[Bug][Pathfinder 1e][Weapon Focus feat attack bonus not applied on Actions tab]

[BillTheButcher]

OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit Version: 1903 Build: 18362.1016
FGC Version: 3.3.11 ULTIMATE
PFRPG ruleset version: 3.3.10

Steps to re-create problem:
1. Create a character
2. Add a weapon to inventory, equip it. longsword for this example
3. Add the Weapon Focus feat (note that there is no way to specify the wepon other than typing it next to the feat)
4. Go to the Actions tab.
5. Note that the +1 attack bonus from Weapon Focus is not applied. Also when the attack is rolled, the bonus does not show up in the chat window either.

I have read that the reason for this is that "this feature is not in the ruleset". Why? It's a part of the core game that could be implemented exactly as it is in PC Gen, OR simply allowing us to modify the attack / damage bonus for the weapon on the actions tab. I also play Savage Worlds, and you are able to modify attack / damage bonuses for individual weapons in that ruleset.

I have also read that the workaround is to just create weapons with a bonus. Fine, I can do that, but why? I paid for a premium product, I would expect commonly used core features like Weapon Focus to be fully implemented.

This is also true of the damage bonus from Weapon Specialization.

Please update the ruleset to accomodate the Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization bonus.

[Moon Wizard]

@BillTheButcher,

There is no current automation of adjusting character sheets based on ability additions; so this is expected behavior. Any ability adjustments have to applied to the character manually.

We do not have any plans to fully automate the Pathfinder 1E character creation and leveling process at this time. There are a couple projects in the 5E and Pathfinder 2E rulesets to provide character wizards that do more; but no resources to work on Pathfinder 1E currently.

Regards,
JPG

[BillTheButcher]

Thanks @Moon Wizard,

I understand your reasoning, but from my perspective that answer is unacceptable.

I will just create the custom weapons, but I will keep this in mind next time I consider upgrading to Unity, and whether to continue using your product.

I wish I had known the Pathfinder 1E ruleset is discontinued in Fantasy Grounds, I would have probably chosen a different VTT in spite of the fact that I've already paid for Fantasy Grounds.

Bill

[Moon Wizard]

It's not that Pathfinder 1E is discontinued. It's that FG never offered automation of characters to that degree; and it's only now something that we are exploring with 5E and Pathfinder 2E.

Regards,
JPG

[BillTheButcher]

Right, it's not discontinued, you're just not doing anything with it. Pardon my misuse of the word "discontinued". Maybe "abandoned" would be more appropriate.

[BillTheButcher]

Seriously, creating custom weapons for feat bonuses is a terrible solution.

#1: Each time the character gets a new weapon of that type, I now have to create a custom weapon. What a pain!
#2: It breaks my PC Gen imports. It's fantastic to have automated character creation, but don't forget about that longsword that has to be deleted, and re-added as a custom weapon after XML import!

I just can't see how you would call a core component of the rules like this "character customization". The entire character sheet is "character customization", what it boils down to is that Fantasy Grounds simply refuses to do it.

[Asgurgolas]

Just go to the weapon on that character's sheet and simply add a "+1" to hit.
job done. I don't see the feature as "strictly necessary" since all it takes is a one-time addition to the weapon in the actions tab. Sure, could be interesting, but far, FAR from being "unacceptable being without".


Unless you work with 500+ PCgen characters and all of them have various weapon focuses, I still fail to see it as a serious issue :/

[BillTheButcher]

It's something additional to remember that will be invariably forgotten. "Oh wait I forgot my Weapon Focus bonus." You can try to frame it any way you want, this solution is terrible and people are only doing it this way because you have failed to give us a proper way.

[Kelrugem]

OR simply allowing us to modify the attack / damage bonus for the weapon on the actions tab. I also play Savage Worlds, and you are able to modify attack / damage bonuses for individual weapons in that ruleset.

As already mentioned, you can completely modifiy everything in the sheet :) (EDIT: Like you would do at a table)

Also, Pf1/3.5e have so many feats and stuff from books that this would be a tremendous amount of work to automate all feats (for that it may be easier to provide a UI allowing to add "codes" to feats etc in FG itself; but that takes time of course, too), while still allowing homebrew etc.

But, as Asgurgolas mentioned, it is not really difficult to adjust the number once added to the sheet (you do not even need to make a copy of that weapon; what do you mean with this? :) It sounds a bit that you may not have seen yet how to edit the weapon stuff. EDIT: Ah, now I see your most recent answer, I probably misunderstood you :) )

The only real good reason to automate such things would be for accessibility of new players or for players having problems with these things :) In that regard it would surely be useful, but someone would need to do this, and as Moon Wizard wrote, the resources are not given at the moment. Maybe the results of the 5e character wizard carry over to the other rulesets at some point :)

EDIT: FG especially focusses at combat automation while PC Gen etc. focussed at sheet automation, both of which need a lot of work :)

[bmos]

The entire character sheet is "character customization", what it boils down to is that Fantasy Grounds simply refuses to do it.While it is true that anything they don't do is because they chose not to, it's all a matter of resource-allocation. I think if you look at every VTT that exists with PF1e compatibility not a single one will do what you are describing. While this type of automation is starting to be added to the more popular rulesets like 5e and PF2e, there's no business case for paying developers to dive that deeply into PF1e. That's why people like myself, Kelrugem, etc are making our own extensions to add the stuff we wish existed.
Obviously it's nice when you can just pay someone else to do work for you (and I'm sure you could if you hired lua programmers), but there just isn't enough demand from PF1e users for FG to allocate their very limited resources to that task.

3 months ago I hadn't touched code a brief attempt during summer camp back in middle school and now I'm making big changes to add functionality that I wanted. It's really not that hard, so if you really care enough that you're on here demanding stuff you weren't ever promised maybe you should try actually making a difference.

EDIT: I just want to clarify that I am also an FG user and not in any way related to FG officially.

[BillTheButcher]

There's no business case for core features? My support case = "no demand"? I get it. "Go away Mr. Customer, we hate you."

Can do fellas. You just lost a customer.

[BillTheButcher]

Here is some more "non-demand" for the feature.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?46482-Problems-having-feats-apply-correctly

[Kelrugem]

There's no business case for core features? My support case = "no demand"? I get it. "Go away Mr. Customer, we hate you."

Can do fellas. You just lost a customer.

You need to think about that FG supports many other rulesets, and yes, in comparison with 5e, "our demands" are pretty small compared with what the 5e community wants :) So, the demand exists, but is small compared with other demands and has not as high priority as other things (like the new features coming with unity). Of course, their resources focus first on 5e when implementing something like this :) FG mainly focussed on combat automation when it is about automation, and that was a good decision because that is more frequent than the need to change something in the sheet :) Other programmes instead focussed on other things but lack therefore the stuff what you have in FG :)

EDIT: no-one wants to negate your desired feature(s) of course, I hope you do not read it as such :)

[bmos]

A few of us users asking (and in a few cases demanding - hint hint) for a feature just isn't the same as a financially-worthwhile demand, unfortunately.
If you bought FG recently they have a 30 day return window (which is incredibly generous compared to most of the paid software industry).

[Moon Wizard]

Most of the responses you get on the forums are from community members, not official contacts. So far, I'm the only one from SmiteWorks that has responded in this thread.

While I appreciate your position, we have tried to be clear that we do not sell ourselves as a full character management solution whenever questions are brought up. As mentioned by others, we are a small company with a finite number of resources trying to cover a lot of ground.

If you feel like the product does not meet your needs, we do offer a 30-day no questions money-back guarantee on all purchases from our web site.

Regards,
JPG

[Trenloe]

As has already been stated, FG is not a character generation application. It's a VTT (Virtual Table Top) that simulates playing RPG systems with your friends over the Internet. Historically it has never done anything but the most basic of character generation - and it has always been up to the player to setup their PC how they want it to work within Fantasy Grounds. There has been various importers created to allow you to import PCs from outside FG, but they import the stats and data without any intelligence - it's up to the player to setup how they want their PC to work in FG.

The automation aspects of Fantasy Grounds have, as mentioned above, historically been around automation the aspects once you start playing - combat, etc.. However, with D&D 5e that changed because WotC used very repeatable language in their ability/spell/feat descriptions allowing the ruleset to make a best effort at parsing out basic effects from the ability description. It still doesn't do this 100% accurately - just look at the many additions available from developers outside of SmiteWorks on DMs Guild. As Paizo don't use repeatable wording for their thousands of PF1e abilities, feats, etc. even the beginnings of applying any automation aren't possible. Hence why something similar to the 5e parsing has never even been considered for Pathfinder 1e, and hand coding everything (even if it's considered "core") is a huge task, and goes away from the design philosophy mentioned.

BillTheButcher - I get it, your expectations were higher of what managing a character would be in Fantasy Grounds. But I'm afraid this level of automation in PF1e character maintenance has never been advertised nor envisaged. I'm sorry, but it is working as designed. I know it's not what you want to hear, but this is the situation.

I may have misread your posts, but it sounds like you're importing PCs a lot from PC Gen - maybe even each time they level or make changes? If that is the case, I'd recommend importing the PC when first created and then only maintain the PC in FG - by all means, use PC Gen outside of FG to level up and make sure the sums are right, but then manually apply those changes to the existing PC in FG. This will mean that previous abilities/effects are maintained and so things like this won't be forgotten. Once you're familiar with FG it really isn't much of an overhead and, in fact, players will prefer this approach anyway as they will have setup their actions, effects, weapons, spells, etc. just how they want them in FG and won't want that to be overwritten by a data import from a third-party character generator. This is what most players do even in those rulesets that have a bit more automation around character maintenance than PF1e.

[BillTheButcher]

I wholeheartedly disagree with what both of you are saying since I see a full implementation of feats as a core concept of the Pathfinder game, and Weapon Focus / Specialization are probably the two most commonly used. It's clear there is no intention to finish the ruleset so I will just make do with the workaround you've given me, much as I dislike it.

From my perspective, Fantasy Grounds has a big "Pathfinder" logo on its home page, which was one reason I bought it. Not the only reason, but one. It doesn't say "Pathfinder 2e only", or "Partial Pathfinder implementation". I took that to mean all aspects fo the game would be functional in the ruleset, including feats. I didn't buy your product to hear a bunch of hackish business excuses explaining why the $100 I spent does not entitle me to complete implementations of the games I play that are advertised on your home page.

Unfortunately, I am outside the incredibly generous 30-day return window, because I have been running Savage Worlds until now, and that ruleset was complete for my needs. I'll stick with the product, and maybe switch to a different game down the road, although I specifically don't care for the Pathfinder 2e rules. That's why I'm playing 1e.