PathVault

Why it exists

In Pathfinder, a character's numbers all move together. Cast one spell, pick up one condition or gain a level, and attacks, armor class and saves shift at once. On paper or in a spreadsheet, someone has to redo that math mid-game, and it's usually the player who'd rather be playing.

What it does

• Every number shows its work, so armor class reads armor +3, Dex +2, deflection +1. Bonuses of the same type stack the way the rules say, so you don't have to remember which ones do.
• Click an attack to roll it. Level up through a wizard, and if you change your mind, take the last level back exactly as it was.
• You can open it at the table with no account to make and no server to wait on. The rules come along, 3,036 spells, 54 classes and 51 races of them, and it installs like an app on your phone.

Under the hood

No framework and no server: PathVault is one HTML page of plain JavaScript, reading 74 data files of rules. Your characters stay in your browser, kept three ways: a backup copy, a second copy in IndexedDB and an export file you keep. It's free at pathvault.netlify.app.

What I learned

When I checked PathVault against the published rules, about one class option in nine turned out to be made up, nearly all from before I had a sourcing rule. Now nothing goes in until it's checked against a published source, and the made-up entries are on their way out.