New to FG, questions about 5e char setup

[chaucer]

Hi!

I'm new to FG and trying to set up a character in the D&D 5e campaign but I've run into a couple of setup issues. The first thing is I am setting up a character that is dual classed, fighter 4/rogue 3 which would give me a true level of 7. My proficiency bonus should be a +2 as thats my highest class level but in FG it is basing it off my true level, which shows as a +3 proficiency bonus. How do I get it to read off the class level instead of the true level?

The next item is I cannot get my fighting style (two weapon fighting) to show up. As far as I can see, there isnt even any text on it. How do I add the fighting style in to my character? Will this also fix that only 1 weapon shows up in the attack screen?

Also, is it possible to display this maps as a separate window outside of the main window? This way I can have the maps on the second monitor and my main info screen wont be so crowded.

Lastly, not really part of character setup but might be part of my problem is I am getting the following errors in the pop-up console screen. Is there a way to fix this?

Runtime Error: Unable to save file (C:/ProgramData/Fantasy Grounds/campaigns/5E Sample Campaign/usersettings/tokens_GM) - Error (13): Permission denied
Runtime Error: Unable to save file (C:/ProgramData/Fantasy Grounds/campaigns/5E Sample Campaign/CampaignRegistry.lua) - Error (13): Permission denied
Runtime Error: Unable to save file (C:/ProgramData/Fantasy Grounds/campaigns/5E Sample Campaign/db.xml) - Error (13): Permission denied
Database Notice: Campaign saved.
Runtime Error: Unable to save file (C:/ProgramData/Fantasy Grounds/campaigns/5E Sample Campaign/CampaignRegistry.lua) - Error (13): Permission denied
Runtime Error: Unable to save file (C:/ProgramData/Fantasy Grounds/campaigns/5E Sample Campaign/db.xml) - Error (13): Permission denied
Database Notice: Campaign saved.

Thanks for the help! I'm really looking forward to getting this integrated into my DM sessions.
Bryan

[Tylindell28]

So for the fighter, once you get the 'Fighting Style' feature of the fighter class, it will show up in your 'abilities' tab of your character sheet as 'Fighting Style'. If you click on the info button to the right of it (might appear as a brown wooden shield, or a dragon's head, it just depends on what skin you're using for FG). Then a description will show up of the different fighting styles. It may or may not contain "two weapon fighting". I don't know why some don't, but I like to click on the line that has 'Fighting Style' in your 'abilities' tab and just type in "(Two Weapon Fighting)" without the quotation marks. Fantasy grounds does not auto-code your fighting style, so you'll just have to be sure to add your ability modifier to your damage for your offhand weapon. Fantasy grounds should just recognize it as a second weapon in your inventory, so if you haven't changed it thus far you shouldn't have to for your fighting style.

Now for the multiple weapons. If you have go into your 'inventory' tab, there should be icons directly across each item that look like either a brown bag/purse, or a brown T-Shirt. You can click that icon to toggle the corresponding item as either Worn, Carried, or not carried. Mark all of your weapons as 'Worn', and then head on over to your 'actions' tab. Down on the bottom of your character sheet on the 'actions' tab, there should be a set of words that read something like "mode standard Display Group". After the word mode will be a button that will say standard or preporation, or combat. Click that button until it says Preporation. This will be one way you can edit your actions tab. Now look back to the top of your actions tab where you will find your weapons. To the left of each of them will be a brown bag/purse icon or a brown T-Shirt icon. For all of your weapons that you want to be able to access in combat, just click on that icon until they turn into the brown T-Shirt icon, and now when you change your mode back to combat, they will appear clearly in your actions tab.

According to the 5E ruleset, your proficiency bonus is always based on your total character level, so having +3 is accurate for your character.

I do not know about your console errors or about the maps. Good luck with finding all of your answers.

[Trenloe]

For the console errors see here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?30604-Windows-file-access-issues-can-t-update-campaigns-not-saving-etc-Fix-options

[LordEntrails]

Hey chaucer, welcome to the community :)

If you haven't, check out the various stickies in the 5E forum (at a minimum). You'll find lots and lots of good info in the stickied thread throughout the forum including links to video, wikis and all sorts of useful things.

[Zacchaeus]

Hi chaucer welcome to FG and to the community.

As Tylundell says your proficiency bonus is based on your total level so +3 is correct for a level 7 character

Not everything is automated in the character sheet and you'll have to pick your fighting style and manually update whatever areas of the character sheet or effects that is needed. However for two weapon fighting style you don't have to do anything since FG will automatically add your ability to the damage for your second weapon when you drag it into your inventory. Getting the weapon to appear on your actions tab is as Tylindell says.

You can't 'break out' a window outside of FG but you can just drag the FG window over multiple screens and essentially therefore you can have the map on one screen and everything else on the other.

The error is caused because you don't have permission to access the location where FG is trying to save the data in your campaign. Make sure first of all the FG is pointing correctly to the data folder (check in the settings where it's trying to save to) and make sure that is the same location where your data files actually are. If that is all correct then you need to set your permissions so that you have full read/write access to the data folders.

Finally you should check out the various posts in this thread (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27296-Guides-videos-and-other-helpful-information) for further help in using FG.

[Trenloe]

It is not recommended to use ProgramData for FG data - see the thread I linked above in post #3 for the recommended solutions to the file access issue.

[Zacchaeus]

For the console errors see here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?30604-Windows-file-access-issues-can-t-update-campaigns-not-saving-etc-Fix-options

Right, I've now bookmarked this freaking post becasue I can never find it :)

[dulux-oz]

Hi chaucer, and Welcome! to the Community,

If you haven't done so already, let me encourage you to take a look at some of the great Tutorial Videos available on the Fantasy Grounds Wiki (and on YouTube). Damn's are good, as are Xorn's, and people seem to like mine as well (mine are also available from the links in my sig, below).

Start with the ones on the CoreRPG, because the CoreRPG forms the foundation of just about all the RPGs we play with Fantasy Grounds - so by learning how to use FG with the CoreRPG you'll learn about 80% of what you'll need to know to play any RPG with Fantasy Grounds. Once you've gone through the CoreRPG Videos you can then go on to Videos about your chosen RPG.

When you get familiar with the basic Fantasy Grounds product the next step is to check out some of the Extensions (Plug-Ins) for FG, such as the DOE: Sound, DOE: Locations, DOE: Weather and DOE: Organisations Extensions (to name a but a few).

And keep on asking questions - we're a pretty friendly lot here, and we love answering questions.

Cheers

[TMO]

Now for the multiple weapons. If you have go into your 'inventory' tab, there should be icons directly across each item that look like either a brown bag/purse, or a brown T-Shirt. You can click that icon to toggle the corresponding item as either Worn, Carried, or not carried. Mark all of your weapons as 'Worn', and then head on over to your 'actions' tab. Down on the bottom of your character sheet on the 'actions' tab, there should be a set of words that read something like "mode standard Display Group". After the word mode will be a button that will say standard or preporation, or combat. Click that button until it says Preporation. This will be one way you can edit your actions tab. Now look back to the top of your actions tab where you will find your weapons. To the left of each of them will be a brown bag/purse icon or a brown T-Shirt icon. For all of your weapons that you want to be able to access in combat, just click on that icon until they turn into the brown T-Shirt icon, and now when you change your mode back to combat, they will appear clearly in your actions tab.


I'm finding odd behavior with the Inventory/Actions setup. Some of my weapons in the Actions tab do not have the equipped/carried/not carried toggle button while others do. I'm not sure what causes this behavior.

Also, when I add a weapon either to the Actions tab or the Inventory tab, it automatically adds the weapon into the other tab. So far so good. However, my Actions tab toggle indicates "Carried" but the Inventory tab toggle indicates "Equipped". Shouldn't these be linked? It also seems to me that changing the toggle value in one tab does not automatically change it in the other tab. Thus, I have to do this twice.

[Moon Wizard]

TMP,

Can you walk me through the exact steps you are doing to add the weapon to your PC, when the equipped toggle is not matching and/or the carried/equipped toggle is not visible?

The values should match between inventory and weapon entries, and the carried/equipped toggle should only be visible on the Actions tab when the mode is set to Preparation.

Thanks,
JPG

[Tylindell28]

You must do this twice, yes. Unfortunately they are only slightly linked. The actions tab version will not show up if the inventory version does not show as "equipped", but changing one does not automatically change the other, sadly. It's just not properly coded like that. You said that some on the actions tab have the toggle, and some do not. Are you in preparation mode? If not, are you seeing the toggle on ones that you had just added? If you already have weapons added and marked "equipped", and then go to combat mode, the toggle disappears until you re-enter preparation mode. Any weapons that you have toggled to "carried" or "not carried" will not show up while you are in combat mode. However, there is a slight bug where if you edit your actions tab to add a weapon, it will show its toggle regardless of what mode your actions tab is in. This will automatically correct itself if you just switch to preparation mode, and then back to combat mode.

Also note that when creating a weapon in your actions tab, it will not automatically add it to your inventory, but adding a weapon to your inventory from the PHB (for example) does create it in your actions tab. It only works one way as that's how it has been coded thus far. Does this answer all of your questions, or does the issue between your inventory and actions tab persist?

[TMO]

TMP,

Can you walk me through the exact steps you are doing to add the weapon to your PC, when the equipped toggle is not matching and/or the carried/equipped toggle is not visible?

The values should match between inventory and weapon entries, and the carried/equipped toggle should only be visible on the Actions tab when the mode is set to Preparation.

Thanks,
JPG

Sure, although I am not sure how the missing toggle button happened. I cannot recreate that issue, but I can tell you that this is a new character I am building and I am bumping it to 5th level for a one-shot game. Somewhere in the early equipping stages this had happened. Later, when I began adding more weapons, is when I noticed the out-of-sync toggle buttons. So here are some exact steps I have followed that reproduces the issue:


Select my Actions tab. Set mode to "Preparation".
Select my Inventory tab since this is where I will drop my weapon.
Open the Library window and click on the Items button.
Change the group to "DD PHB Deluxe" to make my list smaller.
Scroll down to find Greataxe. Drag this item onto my Inventory list. The toggle indicates "Equipped".
I click on the Actions tab. The Greataxe weapon is listed, but the toggle indicates "Carried".
I switch my Mode to "Combat" and Greataxe does not appear (which is expected, based on the toggle setting).

[TMO]

You must do this twice, yes. Unfortunately they are only slightly linked.

Thanks for confirming my experience, although Moon Wizard seems to be suggesting that this is not expected behavior. We'll see.


However, there is a slight bug where if you edit your actions tab to add a weapon, it will show its toggle regardless of what mode your actions tab is in. This will automatically correct itself if you just switch to preparation mode, and then back to combat mode.

Hmmm...this might be what has happened. That is, I was in Combat mode and saw the toggle buttons for two custom weapons I added. I have since already cleared the deck and started over (without creating custom weapons) so I cannot confirm, but your theory seems the most plausible for my situation.


Does this answer all of your questions, or does the issue between your inventory and actions tab persist?

As noted above, I think you have given me a plausible explanation. Thanks for taking the time to analyze and respond.

[Tylindell28]

Yeah, unfortunately setting one toggle from one tab does not set it on another tab. All that toggling inventory items to "equipped" does is add it to your actions tab, and then you have to decide whether or not to equip it on your actions tab. You could look it as saying the inventory tab toggle is about saying whether it's in your backpack (which would translate to "carried"), or more easily accessed ("Equipped"), and then when you go into your actions tab you could see it as saying whether it's in a holster or pocket ("carried") or in your hands so you can use it in combat ("equipped"). I imagine that if they intended for it to be coded this way, then their purpose was to kind of add a process that simulated taking something out of your pocket or, like, a sword out of it's sheath (as apposed to just saying, "hey, in this 6 second window you were able to kneel down, take off your pack, search through it to find your item, pull it out, stand up, put your pack back on, and then use it"). Does that make sense?

[Tylindell28]

Absolutely. I hope that this helps, and that you feel free to ask any other questions you may have.

[TMO]

Does that make sense?

LOL. It only makes sense in that I understand what you wrote. It certainly doesn't make sense for this to be intentional behavior. That kind of ambiguity would be maddening. Also, that would seem to me to be over engineered. It's the kind of thing that discourages the use of a feature that is intended to make life easier.

[Tylindell28]

I agree.

[Zacchaeus]

Moon Wizard

Here's the steps to reproduce what is above

1) Create a New Character
2) Drag a weapon into Inventory; weapon is shown as equipped
3) Switch to Actions tab; weapon is there properly shown as equipped
4) Now delete the weapon from inventory
5) Add a new weapon; in inventory weapon is shown as equipped
6) Switch to actions tab - weapon is shown as carried and does not appear in Combat mode