Need help understanding how casting works in 3.5

[braddock]

Hello,

I've been evaluating the FG demo, and I'm having a little difficulty figuring out how to target characters with spells.

Combat with melee characters seems pretty straight forward. If I wanted to attack with a sword, I would simply grab the value under #atk on the combat tab and roll it out on the chat window. The same for the damage, but I don't see anything that I can grab for spells. The only thing I can find is a button on the mini sheet under spells that allows me to say what I'm casting in the chat window. Nothing is automated as far as dice rolls or targeting.

I suppose I could simply make macros for every spell, but I figured there was probably an easier way to do this, as it seems like everything else on FG is automated.

Can anyone give me a little guidance?

[Leonal]

Hello, and welcome to the FG community. :)

I use d20_JPG (slightly different and superior IMO to the built in set, but they're being merged by the developers) modified for Pathfinder.

Spellcasting usually goes like this in my groups (all conversation via Skype):

Player: I cast fireball (or whatever) at location/creature X.
GM: Ok, what's the DC? (and also ask to roll against spell resistance when necessary).
Player: 23 Reflex
GM: Ok, roll the dice (while rolling the appropriate saves for NPCs myself)
Player: (usually by hotkey for often used spells) "/die 10d6+10" (for example)
GM: one of the creatures seemed like they evaded parts of the damage, one seemed like it ignored the fire all together and the last one took a full hit. (whereupon I modify the damage as necessary, either manually or dragging the damage to the creature in the tracker (damage drag/drop is not available in all rulesets).

My players never/rarely use the mini sheet, and just mark off spells they've cast in the full character sheet, without using the cast button.
I suppose this could have been handled automatically like in the 4e ruleset had the 3.5 rulesets and npcs been created for it, but I think I prefer it being more manual like this.

[braddock]

That was a work around I was going to try if I couldn't figure out how to automate the casting. It looks like spells are covered under the 4E module, but there's no love for 3.5.

[Griogre]

FG has a lot of hot keys and until the 4E ruleset came out there was very little automation. So when I played a spell caster I just hot keyed the spells I used a lot. There are 96 hot keys. You can see a part of the setup I was using when I played a mage in the Shackled City campaign.

From this screen shot off the front page you can see the Control hotkey bar I was using at the time:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/images/screenshots/fg2-screenshot-04.jpg

So was just using die codes and had the name of the spell and the DC on the end of the spells that need them so the DM didn't have to ask. IE You can just see the start of DC on the Ctrl F7 key.

[NW_Salmon_Watcher]

I am using d20_JPG v 3.0.5 and it seems that for a while it was possible to place the damage dice in the spell's description line, but no longer...?

In my game there is Sorcerer L7 and I was able to put damage dice into his description for lightning bolt, but not for magic missile. I am confused as to how this could be true unless it was an experimental feature that created problems and was subsequently disabled in later updates.

This feature may indeed be causing some trouble as when I (as DM) tweaked this character after a level gain, then one of my players resumed using him the game, she was having problems with the damage dice which appeared to trigger "run time" errors that crashed FG twice until she quite bothering with it.:mad:

Any feedback on this one would be appreciated.

[Griogre]

What does spell description line mean? On the spell book line or something else?

In the example I was using to show the shortcuts you just type in a die code ie /die 7d6 Fireball DC 25 and dragged it from entry part of the chat window onto a hot key. then you press the hot key and 7d6 are thrown and it says Fireball and gives the DC. Its simple and very fast and you do it once. Once the character levels then drag the hot key text back to the entry line on the chat window - edit the 7d6 to 8d6 change the DC if necessary and drag the entry text back on top of the hot key to replace the old die code. It literally takes a second or two.

On the run time error you are going to have to give a better description. If you can reproduce the error at will, please report it in the House of Healing so the developers can see it.

[NW_Salmon_Watcher]

Two-part, response, Griogre:

First, by spell description I was referring to the line under the spell tab where a short description of the spell is normally typed. That line can - or did at one time, it seems - permit damage dice to be included (see attached screenshot please, red circle).

My question is can damage dice still be added to this part of the character sheet or is this an old feature no longer active with newer versions of d20_JPG v.3.0.5?

I know how to program the Hot Keys and they are useful. But my wife has had trouble with them and we found the character-sheet based damage dice easier for her to copy to Hot Keys, rather than getting the exact syntax right for spell damage.

Secondly, the runtime error... sadly I didn't see the error my wife was experiencing as it flashed across her screen then closed out FG. I thought I read a blurb in one of the forums about some sort of trouble log. Is there a log FG keeps that I could open on her system to see what that error was and provide more details? If so, what is it called so I can search for it?

Thank you so much.

[Griogre]

I have the 3.0.5 version and can still drop dice on the end of the spell line. One limitation with the dice "cup" is it can only hold dice with no mods so you can't do magic missiles d4+1. When I was running a wizard I sometimes used the Combat Tab Weapons to make spell shortcuts, while not quite as fast as dice codes it doesn't take that long either. For example to do a magic missile you would call the "Weapon" name Magic Missile, then drop 4d4s in the damage box and add the +4 after them. Then drag and drop the damage dice to a hot key. The only problem with this approach is you get [DAMAGE] Magic Missile instead of just Magic Missile but it is easy and you don't need to use die codes.

I don't think the extra error logging has made it out to the current release version of FG from the test versions. It would be called console.log and I believe its deleted the next time you start FG. You might check her computer and see if she has one if she did not rejoin FG after the crash. If she crashes again you could check before she re-logs back in.

[NW_Salmon_Watcher]

Thanks for the tips, Griogre.

I am pretty sure that file is gone, given that we did have re-enter FG after those 2 crashes Saturday night and I had here stay out of the troublesome NPCs spells, which allowed her to keep playing.

I like your tip on spells with mods in the CT. That sounds useful for pre-game setup work!

Cheers.

[Phystus]

I have the 3.0.5 version and can still drop dice on the end of the spell line. One limitation with the dice "cup" is it can only hold dice with no mods so you can't do magic missiles d4+1...

Actually, you can. But you have to drop the modifier in first. So drop the +1, then drop the d4. If you drop the d4 first you won't be able to add the modifier.

Cheers,

~P

[Leonal]

Hah, I didn't know that you could add dice to the spells.

Thanks!

[Griogre]

Actually, you can. But you have to drop the modifier in first. So drop the +1, then drop the d4. If you drop the d4 first you won't be able to add the modifier.

Cheers,

~P
Good tip on the modifier. I did not know that. I did find when I was playing around that order does not really matter dice or mod. You have to just drop the second one *not* on the first box created - just somewhere else on the line.

[NW_Salmon_Watcher]

Clever, Phystus.

Will have to try this approach. Thanks!