'Effects' and the character sheet

[LillySprout]

I've been looking through the forums for about a day now, the inability of effects (or anything else) to affect the character sheet itself is something that I'm finding frustrating and a bit confusing. For something like a Headband of Intellect, it seems obvious that I'd like it to be able to affect my sheet itself, I do all sorts of things like roll skill checks or prepare spells that may frequently occur even without the combat tracker active, not to mention it would be nice to be able to see my effective modifier when deciding if I want to try such an effect or something. Is there any way I'm missing to create some effect/something that will actually affect the values on my sheet, or if not is this something that's supported in an extension or planned to be implemented someday?

[Zacchaeus]

No, effects don't change the value of ability scores (or anything else) directly on the sheet. They are taken into account when you make any kind of dice roll or have a roll made against you depending on the effect. So your headband on intellect would need an effect of INT: x where x is the difference between your INT and 19. As long as your character is on the CT and you have the effect applied then any dice roll which is affected by intelligence (skills, spell save DCs etc) will take account of your additional intelligence.

See these videos for more informati9on on effects and how they work https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?41478-Effects-Videos-for-5E

[LillySprout]

Yeah, I've seen that info. I'm wondering if there's some extension or other way of getting around that - coming from roll20 this is a major regression in terms of features.

[Zacchaeus]

Why is that? The effects system is considerably more flexible than simply changing the stat or whatever.

[LillySprout]

A few examples:

* I'm preparing spells for the day, which is affected by the current value in that stat, would be nice to see that right on the character sheet
* I'd like to see my actual bonus on the skill before I roll it, for example if there's a skill check with a penalty for failure and we want to know who in the party is best at it
* Actually pretty much any extension of the above, it's often nice to know what the actual value of modifiers to things are before choosing which to use

[LordEntrails]

If you want the item to change the ability score (edit: on the character sheet), then just change the ability score and don't use an effect. Solved.

[GavinRuneblade]

If you want the item to change the ability score (edit: on the character sheet), then just change the ability score and don't use an effect. Solved.

A bit of advice on this specific solution: make a note on the notes tab of the character sheet what the original Int is underneath the headband. That way if it gets removed, etc. you know.

[Trenloe]

As LordEntrails mentions - if you want something that gives a longer term "effect" on your character, then manually edit the character. And, as GavinRuneblade mentioned, keep track of what is changing something.

I agree that it would be nice if the Abilities had the temporary modifier functionality (like saves) that allow you to CTRL_Mouse-wheel to add temporary modifiers that are visible in the little bubble. See "Temporary Modifiers" here: https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGU/pages/688323/Basic+Actions#Number-Fields