Daperez
March 30th, 2015, 20:05
Hey everyone,
So I've been working parsing my monster manual and I've created an excel spreadsheet that I've found pretty helpful. You fill in the monster data and then copy the corresponding cell in Column A to grab your parse-able stat block.
The purpose is to allow you to quickly copy and paste certain lines from the statblock in a format that helps to avoid most errors I've encountered. The stats that are the most tricky to copy-paste can be entered quickly as a plain number (typing in say, "30", instead of trying to get "30 ft.," to copy just so for the speeds). Ability Scores I've found to be tricky, so this sheet just lets you type them and calculates the mods. XP I found giving me errors depending on where the OCR put the space, so now it just calculates it straight from the CR. This is my first pass at it, so I can't guarantee that it'll be bug free.
There are some lists out there with the NPC's listed by Name, CR, Alignment, and Size, so popping those right into the spreadsheet may save you time, but make sure you take out any Sizes with parentheses (there are some listed as "Medium (Tiny)" and that doesn't work). Also CR may not paste in as Text, so if you can't get the exp calculation to work, just delete that formula and enter it manually. I find it easier to just type the CR in.
It's also very useful for creating new monsters without worrying about whether you're matching up the formats of the statblocks exactly. Try mimicking the format of the sample monster and you'll get an idea for what it does. If you guys find it useful, I might make one for Spells, as that's the next priority for my game.
You can find the latest version of the Monster Helper here (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3hkfjxyaudbnl8b/AAB8qmJqJuSa8EK_edPucs_ha?dl=0).
If something bugs out, make sure you've grabbed the latest version. If it's still bugging out, let me know what I can take a look at.
3/30/2015 - Added a substitution function to the Hit Point column that replaces any instances of the letter I with a 1, as that seems to be a very common OCR error.
So I've been working parsing my monster manual and I've created an excel spreadsheet that I've found pretty helpful. You fill in the monster data and then copy the corresponding cell in Column A to grab your parse-able stat block.
The purpose is to allow you to quickly copy and paste certain lines from the statblock in a format that helps to avoid most errors I've encountered. The stats that are the most tricky to copy-paste can be entered quickly as a plain number (typing in say, "30", instead of trying to get "30 ft.," to copy just so for the speeds). Ability Scores I've found to be tricky, so this sheet just lets you type them and calculates the mods. XP I found giving me errors depending on where the OCR put the space, so now it just calculates it straight from the CR. This is my first pass at it, so I can't guarantee that it'll be bug free.
There are some lists out there with the NPC's listed by Name, CR, Alignment, and Size, so popping those right into the spreadsheet may save you time, but make sure you take out any Sizes with parentheses (there are some listed as "Medium (Tiny)" and that doesn't work). Also CR may not paste in as Text, so if you can't get the exp calculation to work, just delete that formula and enter it manually. I find it easier to just type the CR in.
It's also very useful for creating new monsters without worrying about whether you're matching up the formats of the statblocks exactly. Try mimicking the format of the sample monster and you'll get an idea for what it does. If you guys find it useful, I might make one for Spells, as that's the next priority for my game.
You can find the latest version of the Monster Helper here (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3hkfjxyaudbnl8b/AAB8qmJqJuSa8EK_edPucs_ha?dl=0).
If something bugs out, make sure you've grabbed the latest version. If it's still bugging out, let me know what I can take a look at.
3/30/2015 - Added a substitution function to the Hit Point column that replaces any instances of the letter I with a 1, as that seems to be a very common OCR error.