HERO Designer

Hero System has been my favorite pastime for several decades, just to put the following into context. That said, I consider Hero Designer to be the best $25. I have ever spent in my life. No exageration.

This application although not perfect, and what software is, makes building stuff with Hero System an order of magnitude faster and easier. The speed and amount of depth available is amazing using a very efficient interface.

Even better is that regular updates are available and getting it running is super easy. It is in fact so good that I bought extra licenses to cover all my players and made using it a requirement for my games.

I have 3193 hdc files created using Hero Designer. I purchase my first version in 2008 so that means I have had the program about 4000 days, plus or minus.  That means I have created a new character at a rate of about 4 a week.  No way I would have made that many character in that time by hand.  This program might be primarily for building characters but it is also a great teaching tool.  You learn how to experiment with your builds, and how to optimize them. This is my third purchase but I primarily use my old 2008 version for one reason ... I can't double click on a power to go straight to edit.  That annoys me to no end. I bought my 2010 copy to work 6th ... which I never used.  I bought this version just to catch up ... I was hoping for the double click thing.  Maybe next version?  Anyway, I highly suggest this program for not only old Luddite 5th Ed players but you new players too.  The price is reasonable and there's no quicker way to learn to build characters.  
Edit: Simon contacted me and informed that by double clicking on the Cost or END box the Edit comes up.  Thanks, for the info, Simon.  

Awesome tool and awesome support for found bugs and questions!

The best program you can buy for creating characters. Spreadsheets are a mess and only give you bare bones. HD has everything from 5th and 6th and can be altered by reading the HDDocs pdf. Also since it just needs a Java Runtime to work, it WILL work on all systems Java does (I've tested it on Mac, Windows (Up to 10), and Linux).

[Yes, Manual is included]

The absolute answer to Hero Creation there is out there and well worth the price!!

It's complicated, just like the Hero System, and it's clunky, likely because it's written in Java. 

Despite this Hero Designer is still worth $25. It's simpler than building powers on paper as it checks that you are conforming to the rules and you can include notes everywhere so you know why you built something the way you did. Despite the user interface quirks I am glad it is written in Java, because it would very likely be Windows only otherwise.

If you are planing on running a game of Hero – buy it. If you are playing a game of Hero tell your GM to buy it.

Really good

This is the best $25 I have spent in my decades of TTRPGing. I have a shelf full of HERO System books (4th, 5th, and 6th editions) and I use this software more than the books combined. I create all my characters in it and spend my XP using it. I Also use the templates and prefabs provided with various books to further my arsenal of characters and items. This program is so versatile. I highly recommend it to anyone new or experienced with the HERO System. -David