How to create magical weapons

[Daxcor]

I have watched videos, read the wiki, and tried the Forge. I am still struggling.

I have a cursed sword that has the following properties.
- always has advantage
- have to make a DC 13 VS con saving throw, on fail player goes into a rage for 1d10 rnds. He will attack the closest creatures until dead, even if friendly.

I realize I can't automate all of these but there has to be a way to do some of it. I was able to use a ext call Advanced Effects, which allowed me to add an effect to the sword, ADVATK. That was pretty simple.
Now I want to be able to have it auto roll the save each time the sword is used in an attack. I can't see a way of doing that. So I thought I would put it in the description of the sword item so I could just drag it onto the player in the CT. I can't see how to put that into the item. Then I want to be able to drag the Rage effect on to the player in CT for 1d10 rnds.

I must be missing something as I struggle with this part of FG and have spent a lot of time reading. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Brad

[Zacchaeus]

You can’t force a saving throw off another action like that. So the player would need to make the save manually each time the weapon is used. For the Rage effect you can set up the effect in the player’s Action tab and have them apply it to themselves just like any other effect.

[GavinRuneblade]

As a related question, most of the magic items in most products do not provide their effects at all. For example, I could not find a cloak of protection in any product that actually applies the +1 to saves and AC. Is there a way to add this effect manually?

[LordEntrails]

As a related question, most of the magic items in most products do not provide their effects at all. For example, I could not find a cloak of protection in any product that actually applies the +1 to saves and AC. Is there a way to add this effect manually?
Yes, add an effect to the CT "Cloak of Protection; AC:1"

You can check out Zacchaeus' videos on creating effects yourself or Rob Twohy's products on the DMsGuild.com if you want to just buy something that has the effects already set to go for you.

[Zacchaeus]

As a related question, most of the magic items in most products do not provide their effects at all. For example, I could not find a cloak of protection in any product that actually applies the +1 to saves and AC. Is there a way to add this effect manually?

No magic items automatically add effects. Weapons and armour will add in buses to attack, damage and AC (but there is an issue at the moment which is preventing some of that from working properly).

[GavinRuneblade]

No magic items automatically add effects. Weapons and armour will add in buses to attack, damage and AC (but there is an issue at the moment which is preventing some of that from working properly).

Well, I have one character whose cloak of protection adds the bonus to saves. But I've tried adding a cloak to other characters from every book in my library and none of them work. We didn't manually add the effect ourselves, so it looks like some book once had the effect but now does not. The AC is least important, because that can be manually added to the main page if the item doesn't work. Same with weapons, there are ways to add to hit and damage easily. But adding +1 to all saves cannot be done from the character sheet any way that I know. Hence my desire for the item to have the effect as it should.

[LordEntrails]

... Hence my desire for the item to have the effect as it should.
I think your expectations are not set correctly. FG has never tried to automate everything. The Devs have repeatedly stated that even in the most automated of the rulesets (like 5E) they only aim to automate something like 80% of what's possible. They aim to automate those things that are used repeatedly, that change often, that impact the largest number of users and enhance the play experience.

Trying to automate all of the effects and capabilities of every magic item, or even some of the more common ones, are things that don't add a lot of value because they are often only done once or twice per character per campaign, and can easily be done by the user or through a community resource like have already been mentioned.

But, don't think the devs aren't always making things better or don't listen to ideas. They have a wishlist where they track suggestions and people can vote on the ones most important to them, check it out; https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/

[Zacchaeus]

Well, I have one character whose cloak of protection adds the bonus to saves. But I've tried adding a cloak to other characters from every book in my library and none of them work. We didn't manually add the effect ourselves, so it looks like some book once had the effect but now does not. The AC is least important, because that can be manually added to the main page if the item doesn't work. Same with weapons, there are ways to add to hit and damage easily. But adding +1 to all saves cannot be done from the character sheet any way that I know. Hence my desire for the item to have the effect as it should.

The effect you are looking for is Cloak of Protection; AC:1; SAVE: 1

I wouldn't start changing things on the character sheet to achieve the addition of 1 to the AC because the player will forget to adjust when the remove the cloak; or forget why they have an extra 1 altogether.

If you are struggling with effects then this series of videos (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?41478-Effects-Videos-for-5E) should help get you going.

[GavinRuneblade]

I think your expectations are not set correctly. FG has never tried to automate everything. The Devs have repeatedly stated that even in the most automated of the rulesets (like 5E) they only aim to automate something like 80% of what's possible. They aim to automate those things that are used repeatedly, that change often, that impact the largest number of users and enhance the play experience.

Trying to automate all of the effects and capabilities of every magic item, or even some of the more common ones, are things that don't add a lot of value because they are often only done once or twice per character per campaign, and can easily be done by the user or through a community resource like have already been mentioned.

But, don't think the devs aren't always making things better or don't listen to ideas. They have a wishlist where they track suggestions and people can vote on the ones most important to them, check it out; https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/

I think you misunderstood or I misspoke. I don't want nor did I ask for the ability to automate everything. Only one very specific thing really bugs me: saving through bonuses. For most other things there are super easy work arounds. Remembering to constantly add +1 to the mod box has lead to the need to retcon combat results.

Now, I did mention that lots of magic items have a similar problem with missing effects, but they mostly aren't a big deal. Take gauntlets of ogre power. Simply make a note on the note page and edit the stat line. Done. I don't need those automated. And I also mentioned how weapons and armor have work arounds too. And I do recognize Zaccaeus' caution, but in absence of functioning items, I do whatever works best with least effort. I simply mentioned the extent of the issue to draw attention to it.

[LordEntrails]

Did Mr. Z's reply not get you the answer you need?

[GavinRuneblade]

The effect you are looking for is Cloak of Protection; AC:1; SAVE: 1

I wouldn't start changing things on the character sheet to achieve the addition of 1 to the AC because the player will forget to adjust when the remove the cloak; or forget why they have an extra 1 altogether.

If you are struggling with effects then this series of videos (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?41478-Effects-Videos-for-5E) should help get you going.

Those videos left me more confused than I started. Is there something in writing?
Here is what I tried to do, can you tell me what I did wrong?23378

[Zacchaeus]

That is correct. You don’t need a duration; just leave it blank, since this is a permanent item and the effect will remain on the character unless they remove the cloak.

You would place that effect on the character (once the PC is on the Combat Tracker) by clicking the running man icon on the actions tab (set the mode to combat and actions). When the PC now makes a save you’ll see a note in chat that they have a +1 bonus. Similarly when the PC gets attacked they’ll get a +1 to their AC against the attack.

Sorry the videos aren’t clear enough. Not sure how I can make them any simpler to understand but if you have suggestions do let me know.

[GavinRuneblade]

That is correct. You don’t need a duration; just leave it blank, since this is a permanent item and the effect will remain on the character unless they remove the cloak.

You would place that effect on the character (once the PC is on the Combat Tracker) by clicking the running man icon on the actions tab (set the mode to combat and actions). When the PC now makes a save you’ll see a note in chat that they have a +1 bonus. Similarly when the PC gets attacked they’ll get a +1 to their AC against the attack.

Sorry the videos aren’t clear enough. Not sure how I can make them any simpler to understand but if you have suggestions do let me know.

Thanks for the confirmation. I wasn't testing in combat I was looking at the character page and looking at the save and ac values. I should have realized.

On the videos, it's more me than the video. I cannot learn from a video, they just don't ever work for me. A transcript would help, closed captions from YouTube only show up and vanish, they're not the best for scanning and reading. Maybe I can use google translate to listen and type it out for me. Hmm, I'll experiment some.

[Willot]

There is an Extension that allows you to place effects on an item (and PCs, NPCs) and if that item is equipped it adds the effect of the weapon to the character in the combat tracker then removes it if the item is unequipped

Advanced effects (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?40833-5E-Advanced-Effects-(items-npcs-characters))

[GavinRuneblade]

I just tested this in combat and neither the AC nor the Save bonus work. Both show up on the character, but when rolling they don't add their bonuses. I tried with and without a space between the colon and the number. Is there anything else that might be missing?

[Zacchaeus]

Was the PC on the Combat Tracker? And was the effect placed on the PC? Did you see in chat that a +1 was being added to saving throws.

Could you post a screenshot of it not working?

[Willot]

I just tested this in combat and neither the AC nor the Save bonus work. Both show up on the character, but when rolling they don't add their bonuses. I tried with and without a space between the colon and the number. Is there anything else that might be missing?

I do know there's a weird thing where bonus added by effects DONT show up on your character sheet but DO factor in when you make the actual roll in the combat tracker (in the chat screen). However this seems the opposite of what your saying here? unless Im mis-reading what your saying. Yeah Screen shot might be cool to clarify

[Trenloe]

I do know there's a weird thing where bonus added by effects DONT show up on your character sheet but DO factor in when you make the actual roll in the combat tracker (in the chat screen).
That's not a weird thing, that's how effects are designed to work.

[GavinRuneblade]

Was the PC on the Combat Tracker? And was the effect placed on the PC? Did you see in chat that a +1 was being added to saving throws.

Could you post a screenshot of it not working?

23426

Here's a screenshot. I chose the wisdom save since it has a 0 bonus naturally and thus the bonus would be most obvious if it were working.

[Zacchaeus]

As noted above the effect is SAVE:1; AC: 1 - In other words all capital letters.

[GavinRuneblade]

As noted above the effect is SAVE:1; AC: 1 - In other words all capital letters.

That was the problem, thank you! Also thanks Willot that extension is quite helpful.