When NPCs attack

[gmkieran]

Good evening, all! Managed my first combat in FG last week. Went moderately well, with one (well, two, but the other one's an ID10T issue) major problem. I was working with several completely custom NPCs created manually (as opposed to dragging a template from the MM into Personalities and then modding it) and none of them had attack dice which could be dragged onto a token or CT entry such that the CT would actually make itself useful. Is there a way to manually create NPCs (specifically their Powers/Attacks) such that they will have attack dice like a template dragged from the MM? Did I need to drag dice into their description fields when creating them? What, if anything, did I do wrong? I have several other custom NPCs in the game, so any help you guys can offer would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks, as always!

[Moon Wizard]

It depends on the ruleset you are using. In all of the D&D rulesets, you can usually create the attack entries in the appropriate fields using the same format as you see for the module entries or rulebooks. Then, when you drag to the CT, it should pre-populate the attack fields.

I know that this works for both of the rulesets that I developed. (d20_JPG and 4E_JPG)
https://fantasygrounds.wikia.com/wiki/Fantasy_Grounds_Wiki

Cheers,
JPG

[gmkieran]

Thanks, JPG! Unfortunately, I must have done something wrong, then, when creating the NPCs' combat entries, because I'm using your 4e_JPG ruleset and I *thought* I'd formatted the powers exactly as I'd seen them in the templates, but I had no attack dice. Perhaps the attached screen-shots will give a better picture of what I did and why it's not working. Left is my encounter and the Powers tab of the custom NPC, right is the combat tracker and the popup I get when I click on the Bite power under the active CT entry.

and, just by the bye, VERY much appreciate all your work on the 4e ruleset! vastly cool!

[Moon Wizard]

Still waiting for the image to be approved for viewing. You can also send me a PM with your image and/or e-mail.

JPG

[ddavison]

Oops sorry guys, it doesn't send me any notices that an image is awaiting approval so it just sits there until I think to check the forum admin console.

[Moon Wizard]

gmkieran,

Your format for your powers does not match the format used in the books exactly.

For the first power, here is the correct format for the power description that matches the power descriptions found in the rulebooks. You used a lot of shorthand in your format that the parser does not recognize.

Bite
Attack: +7 vs. AC; Hit: 1d6+2 damage, or 2d6+2 damage against prone targets.

For the second power, you dropped a PC "weapon" power onto a NPC sheet.

All NPC powers in 4th edition have their weapons built into their power descriptions, though I allow you to drop PC powers onto NPCs. However, this means that the power attacks will be considered "special" due to the use of ability score bonuses and weapon multiples in the attack/damage calculations. This means that you would have to open the power in the NPC sheet to roll the attack/damage for this power.

Also, since there is no weapon defined for a NPC, then 1[W] is equal to no dice by default. You can however drop dice on the power description to set dice to use for the [W] value. A special weapon dice field will be created for that power.

Usually, your best bet in these cases is to update the power description to remove ability and weapon multiple entries, and replace them with the actual bonus and dice information like shown in the MM.

Hope that helps,
JPG

[gmkieran]

Thanks, JPG! It makes a lot of sense - for some reason, it hadn't occurred to me that it would be parsing the actual text to determine how to apply functionality and that my short-hand would affect that; clearly just not thinking on my part. I'll hope that I can edit/save my existing NPCs - if not, at least I'll know for next time! *g*