more bug report than support request

[IrishBouzouki]

Last night had a player who had made a 1st level 5E Monk using the class creation module (whatever the name is exactly) specific for the Monk.
I was the DM and I have the deluxe Players handbook (and an ultimate license if that matters - I was updated to FG 3.1.7 - not sure if the player was).
He imported the xml into my system with no problems and played thru the game.
But he was trying to level up to 2nd level of Monk towards the end....
When he dragged the Monk class from his PC sheet onto the classes (which normally will add a level), it would add a blank level instead of a level of Monk, and it cited an error in the chat window that it could not find the Monk class creation module.
We tried several times and it was consistent and not a matter of mouse mechanics or anything.
I would have expected it to simply count my players handbook like having the class-specific book, which it should have but did not.
There is a workaround obviously by opening the full players handbook and dragging the class from there.
But this seems like a bug... not sure if it is ruleset-specific or something deeper in the way WotC/5E or possibly other material licenses are pulled.

Anyhow, we work ed around it and figured it out, but there is something there that does not function as intended - so thought it best to bring it to the attention of the terrific guys who wrote and mantain the code.
And little bit of "thanks" to you whoever you are - I really enjoy the Fantasy Grounds program.

[Zacchaeus]

When your player is in game then any levelling up or mechanic to create a character will look for the PHB or class creation module from you (the DM). Since you didn't have the PHB open then it wouldn't be able to find it until you opened it. If he wanted to use his own class module to level up he'd need to go back into his own copy of FG and level up from there using his copy of the class module. When connected to you his class module won't function as you expect since you are the DM and it's looking for you to have the necessary module open.

[damned]

As a player you should be able to access your own class packs and PHB. If the GM doesnt have it or hasnt shared it she will get a prompt that the player is requesting access and she can go into Library and Activate and allow it.

[IrishBouzouki]

So, none of that happened unfortunately, that would all just be normal operation of the program.
First of all, I had the Players Handbook deluxe open and available to players the entire game. That by itself *should* have allowed a level-up with an actual class to occur, right?
And I did not get a message saying the player was trying to open the Player's Handbook. I instead got a message, when using the PC sheet links that were originally put there by the player using the Monk thing offline, saying that I did not have the Monk class character builder thing, whatever it is called, that should be part of the deluxe Player's Handbook.
Except when I actualy used the link from my Player's Handbook to add a level, then it worked fine.

How to perhaps replicate, with the real names the goodies:
1. Build a 1st level PC using the "D&D Monk Class Pack" at https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=WOTC5EPHBCPMNK&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=April2015&utm_campaign=WoTC
2. Save your PC xml file.
3. Upload your character xml into a game server where the DM does not have the Class Packs explicitly but has the Complete Core Class Pack and the Player's Handbook Deluxe (with the PHBK shared to the players in the Library) that should include all the Class Packs.
4. On the server, try to level up your Monk to 2nd level by clicking on the Class & Levels magnifying glass and dragging the Red Dragon icon for the class onto your PC sheet main tab under Classes.
5. One would hope it will simply give a 2nd level of Monk. But, what was happening instead was it was giving a "blank" or "class-less" character level and a message was popping in the chat saying the Monk Class Pack was not found.

[Zacchaeus]

I have a problem in reproducing this since I don't have any of the single class packs. And also I'm joining as local host and that might also make a difference although I don't think it should.

One thing though (and I'm sorry if this seems pedantic) but I'm still having some difficulty in completely understanding what happened.

In your first post you say "There is a workaround obviously by opening the full players handbook and dragging the class from there." In your second post you say, "On the server, try to level up your Monk to 2nd level by clicking on the Class & Levels magnifying glass and dragging the Red Dragon icon for the class onto your PC sheet main tab under Classes."

I'm assuming that you were dragging from the PHB when doing the level up, but your first statement seems to indicate that this wasn't what you were doing. So where were you dragging the icon form initially (before you got the solution to drag from the PHB)?

I did find that if I created a character using the basic rules and then exported it in and then clicked on the icon for background and race that I got an error saying the basic rules were not found (because they weren't open) but I was able to drag and drop and properly level up a character created using the basic rules and then levelling up using the PHB. Incidentally apologies for my original post since I was under the impression that if a character was created using (say) the basic rules then if you then tried to level up using another thing like the PHB then FG would treat that as a different class. However I see that was fixed some time ago.

A couple of other things; does this error occur only with the Monk class? And were you using any extensions?

[IrishBouzouki]

This all relates to just 5E, and that one game that one night although the player tried first then I tried as the DM and got the same results.

Doesn't Work (got blank class not even the class name) - opening class/levels magnifying glass and dragging red dragon onto classes area of sheet
Does work (get populated class with abilities etc) - open player's handbook and drag class onto classes area of sheet

When it doesn't work the class name winds up "1 / Monk 1"
When it does work the class name winds up "Monk 2"

Normally, you can open the magnifying glass on class/levels and use that red dragon icon to drag onto the class and works, in about 20 or levelups that way this is the first time I have seen that *not* work.

Now... you mention the Basic rules, I did not have the basic rules open. But the message I got specifically said I was missing the Monk Class Pack which is weird since I am using the Players Handbook that incoludes the Complete Core Class Packs.

EDIT - not using any extensions in that one I think, will double-check. have not seen with another class but will try the others in that game (of course I do not know the origin of some of them how they were initially created etc).

Is that any help, or am I just making it less clear the more I try? Sorry if that is the case. Im pretty full up this weekend but give me until Monday evening at the latest I will post a few screenshots in this thread to describe better, although I may not be able to replicate the error now that he leveled up off my players handbook I can at least show the process, we'll see. Yeah, I think screenshots would be a big help.

[Trenloe]

I would have expected it to simply count my players handbook like having the class-specific book, which it should have but did not.
Yeah, it looks like the class link in the PC database record is specific to an individual named library module and not coded to allow use of the class record from other modules. There may be a design decision for this that I'm unaware of - maybe to stop clashes with the D&D Basic Rules and 5E SRD modules that contain the cut-down class records. But I would agree that it would be good to allow someone who created a monk (for example) in the Monk class pack to then be able to have access to the class record from similar modules (PHB deluxe, etc.).

@ damned and Zacchaeus: you can recreate what is seen by adding a class to a PC with the "DD5E SRD Data" library module open within a campaign and the PHB Deluxe closed. Then close the "DD5E SRD Data" module and open the "DD PHB Deluxe" module and open the PC class info screen within the Player Character and click/drag the class link onto the same "Class & Level" window - you'll see it adds a blank line for class etc. as it can't find the library module specific data.

As far as the code goes this is expected behaviour (it's coded that way - i.e. to link to a single, specific library module where the data came from originally). But a lot of the D&D 5E functionality has started to be coded with a module name of * to allow getting data from any appropriate open/active module, so it would be cool if the FG code was changed to allow this - although this could result in data coming from the wrong source if more than one module was open (5E SRD, DD Basic Rules, 5E Class pack, etc.). Perhaps the devs can comment if this would be wise from a design point of view.

EDIT: Or, perhaps they should disable drag/drop leveling from the link on the PC sheet "Class & Level" window and rely on the Player to decide which appropriate library module to drag the class details from?

[IrishBouzouki]

I can not post the screenshots even after reducing them 50% x 50% they are too large (three, ~ 800x580 660kB ea). Further reduction makes them unreadable.

But it sounds like you have pegged the process.

This *does* happen with a Fighter in my game too, just tried it (with screenshots). It does not happen with the Ranger (might be a different original source). Have not tried the Cleric.
While it happened originally with the Monk, now that he worked around at 2nd level it no longer happens.

[Trenloe]

...now that he worked around at 2nd level it no longer happens.
Exactly, because the link is now for a library module that is valid in the campaign.

I think we pretty much know the reason for this. Until FG either restricts drag/drop from directly within the PC "Class & Level" window (i.e. using the link in this window, not one from outside) or allows multi module access for classes, I'd recommend leveling by dragging from the class entry within the library to your character sheet, not using a quick drag/drop entirely within the "Class & Level" window.

[Zacchaeus]

@ damned and Zacchaeus: you can recreate what is seen by adding a class to a PC with the "DD5E SRD Data" library module open within a campaign and the PHB Deluxe closed. Then close the "DD5E SRD Data" module and open the "DD PHB Deluxe" module and open the PC class info screen within the Player Character and click/drag the class link onto the same "Class & Level" window - you'll see it adds a blank line for class etc. as it can't find the library module specific data.

This works for me. If I create a level one character (any class) with the SRD then shut down the SRD and open the PHB I can then drag a second (and subsequent levels) into the character sheet. and it works as expected. One thing that I don't do is open the 'class and level' dialog; that isn't needed. Just drag/drop onto the main character sheet tab (anywhere will do). Having said that it doesn't matter whether that dialog is open or not for me.

[Moon Wizard]

The issue is that the database node being referenced in the drag object does not exist, so the the database node trying to be added does not exist. As long as both modules are open, it doesn't matter. But if originally added from one module, and that module is closed, and you drag from the character sheet class list itself, then you'll see this error.

I'll need to rewrite some of the code to do things based more on paths only.

For now, the workaround is to only drag from the module itself, since then the database node always exists.

Thanks,
JPG

[Zacchaeus]

Ok, following on from what M-W just said I understand what everyone is talking about now. I didn't know that you could drag the icon in the Class and level dialog to level up a character. So, when you were talking about dragging the icon I naturally thought you were dragging from the PHB or whatever source you were using. This explains also why you were talking about opening that dialog, which also explains why I said it wasn't necessary.

So, indeed, the 'solution' is to drag from the PHB.

[Trenloe]

We've been talking about dragging the link from the already entered class within the "Class & Level" window. A quick drag/drop within this window will cause a level up - but only if the original library module used is open and available:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39085830/Screenshots/Fantasy%20Grounds/5E/Class%20and%20Level%20window.jpg

EDIT: I didn't see there was more info on a new page in this thread when I posted this. Leaving this post so the screenshot is visible to help others understand what we're talking about.