Spell Casting

[Forsakensoul]

Hello all,

I'm currently deciding which virtual tabletop product I will purchase. I have searched these forums without being able to find the answer, so sorry in advance if these questions has been asked before.

I will be playing the Pathfinder series, and I am curious how spell casting is handled.

Does this software already have all the spells and their abilities programmed in? So for instance if I imported a level 1 wizard from Herolab, could I push a button to cast magic missile and would the program know the damage?

Or each time a player casts a spell he will be responsible for knowing how the spell works?

Are there plugins; or community generated content, that has all the spells pre-programmed in?

[Trenloe]

Does this software already have all the spells and their abilities programmed in? So for instance if I imported a level 1 wizard from Herolab, could I push a button to cast magic missile and would the program know the damage?
Yes. The player would target the creature they wish to cast the spell against, go to their spell lists on their character sheet (in the "Actions" tab) and press the "cast" button of the spell they wish to cast. Fantasy Grounds will take into account Spell Resistance and saving throws for the spell (automatically rolling these for the creature/s targeted) and then the effect of the spell would be applied - damage, buffs, healing, etc..

Spells are loaded for characters imported from Hero Labs.


Are there plugins; or community generated content, that has all the spells pre-programmed in?
Yes - see the modules list here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16074 There is a module included that has all of the spells from Paizo publications.

[Forsakensoul]

Thanks! This is what I was hoping for! The reason it is important to me, is because I would like a couple people to play with me and my friend who I suspect would be reluctant to learn all the gritty details of the game mechanics. Something I actually enjoy!

Please let me clarify if I understand correctly what I can do with this software.

I would like to take a pathfinder module that I have. I plan to take all the maps and enter them into the software. After browsing the link you provided (thanks!) I see that the bestiary's 1-3 are in zip files. I would then take the creatures from these books; that are in the module, and enter them into the software. There may be a creature from the module that is unique, and not in one of the bestiaries, and I understand that I may need to enter/create him manually in the software. I then plan for my friends to make standard rule characters in Herolab and import them into the software. At this point my understanding is that they would be able to move an icon of them around on top of the maps that I loaded into the software. If one of them came into contact with one of my preloaded monsters the game would be capable of handling all the combat mechanics. A player could shoot his bow at one of my creatures and the software would know all the range modifiers, chance to hit, would determine the hit/miss, and the damage based on his virtual rolls. Or a player could cast fireball, and the software would know the range, area of effect, damage, and if my creature was immune to fire. All he would have to do is choose the spot the spell will take effect and roll the dice.

Is my understanding of what this product does accurate?

[Trenloe]

I would like to take a pathfinder module that I have. I plan to take all the maps and enter them into the software. After browsing the link you provided (thanks!) I see that the bestiary's 1-3 are in zip files. I would then take the creatures from these books; that are in the module, and enter them into the software. There may be a creature from the module that is unique, and not in one of the bestiaries, and I understand that I may need to enter/create him manually in the software.
See this thread for steps to get your Pathfinder module into Fantasy Grounds - including parsing custom NPCs: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17108

At this point my understanding is that they would be able to move an icon of them around on top of the maps that I loaded into the software. If one of them came into contact with one of my preloaded monsters the game would be capable of handling all the combat mechanics. A player could shoot his bow at one of my creatures and the software would know all the range modifiers, chance to hit, would determine the hit/miss, and the damage based on his virtual rolls. Or a player could cast fireball, and the software would know the range, area of effect, damage, and if my creature was immune to fire. All he would have to do is choose the spot the spell will take effect and roll the dice.

Is my understanding of what this product does accurate?
You are about 80% correct. Fantasy Grounds does not handle *all* of the mechanics for Pathfinder, but it does do a lot. Range (and spell areas of effect) are not automatically done - you still need to do this manually; but you can draw a line, circle, cone, etc. to see what is and isn't within range and then target those NPC tokens (icons) that are within range. Then saves, SR, damage, resistances are taken into account when the spell is cast.

Similarly, some combat modifiers are not added automatically - flanking, higher ground, cover, concealment and a few others. But, these are added manually by clicking the relevant modifier buttons in the "Modifiers" window.

As I say, about 80% of common automation is there - the rest you will need to do manually (but there are a few features that make this easy for you - including the very useful effects engine). So you, as the GM, will still need to keep an eye on things and tell the players which modifiers to apply before their rolls. Then Fantasy Grounds will work it out for you - determine hit/miss (including concealment miss chance if the concealment button was pressed), damage, damage reduction, saving throws, etc. and keep track of initiative, wounds, conditions (via effects) and other items of interest in the combat tracker.

To get an idea of how Fantasy Grounds works, check out some of Keith Hershey Jr's excellent videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/khersheyjr/videos?view=0

The FGPXX series shows things from a players perspective and the FGGMXX from the GMs side.

[Griogre]

Make sure you understand the difference between a VTT and a game. While there is a fair amount of automation of combat for the Pathfinder/3.5 and 4E rulesets, there will always be corner cases and times where the players will try something not in the rules and you will have to make a ruling and move on.

It also sounds like you have new or casual players. Bear in mind automation is not always a good thing for them, since if they don't put in their mods, good or bad, like flank, charge, invisibility, etc - when they attack the automation will report they missed when they should have hit or they hit when they should have missed due to the missing mods.

For young, beginning or casual players you might actually find it better to just cut off combat automation and just have them roll dice and have the DM tell them if they hit or miss after he adds all the mods mentally or out loud (if you use voice) - much like you would do in a face to face game.