Dave apparently forgot to equip the item. There should have been a +1 in the Enhancement Bonus slot for AC if he had.

If you don’t equip it in the items screen, it still displays the first armour you can wear in your Armour slot, which is the bad behaviour. If not equipped, it should be in your Other Equipment.

Graham´s last post: Starting a new game, new system & new DM… back in September…

Your AC should be 16 at level 3. 10 + 1/2 your level + Int mod + 1 AC from robe.

I repeat.

You don’t need an ongoing subscription to use the tool!

This is what wizards announced a couple months back.

You can subscribe for one month (once the non-beta is out), download the tool, and cancel immediately and you’ll have it forever.

What you DO get if you subscribe is ongoing content updates. You’ll get all the latest books and dragon magazine crunch added to your character creator.

But you don’t need to keep up a subscription just to use the basic tool.

Just check the announcement from about 2 months ago.

Yes, and with the sealed CD, you can tell whether or not it’s been tampered with/stolen. Good luck convincing a company to include a sealed CD in every one of their books without raising the cost of said books.

Some places have consumers photocopy the Proof of Purchase and receipt and mail/email it in.

That’s a possibility, but it would require paying people to check each submission as it gets sent in. With the recent job cuts they’ve already done, that seems unlikely.

Personally, I agree 100% with Dave. The core books should be free in the compendium, with the rest as the subscription.

Maybe there is a way to do it well, as well as inexpensively. I haven’t found it yet, though.

But I have to ask:

Throw in the tight restrictions on user-created content

What tight restrictions on user-created content?

Do you mean the GSL? In that case, it doesn’t actually apply to user-created content. It only applies to sold 3rd-party content. And you can create content without using the GSL, too.

Hopefully the GSL revisions will make it better, but in no way does the current GSL affect user creation of custom content and posting it on your personal site or forums. Just selling it.

Graham´s last post: Starting a new game, new system & new DM… back in September…

My personal preference would be to open the Compendium to everyone for the three core books only and do what they’re doing now with the rest of the data from other books: you can see it in searches but not read it if you’re not a member. The Compendium isn’t structured like the old d20 online SRDs… there’s no way to play the game just using it, so opening up that data carries little risk.

There is more than 1 way to skin a cat. I get one-time activation codes all the time for pre-ordering games at various stores. All it requires is for me to go online, punch in some receipt info and place I purchased it from and the code is emailed to me the next day.

Textbooks come with sealed CDs in the back that include one-time activation keys for expensive software all the time. The book isn’t sealed.

Some places have consumers photocopy the Proof of Purchase and receipt and mail/email it in.

Point is, other companies are finding ways to include this added value to consumers and for some company to say, “It wasn’t feasible” usually just means, “It wasn’t worth it to us” … especially when the concept of a simple website done correctly doesn’t seem to be feasible to them. Throw in the tight restrictions on user-created content and the picture starts to get painted a slightly different way (from my personal point of view). WoTC just hasn’t adjusted to the online thing yet… that’s fine. I hope it all comes together in time.

In the end, we can agree to disagree. In the meanwhile, it sounds like many of you will get it and I’m sure WoTC appreciates your business. I actually think the Magazine Subs alone are worth the cost, but again, that isn’t the principle issue for me. My issue is that the Compendium and Character Creators for content that consumers have purchased a right to access via books should be made available as well online. Its the right thing to do, imo… whether they subscribe to magazines or not… especially considering the volatile and constantly-changing nature of the content.

And, for people who subscribe to the magazines, I can see “renting” those things for people who may not have bought the books as a good gesture as well.

Lets be clear here… the Compendium is a user interface for sql queries. It isn’t rocket science or some private link to 8gb HD movie torrents. Its also the only places to have real-time interactive content updates that don’t involve you flipping to reference pages at the back to ensure it hasn’t changed.

Each time you buy a new resource, you can unlock that content from the DB. This ensures that the Compendium doesn’t give you access to info you haven’t purchased.

*edit*
Good point Dave. I haven’t used the character creator. Maybe if I had, my view would be different about it in particular. However, I’ve already conceded some things might be worth the subscription (character gen in particular), but at the very least, the Compendium should be unlocked for everyone who has purchased books.

*edit*
“But I wouldn’t expect a full recall, reprinting, and redistribution just for that.”

But expecting access to a searchable database with these changes for free seems somehow unreasonable? You guys use this for free every day… its called Google. I’m going one step further… I sent ~$200 to Goog.. er WOTC.

The real issue here, that we’re all avoiding, is if my character above is one of the awesomest ever, with a great character portrait to match. I’m going to have to go with: absolutely.

Yes, but generally only if it was something like a printing error.

If I bought a book about physics, and it talked about chemistry for a chapter, I wouldn’t be able to expect them to give me a copy that where that “flaw” was “fixed”.

That’s how I see the major updates to the D&D books. They were published how they were published, and they work alright as published. The skill challenge and stealth errata make them work better, and they were provided for me for free. But I wouldn’t expect a full recall, reprinting, and redistribution just for that.

Graham´s last post: Starting a new game, new system & new DM… back in September…

Errata is fine for for minor typos and corrections, but the fubar that was Skill Challenges, etc goes beyond that. I’ll accept they did what they could, but anyone who thinks it’s possible to “patch” a book the way that software can be patched is wrong. At least, not without a craft knife, glue and a steady hand

Me, I’m pleased that the Character Builder is being so well received. If it does what it promises to do (and so far, it sounds great!), then that + Dungeon, Dragon and the DDI for $60-ish a year sounds like a real bargain to me.

any arguments for “dishonesty” could just as easily be applied to the current setup

True.

But the issue then is just WotC having to give up some bandwidth.

If the books had unique numbers inside, and some unscrupulous person went to the bookstore and wrote that number down and used it, it wouldn’t cost WotC anything extra. But the legitimate customer wouldn’t be able to use the number once they got the book home, which is unacceptable.

That, combined with the fact that getting a unique number into every book would cost a fair amount extra to get published, is what caused WotC to not do it that way.

Graham´s last post: Starting a new game, new system & new DM… back in September…