NPC spell sheet issue

[jedorian]

I have encountered a bug where the spell effect of an NPC does not activate on targets. This only seems to happen with an effect that requires a save (has the save set on its cast line). I've noticed that as long as there is no save set, it will function perfectly.

This is causing the effect to not roll the required save when the Cast button is used and the damage line of the spell or effect will not deliver any damage to the target.

[Griogre]

You might want to mention the ruleset and if you can give step by step instructions to recreate or an example spell with the problem, it would make it easier for Smiteworks to find and fix the problem.

[jedorian]

Now I am very confused by this. I just logged back in today and my npcs' spell sheets are working fine. Btw, these are created NPCs, not things dragged or modified from the Bestiary modules.

I am using the PFRPG ruleset, I have the Language Extension on, and no others extensions are active.

When I posted the above comment, my NPC's spell effect would not force the save against the targeted player, nor would it apply it damage. Today, it is working perfectly. Saves are being forced as they should be and damage is being applied as normal.

I cannot understand how this error occured at all, and now I can't recreate it. Maybe this is something that happens to an NPC when its already in the CT on loading up a game? (As that was what happened with my zombies, but the error did not apply to any other NPC I added afterward).

I'm going to try that and see if it happens again after reloading the game.

[jedorian]

I do believe I have found the reason. The error happened again after I closed the game and left those NPCs in the CT, then reloaded the game.

So, when you leave an NPC in the combat tracker and log into your game, their spell effects will not work right.

And even if I drag a new one of that same NPC into the CT, its spell effect are also bugged out.

Different NPCs than the one already in the CT are functioning as normal.

So, heads up dev team, NPCs in the CT upon loading the game are bugged out.

[Moon Wizard]

Hmm, might need more info on this one.

* Can you send me a copy of your db.xml file from your campaign folder? ([email protected])

* Can you walk me through the steps you take once to restart the session? (i.e. open CT, click on NPC link in CT, ...)

Things I am looking for is when targeting is specified (i.e. before session restart, or after), how you are opening NPC sheet, which windows are opened after restart, and probably a couple more questions as we dig in.

It sounds like a situation where the state of the game is missing a linkage somewhere, just need to recreate locally and I should be able to address.

Cheers,
JPG

[jedorian]

I logged in again today and set it up to repeat the issue once more and discovered that if you leave only one NPC of a kind in the combat tracker, the issue does not occur. You can have multiple NPCs of differing types in the CT without any problems.

However, when you leave multiple NPCs of the SAME kind in the CT, then the problem occurs on logging into the game.

Here's what I did:

Load in a group of NPCs into the combat tracker of the same type. I put four in there. Exit the game.

Log back into the game and then target any PC on the CT, or any other creature in there, and use a spell effect you have set up on the Spell Sheet. It will not force a save against that target and when you roll damage it will not apply. I opened the link in the CT for the creature's NPC sheet.

You can add another NPC of that same type into the CT and it, too, will be malfunctional. However, any other kind of NPC loaded into the CT will work normally against any target.

This issue does not affect the NPC's normal attacks, only its Spell Sheet entries.

Is there anything more I can do to further aid in fixing this?

[Moon Wizard]

That is exactly the kind of information I need. I'll let you know if I need more information to reproduce.

Thanks,
JPG

[Moon Wizard]

OK, after looking at this a bit, here is what I think is happening.

Each NPC in the combat tracker is just a shell for the original NPC record, and actually points back to the campaign NPC record. Whenever you take an action from an NPC sheet that can have a target (such as attack or spell cast), the ruleset attempts to figure out which NPC "instance" in the combat tracker should be used to determine effects and targeting.

When there is only one NPC "instance" in the combat tracker, it can assume that is the "instance" that should be used for targeting and effect determination.

When there are multiple NPC "instances" in the combat tracker, the ruleset does not know which one you are trying to use, unless the initiative marker is on an "instance" of that NPC. In that case, it uses the instance which has initiative. If none of them have the initiative marker, then nothing is assumed.

There are 2 workarounds:
* Click on the left-hand side of the combat tracker to set the active initiative flag to the NPC before casting spells and applying damage, then change back to creature that should have initiative. This will ensure that all targeting and effects are considered.
* Drag the spell rolls from the NPC sheet onto a target (instead of double-clicking). This will make the roll with the base creature information, which will include no effects.

Originally, the NPC "instance" approach was designed to allow NPCs to be managed in one location (the NPC tab); but it has become clear that each NPC "instance" now needs a full record to support newer features, such as spellcasting. This is on the wish list to update for upcoming versions.

Regards,
JPG