A question regarding AOE damage

[Pheralan]

Good evening, folks.

My gaming group and I have migrated from Roll20 over to FG for our D&D 5E games. We've used it for a few sessions now and are working on trying to get the system to do some automation for us. We've purchased copies of the rules systems and the two DMs have got the Monsters Manual, etc.

One of the main things we've had issues with is getting AOE to work properly. In this case, specifically the Fireball spell. I know that the pointers are just an area to show what gets hit and that selection is the important part for making it work but I cannot get it to work as the DM in a test encounter that I've built to try and figure it out for my players. I've got the test wizard loaded into the tracker, he has a completed character sheet and the Fireball spell in his Actions tab. I've created an encounter with Orcs from the MM and have them in the area. I've applied a grid to the non-image (grey background) and have the character token also on the map. He is first in the combat tracker. So I hit the tracker to go to the first character. I then click the token for the character (it gets a black outline) and then click the target button at the top of the map screen, draw a box around the orcs that would be hit so that the distance arrows all appear from the wizard to the orcs, and hit the Save button on the Action tab for Fireball ... and a whole lot of nothing happens. No dice roll, nothing except a message giving the parameters of the roll that should be happening. [SAVE VS] Fireball [DEX DC 16] [HALF ON SAVE]. The same thing happens if I roll damage, it rolls it but doesn't assign it to anyone.

Any suggestions? Again, I am doing this as the DM for the game. Does that have something to do with it? I've searched the forums for about 20 minutes now but must not be hitting the right keywords.

Thanks for the help.

[Skellan]

I just had a look at this and followed the steps you took and it seems to be working for me as a DM. Does melee attack etc work against the orcs? Is it just teh fireball spell? It sounds like you are doing the steps right, I wonder if it is something to do with the spell on the actions tab. Could you perhaps delete it and drag it in from the PHB and try again?

[Skellan]

and welcome to fantasy grounds by the way

[Nylanfs]

Did you drag the orc's from the combat tracker to the map or from the encounter? They have to be dragged from the CT to be able to target and do damage to them.

[Zacchaeus]

A couple of things what do you mean that you have applied a grid to the "non-image (grey background)"? What kind of map is a non image grey background?

The most likely explanation is what Nylanfs says above. Note also that the PC must be dragged from the Combat Tracker to the map as well as the enemies.

More information of Combat Tracker functionality here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Combat_Tracker).

[Pheralan]

Thanks for the replies.


I just had a look at this and followed the steps you took and it seems to be working for me as a DM. Does melee attack etc work against the orcs? Is it just teh fireball spell? It sounds like you are doing the steps right, I wonder if it is something to do with the spell on the actions tab. Could you perhaps delete it and drag it in from the PHB and try again?

I tried weapon combat. Any time I drag the dice onto the enemy and drop it, it works. Or in the case of the spell, if I drag the Save icon onto the enemy and drop, it rolls for the enemy. Just not when I've multi-targetted them.

I also tried removing the spell, because it was under a generic "Spells" heading instead of "Spells (Wizard)" and re-adding it under wizard and it didn't help, unfortunately.


Did you drag the orc's from the combat tracker to the map or from the encounter? They have to be dragged from the CT to be able to target and do damage to them.

I dragged the orc from the Encounter window onto the field. I went ahead and deleting them and tried it directly from the combat tracker and unfortunately no change.


A couple of things what do you mean that you have applied a grid to the "non-image (grey background)"? What kind of map is a non image grey background?

I clicked on "Images and Maps" and then clicked for a new image. A new "drawing" is then created which has a grey background (using the 5e theme) and I applied a grid to that grey background. Kind of like just having a blank gridded map for random encounters at the table. Does this functionality not work that way? That was one of the things I was missing from Roll20 and when I found it, I was thoroughly thrilled.

I've since went and added an image and added the grid to it, instead of the grey field. No change.

Here is a screenshot of things after I have targeted and tried hitting "Cast," "Save," and the "Damage" icons.
13369

Thanks for your help, folks.

[Pheralan]

and welcome to fantasy grounds by the way

Also, thank you! We really like the features thus far and it's saving me a boatload of time using the integrated Monsters Manual and whatnot. A little annoying to rebuy the books but that's how it works going from physical to digital.

All in all, I'd give the program a great thumbs up.

[Pheralan]

I've also just went and added a lich to the encounter and then tried using his Fireball feature as per what the Youtube video about NPC spellcasters shows. It did not roll saves or damage onto the creatures the way the Dev was able to do. I'm a bit confused now.

[Trenloe]

Here is a screenshot of things after I have targeted and tried hitting "Cast," "Save," and the "Damage" icons.
13369
Everything looks correct here, except the combat tracker is not showing the targets. Usually it will list the named targets, for example:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39085830/Screenshots/Fantasy%20Grounds/5E/Target%20Examples.jpg

The fact that your screenshot doesn't show this tells me that the token on the map is not linked to the PC record in the combat tracker. Either you added it directly to the map from the PC sheet, or something has messed up with the link. Remove the PC token from the map and re-add it - but this time drag the token from the combat tracker to the map.

This is a golden rule for automation - the token on the map has to be linked to the creature entry in the combat tracker (CT), so always drag the tokens to the map from the entries in the combat tracker or, for NPCs, use the encounter token pre-placement functionality as the token links are made to the CT when you activate the encounter (click the arrow button at the bottom of the encounter window).

[Pheralan]

Hmm. I removed the character from the tracker. Then dragged from the PC window into the tracker and set his initiative to 30 to take him to the top. I then grabbed his photo in the tracker and dumped it onto the map with the grid, then clicked on his token and then clicked "Target Mode" and drew a box around the mobs. No target is being shown on the tracker.

Edit" I started a new round to make sure it was his turn, his entry in the combat tracker was highlighted with green.

[Pheralan]

My combat tracker never shows when something is targeting something else ... is there a tutorial video on targeting that I've missed?

[Trenloe]

Hmm. I removed the character from the tracker. Then dragged from the PC window into the tracker and set his initiative to 30 to take him to the top. I then grabbed his photo in the tracker and dumped it onto the map with the grid, then clicked on his token and then clicked "Target Mode" and drew a box around the mobs. No target is being shown on the tracker.

Edit" I started a new round to make sure it was his turn, his entry in the combat tracker was highlighted with green.
If the map is showing the white target lines then the FG targeting system is working as far as trying to select tokens correctly. However, if there is no "Targets:" entry appearing in the combat tracker then FG can't make links to the combat tracker from the PC token and/or the NPC tokens. A quick test to see if tokens are linked to the combat tracker is to double click on the token on the map, if it opens the relevant PC or NPC sheet then there should be links to the combat tracker, if not then the tokens aren't linked to the combat tracker. Check this for all of the tokens involved in your test.

[Pheralan]

If the map is showing the white target lines then the FG targeting system is working as far as trying to select tokens correctly. However, if there is no "Targets:" entry appearing in the combat tracker then FG can't make links to the combat tracker from the PC token and/or the NPC tokens. A quick test to see if tokens are linked to the combat tracker is to double click on the token on the map, if it opens the relevant PC or NPC sheet then there should be links to the combat tracker, if not then the tokens aren't linked to the combat tracker. Check this for all of the tokens involved in your test.

I just checked and they all link to their relevant sheets.

I did try and CNTL+Click on the entry in the TRACKER and then it adds to the target. However, selecting on the map does not. Since installation in DM mode, I've also had the issue where if I drag/drop dice rolls onto the tokens on the map, they don't register, but when I drag/drop from one in the tracker to the other, it works. So this may be the same issue, perhaps.. I don't have that issue when I'm a player in the other DM's game, however.

[Pheralan]

Update: So I went through with the tracker and CNTL+Clicked the PORTRAITS of each of the Orcs and it targeted them properly. At that point, the spell worked fine and calculated fine.

Would this be an issue with a setting or the installation which is making it so that the tokens/map don't register properly for me in DM mode but I can interact with all characters on the map in the combat tracker? Or is this working as intended, where the DM must interact with the characters/tokens via the Tracker and not the map?

[Trenloe]

I've just recreated your issue. The problem appears to be the multi-selection of targets all at once - this looks like it isn't working correctly in FG, not the way you're doing it. You can either CTRL+click on each NPC token to add them to a multi-target set individually, or use the multi-target mode and CTRL+click to remove one target (this appears to kick in the other targets), then you can CTRL+click on the same token to add it back in, but it keeps the other targets as well.

[Pheralan]

I've just recreated your issue. The problem appears to be the multi-selection of targets all at once - this looks like it isn't working correctly in FG, not the way you're doing it. You can either CTRL+click on each NPC token to add them to a multi-target set individually, or use the multi-target mode and CTRL+click to remove one target (this appears to kick in the other targets), then you can CTRL+click on the same token to add it back in, but it keeps the other targets as well.

Awesome. I'll keep that in mind for the future. I just closed the program and reopened it and now the drag-to-select functionality for targeting is working as the DM. I'm glad its working right now but boy am I confused! :)

Thank you for the help!

[Trenloe]

I just closed the program and reopened it and now the drag-to-select functionality for targeting is working as the DM.
I'm not sure how that happened as I can consistently recreate this issue in different campaigns and rulesets (those based on CoreRPG).

I've reported the issue here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?30272-Multi-Target-Selection-mode-not-working

[Pheralan]

I have no idea why it is suddenly working. The last ten times I've been in the program, it hasn't worked as the DM, but this time, voila.

[Zacchaeus]

I can't reproduce this consistently either. Following the steps above everything worked and targeting took place as expected. After a couple of targets and then clear targets it did fail to target. Closing and reopening the map solved that issue. Now, however, I cannot replicate this at all. It's a bit weird.

[Trenloe]

The multi-target select appears to work only if the source is activated via the combat tracker (CT) activation (token surround highlights in white) and no other tokens have been selected as the source of targeting (left-click on the token, token surround highlights in black) - even the currently active token in the CT. If there is any token selected (left-click on the token, token surround highlights in black) and the multi-targeting mode is used, the white targeting arrows appear but the targets don't link into the CT.

The following screenshot shows multi-targeting working - the source is selected purely because it is active in the CT (white surround):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39085830/Screenshots/Fantasy%20Grounds/Multi%20Target%201.jpg

And, this multi-target fails as the User has selected the token before using the multi-target mode (left-click on the token, black surround):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39085830/Screenshots/Fantasy%20Grounds/Multi%20Target%202.jpg

[Skellan]

I can now recreate this issue by the method you describe.

[Zacchaeus]

Yep, confirmed. No idea why I had the temerity to even raise a slight question that Trenloe might have missed a trick somewhere. :)

[Skellan]

Yep, confirmed. No idea why I had the temerity to even raise a slight question that Trenloe might have missed a trick somewhere. :)

Haha, he is a legend. I am glad he was here that was like having a tangled up ball of string that needs straightening out.

[Pheralan]

I appreciate all the input and the great explanation on how I was causing the error. Thanks!