5E - Characters being mixed together

[Trancekat]

Hi all,
Very new to FG, so please be gentle in replying.

I recently purchased the ultimate license as well as the Core Player book, EE guide, and SCAG for FG.

When I go to modify/create/fine tune my characters, I will open one up. Make some changes, and close it, then go to open a second character and notice that the second character has some of the abilities of the first character I opened up.

For example, my paladin has bardic inspiration and bend luck... Those are not abilities for that class/character.

Is there a fix for this? I'm really not looking forward to having to fix my characters every time I open them up.

Thank you.

[Zacchaeus]

No this shouldn't be happening at all. Are you using any kind of cloud storage? Where are your campaign data files being saved to? What happens when you import one of the characters into a new campaign?

And welcome to Fantasy Grounds and the community.

[Trancekat]

I Zacchaeus,

I agree that this shouldn't be happening, but it happens as if it were normal operating procedure - and obviously frustrating me immensely.

I have screenshots to show you what is going on.

To answer your questions -

No cloud storage; everything is local.

There is no campaign, just managing characters. Whatever the defaults are, is what i have set.

If I import a saved character, it's good for the first load.. then things start going haywire. (see the pix below)

...and thank you for the welcome. :)


No this shouldn't be happening at all. Are you using any kind of cloud storage? Where are your campaign data files being saved to? What happens when you import one of the characters into a new campaign?

And welcome to Fantasy Grounds and the community.


OK, I took screen caps this morning to illustrate the issues - I have a 5 month old at home so I haven't been able to devote much time to FG (or anything else).

12620
The first attachment above (Character List1.png) shows an oddity that's been happening. The background on this is that I had imported the character named Skaldbjorn into my FG and added the picture for him and closed the character. I then created a new character Djaevle (Paladin 1/Warlock2) and added a picture for him. I went back to the PC button and lo-and-behold, Skaldbjorn has been duplicated, and without a picture. Below you see a comparison of the two Skaldbjorn characters:

12621

Here's the next annoyingly strange part - see the actions in Skald (both of them) - those are mostly bard abilities, but then I have stuff in there from out of no where - "Undying Sentinel", All the Channel Divinity and Oaths that normally appear for a Paladin are now in both copies of my Bard 6. WTF?! You can imagine how unusable this application is if i have to re-create my characters every time.

...but wait, there's even MORE!

When I closed up the two Skald's and went back into the PC tab, I deleted one of the copies of Skald (the one without a picture). I then opened skald to verify that it was the same (it was) and closed it. I opened up the PC tab again and this is what I saw....

12622

Now Skald and Djaevle have Djaevle's picture!

...but there's still more..

I opened up the new picture Skald and it's now got a javelin attack - again not part of the original character.

12623

OK, so this is super frustrating.. close this all out and restart FG..

Here's what I have when I open the PC button again:

12624

Notice that a character is missing.. Djaevle is gone. I have 2 copies of Skald again, one with no picture, and the other with Djaevle's picture.

I open up one of the Skalds and notice that's it's been updated for me (all in the matter of 3 minutes)... Skald is now a Bard 6/ Warlock 2..
I can't attach more files, so I will add them in a second post..

[Trancekat]

Picture of Skald with Warlock levels (that I did not add).

12625

[Trenloe]

Please attach (ZIP up the file if it is too large) your 5E.xml file from <FG App Data>\characters

[Trancekat]

Roger that; I am not at home on my personal machine at the moment. I will do so later once I get home.

Thank you.



Please attach (ZIP up the file if it is too large) your 5E.xml file from <FG App Data>\characters

[damned]

Hi TranceKat I think that you might be using Manage Characters more heavily than how most do it.
If you are the GM the only reason to use Manage Characters really is to access the roll4 keep 3 or Point Buy calculator. Once you have done that there is no advantage - and in fact there are disadvantages - in continuing to use Manage Characters.
I can see why this might be confusing or Counter Intuitive to you!
Manage Characters is really intended (AFAIK) to be a player tool where they can offline manage their (single) character.
It looks like you have encountered a bug (or bugs) in MC that is not handling what you are doing at all.

Create a New Campaign and import your characters and then manage the characters there - hopefully this will work as it should. In the meantime ddavision has bunped the MC thing up to Moon_Wizard for some investigation.

[Trenloe]

Manage Characters is really intended (AFAIK) to be a player tool where they can offline manage their (single) character.
I wouldn't say this is designed for single characters. It's designed as a player tool, yes - and as you mention the only real reason a GM might use it is for the characteristic rolling/building tools. However, it is definitely designed for multiple characters and I have frequently used it that way.

It can also be the most efficient way to get a character ready (either new or updated) before you join the GM's campaign - as it is the easiest way for the player to upload their PC directly to the campaign. No exporting and emailing of PC XML required!

We need to work out what this issue is, not pass it off as heavy use of the manage characters functionality. :)

[Trancekat]

I wouldn't say this is designed for single characters. It's designed as a player tool, yes - and as you mention the only real reason a GM might use it is for the characteristic rolling/building tools. However, it is definitely designed for multiple characters and I have frequently used it that way.

It can also be the most efficient way to get a character ready (either new or updated) before you join the GM's campaign - as it is the easiest way for the player to upload their PC directly to the campaign. No exporting and emailing of PC XML required!

We need to work out what this issue is, not pass it off as heavy use of the manage characters functionality. :)

Hi all,
Apologies for the delay.

I bought this tool to manage all my characters for the various modules I get to run. I am even installing ubuntu on an android tablet to be able to take this tool with me to conventions.

Anyway, attached is my 5E.xml. I spoke to one of the other users of your tool at an online module I ran last week. He said that if I were to delete the <token></token> lines form my characters that they would work properly in Manage Characters. I haven't gotten that to work yet.

On another person's suggestion (from this forum), I have created a campaign where I have re-created my characters (quite a bit of time lost). The unappealing nature of this method is that I have to export my characters from a local campaign, import them into "Manage Characters" and then when I connect to a remote FG instance for a game, upload that character from my "Manage Characters" section. Then repeat that process in reverse to update the character after the game. Not very smooth and open to a lot of user error.

I hope this can be fixed. Please let me know what else I can do to troubleshoot this.

Thanks for your help,
Alex

[Trenloe]

I spoke to one of the other users of your tool at an online module I ran last week. He said that if I were to delete the <token></token> lines form my characters that they would work properly in Manage Characters. I haven't gotten that to work yet.
I've never heard of that being an issue/making a difference. I'll never rule anything out 100%, but I'd be surprised if having linked tokens made a difference.

I'm really busy this week so I won't have time to look at the XML until the weekend. Someone else might get to it before then, if not I'll look into it later.

[damned]

On another person's suggestion (from this forum), I have created a campaign where I have re-created my characters (quite a bit of time lost). The unappealing nature of this method is that I have to export my characters from a local campaign, import them into "Manage Characters" and then when I connect to a remote FG instance for a game, upload that character from my "Manage Characters" section. Then repeat that process in reverse to update the character after the game. Not very smooth and open to a lot of user error.

with this temp workaround you can export them straight from your text campaign and import them into your live - or - you can just manage them straight in your live campaign and skip the import/export all together.

[Trenloe]

with this temp workaround you can export them straight from your text campaign and import them into your live - or - you can just manage them straight in your live campaign and skip the import/export all together.
You missed the "when I connect to a remote FG instance..." - Trancekat was referring to the steps required to allow easy upload of their own PC to another GMs game. Having the PC in manage characters is the fastest and easiest way to do this. The other option is emailing the GM the XML ahead of time - some GMs like this as it allows them to review. Quick-and-easy upload is still through manage characters - very handy if you need to do a small update between campaigns, or quickly upload a new/different character while joined to a game.

[damned]

You missed the "when I connect to a remote FG instance..." - Trancekat was referring to the steps required to allow easy upload of their own PC to another GMs game. Having the PC in manage characters is the fastest and easiest way to do this. The other option is emailing the GM the XML ahead of time - some GMs like this as it allows them to review. Quick-and-easy upload is still through manage characters - very handy if you need to do a small update between campaigns, or quickly upload a new/different character while joined to a game.

I did indeed miss this.