This is cool; Hero Lab has Tales of the Valiant support for 5E, making this the first commercially-supported Open 5E version in an online character creation tool. A few notes at the time of this writing:
- This is in beta now and only has the Alpha playtest material.
- This is $25 on sale for the full version and will be updated when the game releases.
- Hero Lab is $25 yearly but cheaper than the alternative.
- Hero Lab is a "pay per book" service, so it can get pricy, but the support is excellent.
- Online only.
- No user data imports like the offline tool. Limited customization.
- The offline tool has 5E SRD support and many community packages.
Hero Lab online is a premium service, but I like that you get the legacy version, which works for many game systems. The online tool supports Pathfinder 1e, 2e, Starfinder, Shadowrun 6th, and Tales of the Valiant. Gloomhaven is also coming to the system.
You can now create alpha-release characters in the four classes and ancestries. It is limited, but if you want to play the starter adventures, make your own character quickly, and have them be rules-legal, this is the way to go since it does all your checking.
What I don't like? Not all my 3rd party books are available, nor can I manually input them. The Pathfinder sets allow custom skill entries and feats you can rename, so these areas have little wiggle room. The offline tool (which does not support ToV) is more hackable (but takes a lot of knowledge), and community packs are available.
Hero Lab is a "pay per book" system, so you pay for the data entry and support. Every package is high quality and well-supported, so it is a cost for accurate information, ease of use, and ongoing support. It can get pricy, but if 'legal characters' are vital to you, this is the way to go.
If the tool gets enough support, I am sure future books from Kobold Press will be added to the system. I dream that 3rd third-party publishers, seeing a commercial Open 5E game on here, will start making their books' data files available for purchase. It takes work to add one, so there must be profit, but I can dream.
I would love to see the Roll for Combat books here for 5E and PF2.
I would love to see Level Up Advanced 5E, but it has been a while, and I doubt it is coming. These options may appear as more Open 5E books are added for ToV. While I love A5E, Kobold Press is "putting in the work" to create a commercially sustainable Open 5E ecosystem.
That alone is worth my support.
The demand for online character tools was there; the community wanted it, and now we have it.
The next thing the community needs to do is get the word out and support it.
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