[4.0]D&D Combat Manager

[GWLlosa]

Do you play D&D4E? Have an Insider subscription and use the Character Builder?

There's a new app out today on the internet. It's called, rather imaginatively, the "D&D Combat Manager". This application can open and read the XML files that the Character Builder generates in order to provide you with a 'digital' character sheet, which can vastly simplify your tabletop gaming experience.

Key Features:
•Works off your D&D Character Builder character data; you don't have to import any extra data or data sources!
•Connects to the D&D Insider Compendium to retrieve data so that YOU don't have to look it up!
•Automatically capable of rolling your attacks and spitting out the damage dealt; no more having to add up all those small numbers!
•Able to properly handle multi-target attacks, giving a seperate attack roll per target and then a singular damage amount!
•Able to track your HP, and properly handle temporary hitpoints and healing!
•Displays your powers in a convenient list format; click the 'attack' button to activate!
•Uses the Microsoft Voice Engine to read aloud what is happening when you attack or roll a skill; turn up the volume so the DM can hear!
•Automatically updates itself every time there is a new release!
•COMPLETELY FREE!

Get the app today, at http://www.gelworksonline.com

This application is still under development. If you find any bugs or have any constructive feedback, drop us a line at [email protected]. Your feedback is important to us; let us know how to make this app better! 

[WirePaladin]

Oh man, very useful for a 4th edition game...we all have our laptops out anyway, heh.

...When is the DM version going to be coming out?

[-Cor-]

Will look at this when I get home today... if it's half as good as you say, my players oughta love it.

[GWLlosa]

If you run into any problems with it, drops us an email at [email protected]. We love nothing more than customer feedback that helps us make a better app experience for everyone.

[warrl]

Key Features:
•Displays your powers in a convenient list format; click the 'attack' button to activate!

* At a screen resolution of 1280*1024, the list format is quite a bit short of convenient. Specifically, you have to scroll the "used" checkbox, usage, and name of the power off the screen to reach the "attack" button.

* Also, there is no access to power descriptions other than the attack/defense description (not including any actual numbers), until after you click the "attack" button. Then it still doesn't have actual numbers. Can it get the actual character's to-hit and damage stats for the power?

* In addition to that, in this resolution with the window maximized there's a great deal of wasted space at the bottom of the window. Which is one aspect of the fact that the app doesn't respond to changes in window size.

* The app should be designed to be functional on a 1024*600 screen. This is a common netbook screen size. You may not be able to fit everything in that space, but the skills aren't often needed in combat while the combat stuff isn't often needed otherwise - everything commonly needed for either one of these areas of the gam should fit on-screen at once. Scrolling around or flipping to other tabs is okay when the situation changes and for the occasional special case.

* At larger window sizes, take intelligent advantage of the additional space. Don't move things around drastically though, because the users will learn where they expect stuff to be.

* When there's an attack with an at-will power, you might as well leave the attack window up on the expectation that the character is likely to use the same at-will power again. In fact leave the window up until the user closes it and add (and update) a list of still-usable powers for the user to click on.

* On attacks that can deliver multiple hits with the same damage, it's usually easier to run things if the damage is reported first. (The DM can handle damage to each target when the hit is rolled rather than having to remember which targets were hit.) This also lets you include the damage report in the dialog asking about the hit roll.

* Some powers give multiple attacks, rather than a single attack with multiple targets - and thus can have multiple to-hit rolls against one target, and different damage rolls for different attacks. One of these is Dual Strike (give your fighter a heavy blade in the main hand and a dagger in the off hand, and it'll be apparent). Subsequent attacks can also be dependent on whether the previous attack hits - this is found mainly in Swordmage powers. Treating such things as multi-target single attacks gives incorrect results.

* You are not handling the High Crit weapon property.

(I've also emailed this.)

[WirePaladin]

What exactly is coming in with the DM package anyway? Round tracking? munsters?