NPC Initiative Bonus

[not_so_there]

New user of the software wondering if there was a way to give custom NPCs an initiative bonus akin to giving them the alert feat and if so what the language formatting of it would be and where it would go in the stat block?

[Zacchaeus]

Hi not welcome to FG and to the community. There's no wording that you can give an NPC to automatically add this to the Combat Tracker. I'd suggest a custom effect which you can drop onto the NPC after it's on the CT but before initiative is rolled. INIT: x should do it where x is the amount you want to add.

[Moon Wizard]

Or just modify the initiative bonus on the NPC record. I don't believe it's auto-calculated.

Regards,
JPG

[not_so_there]

Where would I modify the bonus on the record? Right now it's pulling just the dex modifier and I don't see a field for initiative on the npc card, is this in something like an xml record I can edit?

[spite]

Or just modify the initiative bonus on the NPC record. I don't believe it's auto-calculated.

Regards,
JPG

I believe only 4th edition has an Init field, 5e uses Dex right?

Though you can edit the field on the combat tracker once they're added https://puu.sh/weT85/a80841063a.jpg

[El Condoro]

You can click the sword icon on the CT and change the Init value.

[Zacchaeus]

Indeed, there is no editable field on the NPC Record in 5e. If this is a one off NPC, then as above either add in a bonus into the Init field on the NPC in the CT before initiative is rolled, or simply edit the figure to whatever you want to the initiative value after it is rolled. If you are going to have a lot of NPCs with this trait then it is faster to create a custom effect as noted above and drag/drop the effect onto the NPCs prior to rolling initiative.

[not_so_there]

From playing around with the Player Character Sheet it seems like the same is true for Alert or Rakish Audacity for players as well? If so then I could just use the suggested effects for both players and NPCs. In the case of Rakish Audacity what is the formula I would use to get the Charisma bonus and then add it to initiative? I was looking at effects on the wiki but I was not seeing a list of syntax.

[Zacchaeus]

Yes, you can add an effect to the players action tab to handle such abilities. For Alert it is INIT: 5 and for Rakish Audacity it will be INIT: [CHA]

[not_so_there]

Thank again for your help. I was able to get those working as an effect on a player. Now there is no way to set effects to always be on correct? But as long as I set them after the initial load to the combat tracker they should persist unless I do something like clear all effects from all players?

[Thegroo]

I think there is an extension around for adding effects automaticaly when the character is added to the CT

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?34316-5e-Apply-effect-on-start

[LordEntrails]

Characters & NPCs and their effects will remain between FG sessions. You would only need to re-add the effects if you removed the n/PC's from the CT.

[Moon Wizard]

My apologies for the misinformation on the NPC. I wasn't in front of my computer, and must have been remembering other game system implementations.

For the PC initiative, you can set a permanent modifier by clicking the magnifying glass next to the AC/Init/Speed fields on the front of the PC sheet, and adding a Misc modifier for Init. Also, you can use CTRL plus mouse wheel to add a temporary modifier to the Init directly on the front of the PC sheet. (It actually remains with the character as a small numbered bubble in the upper right of the field.)

Regards,
JPG