Zacchaeus
September 29th, 2015, 12:48
NOTE: A much improved version of this post is now amalgamated into the Wiki (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Character_Sheet).
A number of factors have conspired to make me think about writing this post, not least of all the upcoming FGCon and various posts that have appeared recently and in the past about creating characters, and what FG can and can’t do. So I thought I’d take the plunge and write up a step by step guide to creating a character and along the way pointing out some of the things players (and of course DM’s) need to be aware of and also to give some insight into creating effects and ending with a character sheet with as much utility as possible. This one is for people who like it written down rather than on video of which there are many excellent ones on this subject.
Now I’m not saying this is the only method, or even the best method; but it is one that works and eliminates many basic errors. So let’s get started. We are going to create a Dwarven Cleric of Life.
We will start with her abilities. There are two reason for starting here, firstly we don’t need to do any maths when we add the race, it’ll be done for us (with a couple of exceptions) and when we add the class the correct hit points will be calculated (well mostly). So let’s give our Cleric the standard array allocating 14,12,13,10,15,8. You will see that after we do this AC has gone up to 11, the saves have correctly added in modifiers and initiative is at +1. If you check the skills tab you’ll see that they too have numbers in them.
Next we’ll choose the race. Again we are doing this before the class so that we can minimise maths. We have our base abilities, once we drag in the race the abilities will change as necessary. If we did the race first then we’d need to work stuff out, and that is prone to error. We are going to choose Hill Dwarf because of the increase in Wisdom. So find Hill Dwarf in the PHB and drag that into the race slot in the character sheet. Note that not only has this given us all of the Hill Dwarf benefits but also the benefits we also get from just being a dwarf.
If we look at the ability scores you can see that we now have 16 WIS instead of 15 and also our CON has increased to 15. So our CON is now at its final level and when we drag the class in the correct hit points will be calculated (although in this case we will still have to make an adjustment as we’ll see). If we had put the class in first, then adjusted our CON, hit points would not be recalculated.
Ok, so now let’s put in the background. We’ll have her be an acolyte. Drag that into the space provided. You will have noticed that every time you have dragged stuff into the character sheet the chat window has mentioned what you have done and what has been added. If you flick through the character sheet you will see that a couple of skills (from the background) have been made proficient and a host of Features, Traits and languages have also been entered into the sheet. So far there’s nothing in the actions tab.
Finally we can enter the class, so go ahead and drag Cleric into the sheet. A dialog pops up asking for two skills, we’ll select History and Medicine, and on the next selection dialog select Life Domain.
Now, we have our hit points, our saving throw proficiencies have lit up, our skills are filled in, a pile of abilities and even the actions tab has something on it.
The next thing I would now do is fill up the inventory. First up a weapon. We’ll select a Warhammer since our Dwarvenness gives us proficiency in it and a light crossbow for range. We take chainmail because we have the strength for it and our domain allows us to be proficient with heavy armour. We’ll have the explorer’s pack, a shield and our holy symbol and round things off with 20 crossbow bolts.
Right, now it’s time to revisit the main page of the character sheet. There are two things we need to do; first click on the little magnifying glass next to the AC in the middle of the page. We can see here that at the bottom of the dialog our Base AC is 10. Next to that we need to enter a figure for armour and since we have Chain Mail which gives an AC of 16 we need to enter 6 (16-10) in the box. (Yes, I know but that’s how WotC do it so FG does it that way too.)
Next we should enter ‘2’ under shield since we are carrying one and then we need to click on the box under DEX until it reads none because we don’t get any DEX bonus when we are wearing heavy armour. Make sure that the ‘Proficient?’ star is yellow. It should be, it defaults to proficient but this is the place you would uncheck if you were wearing armour that you weren’t proficient with. (OK hands up, who does that?). Finally click the little check circle beside stealth disadvantage because again we are wearing heavy armour. Close the box and note that your AC should now be 18 – not too shabby.
Now, I know I said our hit points would be correct didn’t I? Well they would be about 95% of the time but our Dwarven Toughness gives us an extra hit point per level. So click the little magnifying glass beside HD right at the bottom and enter a 1 in the ‘misc’ box. This is fine for when you level up but right now our HP is still short so just change the 10 to 11 in the MAX box.
Next up we need to tackle spells, so let’s get on to the Actions tab. Before we start dragging spells in here let’s first think about Domain spells. Our Cleric has two domain spells that she always has available and they don’t count towards her total that she can prepare for the day. We want to set these up before we select our other spells for a number of reasons. We also don’t want these mixed up with our other spells, since that’s just confusing. So what we’ll do is create a new power group in the actions tab and drop the domain spells in there.
To do that click the little brown button at the bottom right hand corner of the sheet and then click the button with a star (which says ‘Add Power’ when you mouse over it). A new group will appear with ‘POWERS’ written on it and below that two boxes, one with <<name>> and the other blank. In the blank line type in ‘Domain Spells’. This will change the power to read ‘Domain Spells’. Now we can drag in our two domain spells that we get at first level, Bless and Cure Wounds. Find the spells in the PHB and drag the spell and drop it on the line that says ‘Domain Spells’. You will see that as you drop them in a new entry is created with the spell name in the left hand box. We can go ahead now and delete the line we started with (the one with <<name>> still in it) since we don’t need it. Click the little red button to the right of the line twice.
Ok, so now we want to tidy up the domain spells section. First click on the little magnifying glass on the ‘Domain Spells’ header. This brings up a dialog with the group name at the top. Right under it you will see a little sword icon; click on this until it’s an open book. You will notice now that Domain Spells has changed to Domain Spells (Level 1). We just told FG that these are all spells in this group so that it’ll know how to handle attacks etc from this particular group. Below the Group Type you’ll see an ‘Ability’ box; click on this until it says Wis. This is telling Fantasy Grounds that all attacks and saving throws for anything in this group have WIS as their ability modifier. You can change the Attack and Save DC to also show Wis but it isn’t absolutely necessary. You can now close the dialog, and then click the little brown button at the bottom right to finish editing.
Now some of you sharp eyed chaps might have noticed that when we dragged Cure Wounds into the actions tab a little cross popped up next to a line reading 1d8. That indicated that Fantasy Grounds recognised words in that spell and used those words to create an effect. If the player targets one of his companions in the Combat Tracker and then clicks that button his companion will be cured of 1d8 wounds. Furthermore you might have noticed that when you changed the modifier for the power group the number changed to 1d8+3. This was Fantasy Grounds taking into consideration the characters spellcasting ability. In other words if you look at the spell FG took the words “regains a number of hit points equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier” and turned that into HEAL:1d8+3. Clever eh?
A number of factors have conspired to make me think about writing this post, not least of all the upcoming FGCon and various posts that have appeared recently and in the past about creating characters, and what FG can and can’t do. So I thought I’d take the plunge and write up a step by step guide to creating a character and along the way pointing out some of the things players (and of course DM’s) need to be aware of and also to give some insight into creating effects and ending with a character sheet with as much utility as possible. This one is for people who like it written down rather than on video of which there are many excellent ones on this subject.
Now I’m not saying this is the only method, or even the best method; but it is one that works and eliminates many basic errors. So let’s get started. We are going to create a Dwarven Cleric of Life.
We will start with her abilities. There are two reason for starting here, firstly we don’t need to do any maths when we add the race, it’ll be done for us (with a couple of exceptions) and when we add the class the correct hit points will be calculated (well mostly). So let’s give our Cleric the standard array allocating 14,12,13,10,15,8. You will see that after we do this AC has gone up to 11, the saves have correctly added in modifiers and initiative is at +1. If you check the skills tab you’ll see that they too have numbers in them.
Next we’ll choose the race. Again we are doing this before the class so that we can minimise maths. We have our base abilities, once we drag in the race the abilities will change as necessary. If we did the race first then we’d need to work stuff out, and that is prone to error. We are going to choose Hill Dwarf because of the increase in Wisdom. So find Hill Dwarf in the PHB and drag that into the race slot in the character sheet. Note that not only has this given us all of the Hill Dwarf benefits but also the benefits we also get from just being a dwarf.
If we look at the ability scores you can see that we now have 16 WIS instead of 15 and also our CON has increased to 15. So our CON is now at its final level and when we drag the class in the correct hit points will be calculated (although in this case we will still have to make an adjustment as we’ll see). If we had put the class in first, then adjusted our CON, hit points would not be recalculated.
Ok, so now let’s put in the background. We’ll have her be an acolyte. Drag that into the space provided. You will have noticed that every time you have dragged stuff into the character sheet the chat window has mentioned what you have done and what has been added. If you flick through the character sheet you will see that a couple of skills (from the background) have been made proficient and a host of Features, Traits and languages have also been entered into the sheet. So far there’s nothing in the actions tab.
Finally we can enter the class, so go ahead and drag Cleric into the sheet. A dialog pops up asking for two skills, we’ll select History and Medicine, and on the next selection dialog select Life Domain.
Now, we have our hit points, our saving throw proficiencies have lit up, our skills are filled in, a pile of abilities and even the actions tab has something on it.
The next thing I would now do is fill up the inventory. First up a weapon. We’ll select a Warhammer since our Dwarvenness gives us proficiency in it and a light crossbow for range. We take chainmail because we have the strength for it and our domain allows us to be proficient with heavy armour. We’ll have the explorer’s pack, a shield and our holy symbol and round things off with 20 crossbow bolts.
Right, now it’s time to revisit the main page of the character sheet. There are two things we need to do; first click on the little magnifying glass next to the AC in the middle of the page. We can see here that at the bottom of the dialog our Base AC is 10. Next to that we need to enter a figure for armour and since we have Chain Mail which gives an AC of 16 we need to enter 6 (16-10) in the box. (Yes, I know but that’s how WotC do it so FG does it that way too.)
Next we should enter ‘2’ under shield since we are carrying one and then we need to click on the box under DEX until it reads none because we don’t get any DEX bonus when we are wearing heavy armour. Make sure that the ‘Proficient?’ star is yellow. It should be, it defaults to proficient but this is the place you would uncheck if you were wearing armour that you weren’t proficient with. (OK hands up, who does that?). Finally click the little check circle beside stealth disadvantage because again we are wearing heavy armour. Close the box and note that your AC should now be 18 – not too shabby.
Now, I know I said our hit points would be correct didn’t I? Well they would be about 95% of the time but our Dwarven Toughness gives us an extra hit point per level. So click the little magnifying glass beside HD right at the bottom and enter a 1 in the ‘misc’ box. This is fine for when you level up but right now our HP is still short so just change the 10 to 11 in the MAX box.
Next up we need to tackle spells, so let’s get on to the Actions tab. Before we start dragging spells in here let’s first think about Domain spells. Our Cleric has two domain spells that she always has available and they don’t count towards her total that she can prepare for the day. We want to set these up before we select our other spells for a number of reasons. We also don’t want these mixed up with our other spells, since that’s just confusing. So what we’ll do is create a new power group in the actions tab and drop the domain spells in there.
To do that click the little brown button at the bottom right hand corner of the sheet and then click the button with a star (which says ‘Add Power’ when you mouse over it). A new group will appear with ‘POWERS’ written on it and below that two boxes, one with <<name>> and the other blank. In the blank line type in ‘Domain Spells’. This will change the power to read ‘Domain Spells’. Now we can drag in our two domain spells that we get at first level, Bless and Cure Wounds. Find the spells in the PHB and drag the spell and drop it on the line that says ‘Domain Spells’. You will see that as you drop them in a new entry is created with the spell name in the left hand box. We can go ahead now and delete the line we started with (the one with <<name>> still in it) since we don’t need it. Click the little red button to the right of the line twice.
Ok, so now we want to tidy up the domain spells section. First click on the little magnifying glass on the ‘Domain Spells’ header. This brings up a dialog with the group name at the top. Right under it you will see a little sword icon; click on this until it’s an open book. You will notice now that Domain Spells has changed to Domain Spells (Level 1). We just told FG that these are all spells in this group so that it’ll know how to handle attacks etc from this particular group. Below the Group Type you’ll see an ‘Ability’ box; click on this until it says Wis. This is telling Fantasy Grounds that all attacks and saving throws for anything in this group have WIS as their ability modifier. You can change the Attack and Save DC to also show Wis but it isn’t absolutely necessary. You can now close the dialog, and then click the little brown button at the bottom right to finish editing.
Now some of you sharp eyed chaps might have noticed that when we dragged Cure Wounds into the actions tab a little cross popped up next to a line reading 1d8. That indicated that Fantasy Grounds recognised words in that spell and used those words to create an effect. If the player targets one of his companions in the Combat Tracker and then clicks that button his companion will be cured of 1d8 wounds. Furthermore you might have noticed that when you changed the modifier for the power group the number changed to 1d8+3. This was Fantasy Grounds taking into consideration the characters spellcasting ability. In other words if you look at the spell FG took the words “regains a number of hit points equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier” and turned that into HEAL:1d8+3. Clever eh?