Applying Effects to Foes

[JohnD]

Last game I had an enemy Cleric cast Bless on his multitude of followers the PCs are fighting in close quarters.

Is there any way to not have the chat window show that effects are being applied?

In this particular case, the players were able to tell they faced a higher level Cleric because of the duration for the effect being displayed. The players were also able to see that they faced significantly more foes than they had already seen displayed on the map.

I looked in the settings, but if there's something there that disables this, I didn't see/realize it.

Thanks.

[Callum]

In the Combat Tracker, to the left of each effect, there's a button you can click on to show or hide it to the players (it toggles between VSBL/GM).

[JohnD]

Dang... will have to look at that. Thanks... figured I was missing something.

[dr_venture]

FWIW, I believe that I have the new C&C ruleset default all effects dragged onto non-PC combatants default to "GM Only," and all effects dragged onto PCs default to "Visible."

[JohnD]

Seems like it would be easy to check the status of a creature in the CT (friendly, neutral, hostile or none) and automatically make anything other than friendly GM only... but I know nothing about programming.

[dr_venture]

Just to be clear, which ruleset are you using, John... 3.5?

What you described is what I believe I have done in the beta C&C ruleset (without even bugging my sensei Dakadin for help - huzzah!). I often want to hide effects on NPCs, although I do show things like "stunned," "dodging," "sleeping," or stuff the PCs would be able to see by looking at the NPC. But I want to choose to show it, rather than have to remember to hide it. Also, I don't want the text to show in chat when it is applied.

I also want to be able to put effects on PCs and not have them necessarily know it. In the new C&C, you'll have to do this by adding the effect in the CT via the radial menu, which by default creates a 'hidden' effect without putting anything in the chat window. You can always choose to show or hide an effect at any time, though.

[JohnD]

Yeah - 3.5/Pathfinder.

[JohnD]

OK so... I can apply effects as "DM" and the player's don't see them. But... they still see them (essentially) in the summary of modifiers when they roll.

Last game I added a ATK: -2 to a PC with the DM tag and the whole group picked up on the modifier the very next round.

Is there any way to get around this?

[Eru the One]

I don't think so :(. If you drop the "ATK: -2" on PCs and it's only visible to GM, when they roll an attack it will still show up with "[EFFECTS -2]" on the roll. I tried to do the opposite and add "AC: 2" to NPCs and when the PCs attack they see "[DEF EFFECTS +2]".

I think the only was to get around that right now would be to manually edit the creatures under the effect's bonus so their AC/etc went up, but the PC don't see anything. You would just have to keep track of the duration separately since it's not an effect anymore... I'd probably just add a dummy effect GM only that is the same duration to remind me to remove the manual bonus.

[JohnD]

Ah... too bad. The DM Screen has some holes in it!

[Callum]

You could set the "Show results to client" option to off (or PC). Unfortunately, this will mean that the players won't be automatically told if the attack rolls hit, etc. A while back, I requested an option whereby the details of NPC rolls would be hidden from the players, but the result would still be shown. You could see if JPG has that in his wish list and vote for it.

[JohnD]

That sounds like what I'm looking for. I always end up saying "that's a hit!" or some variation anyways.

Will test that out tonight... thanks. :)

[JohnD]

Seems like no matter how I configure things, a player will always see what effects are impacting an attack roll.

[Eru the One]

Other than adjusting the defenses of the creature (change their actual AC, touch, etc), I think you have to request a feature to hide all effects globally, or just have them roll in the chat box with their attacks.

Personally, I'd tell them to stop metagaming :D

[Callum]

John - you're right that there's nothing you can do to stop the players from seeing the effects that are affecting their own rolls. However, if you set the "Show results to client" option to off (or PC), then the players won't be able to see the effects on their enemies' rolls.

If you have that Option set to off, then they won't see the outcomes of the rolls, and will be dependent on you telling them the result. In which case, you can mentally make the necessary adjustment, and then tell them the adjusted outcome, without needing to put the effect into the Combat Tracker. You could still put a text-only effect in (set to GM visibility), if you wanted, to remind you of its existence, and track its duration.