New to Herolab, having issue with shifter on Ipad
 

Hi there,

as the title suggests, I am new to herolab, and am trying to make a shifter character. I have one at level 4 on paper, so trying to input all the information to herolab was a breeze, but my issue comes when testing the major form of my chosen aspect. My gear disappears (which I get) but is not replaced with the major forms abilities. I chose bull, and I do not see a gore attack, nor any changes to my stats or abilities.

What am I doing wrong?

The stats for an aurochs (the race a bull shifter polymorphs into) are from Bestiary 1. Make sure you have that book turned on, so that Hero Lab can look up the stats for the race you're trying to polymorph into.

so to really be able to use the shifter, not only did I have to buy the ultimate wilderness book included in the 2017 bundle, but I have to buy the bestiary books as well?

How Hero Lab adjudicates access to creatures baffles me. I have creatures that appear in the Encounter Builder and that I can add to portfolios and use & modify - so obviously I have legitimate access to them from some product - and yet if I try to use that creature as a shape from a shape change type spell it doesn't let me because I don't own the Bestiaries.

This is exactly how you would have to own the physical Bestiary book to know how to use the Shifter class from UW. HL works the exact same way.

I get it, but I just wish it was annotated in the packages the shifter is in. I wouldn't have bought the player companion package yet if I had to buy the bestiaries.

I assumed when it said access to the shifter class it was similar to the class packs where I got everything related to class features.

Not all the animals out there, because the shifter can't be every animal in existence, but just the ones you can chose as aspects.

If you like, we have a refund policy if you mistakenly purchase the wrong thing. As long as it's recent, like the last month or 2 I think, we should be able to help you. Submit it through the bug report mechanism (linked in a sticky thread up forum) with the details for your license and someone should be able to help you out there.

Honestly, I would rather figure out how to get it to work with minimal increased investment. I really like the way hero lab is laid out. Would the summoner sidekick package get me what I need?

Ultimately, Hero Lab is an amazing tool, and in my opinion (which my differ from yours) you'll want the entire package as you go.
The cost is prohibitive as a lump sum, as it was for me... and I bought it years ago.

I personally took the main hard covers at the time... core, ultimate magic, ultimate combat and ultimate equipment as the basics, and bought those all at once.

Then added a hardcover or a couple of the player or campaign packs at at time, a little with each check (or mostly so).

Eventually... two or three years later, I had all of the available content. It doesn't have to be all at once.

The tool is amazing for building characters.

You can take an archetype for a class, and then click on valid options only (as opposed to all options), and see which other archetypes change/modify features that the first does not. Sometimes your build could have three archetypes, on the one class...

You could also use Hero Lab as a search engine. If you go to the trait section, on the feat tab, you could type in Fortitude and get every trait (that you have as a source) that mentioned Fortitude. Or if you want maximum initiative than type that in. Do the same for feats, archetypes, magic items. If you care about skill bonuses, for a Path of War build you can type in competence bonus to stealth and see what comes back.

In short, the more sources you have the better your database.

I basically said... I have "x" books, as HL sources. Our group had that many sources as valid options for building characters for the next campaign. It had to be a HL valid build. Now one of my players is trying a campaign, experimenting as it were, and his requirement is that our builds be Hero Lab legal.

Our group is now playing (still face to face, after 32 years of 10-14 hour sessions every Saturday) with a virtual table top. Having all of the Bestiary sources, I can export a monster with a picture and import it into the VTT. So there are uses for Hero Lab, beyond simple character creation, but it is absolutely superb at the character creation aspect.

You can search spells, for a bonus to whatever, and have all the hits. It is an awesome search engine for just about any build you want.

It is also a valid build checker, to see that everything stacks correctly. The same bonus types generally don't, but you can check various boxes to see if your Rage stacks with your bonus from your equipped belt. Or maybe if the Cat's Grace buff stacks with the belt too.

Overall, cannot say enough for how awesome the tool is.
Plus the community has a lot of friendly and helpful people if you're asking about the product in general or in how to use the editor.
And the company itself has amazing people too.

A+ x1000

Oh I totally get the product and community are awesome.

And I wasn't trying to complain about it so much as figure out what I can do for now.

That is why I was asking if the summoner sidekick bundle they offer could get me what I need for the shifter class until I come around to getting other stuff.

The downside is I went in through the class pack entry path, so I won't be able to get all the books out there, and I am ok with that.

I was just trying to find if there are any other ways besides buying the beastiary books one at a time, since right now the only aspect I have data for is the mouse.