5E (SRD) Hero Lab

If I am playing 5E, it will be with SRD sources and character creators. Hero Lab (classic) supports a 5E character creator module, and it works well. We used the Pathfinder version for years, and this was our Pathfinder go-to character manager. They do not have plans to support One D&D - since nobody knows if 3rd party content will be legal - and I am fine buying this and having it for 5E.

Why don't I want an official character creator? The same reason I did not want an official character creator back in the 4E days, it will eventually have support dropped, and they will force you to upgrade. If I bought 5E books, and I like the 5E game the way it was, then I am playing it that way. For the same reason, there is a considerable retro-gaming crowd that loves NES and SNES games; I get the feeling 5E will be the same way in a few years.

Nothing against One D&D; this is just how gaming works. I am still interested in the next game, but I enjoy 5E as it is today - and all of the game versions.

It is excellent having 5E as it stands today as a "dead game" and support ending for this version. They can say all they want about backward compatibility, but even in their own surveys and marketing, Wizards said 90% of consumers do not care about it anyway and will see a new version as a new version and avoid buying the old stuff. And I know it is not a "dead game," but in my book, when a company stops supporting the system as it was initially written, that version is dead, and the company moves on.

5E, as it was from 2014 to 2024, will be in the OSR soon.

The game as it was played and loved by millions will be preserved.

And third-party character creators like this will keep the 5E version alive and loved by the fans.

I wish they had Level Up 5E modules for this, as it would make a painful 2-hour character creation session where I am flipping back and forth through a 4-page form-fillable PDF and trying to cut and paste the text into too-small fields a more straightforward job. Low Fantasy Gaming does not really need a computer-aided design too like this, but 5E does.

There is way too much to manage in this game. Even in base 5E, there is still way too much to manage, especially if playing solo with a small party. With a B/X or OSR game, I can manage a 4-5 person party by hand easily. With 5E, forget it; these characters are on a complexity level of Palladium or Rolemaster, just in options and interlocking rules.

Now, I am not playing 5E without 5e Hardmode - not happening. Since this just plugs into base 5E, no character sheet changes are needed. Why? I would get bored without challenge. Base 5E is way too forgiving and easy without this book and plugging in the difficulty modifiers suggested.

I like a Dark Souls or Elden Ring level of difficulty, and if I am playing this solo, I want the extra challenge. Otherwise, I know the shtick: healing word (or similar insta-heal), get up, knocked down, healing word, and so on. The fact this routine has been baked into combat and challenge difficulty should give people pause. I am not playing a video game, and when even Mario is a bit more serious about death mechanics, this should make you wonder.