Im a newbie and they smarter monkey i use to prgram is off to africa until summer ...

[Dragontail]

So some general questions - sorry if they are repeats from earlier but forum is massive and if i can pick someones brain to make it easier, while i fiddle with other stuff...

1) Spells - (have players hand book addon)
a) I am casting Scorching Ray- How do i get an arrow with to show range when i am testing to make sure someone is in range?
- How do I make it roll 3d20 at once (for one target?) or roll three times and set of damage dice with each roll to apply to each target?

b) Casting Burning hands - I saw a video showing the AOE cone from the spell. but when I tried it I dont see the cone appear on the map....what did i mess up?

c) Spells i am casting are not disappearing from my spell alotment like ammo when i use arrow...

2) Encounters *Dont have monsters manual addon yet.... :(
One video I watched had me create a goblin in the NPC menu, although I got it to appear on map I couldnt get it to appear in combat tracker.

Another time I got PC;s and mobs to all be in combat tracker however it seemed players had controll of it...they could blast the mob as many times as they wanted. Is that normai or is there something that "tracks" action/bonus actions before it goes to the next person's turn. Also why can a PC do something {combat wise} even though its not their turn?

One video showed me how to create story and put text and having it appear in chat windows. said I could make NPC say it but I am slow and the command used in video TAB did not see to make the Goblin say anything. however this could go backto me messing up the goblin as an NPC anyway....

Thanks for any help! (sorry for typo's hard to type on this crappy little phone)

[kylania]

1a) That will happen once you target the other token. Left Ctrl-Left Click on your target token or slot on the combat tracker to select it as your target. You'll see this on your slot on the combat tracker.
1aa) You can select multiple targets with left ctrl click, if you have multiple selected (even yourself so careful!) it'll roll for each target. Left ctrl click again to deselect the target.

1b) Right click on the map, then Pointers then the shape you want. Left click then drag. Adjust by clicking and dragging the square point.

1c) You have to mark off the spell slot often, might work properly if you prepare the spells first then click the Star icon on the left, but I always just manually mark off my spell slots.

2) Always drag from the Campaign's NPC list ONTO the Combat Tracker then ONTO the map. This way you ensure that the token is the right one. You'll know it worked if you see a green or red shaded background to the token and when you select them for current initiative order you get the white crosshair icon on the map. Same for players. Drag from the active players in the top left corner ONTO the Combat Tracker then ONTO the map.

That's normal, there's no limit to what you can do, but if you rclick on a token as GM and Lock Tokens that'll prevent the players from interacting with it all. They'll be able to drag out movement, but you'll need to middle click to accept the moves.

You'd have created a speech text story entry first. Then select the Goblin on the Combat Tracker. As GM under the chat window you'll have a little white bubble for GM and another for Goblin. Make sure the Goblin one is selected, then click the speech bubble icon in your story to have the Goblin say it in chat. I think you can also drag text onto the chat log too, maybe? I usually use the story thing or just type it in on the fly.

[Zacchaeus]

Some further info

1a. When you place the first token on the map, right click on it and select 'lock tokens'. Now, when you target a creature (by holding down CTRL and left clicking on the target) you will see a distance line between the actor and the target. In the case of Scorching ray you have a choice of firing all of the bolts at one target, or firing some at one and some at another. Unless you are targeting three different targets I'd suggest that you roll to hit for each bolt separately; you can't automatically fire two at one target and one at another target at the same time. If you are targeting all three missiles at one target and you want to roll all three d20's at the same time you can click and hold on the little dice next to the spell and then right click to increase the number of dice by one for each click; then drop all three dice on the target. I wouldn't recommend this either since you might get a critical with one of the rolls and FG might not recognise it since the crit might get overwritten by one of the other dice. In summary you can target several targets and/or roll all three dice but in this case don't. But if you were casting fireball for example then that's when you should select all of the targets before rolling to hit.

1b) You can also draw a cone on the map by holding down both mouse buttons and ALT at the same time and drag from your start point. If you hold SHIFT you get a square, CTRL gives you a circle and the mouse buttons on their own gives you a line.

1c) Spell slots are not automatically checked off when you cast a spell. This is because you can cast spells at different levels and FG can't know which level you are using. For example you could cast a first level spell using a second level slot. If you click on the little magnifying glass on any of the spell (level) bars you will get a pop up. At the bottom of that you can enter how many spells the spellcaster has prepared. If you click on the box next to 'mode' down at the bottom of the sheet until you see the word 'preparation' you will see a little check box next to each spell. Click on those check boxes to prepare the spell, then click 'preparation' until it returns to combat. Now when you have used up all of your spell slots all of the spells will disappear from the actions until you take a rest, when they will all return.

2. 5e is a very flexible system and FG caters for that flexibility. There are all sorts of ways that a character can get additional attacks and so the Combat Tracker does not limit the player to one attack and bonus action. Additionally players can get attacks when it isn't there turn (opportunity attacks for example) so again it would be messy if the Combat Tracker stopped players from making such attacks. Thus it is possible for players to take more attacks than they are entitled to; but that's something the player and DM needs to keep an eye on. Additionally you can always 'take back' damage or other effects resulting from a wayward attack.

You create story entries by typing a paragraph into the story tab and then right click on the paragraph and select 'Paragraph type' and then 'Chat frame'. You can then either drag that frame into the chat box or left click the little speech bubble which appears beside the frame. To get a specific NPC to 'say' the words either a) right click on the text frame again and this time select 'Assign Speaker' You can then type a name into the frame and when you put that text to the chat window it will seem as if that NPC is speaking. The other method is as Kylania said but you must have the NPC on the Combat Tracker and selected for that to work, and you must drag the text into the chat bar at the bottom of the chat frame and then press return to send the chat. Simply dragging into the chat window or clicking on the speech bubble won't do it. Oh, and also you must set the option 'Chat: Set GM voice to Active CT' in options.

Finally, welcome to Fantasy Grounds and the community.

[Dragontail]

Thanks guys will be working on that. Does basic rules come with any monsters at all? Can't find any lol

On side note..
I create some pregeneratw pc's or my crew do when thy log into the game. Since I have. Players hand book ...

1) can they export the characters they make to use in further campaigns (to their own computers)
2) if they export them do they keep all the info as put in from dropping it from the players handbook even though they don't have the add on?
3) would this work for monsters in modules as well? If I buy an adventure can I export the monsters as npc's

[kylania]

Not sure if this came with Lost Mine of Phandelver or the Basic Rules set, but Basic Rules DM has monsters. Library -> Modules -> Open the book for Basic Rules DM -> close Data Module Activation -> Click on NPCs. There's like 120 things in there I think?

You can as a GM export the character and send them the XML they can import with.

Yes, but if they don't have the source of the links they won't open up. So what's on the character sheet remains, you'll see the name of whatever listed as a feature but if they click the shield/dragon icon it might say the source module isn't available.

Sure, you can load the module, drag the NPC over to your NPC list for your current campaign, then close the module and the copy you made by dragging remains. Now, you'll sometimes miss some things like token and image links but the stats are there to be used.

[Zacchaeus]

What comes with Fantasy Grounds is a ruleset which allows you to create PC's, NPC's, encounters, Treasure etc etc. But you need to create all of these things yourself. The PHB and Monster Manual are not needed at all; however having them in the FG format is a considerable convenience since you then have access to all of those resources pre-prepared as it were. You can get a pretty fair number of monsters by using this tool (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?21835-D-amp-D-Basic-Rules-PDF-Parser) to create a version of the free PDF of 5e which WotC released way back when. This is very handy as a starting point - you can also buy this for a modest sum via steam or the store here.

For your other questions
1. Yes
2. Players don't need to have the player's handbook if the DM has it. As far as I know (I have no experience with the demo version) players can export their characters intact with all versions of the software and import them into another campaign.
3. If you buy a module all of the monsters required by that module are included in the module. You can't directly export NPC's from a module, but if you create any in a campaign from those monsters you can export those.

[Nylanfs]

Also note that for movement, distances, and area effect you need to put a grid on if you are using your own maps.

[Dragontail]

Quick question - I have a Wolf as a companion - do i have to add it as a monster? (what i think we have todo ) is there a spot to put it as a note on character sheet? (other then notes)

[kylania]

First I'd make a super pretty image of it's stats with the awesome Statblock5e (https://valloric.github.io/statblock5e/) program to show off to friends and family. :)

Then, for the Ranger's Companion I just made up a PC Character Sheet using the companion stats and had the Ranger player control both.

[Morik]

I usually take the monster from the MM and drag it to the NPC list. From there, I add it to the Combat Tracker. I click it twice to make it friendly, then I drag and drop it onto the character portrait that needs to control it.

I do something similar for my druid player's alternate forms.

[Zacchaeus]

Whilst this (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?24754-Druid-Wild-Shape) discussion was about Druid's Wild Shape there is still pertinent information regarding companions.

[Dragontail]

Awesome thanks.