or prep and 2) unwarranted judgement toward everyone here who has shared a desire to use PC classes to create NPC's in their games.
Judging by the amount of people here who have shared their desire to easily convert PC classes to NPC stat blocks, it's clearly not a niche desire, and while that might not be what you think is best/wanted, that doesn't mean they're doing "a disservice" to anyone.
I also would like this. There are lots of reasons to want to be able to use a player character as an NPC:
I get that monsters are designed differently than monsters / NPCs for official content or whatever, but so what. A tool to simplify the process of conversion would not be terribly difficult to implement and would be very helpful for some situations.
After reading the explanations above, I still see no reason not to add a feature that saves users time and effort such as some code that basically copies any available and appropriate information from a Player Character into the Home Brew Create Monster feature, and then the user/DM could take it from there and clean it up to their own specifications. There are fields/columns in the Character and fields/columns in the Monster Creator. It seems like the code could just copy them. And for the fields that can’t or shouldn’t be matched (there are more in the Character than there are in the Home Brew Monster Creator), just omit them and the user/DM can flesh out the details.
I understand the Monster Creator has a predefined formula for calculation things like Proficiency bonus based on CR, and for that, it can just reverse it. Take the Proficiency Bonus from the character and decide a CR based on that Proficiency Bonus, and plug it into the Home Brew Monster Creator. If the user/DM wants to change it, we can just change the CR in the Monster Creator which might cause other changes such as to the Proficiency Bonus, and that’s fine.
It seems like it has nothing to do with official method of converting anything. And it’s for a Home Brew aid anyway. And it probably shouldn’t require any changes to the Monster Builder’s fields or the Character Builder. Just adding a button with some code that pre fills some of the Home Brew Monster creator.
Maybe there are more obstacles than I understand though?
This, so much this.
Yes, the second and third points are not uncommon.
OK so for hit dice I don't see the method of creation as a stumbling block to the conversion because the number of hit dice and type are known on the PC sheet. They could just be copied over without conversion or recalculation. As a DM that would be my intent.
Same general feedback on proficiency bonus, copy it please
CR OK you kind of have a point. Bail and leave it as something I have to fill in. Odds are DMs already have a pretty good idea how much EXP we want paid out. If that is somehow not acceptable then you could look at your problem based bullet point on the proficiency bonus conundrum as the solution to a conversion method. E.G. Since the proficiency bonus is known on PC sheet and it is normally determined by CR, set the CR to the value indicated by the proficiency bonus.
As such I really don't buy lack of rules as the primary issue and very much assume this is a resource prioritization issue. I believe that any fellow DM that also wants this tool should go to the topic root and like it and get their friends to do so as well rather than pine for a rule set.
Thank you
-Blaneyfan
Yes Absolutely
Frustrating that this request has been out there for nearly 4 years and nothing has been done with it.