ChimpMasaki
June 16th, 2015, 20:39
Topics Covered: Adjusting AC (Mage Armour), Healing & Wounds, Finding Enemies, Clearing Tokens from characters
Hi all - I am running LMoP with my friends live around a table, using Fantasy Grounds and two monitors to help run the game. (Eventually the game may become a mix of players who turn up in person and those who have to connect online). This means I have a mix of dice rolls through Fantasy Grounds and also those made with real dice at the table.
From the first couple of sessions I have generated some questions and would love your advice on how you solve/ get around these issues/ speed up play at the table (either through Fantasy Grounds features, or your own ingenuity).
Here are the questions (edit: I have included the answers below - scroll down for the detailed versions of the questions):
1. How to quickly adjust the AC of a PC?
Option 1: Create an effect
Open the Effects panel (located at the top right of the screen).
Double click in the Custom box to create a new effect.
Leave the purple box set to "All".
Type Mage Armor; AC:3 into the effect.
Set the number to 8 and the time units to HR.
10375
This creates an effect called "Mage Armor" that boosts a creatures AC by 3 (this is the typical bonus that Mage Armor provides a creature - going from AC10+DEX to AC13+DEX).
Note that you will need to remember that the spell won't work on armored creatures - that can't be automated.
To use the effect just drag it from the effects panel over a creature in the combat tracker. To make this easier you can drag the effect from the effects panel to one of the quick access slots at the bottom of the screen.
Option 2: Add effect to the spell in the PC's Character Sheet
Open the character sheet
Go to the Actions tab down the side.
Under Spells (level 1) find Mage Armor. (If it is not there you will need to add Mage Armor onto the list from one of the 5th Edition Modules).
Right Click on Mage Armor and in the radial menu click Add Action > Add Effect.
Click the magnifing glass next to the new effect that was just added.
Type Mage Armor; AC:3 into the Description box.
Duration should be set to 8 and HR.
Under Targeting set to Targets in the first box and Never in the second.
Close the Spell/Ability Effect box - the effect can now be dragged onto a target when the spell is cast.
10374
2. How to temporarily adjust the AC of a Creature?
For long term-effects or spells use the same methods as for modifying PC AC.
For simply calculating Cover, Superior Cover, Hidden Foes, Critical Damage, Half Damage or Opportunity attacks you can use the Modifiers found in the Modifiers panel at the top right of the screen.
3. How to quickly add wounds and healing to the combat tracker?
Option 1: Using the Chat Window
Type a value in the modifier box at the bottom left of the screen. (You can also use the mouse wheel to adjust the number, in either case positive numbers are used for damage, negative for healing).
Drag the modifier from the modifier box into the chat window (make sure it is the big window and not the small part where you type).
Drag the white number from the chat window over the target's Wnd box in the combat tracker.
This method is pretty quick and dirty - personally I prefer the option below. Although it takes more time to set up it stops the chat window becoming clogged during the game.
Option 2: Set up a dummy NPC to dish out damage
First Set up the NPC:
Open the NPCs menu from the right side of the screen.
Right Click and select Create Item from the Radial Menu.
Name the New Personality (GM) - the parenthesis are there to make sure the NPC is always at the top of your NPC list.
Find the Actions section at the bottom of the NPC's stat block.
Click the cicular Edit List button.
Then click the green Add Item button twice to add 2 new actions.
Name the first action Damage then type 0 Damage into the description.
Name the second action Heal and type Regain 1-1 Hit Points into the description. (Fantasy Grounds can't read 0 for healing so we use 1-1, which is the same thing).
Close the Padlock icon as we are finished crating our character.
10376
Now the NPC is created we can start using it to damage/heal our combatants. To do this:
Type the value of the damage/healing into the modifier box.
Drag the action from the NPC onto the Target (either on the combat tracker or on the map).
However having the GM NPC's character sheet open all the time is a little clumsy so there are a couple of tricks we can use to make it easier:
Add the GM NPC to the Combat tracker as an invisible NPC and then use the actions from the combat tracker. If you do this you could add a really high or really low initiative to the NPC to make it easy to find.
Alternatively drag the actions from the NPC character sheet onto the shortcuts at the bottom of the screen (remember that you can rename them by right clicking and choosing Edit Label from the radial menu).
I really like setting up the shortcuts as I will be using damage and healing all the time. I also like that I can edit my GM NPC if I need to create other effects (for example dealing Fire damage).
4. How do you find particular creatures on the map?
The simplest solution here seems to rapidly click the little eye icon next to the creature's name on the Combat Tracker - the creature blinking in an out of existence on the map is the one you want. Potentially using the target feature can also help here, but I have not tried it.
5. How do you clear the token being used to represent a character?
Open the Character Sheet.
Open the PCs Menu on the right hand side of the screen.
Drag the portrait image from the PC's menu onto the Token spot of the character sheet.
Original Questions:
1. How to quickly adjust the AC of a PC?
The very first action that my PC's did was cast Mage Armour - however the combat tracker does not seem to let me type in a new AC. Dragging a modifier from the dice modifier box also seems to have no effect.
2. How to temporarily adjust the AC of a Creature?
So those goblins had cover against a few attacks (so +2 to AC). How do you resolve this - manually move the monster's AC up and down in the combat tracker; modify the attack roll by -2; or some other method?
3. How to quickly add wounds and healing to the combat tracker?
Since my players are rolling their own physical dice I often get results shouted at me like "heal 3 damage" or "I do 6 damage to the goblin". Right now I have to look at the creatures current wounds and then do the maths in my head, and then type in the new wound value. This is a pain and a lot of mental math when I want to be runnning entertaining monsters. Is there a way where I can just drag a +4 or a -1 into the combat tracker and have it update the wounds of that creature?
4. How do you find particular creatures on the map?
Admittedly I made this hard on myself during the first session by turning monster numbering off (I prefer monsters without serial numbers), however I kept losing track of the monsters. Turing on random numbering has not helped much as I keep having to scan around the map trying to find the token that represents the entry on the Combat Tracker. This is really compounded by issue 3. above when my players attack "that goblin by the tree" and I have to try and find which goblin that is so I can manually update it's damage (i.e. I can't just drag an attack over the token as the player is rolling their own dice).
5. How do you clear the token being used to represent a character?
I thought that characters had to be assigned a portrait and a token. However it seems when you pick a portrait and have no token, the portrait image is converted into a token as well - which is really cool. How can I remove the current pog on a character and instead use their portrait image?
A big thank you to everyone who helped out with these questions!
Hi all - I am running LMoP with my friends live around a table, using Fantasy Grounds and two monitors to help run the game. (Eventually the game may become a mix of players who turn up in person and those who have to connect online). This means I have a mix of dice rolls through Fantasy Grounds and also those made with real dice at the table.
From the first couple of sessions I have generated some questions and would love your advice on how you solve/ get around these issues/ speed up play at the table (either through Fantasy Grounds features, or your own ingenuity).
Here are the questions (edit: I have included the answers below - scroll down for the detailed versions of the questions):
1. How to quickly adjust the AC of a PC?
Option 1: Create an effect
Open the Effects panel (located at the top right of the screen).
Double click in the Custom box to create a new effect.
Leave the purple box set to "All".
Type Mage Armor; AC:3 into the effect.
Set the number to 8 and the time units to HR.
10375
This creates an effect called "Mage Armor" that boosts a creatures AC by 3 (this is the typical bonus that Mage Armor provides a creature - going from AC10+DEX to AC13+DEX).
Note that you will need to remember that the spell won't work on armored creatures - that can't be automated.
To use the effect just drag it from the effects panel over a creature in the combat tracker. To make this easier you can drag the effect from the effects panel to one of the quick access slots at the bottom of the screen.
Option 2: Add effect to the spell in the PC's Character Sheet
Open the character sheet
Go to the Actions tab down the side.
Under Spells (level 1) find Mage Armor. (If it is not there you will need to add Mage Armor onto the list from one of the 5th Edition Modules).
Right Click on Mage Armor and in the radial menu click Add Action > Add Effect.
Click the magnifing glass next to the new effect that was just added.
Type Mage Armor; AC:3 into the Description box.
Duration should be set to 8 and HR.
Under Targeting set to Targets in the first box and Never in the second.
Close the Spell/Ability Effect box - the effect can now be dragged onto a target when the spell is cast.
10374
2. How to temporarily adjust the AC of a Creature?
For long term-effects or spells use the same methods as for modifying PC AC.
For simply calculating Cover, Superior Cover, Hidden Foes, Critical Damage, Half Damage or Opportunity attacks you can use the Modifiers found in the Modifiers panel at the top right of the screen.
3. How to quickly add wounds and healing to the combat tracker?
Option 1: Using the Chat Window
Type a value in the modifier box at the bottom left of the screen. (You can also use the mouse wheel to adjust the number, in either case positive numbers are used for damage, negative for healing).
Drag the modifier from the modifier box into the chat window (make sure it is the big window and not the small part where you type).
Drag the white number from the chat window over the target's Wnd box in the combat tracker.
This method is pretty quick and dirty - personally I prefer the option below. Although it takes more time to set up it stops the chat window becoming clogged during the game.
Option 2: Set up a dummy NPC to dish out damage
First Set up the NPC:
Open the NPCs menu from the right side of the screen.
Right Click and select Create Item from the Radial Menu.
Name the New Personality (GM) - the parenthesis are there to make sure the NPC is always at the top of your NPC list.
Find the Actions section at the bottom of the NPC's stat block.
Click the cicular Edit List button.
Then click the green Add Item button twice to add 2 new actions.
Name the first action Damage then type 0 Damage into the description.
Name the second action Heal and type Regain 1-1 Hit Points into the description. (Fantasy Grounds can't read 0 for healing so we use 1-1, which is the same thing).
Close the Padlock icon as we are finished crating our character.
10376
Now the NPC is created we can start using it to damage/heal our combatants. To do this:
Type the value of the damage/healing into the modifier box.
Drag the action from the NPC onto the Target (either on the combat tracker or on the map).
However having the GM NPC's character sheet open all the time is a little clumsy so there are a couple of tricks we can use to make it easier:
Add the GM NPC to the Combat tracker as an invisible NPC and then use the actions from the combat tracker. If you do this you could add a really high or really low initiative to the NPC to make it easy to find.
Alternatively drag the actions from the NPC character sheet onto the shortcuts at the bottom of the screen (remember that you can rename them by right clicking and choosing Edit Label from the radial menu).
I really like setting up the shortcuts as I will be using damage and healing all the time. I also like that I can edit my GM NPC if I need to create other effects (for example dealing Fire damage).
4. How do you find particular creatures on the map?
The simplest solution here seems to rapidly click the little eye icon next to the creature's name on the Combat Tracker - the creature blinking in an out of existence on the map is the one you want. Potentially using the target feature can also help here, but I have not tried it.
5. How do you clear the token being used to represent a character?
Open the Character Sheet.
Open the PCs Menu on the right hand side of the screen.
Drag the portrait image from the PC's menu onto the Token spot of the character sheet.
Original Questions:
1. How to quickly adjust the AC of a PC?
The very first action that my PC's did was cast Mage Armour - however the combat tracker does not seem to let me type in a new AC. Dragging a modifier from the dice modifier box also seems to have no effect.
2. How to temporarily adjust the AC of a Creature?
So those goblins had cover against a few attacks (so +2 to AC). How do you resolve this - manually move the monster's AC up and down in the combat tracker; modify the attack roll by -2; or some other method?
3. How to quickly add wounds and healing to the combat tracker?
Since my players are rolling their own physical dice I often get results shouted at me like "heal 3 damage" or "I do 6 damage to the goblin". Right now I have to look at the creatures current wounds and then do the maths in my head, and then type in the new wound value. This is a pain and a lot of mental math when I want to be runnning entertaining monsters. Is there a way where I can just drag a +4 or a -1 into the combat tracker and have it update the wounds of that creature?
4. How do you find particular creatures on the map?
Admittedly I made this hard on myself during the first session by turning monster numbering off (I prefer monsters without serial numbers), however I kept losing track of the monsters. Turing on random numbering has not helped much as I keep having to scan around the map trying to find the token that represents the entry on the Combat Tracker. This is really compounded by issue 3. above when my players attack "that goblin by the tree" and I have to try and find which goblin that is so I can manually update it's damage (i.e. I can't just drag an attack over the token as the player is rolling their own dice).
5. How do you clear the token being used to represent a character?
I thought that characters had to be assigned a portrait and a token. However it seems when you pick a portrait and have no token, the portrait image is converted into a token as well - which is really cool. How can I remove the current pog on a character and instead use their portrait image?
A big thank you to everyone who helped out with these questions!