Is Hero Lab Online worth it?
 

I've been a huge fan and supporter of Hero Lab Classic, but I'm just not sure about the online version and it's subscription costs.

Online still doesn't support a house rule/customization file that I can create my own races, classes, etc in and apply to any character I create, like Classic does. And that is just one of the issues making me hesitant to renew my subscription.

Another is, I've found an app, Pathbuilder 2E, that effectively does everything Hero Lab Online does, but without a subscription, and it actually uses Pathfinder's character sheet. The only down side is, there isn't one for Starfinder... And those are the only 2 systems I'm currently playing.

So help me justify renewing my subscription to Hero Lab Online, instead of just using the app Pathbuilder... I want to love Hero Lab again.

As a side note, why on earth did Lone Wolf decide to make Hero Lab Online a glorified web page that isn't compatible with Hero Lab Classic, instead of making an android version of their Apple app? That way I could have still used Classic on my desktop, and use the app on my phone, and not worry about them not syncing.

Was someone at Lone Wolf that in love with HTML? :confused:

Khasalianus

They have said in the past that since HLO is web-based then you can have it on your PC, Apple, Android, Chromebook, anything else with a web browser; all from a single code base.

Implementing something for phones is very different from implementing for desktop.

Actually, I've developed apps for iOS, Android, and MacOS with a single code base and minor formatting changes. Windows takes a little bit more, but not much. And, FWIW, I find HLO difficult on a phone.....a tablet, sure, but not a phone.

I find it a pain on the phone too.

Plus, Pathbuilder was created by a single stay at home father that self taught programming. So yeah...

I also find HLO difficult on the Phone, but on PC or Tablet its ok.

I do have to give Lone Wolf a lot of credit for just how flexible their app is. After doing some work in the Authoring Kit in HLC, I'm impressed at how much forethought they gave for different systems they could support. Which does, unfortunately, mean that it's bound to take more development to produce a product, even if it's only initially supporting a handful of systems.

Still not hearing a good reason to renew... I might just so I have access to Starfinder, but I don't know.

It's better than paper and it's only $25. What more do you need?

I recently renewed my subscription and like some of the recent improvements, though it feels kind of bad to pay for the campaign theatre I really can't use.

My personal use case might be unusual, I basically use hero lab online as a character generator and to test builds, unfortunately, due to downtime (planned or unplanned) catching me at a bad time - I can not depend on the service working while I game.

Internet is often not an issue but I GM and play at some locations where it is just not a real option for me.

Of course, I mostly GM and play Paizo organized play for an often changing group of players and GMs, offline and using Roll20. Using the campaign theatre is really not a viable option for me, as an I have little control over what my players are using, and I have never used to option to roll something via hero lab.

If there was a slightly discounted option for a personal subscription without the theatre, that would be very interesting, I really don't mind paying to for server cost (and honestly depending on the discount, it would help me justify to purchase more products I might not use a lot).

Alternatively getting some added month ob subscriptions when you buy a new AP, or book could help with the perception of paying for something I have a harder time to justify.
Of course, that's just me I GM a lot more than I play some any subscription that only applies to my rare play opportunities is harder to justify
EDIT: I don't want to sound unfair, and I like some of the long term features and hope that they come sooner rather than later ^^

I agree that phone usage is difficult, but would be a great supplementary interface for doing simple stuff like changing HP without leaving the view on your computer if you could log in two devices at once. But since we are limited to a single log-in, the phone interface is basically almost wasted.

That's the only thing that is giving me pause, frankly. The single-device log-in seems overly restrictive and very non-customer-centric.

I understand that there are many gamers who will cheat the system and share their account (thinking how smart they are to have figured that one out), but perhaps limited to a single creature view-at-a-time on an account, or only allowing it for Patron accounts might work?