Draconic Breath Weapon

[FCWesel]

I am sorry if I am treading over old ground here, I looked around and just could not find an answer. (I appreciate your patience with my dumb question.)

So. I am brand new to the program, and will be running a game.

A player did a test character of Dragonborn with the POISON breath weapon. We figured out how to get the Breath Weapon into the Abilities tab. What we could not figure out how to do was to implement the breath weapon in combat. We know how to select targets. But could not figure out how to use it so that the foes make the Save and then take the full or half damage depending upon how they roll.

What am I missing?

Thanks again for your help.

[LordEntrails]

Welcome to FG and the forums :)

Their is a sticky at the top of this thread that has links to a bunch of pre-generated characters. I think the one you want for racial traits is on the DMsGuild.com. Whichever one it is, it will then have a character sheet you can import into FG, and then that character sheet will have the breath weapon already setup as an action etc. And you can just duplicate that action onto your real character sheet.

You can also look at the examples in the wiki, and a site search gave me this post that seems to be good too; https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?24804-Adding-breath-weapons-to-dragonborn-characters

[Zacchaeus]

If you drag the breath weapon ability and drop it into the player’s action tab it will pretty much set up the attack for you. You will need to edit the damage type to poison.

To make an attack firstly make sure you have dragged the PC from their portrait top left or from the PC dialog onto the Combat Tracker. Now do the same with an NPC, drag from the list that opens when you click the NPC button. If you are using a map drag the OC and the NPC from the Combat Tracker onto the map.

Now select the PC and hold down CTRL and click on the NPC. Go to the actions tab and click the attack part of the breath weapon and then the damage part. FG will automatically compute the correct damage based on the save.

[FCWesel]

Now select the PC and hold down CTRL and click on the NPC. Go to the actions tab and click the attack part of the breath weapon and then the damage part. FG will automatically compute the correct damage based on the save.

Thanks for your help. We did all of that, and it does not.

When we "Cast" the breath weapon at the selected NPC, this basically comes up:

PC: [CAST] Breath Weapon [at NPC]
GM: [SAVE VS] Breath Weapon [HALF ON SAVE]
And it gives the difficulty of the Save: "12"

If we click "Save" icon, this comes up:

GM: [SAVE VS] Breath Weapon [HALF ON SAVE]
And it gives the difficulty of the Save: "12"

Then, if we click "Damage", this happens:

(the dice roll)
GM: [DAMAGE] Breath Weapon [TYPE: Poison (2d6=6)]
...Damage [6] -> [to NPC] [STATUS: Heavy]

But at no time in that series of clicks did the NPC actually make a Save check. It appears that the NPC never Saves, as we've done the attack too many times for the NPC not to save at least once. It always just does full damage.

:)

[Gwydion]

Thanks for your help. We did all of that, and it does not.

When we "Cast" the breath weapon at the selected NPC, this basically comes up:

PC: [CAST] Breath Weapon [at NPC]
GM: [SAVE VS] Breath Weapon [HALF ON SAVE]
And it gives the difficulty of the Save: "12"

If we click "Save" icon, this comes up:

GM: [SAVE VS] Breath Weapon [HALF ON SAVE]
And it gives the difficulty of the Save: "12"

Then, if we click "Damage", this happens:

(the dice roll)
GM: [DAMAGE] Breath Weapon [TYPE: Poison (2d6=6)]
...Damage [6] -> [to NPC] [STATUS: Heavy]

But at no time in that series of clicks did the NPC actually make a Save check. It appears that the NPC never Saves, as we've done the attack too many times for the NPC not to save at least once. It always just does full damage.

:)

Seems odd. See attached screenshot. If you have the dragonborn in the combat tracker and are properly targeting from the dragonborn PC and click the save button once, it should roll the die in chat and the chat should look like my screenshot if he makes the save and after you roll damage.21855

[LordEntrails]

Have you added the NPC to the map from the CT? Did you add the PCs to the CT from their icons in the top left corner? Does the character have a target shown in the CT?

[FCWesel]

Thanks all, here's a screen shot. The text is from me having selected the "SAVE" icon (circled). As you can see in the CT, I have the PC targeting the NPC.

21860

[Moon Wizard]

Try disabling your extensions, and see if it works. I just tried it in my own 5E campaign, and it's working.

Regards,
JPG

[FCWesel]

All extensions disabled.

Screen grab....

21861

[damned]

Can you post a chat window screenshot showing the ruleset versions and any other extensions loaded?

[FCWesel]

Here ya go. :)

21862

[Myrdin Potter]

What is a Bas DC? I would expect a Poison save is against Con.

I don't see from your screenshot if the goblin is targeted and the goblin should be making the save.

I just want to confirm.

Kronk is added to the combat tracker by dragging and dropping his portrait from the top left corner into the combat tracker?

The goblin is added from the NPC list by dragging and dropping from the NPC list to the combat tracker?

You then have kronk target the goblin? You click the target icon on the combat tracker and drag onto the goblin? Or, with kronk active (dragon head or whatever theme you are using icon on the left of combat tracker), you hold ctrl and left click on the goblin?

After all targeting, you try the ability?

[FCWesel]

yep.

If you look at the screen grabs, it says under Kronk, "Kronk targets Goblin". Then when I click "save", it says exactly the SAME thing every time just as in the screen grab.

What it looks like it is doing is just stating what the Save DC is ("12"), and then NOT rolling a Save.

If I then click on the "damage button", it just does the full listed dice of damage. At no time is a Saving Throw being made by the target.

[damned]

I dont know if this is correct or not - I just setup a DragonBorn PC and changed the Save from Base to Con and then it appears to roll correctly?

[FCWesel]

I dont know if this is correct or not - I just setup a DragonBorn PC and changed the Save from Base to Con and then it appears to roll correctly?

THAT fixed it. THANK YOU!

I also added back my Extensions and it still worked. ;)

Thanks again to everyone.

[GarthGiantbane]

I just tested the same thing - evidently when the Type box is set to Base, no roll is triggered. In my case the Dragon Breath save was Dex so after setting it to Dex it rolled for a save as expected. It's funny, this just came up for me last night on while working up a dragonborn character sheet.

Rob2E's racial trait effects was set to base as well. I can see why - the save type changes depending which dragon ancestry the character picks.

[Zacchaeus]

When you create a new Power Group you need to tell Fantasy Grounds what the ability score for that power group is going to be. So in this case you drag in the Breath weapon and it creates a new group. In the box at the right hand side type something in like 'Dragonborn Powers' and this will allow you to get into the power group dialog via the little magnifying glass. In that dialog click 'Ability' until you get the correct ability for the saving throws that exist for any powers in the group, in this case CON. Now you will see that the saving throw for the breath weapon is correct and the save can be made.

If the power group is going to contain a number of different actions whose saving throws are not going to be based on the same ability then you need to set the ability in each of the actions separately.

[rsqdivr]

I'm trying really hard to understand fantasy grounds but this topic is obviously not lost on only me judging by the number of times it's been asked. Before you roll your eyes, yes, I've:

* site searched and sorted by relevance: question not answered.
* looked all over for the "sticky" at the top of the thread: can't find anything remotely like that
* tried dragging breath weapon from abilities to actions tab and it won't transfer. Tried in DM screen, client screen, fresh char, etc. Can't just drag-&-drop. Can't right-click and add spell/power on char sheet as some youtube videos have said.
* checked DMGuild for pregen characters: oh yes, there's tons of pregen but none of them seem to have the FG xml files. They're all listed as "coming soon".

The only dragonborn char pregen xml on DMGuild is a sorcerer which would provide the effect as a class feature and not a racial. If I copied the sorcerer and tried to overwrite it with the, say, Paladin class, will FG assume I'm trying to dual-class the character or will it replace sorcerer with Paladin? I tried this maneuver when creating a character and changed my mind about the race and had both racial traits listed. FG didn't just wipe the old. So, PLEASE be patient with folks who are just learning FG. We're not idiots. Trust me, it's not as intuitive as many are making it out to be. Thanks in advance for any help.

[damned]

Ho rsqdivr

No eye rolling - only dice... ok and maybe a few eye balls but only after a few pints and a good fight or two.

Open Breath Weapon from the Abilities tab on your char sheet.
If its not there did you create your character like this - apply stats/attributes, drag background, drag race, drag class.
Switch to the Actions tab ad drag the button/icon thingy on the top left of the open Breath Weapon trait on to the sheet.
It will create a Power group with Breath Weapon.
Click on the second magnifying glass and change type to (usually) Con.

Retry...

[SirGraystone]

Looking at the screenshot the save say "Bas DC 12 (H)", I think it should be "Con DC 12 (H)" or whatever ability is use for the save. Clicking on the magnifier to the right should let you change it.

[rsqdivr]

thanks, damned.

I finally figured out a solution. It may have been what you and others were saying but I didn't understand it that way. The only way I could make it work was by dragging the icon from the racial trait (breath weapon) onto the actions sheet, but the ONLY place where it would actually work was if I dragged it from the trait listed as a separate sub-window of the race window (the one that lists ALL races available, not my traits list in the abilities tab). I couldn't ever get it to drag from the listed traits on the same character sheet. Had to drag from one sheet/window to another.

So for others who are having trouble, what worked for me was something like this (I'll try to insert pictures):
-new PC -> ability scores -> race (dragonborn) ->plus whatever else you want to add
*by adding dragonborn race, the breath weapon is now listed under "traits" on the character sheet but is just FYI. That one is not the actual attack ability. It's just saying you can have it.
25105

-with Races list still open, click icon before the name "dragonborn" on the list (race list, not character sheet). This opens a new list of all the features you get by choosing dragonborn.
25106

-FROM THIS NEW LIST OF FEATURES, scroll down and locate the "breath weapon" entry. (it's below speed and draconic ancestry) and drag that into your open "actions" sheet. (On the sheet body, not the tab).
25107

-now you can see it listed as a "Powers" on your actions sheet. You need to edit the properties for the breath weapon by clicking the lasso/magnifying glass icon to the right of the listing. Where it says "base" change to whatever saving throw is appropriate like constitution, etc. Also, back on the next line of the Actions page for breath weapon, click that magnifying glass and edit the damage type to your choice like poison, etc. You can scroll down for other details as well in this box.
25103 25104

Hope this helps some other challenged soul like myself. Good luck.

[Zacchaeus]

You are not following what's been said above. See the graphics below. Open the ability by clicking on the icon in abilities then switch to the actions tab and then drag the opened ability to the actions tab.

[rsqdivr]

I see that now, but trust me, it's not intuitive and the wording you guys use may make perfect sense to you but for the uninitiated it's confusing. In this case somebody totally new to FG is seeing "breath weapon" listed in 3 or more places and clicking on "the thing" or viewing "the trait" isn't particularly clear. In hindsight, "Open the breath weapon" doesn't mean open the abilities tab that shows it. It means, click the icon for "breath weapon" so that it "OPENS" the details of that trait in a separate window. "Traits" are listed several places, including on the character sheet. I have yet to find the term "Power Group" listed or mentioned anywhere else, videos, etc. There were lots of things said above, like: a sticky at the top of the thread, etc. that don't seem to be true. The "pre-generated characters" mentioned all over that are dragonborn (except sorcerer) aren't available in FG xml format, so that's another red herring. The only one in FG xml format is sorcerer and the breath weapon is a class trait/spell for them so that only complicates the problem. My point is, you can't fault someone for not doing what was said above. There is a lot of outdated, incorrect, and unclear direction there.

Just for future reference, newbies may want to understand that you can't drag from one tab to another tab on the same character sheet, it seems. You need to get used to the concept of dragging items from one window or popup to another. In this case, the only way to get that breath weapon in a position to be placed into the actions tab, it's going to have to be in a separate window from the character sheet. There appear to be more than one way to get one opened, but that's the workflow. Knowing that would probably lessen many newbie's troubles in the future. Thanks for the help and patience all.

[Zacchaeus]

I was just referring to post #17 and especially post #19 above rather than any other post in the thread. But you are right familiarity does mean that we don't think twice about a statement like open the ability because we know what it means and probably therefore assume too much.

For more details on the character sheet and an explanation of the terms see here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Character_Sheet).

[damned]

You are correct rsqdivr - this is not a particularly intuitive (not be any stretch) piece of the puzzle...