Effects The Complete Bard Package

[Zacchaeus]

The third of the short tutorials on setting up effects this time for the Bard Class. The file attached to this post contains a level 20 Bard with all of the effects in the actions tab. In order to get the best out of the character you should have access to the Player's Handbook or Core Class Pack to view the links. The notes below are meant to compliment the character. The Bard doesn't have many abilities that need an effect so the list is quite small.

A word on Spells: At the time of writing virtually every spell can be dragged and dropped into the actions tab and will create a suitable effect (if one is needed). The only things you will want to check are that the correct ability score is entered into the spell Power Group so that Saving Throw DCs and attack rolls are correctly computed, and that the duration of spells has been correctly updated in the effect.

Bardic Inspiration – No effect can be built to completely deal with the rules of Bardic Inspiration. Placing the suggested effect on the character will simple put a counter on them to show that they have Bardic Inspiration. When they want to use it roll a d6 and add the result in manually. The primary reason for creating an entry in the Actions tab is to track the number of uses via preparation mode.
Countercharm – There is no effect that can be created to test for a particular condition. The suggested effect is simply a timer which can be placed on the character or allies. The advantage on any save should be handled manually. Note in order that the effect persists until the end of the bard’s turn alter the ‘initiative to end on’ value in the Combat Tracker to just after the bard’s initiative (e.g. Bard is on init count 15, change to 14.9)
Font of Inspiration – Change the number of uses of Bardic Inspiration to per rest rather than per day to allow Fantasy Grounds to automatically recover uses following a short rest.
Jack of all Trades – Ideally we would just put the CHECK effect on the Bard permanently but that would give extra bonuses to skills that are already getting a bonus and so would conflict with the rules. The CHECK effect therefore needs to be applied just before a relevant skill or ability check is made and it will come off immediately after the roll. The INIT check however can remain permanently on the Bard.
Song of Rest – remember to adjust dice for level
Superior Inspiration – No effect needed

College of Lore
Cutting Words – There isn’t a way to create an effect which will alter a roll after it is made so this one needs to be done manually.
Peerless Skill - No effect needed for this.

College of Valor
No effects needed or can be created for anything here.

[Griogre]

For Jack of All Trades it's probably easier to just update all the non proficient skills to half proficient. It's a one time thing.

[Zacchaeus]

For Jack of All Trades it's probably easier to just update all the non proficient skills to half proficient. It's a one time thing.

But that wouldn't give you anything for a 'straightforward' ability check such as a STR or CON check and you can't add in anything to those because that would mean bonuses to hit and damage being wrong etc.

[Griogre]

Ah, that's your logic. It seems like a lot of effect dropping for very corner cases, but if you like doing it that way its good. :) I can't even get people to drop sneak attack effects though, so I'm not a big fan of having to drop effect stuff since they often forget.

[Zacchaeus]

Ah, that's your logic. It seems like a lot of effect dropping for very corner cases, but if you like doing it that way its good. :) I can't even get people to drop sneak attack effects though, so I'm not a big fan of having to drop effect stuff since they often forget.

I agree, there's not a need for an effect for everything; I'm just trying to be as complete as possible for the sake of the tutorial. And this is not a proscription; as ever it's up to each individual DM (and player) to make up their own mind as to how much automation they want (or need). I do tend, personally, to try and find an effect for as much as possible but sometimes I do create an effect just because I can :)

[leus]

I will try for Jack of all trades the effect : CHECK:[HPRF];SKILL: [-HPRF], athletics, deception,insight,performance,persuasion,sleight of hand,stealth;INIT:[HPRF]
with the list of mastered skills in the part skill.
so it's equivalent to a bonus for everything, and a equal malus for what we know

[Zacchaeus]

I will try for Jack of all trades the effect : CHECK:[HPRF];SKILL: [-HPRF], athletics, deception,insight,performance,persuasion,sleight of hand,stealth;INIT:[HPRF]
with the list of mastered skills in the part skill.
so it's equivalent to a bonus for everything, and a equal malus for what we know

You can't have a negative half proficiency. The ability tags can be positive, negative, half or double. So you can have (PRF] [-PRF], [HPRF] or [2PRF]. You could do it with just saying SKILL: -#, athletics, deception etc where # is half the proficiency.

[leus]

I don't understand what you mean: i put it on a effect [self], i click, that puts the effect on me by evaluating the tag [-HPRF] to -1. ok i will remove and relaunch it when i will be level 5, 9...
I've tried the bonus and the malus together : result in chat window "[effects]", and with only malus : "[effects-1]" and with only the bonus "[effects+1]"

[Zacchaeus]

I don't understand what you mean: i put it on a effect [self], i click, that puts the effect on me by evaluating the tag [-HPRF] to -1. ok i will remove and relaunch it when i will be level 5, 9...
I've tried the bonus and the malus together : result in chat window "[effects]", and with only malus : "[effects-1]" and with only the bonus "[effects+1]"

Aha. Now that is interesting. I had SKILL: [-HPRF] athletics etc and that doesn't work. But I see you have inserted a comma so SKILL:[-HPRF], athletics etc which does. Well spotted.

[Myrdin Potter]

Did you modify the base character for download with the updated effect as per above? It does not look like you did.

[Zacchaeus]

Nope. I haven't changed anything. It's still the same.

[Myrdin Potter]

Is there a way to drop a die roll into the modifiers box and make it a negative number?

[Zacchaeus]

You can negative a number by dragging and holding down a key but I can't remember offhand which one. Probably alt or shift or ctrl

[Myrdin Potter]

Control. I tried typing the negative first but that didn't work. Thanks.

[lasmela]

I will try for Jack of all trades the effect : CHECK:[HPRF];SKILL: [-HPRF], athletics,deception,insight,performance,persuasion ,sleight of hand,stealth;INIT:[HPRF]
with the list of mastered skills in the part skill.
so it's equivalent to a bonus for everything, and a equal malus for what we know

I tried your method and it seems to work. However the CHECK:[HPRF] seems to be working for the initiative to. Therefore the INIT:[HPRF] is not necessary.

The only problem with the effect seems to be that when the proficiency bonus changes on level 9 and 17 you need to delete the effect and reapply it. For me this seems to be the better solution than using the effect whenever I'm doing an ability check.

[Zacchaeus]

I tried your method and it seems to work. However the CHECK:[HPRF] seems to be working for the initiative to. Therefore the INIT:[HPRF] is not necessary.

The only problem with the effect seems to be that when the proficiency bonus changes on level 9 and 17 you need to delete the effect and reapply it. For me this seems to be the better solution than using the effect whenever I'm doing an ability check.

Yes, since that post CHECK: now also applies to initiative rolls which it previously didn't.

[lasmela]

Oh sweet, didn't know that this changed, thanks for the information.

[Bilbotorm]

Hello

I tried to mimick the proposal above; with a similar line of effect :
Jack of all Trades; CHECK:[HPRF]; SKILL: [-HPRF], Acrobatics,Athletics,Deception,Performance,Persuas ion; INIT:[HPRF]

I tried capital or not, but it's not working and I still have half prof added to all skill checks
If theres anyone that can help, it would be very welcome :)

One additionnal question, if the line is properly made, can we remove the expend on next roll added by the level 20 xml template and make it never expend ? so that the bard remains with his skill all time and it will be ok right ?

thanks !

[AliAthena]

Bit late here, but for Jack of All Trades I just added skills for the checks and gave them half proficiency. Then you can cover the other skills by also giving them half proficiency as was suggested near the start of the thread.
For example: "(Jack of All Trades) Strength", Stat: Str, half prof. bonus

[flukasieviez]

I know this is thread necromancy, but I programmed it as "CHECK:[HPRF]; SKILL: [-HPRF], acrobatics, animal handling, arcana, athletics, deception, history, insight, intimidation, investigation, medicine, nature, perception, performance, persuasion, religion, sleight of hand, stealth, survival;", and it worked fine. I took the "Init" part out of it, because the half proficiency was already added using the code "CHECK:[HPRF]"

[The Judge]

Is this effect package extension compatible with FGU?

[LordEntrails]

Is this effect package extension compatible with FGU?
Its not an extension. Yes it is compatible with FGU as it is just a character sheet that has a bunch of actions that you can copy from the sample character sheet to your character.

[JK47]

I will try for Jack of all trades the effect : CHECK:[HPRF];SKILL: [-HPRF], athletics, deception,insight,performance,persuasion,sleight of hand,stealth;INIT:[HPRF]
with the list of mastered skills in the part skill.
so it's equivalent to a bonus for everything, and a equal malus for what we know

This is 100% correct if you take off the INIT at the end as noted above and you adjust the skills to list those you are already proficient in. Note that skill names are lowercase.

CHECK:[HPRF];SKILL: [-HPRF], athletics, deception,insight,performance,persuasion,sleight of hand,stealth

[Kael the Adventurer]

Hey there! I know this thread is more than half a decade old, but if anyone is still interested, I made an extension that automates all the Jack of All Trades things. Check it out if that is something you want :) https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/630/view