D&D 3.5 Edition DM tools

I've decided to continue developing the tools for 3.5 edition, though the development pace will slow down, as I have other interesting projects going on at home.  I've decided to start supporting the Pathfinder RPG as well, since they seem to be moving the 3.5 edition rules forward nicely.  That means support for their experience system, and other things that are different from the base 3.5 rules.

This software is based on the Microsoft .Net Framework v2.0.  It is available from the critical update service in Windows.  In IE, just click on Tools/Windows Update, then click on the "product updates" link.  Under recommended updates you will see the "Windows .Net Framework v2.0".  That's what you want to install.  It's big (27 MB), but it allows a lot of cool software to run on your system (it's kind of like Java).  If you can't get to it, you can download it from Microsoft directly.  If you want the non-English version of the framework, go to the Microsoft site to download the framework.

The D&D DM tools are a work in progress, but are starting to be more and more functional.  I currently use them to run my campaign, and they are a great help.  So, you can download them at your own risk, and you can file bugs with the Bugzilla server if you want.  If you would like to get an account on it, just create one and an email will be sent to you with your temporary password. If you just want to browse the bugs, enhancement requests, and todo items, you can do that without creating an account.

Since the announcement of D&D 4.0, I don't know what the future of these tools is, but I will keep on working on them until I get them to the point that I'm happy with them.  Then  I'm not sure what will happen with the tools.  If you want to send me feedback about these tools, please do go to the new D&D 3.5 Edition DM Tools discussion forum.  I will try to answer questions there.

You can get my development blog for the tools in the forum as well..  It talks about what happened in the past development sessions, and where my mind is with respect to the tools.  I also published a FAQ that is included with the tools and will be kept up to date as I develop the tools.
 

Version history:

0.41.0 - (??/??/2008)

BUGS FIXED:

1. None yet

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Enhancement 246: Add support for long spell casting times.
2. Added simple Player Client support to the Campaign Manager. The player client can be run on a separate machine by players, and can be used to show information about a PC. To enable the Player Client Server, go to the Tools/Options menu item and click on the Player Client Server tree item. To install the Player Client on the target machine, you must first install the Adobe AIR runtime. There is a PlayerClient.air file that gets installed in the root install directory of the tools that can be used to install the Player Client onto a target machine.  When the client is more finalized, I will publish a protocol spec, so others can write their own clients.

0.40.5 - (06/20/2008)

BUGS FIXED:

1. Fixed bug 252: Parsing some math formulas fails on different language windows versions.

0.40.4 - (04/03/2008)

BUGS FIXED:

1. Fixed bug: In 0.40.3 you could not edit any fields that used a math formula.
2. Fixed bug: 0.40.2 loses prepared spell lists when migrating from 0.40.1 on NPCs and PCs.
3. Fixed bug 240: Error creating seasons and setting full moon dates.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Enhancement: Campaign Manager has new icons and main menu.
2. Enhancement: Added more spell details in the magic editor.
3. Enhancement: Stability fixes in all of the editors.

0.40.1 - (03/09/2008)

BUGS FIXED:

1. Fixed bug 238: Trait and Flaw effects are not calculated right.

0.40.0 - (03/02/2008)

BUGS FIXED:

1. Fixed bug 230: Can't add the returning property to a short spear.
2. Fixed bug 232: Daily spell slots not calculated correctly for less than perfect spell casters.
3. Fixed bug 235: Prepared spell list doesn't work for NPCs with "Cast spells as".
4. Fixed bug 219: Custom gear files not read when adding gear to PC/NPC.
5. Fixed bug 236: Incorrect figures for Favored Soul class spell calculations.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Enhancement 87: Finish spell memorization support.
2. Enhancement 231: Add the ability to manage spell slots for spontaneous casters.
3. Enhancement 226: Create a "same as" effect.
4. Enhancement 233:: Add a generic details panel that will display details of any item selected in the gui. Currently only some spell, psionic power, soulmeld, and invocation information is shown for the items that have the information entered into the data files. If you go into a PC / NPC screen and select one of known / memorized items, it will show up in the details view, with all the variable fields filled in for the caster / manifester / meldshaper level.

0.39.1 - (12/30/2007)

BUGS FIXED:

1. Fixed bug 227: Getting an error when trying to kill and remove creatures from combat.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Finished enhancement 228: Add the ability to specify a spell list on a class.

0.39.0 - (11/15/2007)

BUGS FIXED:

1. Fixed bug 214: A character that has a low dex (negative ac bonus) has the wrong flat footed ac.
2. Fixed bug 218: When adding special properties to armor or weapons, the add button in the dialog doesn't work.
3. Fixed bug 222: When selecting prohibited schools, the wizard should never be able to select divination.
4. Fixed bug 143: The set movement effect should set the maneuverability as well.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added a tooltip about carrying capacity to the strength display in the main PC / NPC view. This tooltip matches the tooltip displayed for the "Total weight" text in the gear tab. Also added the following information to this tooltip: maximum lift over head, maximum lift off ground, and maximum push or drag.
2. Added a new math function to all of the formulas. You can now use an if statement in the following format: If(HD, 1, 0) or If(HD >= 5, 1, 0). This allows for effects that trigger only for certain values.
3. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added support for special scores / values. The scores can be either manually managed or calculated from a formula. They can also have a list of thresholds associated with them. Each score can have associated effects that apply to the character with the score. The following scores are automatically supported: Leadership, Corruption (Heroes of Horror), Depravity (Heroes of Horror), and Insanity (Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil). To manage specific scores, go into the Campaign/Settings view and click on the Campaign Rules tab. You can choose which ones to manage there.
4. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Enhanced the "give items to PC / NPC" dialog to allow the choosing of a container on the specified PC / NPC to move the items into (the container list is pruned to show only the containers that can fit the items being moved). Also in the dialog, one can supply a note for all of the moved items.
5. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added the ability to adjust PC / NPC money using formulas. There are math formula boxes next to the edit money fields with apply buttons. So you can apply things like -350, if the PC / NPC bought something.
6. Added all of the figures from Desert of Desolation.
7. Added all the data from Complete Champion.

0.38.1 - (08/28/2007) - I broke combat in 0.38.0, sorry about that

BUGS FIXED:

1. Fixed bug 212: Unhandled Error when using "Remove Dead" on combat tab

0.38.0 - (08/26/2007)

BUGS FIXED:

1. Certain conditional skill adjustments were not showing their conditions in the skill displays.
2. Fixed a problem when creating a new world without going through the wizard. You couldn't add months / festivals or calendars to the world calendar tab.
3. Fixed bug 201: Add all the attributes to the math formulas for all effects.
4. Fixed bug 198: Campaign Manager Not adding Racial Stats.
5. Fixed bug 207: Error right clicking left (creature) pane.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Added all of the data from Dungeonscape.
2. Added support for gems, jewelry, art items, armor special properties, and weapon special properties in the gear management.
3. Added all of the figures from Night Below.
4. Added a shield subtype to all shields in the Gear Editor. If you created your own shields, please update them to have a subtype. The subtype is used for armor special property prerequisite handling.
5. Added extra information about the type of ranged weapon a weapon is. If you created your own ranged weapons, please update their information in the Gear Editor. The extra ranged weapon information is used for weapon special property prerequisite handling.
6. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Moved the campaign notes into it's own tree item under campaign and into its own view.
7. Added support for most material special effects (like adamantine armor damage reduction).
8. Added better support for turn resistance. You can now specify the amount of turn resistance when creating creatures. The turn resistance shows up under the resistances in the creature and combat views.
9. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: You can now modify the natural attacks of any PC / NPC / creature.
10. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Handling known languages is now better. Languages have their own location in the edit dialog. Also automatic languages are inherited from the chosen race when creating PCs and NPCs.
11. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added the ability to show current and maximum hit points for all of the PCs and NPCs in the campaign tree. This option defaults to on, but you can turn it off in the Tools/Options dialog.
12. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added the ability to move multiple items at once between NPCs, PCs, and the combat loot screen.
13. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added support for shaping soulmelds and investing essentia in essentia receptacles. No support for effects that rely on meldshaper level or are activated work yet.
14. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Improved the way resistances, immunities, and vulnerabilities are handled, how they stack and interact with each other.

0.37.3 - (06/28/2007)

BUGS FIXED:

1. Bug fix 191 broke the ability to add static feats to classes. Fixed..

0.37.2 - (06/26/2007)

BUGS FIXED:

1. Fixed bug 191: When adding specific bonus feats to classes using a special ability as a choice, all of the bonus feats were merged into the NPC's feats.

0.37.1 - (06/20/2007)

BUGS FIXED:

1. Fixed bug 188: Error creating a new Race. When a new race was created, the Creature Editor would throw a null pointer exception.

0.37.0 - (06/06/2007)

BUGS FIXED:

1. If a PC/NPC had Uncanny Dodge and wore armor that reduced his Dex bonus, the flat footed ac was being calculated using the unreduced Dex bonus.
2. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: When the quick rolls tool windows were set to show a 2 line display, the header didn't show the names of the skills for each column.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Added support for armor, weapon, and ammo special materials. The basic properties of the armor (weight, armor bonus, max dex bonus, armor check penalty, arcane spell failure, and armor type) get adjusted based on the special material. No special abilities are in yet (for example, damage reduction for adamantine armors). For weapons and ammo, only the weight is currently adjusted.
2. Added a new ability effect. You can now specify a prohibited spell or spell descriptor or spell school. The Water Naga cannot cast fire spells, and this ability effect can be used to handle this.
3. Added a new ability effect. You can now expand a psionic power list for a given manifesting class or for any manifesting class. This is useful for behaviors like "power list same as".
4. Added a new ability effect. You can now expand a soulmeld list for a given meldshaping class or for any meldshaping class. This is useful for behaviors like "soulmeld list same as".
5. Added a new ability effect. You can now add or remove spell slots for spell casting classes using the Gain Daily Spell Slots and Lose Daily Spell Slots effects. This enabled class features like the ones for the Lyric Thaumaturge (gain Bard spell slots).
6. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added the figure group and the figure number to the figure tooltip in the combat screen. This will help DMs organizing their figures by set and number to find the figure.
7. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added an attack modifiers column to the combat display.
8. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added the ability to show, hide, and reorder the columns in the combat display.
9. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added the ability to import figure lists from hordelings.com and maxminis.com. Just click on the import figure list menu item or button, and in the file chooser, choose a filter for TSV files.
10. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added a new gear control for managing NPC and PC gear. This includes new functionality for merging and splitting items, better handling of money and equipping items, as well as magical and non-magical container support.
11. Added module data from Heart of Nightfang Spire and Scourge of the Howling Horde.

0.36.0 - (03/29/2007)

BUGS FIXED:

1. Potions and wands were not using domain spells to determine 3rd level or lower spells.
2. Numerous stability fixes.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Added support for rods in the gear and added all of the rods from all of the books.
2. Added support for custom books. When you enter your own data, you can now create your own book lists, and add the custom data to those books. A new "Custom Book Editor" application is included with the tools, and you just edit the books through there.
3. Added support for scrolls in the gear. You can now add scrolls with an unlimited number of spells on them and either the same caster level all of the spells or a different one for each spell.
4. You can hide the skill modifier in the quick roll toolbars (it's in the Tools/Options menu item) to reduce clutter.
5. All the figures from Unhallowed are in.

0.35.0 - (02/16/2007)

1. Wand and potion use dialog was calculating the caster level as if the item was a staff.
2. If a character had temporary hit points, and took damage, temporary hit points were not taken off first.
3. For prerequisites, the prestige class adjustments for spells known calculations were not being used.
4. Sanctified spells were not marked as spontaneously castable for clerics that spontaneously cast cure spells.
5. Fixed a Campaign Manager crash: During combat you bring up the details of a creature (double click), and then remove that creature from combat, and go back to the details view, the application would crash.
6. If you update the CR of a creature in combat (other than NPC) by double clicking on the creature, and then bringing up the edit dialog to change it, when you remove that creature from combat the original CR is used.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Added the actions right click menu to the PCs and NPCs in the campaign tree tool window.
2. Added a size adjustment effect. You can create abilities that, when activated, alter a creature's size.
3. Improved the way natural armor from abilities and feats is specified. It allows other bonus types to adjust natural armor, and natural armor adjustment stacking at the correct times.
4. Added better support for the following feats: Armor Skin, Earth's Warding, Heavy Lithoderms, Draconic Skin, Bestial Hide, Deformity (Skin), Thri-Kreen Carapace.
5. All the data from Dragon Magic is in.
6. Added rudimentary support for activating abilities and feats. You can now activate an ability or feat, and a notification is generated when it will end. You have to manually deactivate that ability and feat when the notification fires. This allowed support for feats like Combat Form feats. In the future, the ability or feat will deactivate by itself at the right time. This only works for abilities and feats that affect the person activating the ability or feat.

0.34.0 - (01/12/2007)

1. The Intimidate skill was misspelled (it was spelled Intimitade), if you had any characters with ranks in this skill please fix them. This is a serious bug that affects a lot of places in the application. I suggest using a global search and replace in all of your custom data files to fix your data.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Added support for the following feats: Arcane Thesis, Practiced Spellcaster, Practiced Manifester.

0.33.0 - (01/06/2007)

1. Fixed a frequent crash when editing creature abilities.  This was introduced in 0.32.
2. Fixed a problem where morale bonuses would apply to non-intelligent creatures.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Added full support for conditions (like blinded, paralyzed, frightened, etc). Most of the effects for these conditions are in as well (effective Dex of 0, -2 to AC, -6 to Str, etc).

0.32.0 - (12/31/2006)

1. Fixed a problem where creatures with the "Cast As X" racial ability would not qualify for "Cast Spell Y" prerequisite if they knew it from their "Cast As X" racial ability.
2. Fixed a problem where bonus spells or bonus psionic powers were not being used for prerequisite validation calculations in certain cases.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Added support for staffs. Added all of the staffs from all of the supported books in.
2. Added all the data from Complete Mage, Fiendish Codex 1, and Cityscape.
3. Added all the figures from Blood War.
4. Added full support for Invocations and the Warlock class. You can now have NPCs learn invocations, use them in combat, etc. They work just like spells and psionic powers.
5. Added some data from Dragon Magic

0.31.0 - (10/30/2006)

1. Merging of bonuses in skills wasn't working correctly sometimes, it is now fixed.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Got the following feats working: Extended Knowledge, Bonus Essentia, Draconic Toughness, Spontaneous Healer, Spontaneous Summoner, Spontaneous Wounder, Spell Focus(Good, Evil, Lawful, Chaotic), Malign Spell Focus, Domain Focus, Improved Flight, Insightful Reflexes, Tactile Trapsmith, Shape Soulmeld, Mantle Focus, Illithid Compulsion, Illithid Legacy, Greater Illithid Legacy, Dash, Improved Maneuverability, Improved Speed, Psionic Affinity, Psionic Body, Psionic Dodge, Speed of Thought, Arctic Priest, Winter's Champion, Improved Oneiromancy, Mother Cyst, Durable Form, Elemental Spellcasting, Steadfast Determination, Complementary Insight, Agile Athlete, Yondalla's Sense, Priest of the Waste, Rapid Swimming.
2. Added the D&D Icons figures.
3. Entered all of the special abilities for all of the monsters in the Monster Manual.
4. Added support for ability burn.
5. Added support for psionically focusing NPCs and PCs. This allowed certain feats above to work right.
6. Added all of the data for The Standing Stone.
7. Got Fast Healing and Regeneration automatic healing at the end of each round working. This doesn't work for activated or conditional Fast Healing or Regeneration (see Mephits).

0.30.0 - (08/14/2006)

1. When you upgraded from 0.28.0 to 0.29.0, all the applications stopped working.

0.29.0 - (08/13/2006) - NOTE: There is a problem upgrading from 0.28.0 to 0.29.0.  I'm working on a new installer.

1. A Blood Magus wasn't stabilizing on his own with his Stanch ability. Fixed.
2. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Fixed a bunch of stability issues with multiple threads accessing the data file data.
3. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Fixed a bunch of issues with renaming PCs and NPCs.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Added all the NPCs and creatures from The Forge of Fury.
2. Added all the data from Player's Handbook II.
3. Added all the figures from War of the Dragon Queen.
4. Added support for bonus spells and psionic powers from prestige classes (see Frost Mage, Geometer, Sand Shaper, Elocater, Shadowmind, and Thrallherd prestige classes).
5. Added support for dual school spells.
6. Added support for extra spontaneous cast spells (see Combat Medic and Loredelver prestige classes).
7. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added an auto-save feature. You can turn it on in the tools\options menu item.
8. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Rewrote the quick skill rolls controls to be more compact and to perform better. There are also options you can set for the controls in the Tools/Options menu.
9. CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Added the ability to copy an NPC.
10. Added all the NPCs and creatures from The Speaker in Dreams.

0.28.0 - (06/11/2006)

1. When editing creatures with special abilities, those special abilities would multiply every time you would hit ok in the edit NPC dialog. Fixed.
2. Dragons couldn't take advantage of breath and metabreath feats (their data didn't specify breath weapon as a special ability). I added breath weapon to all of the dragons that have it.
3. The Unbodied (Expanded Psionics Handbook) had a favorite class of Psion (Telepath). Previously racial favorite classes couldn't take a class path, but they do now.
4. When adding abilities to NPCs in the edit NPC dialog, the abilities were added as creature abilities.  So next time the user would bring up that NPC, the abilities would get merged out and disappear again.  This is very bad and has been fixed.
5. When adding magical ammo using the add gear dialog, all the ammo items were being split up into single items.
6. When adding classes to a character, you can't choose racial paragon classes.
7. If you create a new campaign file and don't select any extra creature files in the data files campaign tab, the campaign file won't load.
8. Fixed a bug where you couldn't use a potion in the combat screen right click menu.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Added all the NPCs and gear from The Sunless Citadel.
2. Races with choices (like the Human bonus feat) are now displayed as choices in the edit PC/NPC dialog.
3. Added basic condition management for dead, destroyed, disabled, dying, inert, stable, staggered, and unconscious. Manages stabilization and recovery rolls (including support for the diehard feat and the autohypnosis skill) as well as automatic hit point damage (at the end of each round for dying, after an hour for stable, and after a day for disabled). Handles constructs, deathless, undead, and living constructs correctly as well.
4. Added after combat loot handling. When you remove a creature from combat, you can have the creature's items show up in the combat loot display. Then you can move the items to PCs and NPCs. Also added the ability to move items from one PC / NPC to another.

0.27.0 - (04/30/2006)

1. If you run the edit PC/NPC dialog, and go into the gear tab. Then click add gear, and then without selecting anything hit ok, there is an error thrown. Fixed.

ENHANCEMENTS:

1. Added support for potions, dorjes and universal items in the gear management and inventory.
2. Added all Wondrous Items from Savage Species.
3. Sped up the combat screen initial painting and adding creatures and NPCs by about 10x.
4. You can now drag and drop an NPC from the main tree into the combat screen and it will either drop the NPC in the initiative order at that place, or roll initiative for that NPC.
5. You can now create new NPC groups in the campaign tree by right clicking and selecting a menu item, as well as drag and drop NPCs between the groups in the tree.
6. Added support for Psionic Mantles.
7. Added all universal items from Expanded Psionics Handbook and Complete Psionic.
8. Added the ability to import and export NPCs and groups of NPCs. This allows for the rudimentary creation of modules. The way to do this is you create an NPC group with the module name, then place all of your NPCs for that module in or below that group. Then you can export that group, along with subgroups, and make an NPC file that you can then import into another campaign at the same group or somewhere else in the NPC group tree. The same works for PCs.
9. All the creatures from Magic of Incarnum are in.
10. Add gear dialog: when picking spells/powers for wands, potions and dorjes, a list of available caster/manifester levels is now displayed. Also the caster/manifester level of the item is set to minimum of the base classes (ignoring minimum levels of prestige classes).  Mantles and domains are not taken into account for these lists.

Last updated on July 22, 2008