Libre doesn't work, gotta be the real deal. I tried it back last year. So yeah if you don't have it the txt editing way will have to be the path forward. Frankly office is worth it though, I wouldn't do any stat monkeying if it weren't for the excel files. But just for one item here or there it wouldn't be too bad.
Also, you shouldn't have to actually create a template to make an item whether it's droppable or a unique. Simply find the existing template of the item you want to use, place it in the world, and add that stat to it on the sidebar if you want to manually place it. I did this for several "unique" items in Dunamis I made as a quest reward.
And if you want it to drop randomly or be available with a vendor I think just creating an item in the right txt file will do it. This will depend on how you set the fields though.
@Baardvark, maybe that stat tutorial would be a good idea
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