Abilities & Effects

[scottaroberts]

So, new FG user here.

I have noticed that some monsters & PC abilities either aren't specified or are difficult to add (e.g.: adding spells to a monster (say, a Giant Awakened Crocodile)).

How do I easily add such abilities to a monster, so I can toss a spell at a PC?

2) The specific case of Battle Master Fighter archetypes.

So, I drag "Maneuvers" to the Abilities tab and it gives me a weird ability that seems to have parsed from the description automatically (has the cast, atk, & save buttons (STR DC 12 filled in); has two effects (Frightened and Prone).

I tried creating a new power and just typing in all sorts of things to try to duplicate this with specific effects, but it doesn't give me the Cast, ATk, or Save buttons (it just seems to be a placeholder).

Is there a way to individually add these manuvers?

Thanks for your help!

[Zacchaeus]

At present dragging a spell into an NPC won't parse the spell. You will need to manually create the effects of the spell in the NPCs actions tab. This isn't too hard to do as long as you follow the correct syntax for any damage, saving throw etc.

Maneuvres won't Automate since the PC will need to pick a certain number of them, depending on level etc. You will need to set up actions for those if appropriate Trip attack and distracting strike are two I see I've set up for one of my player's fighters. Most of them however can't really be automated. You can track the number of superiority dice the player has in the actions tab by setting up an action which has a number of uses per day which will make check boxes appear.

[Larac]

It does drop the who;e spell txt in if you drag a spell atm though.

[Zacchaeus]

It does drop the who;e spell txt in if you drag a spell atm though.

Yes, that is intended.

[scottaroberts]

Thus far I have been creating casters as PCs so that I can automate them. I'd really like to be able to drag or upload them as NPCs though, with the actions, so they don't show up on the character selection screen. Especially if I decide to make my own NPCs with character classes. :(

[Trenloe]

I'd really like to be able to drag or upload them as NPCs though, with the actions, so they don't show up on the character selection screen.


Create your NPC as a PC.
Start another instance of Fantasy Grounds on the same PC, "Join Game" as a player and use localhost as the host address. Use a "player" username of GM or something the players won't guess.
In the second instance, select the (N)PCs you don't want the players to see from the character selection screen.
Close the second instance.

Because you have activated the PC records as a player they won't be visible to the players on the character activation screen. This will allow you to build NPCs in the PC slot with full class levels, spells/powers, equipment, etc. and to run them as NPCs. Change the faction icon in the combat tracker for these NPCs to something other than the green skull icon and FG will treat them similar to NPCs (the players can't see the hit point, interact with the tokens, etc.).

[etropic]

Yikes!
I'm new to FG, so hopefully I'm just fundamentally missing something, but having to do that work around seems odd. The feature (unless I misunderstand) seems obviously basic needs.

Are the files that store this data accessible? I could write a quick utility that lets you drag them around outside of FG in that case.

[Zacchaeus]

Yikes!
I'm new to FG, so hopefully I'm just fundamentally missing something, but having to do that work around seems odd. The feature (unless I misunderstand) seems obviously basic needs.

Are the files that store this data accessible? I could write a quick utility that lets you drag them around outside of FG in that case.

NPCs and PCs are completely different animals so you won't be able to do anything quickly to drag them around, I don't think. The procedure noted above isn't all that onerous and in the main you'll have very few NPCs that require the amount of stuff that you can't use one out of the MM. I should say that what I mean by NPCs will be, in the main, monsters (although FG refers to them as NPCs). Even the spellcasters in the MM are very easy to set up with just a very little modification so that they can automatically cast spells in encounters.

If you need some help in how you can do this then do please post.

[Nickademus]

NPCs and PCs are completely different animals so you won't be able to do anything quickly to drag them around, I don't think.

I keep seeing references to this idea, which coincides with what I'm used to for 3.5e and PF, but I got the impression one of the new little changes in the 5e ruleset was that NPCs had automation for drag-and-drop equipment.

When reading through the product descriptions in the FG Store, I read this line that seemed to indicate such:

Equipment tables containing items that can be dragged to character sheets, treasure parcels or NPCs for ease of reference, encumbrance calculations and ease of disbursement.

Followed by:

Draggable weapons that auto-enter the inventory, weight, attack type (melee, ranged, thrown) and the damage (with damage type.)

If this is not true, then 'NPCs' should be removed from that advertisement to prevent confusion.

[Trenloe]

I'm new to FG, so hopefully I'm just fundamentally missing something, but having to do that work around seems odd. The feature (unless I misunderstand) seems obviously basic needs
What Zacchaeus says is correct. Plus more background info here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?23749-Making-an-NPC-using-Basic-D-amp-D-Rules-Set-from-store&p=206482&viewfull=1#post206482

[doogenac]

I'm researching ability formats and made a out out of this for future reference:

I've spent the evening learning and reading up on this so I can spend more time overseeing the game and LESS mastering the dozens of combat rules and situations. I have great respect for the details, and will learn them - and adjust, interpret, and so on.

And I'd love to find a reference for "follow[ing] the correct syntax for any damage, saving throw etc."

Any pointers to this would help.

I've combed through the 5E NPC module, so far found these skimming NPCs:

Formats for adding Actions include:

Description [M|R] [RNG: r/R] [ATK: +n] [DMG: 1dy+z <dmg-type> {+ 1dy+z <dmg-type>} ] {[DMG: 1dy+z <dmg-type>]} {[SAVEVS: <attribute> n (H)]} {[EFF]}
or
SpellName [SAVEVS: <attribute> n (H)] [EFF]

Where:
Descriptions include:
WeaponName, SpellName, Bite, Fist/Hooves/Talons/other body part, Rock, Slam, Constrict, Howl, Gore, Stomp and so on.
[M] is for melee - or - [R] for ranged (pick one, include RNG: for range associated with [R] action types)

many of the [ ] and the {} blocks are optional and include:
RNG: for range r indoor,R outdoor
ATK: for attack roll modifiers
DMG: for damage. This block may be repeated. Can be in a number of formats, including
n
ndy
ndy+z
ndy+ndy+z

SAVEVS: for saving rolls against spells/other attacks.

<Dmg-types> include:
bludgeoning
piercing
slashing
acid
fire
cold
lightning
thunder
necrotic
poison

Note: if you are running combat and see [EFF], double click the attack's icon and read the potential effects. To see these in effect, look at a monsters/NPCs in the combat tracker, and turn the Offense column on to get the gist of how they work.

[Larac]

Me as well.

Some things work others do not.
The Docs seem scattered and incomplete.

[Trenloe]

Just a word of caution - don't spend too much time trying to figure out the format of actions as they appear in the combat tracker. You can't save these to NPC records, so when you remove the NPC from the combat tracker any attack/actions you've entered are lost. When running a game, you'll find that you'll use base NPC records (usually in an encounter entry) and add these to the combat tracker with the press of one button. At this point, FG parses the actions description text from the NPC and adds the actions to the combat tracker based off that parsing.

This is why you won't see documentation on the actions/attack format in the combat tracker because it is really an internal FG code thing and not designed for custom coding. Although, as you have found out, you can custom code; but these are only stored in the combat tracker and so aren't great for usual gaming where NPCs come and go.

A similar discussion here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?23749-Making-an-NPC-using-Basic-D-amp-D-Rules-Set-from-store&p=209400&viewfull=1#post209400