(3.5) Good Software for Character Management?

[Dratsabre Tsabala]

Hi, all. My gaming group is beginning to try and bring technology to the table to simplify things a bit. I did a cursory search for some of the character management software we'd need, but to be honest, I'm pretty busy and I don't have the time to sift through the overwhelming variety and find the best ones.

Basically, I'm looking for an interactive character sheet for 3.5 that's shiny and easy-to-read but in-depth enough to keep track of most of the more nuanced information that goes with a character (for instance, a sheet that knows the difference between natural intelligence bonus and item-enhanced intelligence when it comes time to assign new skill points). Is such a treasure freely available? Does it even exist?

I'd also appreciate it if anyone could point me towards a decent spellbook utility. I've found plenty that allow you to compile your spells known, but none of them that actually allow you to track your prepared spells and check them off as you use them.

Sorry to come to you guys with my hat in my hand, but a cursory forum search didn't turn up anything that fit the bill, and you guys never disappoint.

[JeenLeen]

It's not (real) easy, but a well-programmed Excel worksheet with color-coded highlighting to aid readability could work.

My group uses such to calculate our xp expenditure in Mage: The Ascension. I imagine such could be easily enough modified to keep track of HP, different types of bonuses to stats, etc. You could use a different tab for different things, like how physical character sheets have different pages.

Also, I don't know how, but I know there's a way to have one sheet in an Excel workbook look at another sheet. I imagine you could have all the junky stuff on one page that you rarely look at, but have the finished product on most tabs, increasing readibility.

[Ormagoden]

Download Heroforge for character creation and never look back.

Spellforge is also very useful. It is on the same page.

[OracleofWuffing]

Basically, I'm looking for an interactive character sheet for 3.5 that's shiny and easy-to-read but in-depth enough to keep track of most of the more nuanced information that goes with a character (for instance, a sheet that knows the difference between natural intelligence bonus and item-enhanced intelligence when it comes time to assign new skill points). Is such a treasure freely available? Does it even exist?

Sounds like the closest thing you can get would be eTools, which had a bunch of expansions for most official books. However, support for that was discontinued, so it's kind of nigh-impossible to get a legal copy of that going for you.

Otherwise, the closest I've used for that sort of thing is PCGen, but that's nuanced that if you're going to use anything outside of the SRD, you're pretty much stuck making it for yourself.

[Starscream]

I second Heroforge. Works great, contains most sourcebooks.

[Tinydwarfman]

Heroforge is spectacular, just remember to read the instructions. I couldn't figure out why it kept crashing.

It has everything except the most obscure sourcebooks, and is easy to customize.