Novice requesting assistance with pcgen import

[nickabbey]

I've built an adventure by converting d0 - Hollows Last Hope from an old PDF and it's gone pretty well.
I used the advanced bestiary and got the hang of using the creature parser.
I built all my encounters and parcels.
Moving on to character creation, I'm using PCGen because I know it and it's free.
I'm using the newer pathfinder export template here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?21025-Updated-PCGen-exportsheet)
I would consider buying herolab if it simplifies things significantly, but I'd rather spend that money in the FG store, tbh.

I've got a cast of 8 characters built out in pcgen so that my players will have some options.
I've found that spells and equipment are much better managed in FG, as they don't seem to transfer correctly.
The actions aren't accurate, I suppose because the equipment detaails aren't exported from pcgen with all the detail fg would need to get the actions right.
If I remove the imported stuff and re add using the equipment module, the actions for ranged and melee all work fine.
I'm ok with this, I'll probably just start exporting characters without equiipment and doing that part in FG.
I'm curious if there's a better way, however.

The same seems to be the case with spells, which is a bit more cumbersome to address.
I'm replicating the same solution that I'm using with equipment.
That is, I'm removing all the spells and adding them back via drag and drop from the paizo complete spell reference (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?26238-Updated-Complete-Paizo-Spells-Module).

Is there a more automatic way to get spells and equipment on the character sheet?
I gather that the only way to get the effects easily is the method I'm using?

Also, is there a good tutorial centered on spells and effects that I can watch or read?
I've watched the pathfinder battle sample, and it shows off what is possible pretty well,
but I'm lacking a high level concept of which systems interact and how (like spells, effects, time in and out of combat)
as well as an in depth understanding of how spells and effects are defined, applied and expired.

I realize I'm asking a lot in a single thread, any help is appreciated, especially links to videos.
There are a lot of them and it's hard to know what to watch.

[Nylanfs]

If I remember right, the equipment and spells are a bit of a pain and have to be re-done manually in FG.

[Talyn]

I'm going through this myself. I even installed the Pathfinder PCGen Export Sheet (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?21025-Updated-PCGen-exportsheet) yesterday but the class skills aren't checked and a few other things. I'm very new to Pathfinder so it's a chore figuring out what the mistakes are and trying to fix them in Fantasy Grounds.

[nickabbey]

One of my players sent me an xml export from Hero Labs, There were a lot fewer things to clean up.
What I've found so far is that the learning curve is a bit steep but once you get the hang of it, you can get a character imported without too much trouble.
I think though, that equipment and spells are best done manually.
I HAVE been leaving the equipment and spells in the PCgen characters, though. Even though they don't import correctly, it's an easy point of reference to drag in the working versions from modules.

Basically, I'm doing:

1) Create the full character with everything in PCgen. I DON'T equip anything in the gear tab, though.
2) export to the new pathfinder export format
3) import in to my campaign using the character importer application
4) open the campaing in FG, add the character
4) go to the actions tab, remove all the weapon actions
5) go to the inventory tab
6) open the equipment module and the items menu
7) for each item in the inventory that was imported by pcgen, I drag the item out of the equipment module in to the campaign items list.
8) modify the items in the campaign list as needed (so far this has only meant adding the masterwork property in relevant cases, but it would also mean adding enhancement bonuses like +1, etc..)
9) drag from the campaign item list to the character inventory tab (this auto populates the attacks and effects as needed to the actions tab - I tend to verify the attack +1 bonus on masterwork weapons and the ac dex penaly offset +1 for masterwork gear - it's supposed to be automatci but I'm not 100% it is or that I'm doing it right)
10) when finished with equipment, close the equipment module and the campaign inventory page
11) scroll down to spell actions that were imported
12) re-create the spell class that was imported on the character actions tab
12) Set up the spell class like the imported one but make sure it's all set up right (IE: make sure wizard spells use the int modifier, set the CL, verify the number of spells per level exist)
13) open the Paizo complete spell list module
14) for each imported spell in the original spell actions tab, drag the same spell from the spells module in to the new one you just created
15) repeat for each spell type and all of it's levels, closing the spells module when completed, deleting the original versions that were imported
16) open a pre-gen character of the same class
17) expand their combat maneuvers actions
18) create your own combat maneuvers action as a cl 1 sorcerer type
19) enter the number of actions from the pre-gen class as level 0 spells
20) drag each CM from the pregen to the new character's CM actions
21) check to see if the pre-gen of the same class has any sections you missed, add them in the same way as CM's
22) open your imported characters abilities tab
23) create new modifiers or actions with effects from scratch as needed*

# - lots of these effects or modifiers will already exist, but you may want to create actions as spell types that apply said effects.
Doing it that way allows you to, for example, track a spell like ability that has 1 use per day. Additionally, you can set friendly or foe targets in the combat tracker to cast, check dc's and apply effects. So far, I've found that at will abilities should be sorc level 0 "spells" while once per day abilities work as lvl 0 wizard spells for the purpose of tracking how often they can be used and resetting them when resting.

It's a lot, and there's def a learning curve - but like anything else once you get the hang of it, it's not so bad.
I've gotten my character creation time down from about 3 hours for my first character to about 45 minutes for my 10th character.