Looking for a few bits of help

[Redemption77]

So Im making a character who is effectively getting weakening breath as an attack. There is no attack roll and it results in everyone in the area having to make a save or get disadvantage. Obviously labeling the affected with the effect is simple. What Im not figuring out is how to put this on the character sheet. Its an attack, but has no roll to hit and there is no section in the attack area where it forces a saving throw. I could make a power but Im not sure how to make it where the power causes the tracker to automatically make the saving throw either. Now I know there is a power like it in the dragon npcs called weakening breath and in that write up it has the saving throw able to be rolled, but Ive found you can get rolls to be done like that if written up on an NPC sheet, a PC sheet not so much.

Any help would be awesome. If it cant be done I will make it work. I dont expect FG to be able to automate everything, but more often then not it can and Im just too damn dumb to figure out how to make it work

[Morik]

OK, there's probably a better way to do this, but:

On the character's Action page, make a power called Weakening Breath and make it a Feature, Trait, or whatever you want it to be. When that's done, Right click on the power and add an Action (it looks like an arrow). On the Action Submenu, click on Cast. When the Cast Action is added, click on the little magnifying glass by the Save box. In the SAVE window, change the TYPE to whatever save you want them to make (str, con, whatever). Then, change the Base to Fixed and enter whatever the Saving Throw target number is (14, 15, etc.).

Now add another Action to Weakening Breath (by right clicking it and clicking on Add Action). This time, on the sub-menu, click on Add Effect (it's the bottom one). When the effect comes up, lick on the little magnifying glass beside it. Put in the duration, then under the DESCRIPTIONS type: (Weakening Breath; DISCHK: strength; DISSAV: strength)
Note: Do NOT type the parentheses.

When you use the power, you'll target your foe or foes as normal. Then, click on the little Save die by the power. After that, just drag the effect icon onto whoever fails.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't.

Note: A Weakening effect should also grant Disadvantage on Strength-based Attack rolls. This won't because I don't know the syntax for that. It will only affect Str checks and Str saves.

This should hold you over till someone who knows this stuff logs in to help :)

[Zacchaeus]

As Morik says, and here's a little more detail.

To create a power for Player Characters go to the Actions tab and click on the little brownish button at the very bottom right hand side of the sheet. This will bring up two new buttons, you want to click on the one that looks like a star to create a new power. You will see that a new line has been created; in the right hand box type in your description - in this case Weakening Breath. Right next to type in whatever description you want; let's say - feature. Now do the right click as Morik describes and select the Add action then Add Cast and then click the magnifying glass to get the Spell/Ability use dialog. Again as Morik says the section you are interested in here is the SAVE bit. Under 'type' click until the correct saving throw type appears. I presume that it will be a STR saving throw you'll want but maybe not. At any rate click through the options until the correct one appears. Now when it comes to the Difficulty Class you can get FG to compute that automatically. Rather than changing the 'Base' section to Fixed, click on it until you get "8+Ability". In the 'Stat' box change that to whatever stat you want to use for computing the Difficulty Class. See the screen shot below. I have set this so that the target will need to make a DEX save. As you can see the DC for the save will be 13 becasue Bob has an awesome Charisma.

For the next part follow what Morik says to create another new line for the power. Add the line Morik suggests and also add in GRANTDISATK: melee. Also change the duration to however long the effect will last for. I've assumed 1 minute but it might be longer or shorter depending on what you want. See the screen shot.

Now, there is one problem here in that you cannot specify an ability when you have disadvantage on an attack roll. So, for example if a character used DEX as their ability for attacks then it wouldn't matter that they had reduced strength. So the statement DISADVATK: melee will give disadvantage on all melee attacks no matter what ability is used. The way around this would be to add a third effect showing only the save and check disadvantage and apply that one to a character that used another attack ability - as shown on the screenshot. Now most monsters use STR and since mostly this effect will be applied to monsters you probably won't need the second one much.

Once you have entered everything change the 'mode' at the bottom of the sheet to 'Combat' and the display to 'Actions'. To use the effect target however many characters are affected using CTRL+Click and then just click the little dice icon beside weakening breath. This will cause each character affected to make their saving throw. You can then click on the little effect button, next to the dice to apply the disadvantages to those that failed (FG will do this automatically).

One final thing, you will see that there is a little red icon at the end of the 'weakening breath' line. You can click on this and enter a description of the power.

[Redemption77]

Once again this place comes through in the pinch! You guys are amazing and thank you so much for the help. I had no idea I could right click actions and change them like that, thats awesome

[Morik]

GRANTDISATK:... Darn! Completely overlooked that one :D What would happen if you put two modifiers on it?

GRANTDISATK: melee, strength

Would that even do anything?

[Trenloe]

What would happen if you put two modifiers on it?

GRANTDISATK: melee, strength
Referring to the 5E effects Wiki page: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Effects#Modifiers

GRANTDISATK: [range], opportunity

You can only specify [range]: melee or ranged.

Zacchaeus discussed this a bit more in the 4th paragraph of post #3 above.

[Redemption77]

How to do you make it rechargable? Or can you

[Morik]

Click on your mode button until it says Preparation. Then you can change the power to X number of times per Rest or per Day. Then switch back to Combat mode. You can check it off as you use it and it will recharge every Short Rest or Long Rest, whichever you set it for.

Thanks, Trenloe :) I completely misunderstood part of that paragraph in Zacchaeus's post.

[Redemption77]

Ohh I understood that Morik and I appreciate that info, it could be useful for someone looking at this topic who needs that help. I was referring to the actual recharge ability where you roll a D6 and on a 5 or 6 it recharges. I didnt know if there was an automated function for this or its just something I need to track. I know there is an automatic function for NPCs

[Morik]

Pretty sure you can add recharge to NPCs. Not sure about characters though.

[Zacchaeus]

How to do you make it rechargable? Or can you

Generally you wouldn't make an ability for a player Character rechargeable; only NPC's have rechargeable abilities. For PC's you would set things as Morik suggests so that it is usable a number of times per short rest/long rest/day. I'm assuming that you are using the Dragonborn as your template, and I'm assuming that it is a PC. If you are then your PC would be able to use the breath weapon once per short rest. Any more and you might be getting into over powered territory. You could also decide that it could be used a number of times per day equal to say WIS modifier or something like that.

If you are creating an NPC then you can set up the recharge function just as any of the NPCs such as Dragons. In the actions part of the NPC's sheet title the weapon 'Weakening Breath (Recharge 5-6)' and when the NPC is dragged onto the Combat Tracker it will roll for recharge at the start of the NPC's turn to see if the weapon is recovered (assuming it was used in an earlier round).

[Redemption77]

Its an NPC but I needed more of a complete sheet so its made on a PC sheet

[Zacchaeus]

In that case you'll need to do it manually. What I'd suggest is determine whether the weapon can be used more than once. If it can only be used once then set it up with one use per day and tick it off when it's done. If you want it to be available more than once then determine what the chances are that the NPC will use it just as if it were a recharge. Use whatever dice you want to roll that chance. Set up a 'dummy' effect say 'Breathy stuff - use 50%'. Drag that onto the NPC as a reminder. At the beginning of every round roll a d6 and on a 1-3 the weapon is available otherwise it isn't.

[Redemption77]

Yeah thats what Ive been doing since I couldnt find a way to add a recharge to the PC sheet. Thanks again everyone. You ironed out all my issues