Noob DM Questions

[solomani]

Hi all, like (I guess) many DM's I am migrating my game to online play. Initially I just used chat for the first session but decided that something like FG would be helpful. So I have spent all day migrating my next game and supporting classes, abilities etc to FG which has raised many questions though most of them I was able to solve via google, the following I could not figure out*:


Add a new ability score - Honour in my case.
Is there a way to track ki usage?
It isn't always clear which magic items effect PCs or not in the engine. For example magic armour does but something like a luck stone does not - is there a way to tell which items are automated and which are not?
For something like the luck stone instead of the PC going in and changing his saves manually (in fact I cant see how to edit saving throws) what would people use - an effect?
Is there a way to group spells instead of having it automatically grouped by level? I have a PC who has access to four innate spells so grouping them in the character sheet isn't the best formatting option.
How do you apply jack of all trades from the bard class - an effect as well?
Seems tool proficiencies are not automatically added - how do people do this, edit the skill list and just add them their (thinking thrives tools specifically)?
Is it possible to make a unique weapon that has its own dedicated proficiency requirement? I am guessing yes since I can't see any automation around proficiency with/without weapons.
Is there a way to switch themes without exiting and restarting?
One of my characters uses proficiency dice (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/dungeon-masters-workshop#ProficiencyDice) instead of proficiency bonus. Is there a way to replace proficiency bonus with a die roll?
Can players make notes on the maps? Seems the maps are locked so PCs cant make notes?


(*Posting my questions here but I hazard to guess they are not Unity specific).

For context I am running a D&D 5e Oriental Adventures (https://www.electric-rain.net/2019/04/15/the-divine-heir-and-the-jade-regent/) campaign and my characters are level 13 - so there is a lot of stuff to convert and a lot stuff that mixes the standard classes up - for example ki for rouges, bards etc instead of just for monks.

Thank you advance

[Zacchaeus]

1. You''ll need to write an extension to add a new ability score. THis extension might help https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?45467-5E-Add-on-Sanity-amp-Honor
2. Yes. See here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27337-Effects-the-Complete-Monk-Package&p=244487#post244487
3. Apart from some weapons and some armours no magic weapons automate effects.
4. Create a separate Power group for the spells; they'll still automatically be added by level though. See video six here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?46965-New-Character-Creation-Videos
5. You can click on the skills proficiency button until it says half proficiency. You'll need an effect for Initiative. See here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27331-Effects-The-Complete-Bard-Package and Here and video four here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?46965-New-Character-Creation-Videos
6. Tool proficiencies are not added because they don't have a specific ability applied to them. The DM decides what ability score to use depending on the task. See video four here for how to add a tool proficiency https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?46965-New-Character-Creation-Videos
7. Yes. As you say FG assumes the character is proficient with any armour or weapon equipped. You have to remove that proficiency manually if the character is not proficient.
8. No. You can switch decals but not themes.
9. Via an effect CHECK: [-PRF];CHECK: 1d4;SKILL: [-PRF];SKILL: 1d4;ATK: [-PRF];ATK:1d4 etc
10. No. The only thing that Players can interact with are their character sheets and notes. Players can draw on a map if you enable drawing on the map but writing with the drawing tools isn't easy.

[solomani]

Great, thank you. Will go through your links.

[solomani]

Hi Zacchaeus, updates and couple more questions:


The Honor/Sanity extension is perfect, thanks.
I can not import those class XML files into FG Unity, it refused to show them in the explorer window.
Where would I put that prof dice effect? under the weapon? -> CHECK: [-PRF];CHECK: 1d4;SKILL: [-PRF];SKILL: 1d4;ATK: [-PRF];ATK:1d4 etc



New questions:

One of my players just wants to see their own chat, not the whole parties, is this possible?
Is it possible to add an effect to a weapon so it heals the wielder when it does damage to a target?
Is it possible to auto-apply Effects? One of my PCs has a DR trait and would be good for it to automatically apply. Alternatively maybe never expiring so only has to be activated once per session (I think setting the duration to 0 does the later?).



Thanks in advance.

[Zacchaeus]

Download the character and put it in a file - in the Unity FG Data folder if you want. Click on the PC Button and then on the import button; then click on the blue import file button and navigate to your file.

Effects go in the actions tab. See these videos here. https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?41478-Effects-Videos-for-5E

New questions
1. No
2. No. The way to do this is to this would be to right click over the damage in chat and select negative and then drag that result from chat and drop it on the wounds box in the CT.
3. By default effects cannot be auto applied. But a permanent effect only needs to be applied once to a PC on the CT since PCs never leave the CT. Leave the duration on such an effect blank and set the expend to never. As long as the PC doesn't leave the CT - even across sessions - the effect will always be on.

[solomani]

Great. Thanks will experiment.

[solomani]

Hi Zacchaeus,

Couple more questions - previous issues sorted - thank you. The proficiency changes in particular worked nicely.

One of my PCs is a custom character called an Oiran. She has the ability to heal PCs but if they are at full hps also give them temporary has instead of healing them. Is something like this possible in with a check?
Also, anyway to have all items automatically identified? Currently I am manually unchecking each as I go.

Looking at the wiki I am trying to use "Superior Critical" and "Damage Threshold" but it doesn't seem to work when I test it:

33438

33439

In terms of importing your characters I cant even see them in the requester. For example I have them on my desktop as "A Bard.xml" and "A Monk.xml" but this is what I see when I browse to it (happens in both MacOS and Win10):
33440

Bug?

[Zacchaeus]

No, a heal will only heal up to the amount of current wounds. There's no way to 'overheal'. You'll need to do that manually.

As you can see from the screenshot both Superior Critical and Damage Threshold are working. I'm assuming that you didn't put the NPC on the Combat Tracker first. But that's a guess.

I can't explain your issue with the file importer. As you can see it also works as expected. Try putting the file in the FGUnity folder.

[solomani]

Thanks Zacchaeus. Yep, wasn't on the tracker. All good now. Ditto on the import, works from the data file but not anywhere else (for me anyway).

[solomani]

Is there a way to have a shared resource pool for the party? I basically use something like hero points but they are not individual but a party resource.

[Zacchaeus]

You could maybe add something to the party inventory. That’s the only thing that is shared by the party.

[solomani]

I am guessing that would be an extension as opposed to config I can do?

Played my first session today with FG, worked well. My party loved it though FG Unity is very demanding on older PCs and isn't very optimised (understand because its not production/released yet so all good). Using the tool in anger did raise some more questions:


How do you delay your turn in the combat tracker?
Is it possible to build weapons that automatically add a bonus vs a certain type of monster like +1, +2 vs Constructs or similar?
Anyway of customising the status effects - would like to use bloodied instead of heavy for example.
Is there a quick way for a player to clear all targets - for example a shortcut?
Is there a way to simulate the cloak of displacements canceled effect after the first hit? Guessing no and this needs to be done manually by the PC.
When I drag an item from the Item section to the party inventory and rename it does it create a new item or it only exists in the party inventory (I ask because I cant find anything I rename in the Item tab)?
Is there a way to have auras active - for example an ally of the party provides +1d4 on skill checks to all allies within 5 feet of him.


My game is stuck/saved in mid combat so I can't test these myself without messing up the tracker and positioning of PC/mobs. But how do attacks work procedurally? Does FG track number of hits and then matches them to damage even if there are other to-hit rolls between? For example, how does FG interpret this pattern:

PC Roll-to-hit -> HIT
PC Roll-to-hit -> Critical
PC Roll-to-hit -> HIT
PC Roll damage.
PC Roll damage <- does FG apply critical multiple to this damage roll?
PC Roll damage.

Or should the PCs really be rolling to-hit then damage straight after?

Thanks in advance.

[Zacchaeus]

Players can access the partyt inventory if you turn the option show inventory to clients on. No extension needed.

1) There is no mechanism for delaying your turn. The player will just have to remember.
2) You can't add an effect to a weapon (without an extension) but you can add a bonus to one and then create an effect on the actions tab of the player wielding the weapon IFT: TYPE(constructs);DMG: 1. See here for more information on effects https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGU/pages/884913/5E+Effects+for+Advanced+Automation
3) I don't understand there is no heavy condition.
4) No, but the DM can via the clear all targets button on the CT. Click the target button for the player in question to see this.
5) It creates a copy of the item which exists only in the party sheet.
6) Not automatically, no.

The players should roll to hit and then deal damage immediately. If you make a critical hit and then roll another hit the critical flag will get lost. If this happens players (or DM) can hold SHIFT whilst dealing damage to apply critical damage.

[solomani]

Thanks Zacchaeus. In fact, I am slowly working through your videos (very good btw). About halfway through and, of course, about an hour after posting here I watched your IF/IFT video which answered question 2.

In terms of conditions I meant status in the combat tracker. My PCs see light, moderate, heavy and critical. Heavy is equivalent to bloody so would like to change it to Bloodied (some 4e nomenclature I still use).

Party Inventory.
More a question of can I have some kind of counter in the Party Inventory? Having said that, now I am looking at it, I can just add an item called "spirit emblems" (my hero point equivalent) in the inventory section and the PCs never claim it but the number can be reduced as its used. Is that what you were thinking?

Is it possible to have people on the same network connect to a cloud hosted FG session? Three of my players live with me (wife, son and daughter) and in terms of speed and network load would make sense for them to connect locally as opposed to going to the internet. Tried a few times but couldn't get this working so assume no.

Is it possible to make some shortcut pins visible to PCs? Or this is meant to be only a DM tool? I notice I can share them but when I check from the player's side I just see green pins without info.

Is there a way to rearrange the order of traits, actions etc in NPC stat blocks?

Finally, is it possible to create custom conditions that have effects attached to them? For example my PCs use haste a lot and most of haste can be covered off with effects so would be good to be able to drag and drop a Hasted condition onto affected PCs.

Thanks again for your help.

[LordEntrails]

To change the name of the damage indicators would require an extension. 5E does have some GM options for what is shown/used, but I don't remember what they are.

I believe that is what Mr. Z's idea was for using the party inventory.

Pins can be shared to the players. Right click on the pin and you can share individually or all of them. Shared pins turn green.

Reordering traits etc can only be done by deleting and recreating :(

Yes, open the Effects window (small icon near top right) and you can make all the custom conditions/effects you want :)

[Zacchaeus]

Your Spirit Emblems thing. You said you needed this shared between all of the party so the only thing that is shared as it were would be the party inventory. So my idea was that you create an item in there called Spirit Emblems and put the number of uses in it and then reduce those whenever it was used and increase it whenever they were replenished/gained. A lot of manual work. You could though as you say just have an action in one character and use preparation mode to handle the uses/ replenishment.

As LE says you would need to write an extension to change the names of the wound categories.

Yes, it is possible for people to connect locally. They would use the host's internal IP address rather than connect via the Cloud connection option.

I think the order of the traits in an NPC actions retain the order in which you add them in.

I am not sure what you mean about the hasted thing. If you have the effects set up on the actions tab then all you need to do is target the PC that you want to apply the effect to and then click the running man icon to apply the effect (or drag and drop). For any kind of effect which is used by a PC on another PC (or on an NPC) then the effect must be placed on the target from the actions tab of the actor using the spell or whatever. You need to do it this way otherwise things like Concentration won't work. You can create effects in the effecs dialog but that is limited and not something I would recommend.

[solomani]

Thanks both.


Your Spirit Emblems thing. You said you needed this shared between all of the party so the only thing that is shared as it were would be the party inventory. So my idea was that you create an item in there called Spirit Emblems and put the number of uses in it and then reduce those whenever it was used and increase it whenever they were replenished/gained. A lot of manual work. You could though as you say just have an action in one character and use preparation mode to handle the uses/ replenishment.

This is what I will do, easier than me tracking it with physical coins on my desk - at least until we can go back to face-to-face games.


Yes, it is possible for people to connect locally. They would use the host's internal IP address rather than connect via the Cloud connection option.

Not sure what I am doing wrong, must be my router not allowing connections as I cant connect locally. Will troubleshoot.


I am not sure what you mean about the hasted thing.
Figured out after watching one of your videos. Was expecting to be able to right click on a new condition and add effects but it looks like I need to input the script-language directly. Which is fine. This is what I mean in terms of adding the "hasted" effect. This song (spell) gives the party an effect similar to haste which has the following mechanical effects:


Advantage on all Strength related checks.
Advantage on Dex saving throws.
+2 AC.
Speed is doubled.
Extra action - attack, Dash, Disengage, Hide or Use an Object.


I translated this as the following effect for the song:
Hachiman’s Whistling Warsong; AC 2; ADVCHK (Strength); ADVSAV (Dexterity); Speed Doubled; Extra Action; (C)

Seems to work. For speed doubling and extra action I just put in text since these are not automated in FG as far as I know (nor would I want them to be, to be honest).

[Zacchaeus]

I translated this as the following effect for the song:
Hachiman’s Whistling Warsong; AC 2; ADVCHK (Strength); ADVSAV (Dexterity); Speed Doubled; Extra Action; (C)

AC:2;ADVCHK: strength; ADVSAV: dexterity

Lose the capitalisation and the brackets

[solomani]

AC:2;ADVCHK: strength; ADVSAV: dexterity

Lose the capitalisation and the brackets

Excellent. Thanks.

[solomani]

Hi guys, used this in anger again last night. I find its a pretty heavy app to use and slowly gets less responsive over time - any idea when the full release of FGU will be out?

Some specific questions:


Is it possible to have an effect that adds +2 AC if adjacent/within 5 feet to another monster of the same name? (an MM example would be the shield guardian).
An ongoing damage effect on PCs. For example 5 fire per round?
One of my player's rolls always come up un-summed on my screen - other players are fine. I am guessing this is some kind of setting on her client specifically?
Is there a quick way to share a map with PCs who joined late? Currently I am de-sharing and reshaping to force a refresh on the client side. I know PCs can create shortcuts and can lookup via the Image and Map chevron, just wondered if there was a way for me to do it just for specific PCs.


It seems random but sometimes I can actually add entries that are below other entries - not sure how its happening but it does:
33773

FGU is complaining it cant auto-load spells on some of my custom mobs, but I can't see why?
33774

It also messed up the spell info for some reason as well when I drag and dropped them. When I tried tidying it up it only made it worse - bug?
33775

[Zacchaeus]

1. No. FG doesn't know what tokens are around it so it can't apply effects based on distance
2. DMGO: 5, fire
3. Sounds like your player hasn't updated to the latest version - this was fixed in the last patch
4. Just right click on the map and select View > Sync Client View

Looks like you hit the green plus button twice.

You need to have the source of the spells open for look up to work. Looking at that spell list it doesn't seem like you have the PHB open.

The NPC spell section doesn't accept formatted text so it doesn't look too pretty when there are spells with formatted text in there.

[solomani]

Thanks Zacchaeus. When you say I need the book open do you mean loaded? Or open in some other sense? (and yes updating the client fixed the problem)

[LordEntrails]

Yes, you need to Load the PHB.

[solomani]

Pretty sure I had it loaded, having said that, when I checked today it worked fine. /shrug. All good.

Though the spell formating is stuffed up - to confirm, this is normal as its unreadable? Using Archmage as my test.

Before:
33841

After:
33842

[solomani]

More questions after our third online session:

Is there a quick way for the DM to apply effects/conditions out of turn? For example PC one applies a -2 AC to monster X that is still a few turns away from having its go - how can I just add the effect myself as the DM on the fly without having to wait for the monsters turn to come up?

For some reason targeting did not work from the Group Sheet abstract combat area (see screenshot). I assume targeting should work from here? As you can see the hoard golem is targeting 4 PCs on the party sheet but its not reflected in the CT. Targeting from the CT worked fine:
33912

My PCs need to manually update their HD icon each session by going into Class and Level, clearing the Hit Die and re-applying the die to force the main sheet to update:

Before
33913

After the die was manually updated:
33914

[LordEntrails]

The DM can apply effects at anytime to any creature. Just do it. You can drag an effect to a target, you can open the effects line and type on in manually, you can drag an effect/action from an NPC to a target, etc.

Not sure about the Group Sheet. You mean the marching Order tab of the Party Sheet?

[solomani]

Hi Entrails, doh, I was just clicking the effect, didn't realise you could drag and drop. My bad.

Correct, I am talking about the marching order sheet - thought this could be used for combat? Kind of a mini-map without having to create a map. Or this is purely for marching order and not linked to the CT?

[LordEntrails]

No problem. I always assumed you could do combat from the Order of the Party Sheet. Though I've never actually done so... Hopefully someone else can come by and confirm either way here shortly :)

[Zacchaeus]

I don't understand the first question. If it is the PCs turn and they want to apply a -2 to the AC of a monster then they should have the effect in their actions tab and just target the monster and place the effect. No ned for any DM involvement. You'll need to expend on the scenario.

You can run combat on the party sheet. Same rules apply to a normal map - all PCs and NPCs must be dragged there from the CT.

The white square on the HD is a reported issues which the devs are having an issue tracking down. Any further information you have to be able to reproduce this bug would be useful.

[solomani]

Hi Zacchaeus, the HD issue happens at the beginning of each session. After corrected, it works fine. I'll pay more attention the next time it happens.

In terms of effects, I was clicking instead of dragging - PEBKAC.

I didn't drag the pcs from the CT so that was the issue. Thanks.