5e Class, Background, Race, Feat interpreted strings

[mattekure]

For anyone making classes, races, backgrounds or feats I have tried to document all of the strings that FG interprets. Using these strings will allow FG to automate certain behavior as detailed for each one.

Class fields
HD Per Level, default is 1d6
Searches for XdY string to determine the dice value - note that if you use a non-standard die you will not be able to spend hit die, it has to be one of the standard 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d12 or 1d20

First level and Multi-class proficiencies
Skill When adding a skill proficiency, FG looks for the following strings in the description of the trait. You MUST capitalize the skills and spell them exactly as they appear on the skills tab of a character sheet. Otherwise FG will silently add a new skill.
"Choose NN from " - Where NN is a number from 1-9 written out. (one, two, three, etc)
"Choose NN skill(s) from " - Where NN is a number from 1-9 written out. (one, two, three, etc). The “s” is optional, so it could be “Choose one skill from” or “Choose two skills from”
The list of skills may be separated by “and”, “or”, or a comma “, “
Examples
“Choose two skills from Arcana, History, Stealth, and Survival”
“Choose one skill from History or Stealth.”
“Choose three from Animal Handling, Athletics, Acrobatics, Animal Handling”

Spellcasting / Pact Magic - When adding the “Spellcasting” or “Pact Magic” feature, FG scans the text of the trait looking for the following string "XXX is your spellcasting ability" where XXX is the name of the ability. The ability it finds will preset the ability selected as the default for the Spells power group and all spell save DC’s and attack bonuses are calculated using it.

If the spellcasting feature includes the text "Preparing and Casting Spells", then FG will calculate and set the number of prepared spells to 1 + ability bonus (minimum of 1).
These are the only text strings searched for within the spellcasting and pact magic class features. The progression of spell slots for a casting class is not determined by what is described within the feature definition, it is instead automatically calculated based on the level that you get the spellcasting/pact magic feature.

Draconic Resilience If you have a feature titled “Draconic Resilience”, FG will check your armor to see if you are wearing any armor, and if not, it will add 3 to your AC and add the additional hitpoints. FG does not look into the text of the trait.

Unarmored Defense If you have a feature titled “Unarmored Defense” FG will check your class and add the appropriate stat modifier to your ac calculation. If you are neither a barbarian or monk, it will not automatically add anything.
Barbarian will add Con
Monk will add Wis.

Skills when added as part of a class feature
All skills must be properly capitalized and spelled exactly as they appear on the skills tab of a char sheet.

"proficiency in the XXX and YYY skills"

"proficiency in the XXX skill"

"proficient in the XXX skill"

"trained in the XXX skill"

"proficiency in WWW skill(s) of your choice" where WWW is the spelled out number between one and nine (one, two,etc)

"proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice" this phrase is followed by the list of skills to choose from.

"proficiency with WWW of the following skills of your choice" where WWW is the spelled out number between one and nine (one, two,etc) and the phrase is followed by a list of skills to choose from.

"proficient in your choice of WWW of the following skills" where WWW is the spelled out number between one and nine (one, two,etc) and the phrase is followed by a list of skills to choose from. After this wording if the phrase "proficiency bonus is doubled" is found, it will double the proficiency bonus for the selected skills.

Racial Trait
Ability Score Increase If you have a racisl feature “Ability Score Increase” FG looks in the text of the feature for the following strings.

"your ability scores each increase" - All ability scores will increase by 1. You cannot set it to increase by any other number.

"your XXX and YYY scores increase by NN" - ability scores XXX and YYY will increase by the number NN.

"your XXX score increases by NN" - ability score XXX will increase by the number NN.

"Your XXX score is reduced by NN" - ability score XXX will decrease by the number NN.

"two other ability scores of your choice increase" or "two different ability scores of your choice increase" - In addition to any previous ability score increase string found, you will get to select 2 ability scores to increase. These will only be increased by 1 and you cannot select any other number.

"either your XXX or your YYY increases by NN" - you get to select either ability XXX or YYY to be increased.

Age A trait named Age will be ignored and not added to the character sheet.

Alignment A trait named Alignment will be ignored and not added to the character sheet

Size If you have a trait named “Size”, FG will look in the text of the trait for the phrase
"Your size is XXX" where XXX is one of the standard FG sizes. This will set the characters size to XXX. If no text is included, or there is no trait named Size, it will default to using Medium.

Speed If you have a trait named “Speed” FG will look in the text of the trait for the following phrases to set your speed correctly.

"walking speed is NN feet" or "land speed is NN feet" - set speed to number NN. It will default to 30 if it cannot determine the number.

"swimming speed of NN feet" - This will add a swimming speed of number NN in addition to your default walking speed.

"flying speed of NN feet" - This will add a flying speed of number NN in addition to your default walking speed.

"climbing speed of NN feet" - This will add a climbing speed of number NN in addition to your default walking speed.

Fleet of Foot If you have a trait named “Fleet of Foot”, FG will look in the text of the trait for the following phrase to modify your walking speed.
"walking speed increases to NN feet" - NN is a number

Darkvision If you have a trait named “Darkvision” it will add that to your character senses. FG will look at the text of the trait and if it finds any number in the text, it will use that number as the distance for the darkvision, otherwise it will just leave the distance portion blank.

Superior Darkvision If you have a trait named “Superior Darkvision” it will add that to your character senses. FG will look at the text of the trait and if it finds any number in the text, it will use that number as the distance for the darkvision, otherwise it will just leave the distance portion blank.

Languages If you have a trait named “Languages” FG will will look in the text of the trait for the following phrases to add languages.

"You can speak, read, and write XXX" or "You can read and write XXX" where XXX is a list of languages. The list of languages is separated by "and ". It can also include the phrases "one extra language of your choice" or "one other language of your choice" Each of the languages in the list will be added to the char sheet.

Extra Language - If you have a trait named “Extra Language” FG will add "Choice" to the languages portion of the char sheet.

Dwarven Toughness - If you have a trait named "Dwarven Toughness" FG will automatically add the appropriate additional HP

“Natural Armor” If the character has a trait with the name “Natural Armor” FG will scan the text of the trait to determine the armor calculation. It looks for the following strings:
"your dexterity modifier doesn't affect this number" - if this string is present, FG will not apply Dex to the AC.
It will then check for one of the following strings to determine the base ac.
"your ac is XX" or "base ac of XX"

"Cat's claws" If you have a feature titled “Cat’s Claws” FG will add “Climb 20 ft” to your speed

Gnome Cunning If you have a feature titled Gnome Cunning FG will auto give adv on int/wis/cha saves against magic.

[mattekure]

Feats
Feat increasing stat.
Increase a singly ability
"Increase your XXX score by NN, to a maximum of OO" Increases the ability XXX by number NN to a maximum of number OO.

Choice of ability to increase.
"Increase your XXX or YYY score by NN, to a maximum of OO" Increase the ability XXX or YYY by number NN to a maximum of number OO.

"Increase your XXX, YYY, or ZZZ score by NN, to a maximum of OO"

"Increase your XXX, YYY, ZZZ, or QQQ score by NN, to a maximum of OO"

"Increase the chosen ability score by NN, to a maximum of OO"

Feat giving proficiency
Armor Proficiency
"gain proficiency with XXX armor and shields"
"gain proficiency with XXX armor"

Weapon Proficiency
"are proficient with improvised weapons"
"gain proficiency with WWW weapon(s) of your choice" where WWW is the spelled out number between one and nine (one, two,etc)

Skill Proficiency
"one skill proficiency of your choice"
"gain proficiency in the XXX or YYY skill"
"gain proficiency in any combination of WWW skills or tools" where WWW is the spelled out number between one and nine (one, two,etc)

Tool Proficiency
"one tool proficiency of your choice"

Feat granting other bonuses
Languages
"Learn WWW language(s) of your choice" where WWW is the spelled out number between one and nine (one, two,etc)
"learn to speak, read, and write XXX"
"fluency in one language of your choice"

Initiative Increase
"gain a [+-]NN bonus to initiative" Plus or Minus number NN to your initiative

Passive perception increase
"have a +-NN bonus to your passive Wisdom (Perception)" Plus or Minus number NN to your passive perception, this appears as a bonus on the Main page of the char sheet

Speed increase
"Your speed increases by NN feet"

"Increase your walking speed by NN feet"

Background Skills
"Choose WWW from among " where WWW is the spelled out number between one and nine (one, two,etc), and the phrase is followed by a list of skills

"XXX, plus your choice of one from among " where XXX is a Skill followed by a list of skills

"XXX and one Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma skill of your choice, as appropriate to your faction" where XXX is a skill. You cannot select other stats or any other phrasing

Auto calculated by FG
The following feats, traits, etc are repeats from above. In most cases, these are hard coded and will automatically apply their effect just by having the trait/feature.

Feats
Tough - auto adds new HP
Medium Armor Master - auto modifies AC calculation

Feat
“Dragon Hide” If the character has a feat with the name “Dragon Hide” FG will scan the text of the feat for the following string to determine armor calculation. "your ac as XX". If you also have the natural armor trait, it will take the higher of the two calculations

Traits
“Powerful Build” If the character has a trait with the name “powerful build” FG will automatically calculate the encumbrance as if they were one size larger.

Racial feature
Dwarven Toughness - Having this trait will add appropriate HP changes

[rob2e]

This is amazing!

[LordEntrails]

Nice work Matt, thanks for sharing :)

[GavinRuneblade]

Can this go on the wiki under classes?

[Zacchaeus]

I dunno if that’s really the place for it. I’ll think about it, right now i’m Tied up with other stuff so it’s on the back burner.

[esmdev]

Hi.

I am wondering if there is a way (for race) to select two ability score increases where the first is increased by 2 and the second is increased by 1.

Thanks

[mattekure]

Hi.

I am wondering if there is a way (for race) to select two ability score increases where the first is increased by 2 and the second is increased by 1.

Thanks

No, there is no combination of language that allows that.

[GavinRuneblade]

Hi.

I am wondering if there is a way (for race) to select two ability score increases where the first is increased by 2 and the second is increased by 1.

Thanks

You could do it the way the changelings were done. Use the pick two to each go up by 1 for the base race than each subrace gets +1 to something different, or choice of two. Bit hacky but you can work with it flavorwise too and make the decision meaningful for something more than just raw math.

[esmdev]

Cool, thanks, the sub-race thing would work. :)

[cboillot]

What is the best way to do Innate Spellcasting?

[mattekure]

What is the best way to do Innate Spellcasting?

Innate spellcasting isnt something that is interpreted for PC's. So you can give them a trait with that name, but it wont automate anything. For the player, they can add the spells to their actions tab and then change the group from Spells to Innate Spells. Make sure that the Innate Spells group header has the correct ability score selected so that auto-calculations are correct. The ability score you use for Innate spells may be different from the ability score you use for normal spells.

[Fiacha]

This needs to be stickied.

[Zacchaeus]

This needs to be stickied.

It is stickied and has been since it was produced. https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27296-Guides-videos-and-other-helpful-information

[TheTubaGeek]

Is there language that allows you to add to AC as a Racial Ability?

Also, can you combine the Skill and Tool Proficiency into one Ability or does it need separated? (UPDATE: Discovered that you can combine them. I personally made them two separate lines instead on putting both lines together into one phrase/paragraph.)

Finally, if creating a Path not listed in FG, can you successfully link it to the class that is already loaded from the library since those are marked read-only?

[Zacchaeus]

No, there isn’t anything which will add to AC automatically.

There is no automatic choice for tool proficiency so I would keep it separate from skill choices lest it break the skill choices.

If you want to edit an existing class to add a new archetype (I assume that’s what you mean by path), make a copy of the class first and edit ip the copy to add the new archetype.

See the second video linked here for an example of how to do that https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?37112-New-Class-Creation-Video

[TheTubaGeek]

I can live with adding the +1 to my AC manually.

Actually, I was able to get the tool and skill proficiencies to work in the same item. See my updated note above.

Thanks for the advice to copy the class then add the new archetype. I'll try that now!

[albirich]

Can you ASI in background?

[Zacchaeus]

Can you ASI in background?

You can add whatever you want into a background but it won't get automatically added since FG isn't expecting ability score increases in a background.

[bayne7400]

Best post ever man Thanks for this!

[Milmoor]

Gnome Cunning is recognized and not in the list yet: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?28067-Gnome-Cunning

[Zacchaeus]

It is listed here though https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGU/pages/884913/5E+Effects+for+Advanced+Automation#Automating-Effects-on-NPCs

I suspect that Gnome Cunning may have been added after this list was produced.

[mattekure]

Gnome Cunning is recognized and not in the list yet: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?28067-Gnome-Cunning

You are correct, Gnome Cunning was added after I made this post. I have updated the original post with it.

[Chinzi]

Hello All. Is there a way that I can add skill proficiencies with custom Races and Subraces? The only thing that seems to work is to name an ability "Keen Senses". If I do that, I can then assign a skill based on the text of the ability, "You have proficiency in the XXX skill.", but I otherwise cannot add skills with custom named abilities, nor have I figured out how to create a choice of skills using language similar to Feats. Is this just not possible with races?

[Zacchaeus]

Generally skills are granted by class and background but they do work also for races. The kenku from Volo's guide for example has a trait Kenku Training which allows a choice of skills and the Tabaxi from the same volume has proficiency in a couple of skills. This wording should work "You are proficient in your choice of xxx of the following skills:" (list of skills separated by a comma). For a single skill "You have proficiency in the xxx skill".

If you still can't get it to work screenshot your ability as you have it worded.

[bencoulthard]

Can anyone tell me what the syntax is for Truesight - I can't get it to work on a custom race (Modron).

[Zacchaeus]

I don't think there is such wording. Just add it in as an ability and then the player can add it manually to their character sheet.

[bencoulthard]

Will do - thanks for the reply :)

[eriktedesco]

Hi all!

I'm trying to imprt a specific class archetype from DDAL-0013 Traveler's Guide to Icewind Dale and I have some issue with the wizard archetype, in particular one feature gained at level 2 (Martial Training).

This is how I worded it:

"When you choose this arcane tradition at 2nd level, you gain proficiency in light armor and all simple weapons, and you gain proficiency in Constitution saving throws."

This is supposed to add both weapon, armor and saving throw proficiencies automatically, but when i bump up the level nothing happens. The feature is correctly added but the proficiencies are not updated.

Any suggestion wil be more the welcomed!

Erik

[Zacchaeus]

The strings that you see in this post only work for the first level of the character. Anything beyond that needs to be handled manually.

[ZanMS]

Hi all, I was wondering does it have a function that adds a races natural weapon attack, or is that something you have to manually add once you've created a character.

[Zacchaeus]

You'll need to add that to the actions tab of the character sheet.

[Valyar]

This list is fantastic, exactly what I needed to troubleshoot the 5E compatible content. Already found that the new races cannot be handled by the builder. :(

[Valyar]

Any idea how the equipment parsing is triggered in the Character Wizard?

[mattekure]

Any idea how the equipment parsing is triggered in the Character Wizard?

I am not familiar with any aspect of the Character Wizard, but I dont think its doing any parsing. Where are you seeing strings parsed?

[Valyar]

Class and Background equipment is somehow analyzed in order to be assigned to the character in the INV section. superteddy57 is working on update and after the holidays probably we will get overhauled automation and in one of the .lua files we can see what are the syntax rules.

[superteddy57]

Class and Background equipment is somehow analyzed in order to be assigned to the character in the INV section. superteddy57 is working on update and after the holidays probably we will get overhauled automation and in one of the .lua files we can see what are the syntax rules.

The character wizard changes are now LIVE if you wish to begin testing on it.

[mattekure]

The character wizard changes are now LIVE if you wish to begin testing on it.

I took a look at whats in there now.

Class items are not parsed, they are hard coded and tied to specific items in the PHB. Not sure how it would work with SRD items as the entries specifically reference the PHB.

Background items are parsed, matching only specific phrases. For these 3 patterns, a new custom inventory item is created.
tools of the con of your choice
the favor of an admirer
a trophy taken from a fallen enemy

For all other items in the background list it matches against existing PHB items as follows:
Background item phrase = type: item
pouch containing = Adventuring Gear: pouch
purse containing = Adventuring Gear: pouch
common clothes = Adventuring Gear: clothes, common
commoner's clothes = Adventuring Gear: clothes, common
traveler's clothes = Adventuring Gear: clothes, traveler's
fine clothes = Adventuring Gear: clothes, fine
vestments = Adventuring Gear: clothes, vestments
costume = Adventuring Gear: clothes, costume
belaying pin = Weapon: club
blanket = Adventuring Gear: blanket
block and tackle = Adventuring Gear: block and tackle
book = Adventuring Gear: book
bullseye lantern = Adventuring Gear: lantern, bullseye
carpenter's tools = Adventuring Gear: carpenter's tools
crowbar = Adventuring Gear: crowbar
dagger = Weapon: dagger
etc.

[mattekure]

One more new thing that the char wizard has added is that class abilities like barbarian rage or fighter action surge are now automatically added as powers to the Actions tab. These are all hard coded in the ruleset currently but that could change.

[Battlemarch]

First off, thank you Supperteddy57!

Using the 'Character Wizard', using Noble background, it adds equipment and money - the part that I'm interested in is "and a purse containing 25 gp".
If I create a character without using the 'Charcater Wizard' and add the Noble background, the equipment and money isn't added (hopefully not a random ext on my part).

Is this the expected behavior or something that is in the works to fix?

I ask because I'm trying to create a few custom races (from Adventures in Middle-Earth) that contain bonus equipment.
I'm hoping that I don't have to create a specific, separate race background for each; although I did see that it appears that you can add multiple backgrounds.
Is there a way to 'include' a background link embedded in the Race description that processes automagically?

And just to make it interesting, what I'd really like is to have it work with "and a purse containing 3d6 gp".

So, is this just going to remain a manual process (text in the race dialog) or is there hope? :-)

[LordEntrails]

Using the 'Character Wizard', using Noble background, it adds equipment and money - the part that I'm interested in is "and a purse containing 25 gp".
If I create a character without using the 'Charcater Wizard' and add the Noble background, the equipment and money isn't added (hopefully not a random ext on my part).

Is this the expected behavior or something that is in the works to fix?

Expected behavior for drag and drop. Equipment is not automatically added with drag and drop, only in the Character Wizard, and currently only for official sources.

[superteddy57]

First off, thank you Supperteddy57!

Using the 'Character Wizard', using Noble background, it adds equipment and money - the part that I'm interested in is "and a purse containing 25 gp".
If I create a character without using the 'Charcater Wizard' and add the Noble background, the equipment and money isn't added (hopefully not a random ext on my part).

Is this the expected behavior or something that is in the works to fix?

I ask because I'm trying to create a few custom races (from Adventures in Middle-Earth) that contain bonus equipment.
I'm hoping that I don't have to create a specific, separate race background for each; although I did see that it appears that you can add multiple backgrounds.
Is there a way to 'include' a background link embedded in the Race description that processes automagically?

And just to make it interesting, what I'd really like is to have it work with "and a purse containing 3d6 gp".

So, is this just going to remain a manual process (text in the race dialog) or is there hope? :-)

The equipment portions unfortunately are hard coded. You could use the purchase equipment to 'buy' your equipment and add the coins to the character sheet after the wizard is finished. There also may be slight differences from drag 'n drop and the wizard, but generally try to stay in sync with it. You can check out the code for the wizard by unpacking the 5e ruleset and see what is involved with the code to get an idea of how it parses and what is hard coded and what is not.

[Battlemarch]

Thanks Superteddy57 (and LordEntrails), I'll take a look at the code. (and apologies for misspelling your handle incorrectly in my last post - lol)

Another question (to anyone) if I may as I get used to FG; why are Racial Traits embedded in Races instead of having their own section/area like Feats? I had thought that I'd just be able to go through and create all the traits separately and then just drag the appropriate ones as I created each Race. Yes, I understand that I can create it once under a Race in the 'Other' tab, open it and then drag & drop as desired. This current state offends my programming OO reuse sensibilities. :-(

Bill

[Zacchaeus]

Because they are usually unique to that race. There are hundreds of possible variations on what skills you might have alone and having a feat for each one would be silly.

[Blangas]

Hello. Do you mind sharing where you got these strings? Is it try&error? Or hunt through the internet from various sources?

For me personally, Language feats work only the second one. Try as I may, I can't make any choice prompt for Character Wizard...

Update: It worked when I framed it like this "You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice."

[Zacchaeus]

Hello. Do you mind sharing where you got these strings? Is it try&error? Or hunt through the internet from various sources?

For me personally, Language feats work only the second one. Try as I may, I can't make any choice prompt for Character Wizard...

Welcome to FGU.

Mattekure went through the ruleset code to extract the details in the first post. Since he did this I'm sure some of it will have changed as things have been updated in the ruleset code.

The character wizard isn't very good at picking up homebrewed stuff so I'd suggest that you use drag and drop for that.

[superteddy57]

That is correct, homebrew is a tad tough for the feature. Many things had to be hard coded due to the wording on many descriptions don't follow a pattern. I do have a refactor of the foundation of the feature coming soon, but this still is not a huge boon to homebrew. It does help as its the first phase of planned changes that will eventually make it easier for homebrew to be included.

[mattekure]

Hello. Do you mind sharing where you got these strings? Is it try&error? Or hunt through the internet from various sources?

For me personally, Language feats work only the second one. Try as I may, I can't make any choice prompt for Character Wizard...

Update: It worked when I framed it like this "You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice."

Zacchaeus is exactly right. I extracted the 5e ruleset as it was at the time and went through every section of code that parsed those values to see what it was looking for. The matching almost certainly has been tweaked since then but this list is largely still accurate.

[Blangas]

I could be spoiled by coding languages and big software documentation.
But I just wondering why nobody keeps documentation with those Strings. Are there some big obstacles to doing that? Because I reason, if mattekure could go through code to find all of them, it shouldn't be more difficult to keep some list of them as it expands or change.
Because that's where comes major frustration for me as new at FG... Can you imagine if you would like to learn some coding language, and there would not be clear documentation of what syntax exists in it?..

[Xyvius]

To whomever is willing to educate,

As a new coder in the LUA-scape and only being vaguely familiar with XML, I am puzzled by something. Why is it that with Background Items, Class Features, and Racial Traits the strings are parsed individually? I would have thought that calling a single parser that returned the values regardless of source would have been easier and more flexible in the long run. Any clarification on why this is not the method used would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading,
Xy

[Zacchaeus]

Because design decisions are taken on what is in front of you now and not ten years into the future which you can't see?

[Xyvius]

Because design decisions are taken on what is in front of you now and not ten years into the future which you can't see?

Fair enough, Been there for sure. I was just afraid that my ignorance of the LUA script and XML had some roadblock that I needed to be aware of. Thanks for the answer Zacchaeus, I watch your videos and have learned a lot from you. Thanks for the education on both fronts and keep it up, this community is awesome!

[Azbandar]

One change that I did find that was asked back in post #7. It's not perfect, but does open up a class to any race.

The wording needed is:
"One ability score of your choice increases by 2, one other ability score of your choice increases by 1."

I've been working a re-write (more an amalgamation of the core books) for my personal use, and am finding that taking those and altering them slightly, essentially making them HB, is still working with the character wizard. I even did a full input HB and have had luck with it as well. I am very much looking forward to changes made to the Character Wizard.

Side note, I have updated my version of the official content to put class specializations into the "Specializations" button on the Classes tab, same for subraces on the Races tab.

[Zacchaeus]

One change that I did find that was asked back in post #7. It's not perfect, but does open up a class to any race.

The wording needed is:
"One ability score of your choice increases by 2, one other ability score of your choice increases by 1."

I've been working a re-write (more an amalgamation of the core books) for my personal use, and am finding that taking those and altering them slightly, essentially making them HB, is still working with the character wizard. I even did a full input HB and have had luck with it as well. I am very much looking forward to changes made to the Character Wizard.

Side note, I have updated my version of the official content to put class specializations into the "Specializations" button on the Classes tab, same for subraces on the Races tab.

Yes the language for 2 and 1 was added after the publication of Tasha which changed a lot of the ways characters got built. The books which came out after Tasha have used this method. There were other changes as well as to what is acceptable after Tasha, so whilst most of the first and second posts is still accurate there have been changes which may not be reflected there.