What app or tool would you recommend for building characters to use around the table?
Not looking for Foundry support or any other VTT. I'm about to start GMing Pathfinder for the first time for players who are all completely new to Pathfinder. Some have D&D 5e experience, some are new to RPGs.
Some might be willing to pay, but I suspect most probably will not, so I'd definitely prefer ones that have at least the character building content from the CRB for free. Definitely open to paid recommendations too though, if they're really good.
Interested to hear what options are out there, and what quality of life features they have to walk players through creating a new character or to help while playing at the table.
IMO, even with a VTT there's value in using something like pathbuilder. Foundry generally isn't very "smart" about what options a character has at various points in the character creation process, so it can show you a lot of options you don't have. For example, when you go to select a skill feat in Foundry, it doesn't take into account the skills with which your character is proficient. It just shows you all of the skill feats.
No, I'm doing it for a distance game. But with everyone on the discord, they just ping me if they want to work with a character, and I always set aside extra time during level-up to make sure everyone is good to go.
I have heard of people using Foundry (and other VTTs) for table games. You create 2 logins, DM logs in to his via the Foundry app, and the other is logged into through a browser and displays on a big monitor (possibly laid horizontally if you have the money to mod a table and have a glass insert). Control of the party token(s) will depend on the setup. If both monitors are being used by the DM's computer, the DM controls the party map directly, otherwise one of the players logs in on the second PC and controls the party tokens.
I admit it gets confusing. At the time we ran into each other over on Reddit, I was living near Brisbane, CA, and he lives in the vicinity of Brisbane, AUS. We both play D&D/Pathfinder, both subscribe to random interesting things like r/etymology, etc.