Version 6.6 is now available from the automatic updates mechanism within Hero Lab. This update adds the remaining variant rules from Ultimate Combat - Piecemeal Armor and Wounds & Vigor, as well as some bug fixes and improvements.
The other major change in this update is support for the Advanced Race Guide playtest. We've decided not to work on implementing the full race building rules yet - there's too much of a chance that there will be major changes in the way the rules work between now and the finished version. We do plan to implement full support for these mechanics when the full Advanced Race Guide is added to Hero Lab. In the meantime, the new subtypes and the new racial abilities from the playtest have been added, so that users who have created a race can enter it into the editor, and won't have to create the new subtypes and racial abilities as well as creating their new races.
Here's the change list for this update, copied from the FAQ:
New Releases!
The other major change in this update is support for the Advanced Race Guide playtest. We've decided not to work on implementing the full race building rules yet - there's too much of a chance that there will be major changes in the way the rules work between now and the finished version. We do plan to implement full support for these mechanics when the full Advanced Race Guide is added to Hero Lab. In the meantime, the new subtypes and the new racial abilities from the playtest have been added, so that users who have created a race can enter it into the editor, and won't have to create the new subtypes and racial abilities as well as creating their new races.
Here's the change list for this update, copied from the FAQ:
New Releases!
- Content from the Advanced Race Guide playtest is now available. At this point, a full implementation of the point-buy race system has not been added yet, but the new subtypes and new racial abilities are available for use in the editor. So, users who have built their own races with this system will have the tools they need to enter those races into Hero Lab's editor.
- Added the Piecemeal Armor variant rules from Ultimate Combat.
- Added the Wounds & Vigor variant rules from Ultiamte Combat.
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- Metamagic abilities other than Heighten Spell were adding their level adjustment to the DC of their spells.
- Improved the error messages that are given if you try to add so many effective spellcasting levels from a prestige class to a spellcasting class that you raise its effective spellcasting level above 20. Instead of popping up an error report with messages that were hard to understand, it uses the normal validation report to inform the user that since epic spellcasting has not been implemented yet, the character will not receive any benefits from the magic level they have added.
- If a template adds hit dice to a race that doesn't normally have hit dice (for example, a human skeleton or zombie), the Additional Hit Die and Size Increase options are now available for that character on the Classes tab.
- Feats, Traits, Flaws, Skill Tricks, and Animal Tricks can now set a Standard DC, like most other abilities already could. Selecting an attribute in the "Standard DC" option for these items in the editor will have Hero Lab calculate the DC of that ability as 10 + 1/2 total level + that attribute's modifier. Existing feats that use this sort of calculation for their DC have been updated to take advantage of this new method.
- A New option has been added to all of the "Standard DC" options in the editor - "Base Attack Bonus". Choosing this will give that ability a DC of 10 + BAB. This is the DC calculation used by most of the Critical feats. Existing feats that use this calculation for their DC have been updated to take advantage of this new method.
- Metamagics now have an "Improves DC?" checkbox - if checked, the level adjustment of the metamagic is also applied to the spell's DC. This was added when the metamagic DC bug was fixed - Heighten Spell should still improve the DC, so it uses this checkbox, but no other metamagic does so.
- The #attrvalue[] macro is now available to simplify the process of writing a prereq for a specific attribute value. For example, "Strength 13 required" can now be coded as #attrvalue[aSTR] >= 13, instead of hero.child[aSTR].field[aFinalVal].value >= 13.