Idiots guide to casting spells?

[GrumpyOldAndy]

So started a new game in Starfinder, Technomancer level 1. I am NOT the GM, so there isn't lots of time to just play around and try to understand how this works properly without making all the other players wait around doing nothing.

I might have the exact names wrong as I'm doing this from memory.

From the spells tab on the character sheet I can cast spells by targetting as normal, then clicking the spell name. This, however, doesn't change the spells cast tracker. Energy Ray worked fine. Yes, I know this is a cantrip. I tried it with daze, and no save was made, no effect applied, but the text saying the spell was cast was displayed. Given I don't have any offensive level 1 spells I can't test those atm.

Edit: Oh further to Energy Ray, how do you change the damage type? The spell says you select from different types. Just casting it from the name deals untyped damage.

I can click the "display" button to change to preparing spells, but as a Technomancer I don't prepare spells.
If I select combat, all the cantrips disappear, including energy ray and daze which are combat spells.

So how is this supposed to actually work?
Adding a quick paragraph to the wiki on how this is supposed to actually work would be handy.

[bmos]

So started a new game in Starfinder, Technomancer level 1. I am NOT the GM, so there isn't lots of time to just play around and try to understand how this works properly without making all the other players wait around doing nothing.
Just open FG when you have spare time and "create campaign".
It runs in demo mode if you have no license and you can practice attacks, spells, etc.

Spells get 'half-baked' automatic buttons set-up when they are created but they are just there to give you a starting point. Every spell should be read, thought about, and manually configured correctly (such as the damage).

If you are running Unity, you can import your character right from your GM's game and play around with it directly.

[GrumpyOldAndy]

Just open FG when you have spare time and "create campaign".
It runs in demo mode if you have no license and you can practice attacks, spells, etc.
.
I own FGU ultimate. Tried creating a test campaign but it is useless. There are NO themes, races or classes, so you can't even create a character.

[bmos]

I own FGU ultimate. Tried creating a test campaign but it is useless. There are NO themes, races or classes, so you can't even create a character.You can copy/paste if you don't own any books (usually there are free SRD modules also).

You can also import the character from your GM's campaign to practice with (to avoid all the copy/pasting):
In your campaign, open the "characters" window.
Next to the "new character" plus button there is another button to access 'saved characters'.
Your starfinder character should be there to click and import.

[GrumpyOldAndy]

Colour me confused. Copy/paste to create a new theme, race, class, add spellcasting to it not using prepartion, create a new spell that targets stats, create a new NPC for a target....

I am asking how to cast a spell so it works within the system as intended. This should be something that is blindingly obvious and extremely simple. I shouldn't need to create a test campaign to try to work out how.

[bmos]

This should be something that is blindingly obvious and extremely simple. I shouldn't need to create a test campaign to try to work out how.Didn't keep me from learning how (still learning, really, even after almost 2 years).
It takes time, like any other complex system. FG isn't a simple program, especially as it handles so many rule systems and has been actively developed for nearly 20 years.

I'd recommend that you check out https://fantasygroundscollege.net/ if you want to be taught rather than learning via experimentation.

[superteddy57]

I've tried setting up casters as well to do testing with the new update that is coming out to streamline many processes. Once you have set up the character with race/theme/class, you will see a new spell class populate your spells tab. Then you input the caster level (looking into having this auto-populate), and then click and drag spells to that frame to start adding them to your character. Currently the spells are not parsing when you drop them, but easy to fix with a right click and choose re-parse spells. This will be fixed in the big update incoming.

[Evolivolution]

So started a new game in Starfinder, Technomancer level 1. I am NOT the GM, so there isn't lots of time to just play around and try to understand how this works properly without making all the other players wait around doing nothing.

I might have the exact names wrong as I'm doing this from memory.

From the spells tab on the character sheet I can cast spells by targetting as normal, then clicking the spell name. This, however, doesn't change the spells cast tracker. Energy Ray worked fine. Yes, I know this is a cantrip. I tried it with daze, and no save was made, no effect applied, but the text saying the spell was cast was displayed. Given I don't have any offensive level 1 spells I can't test those atm.

Edit: Oh further to Energy Ray, how do you change the damage type? The spell says you select from different types. Just casting it from the name deals untyped damage.

I can click the "display" button to change to preparing spells, but as a Technomancer I don't prepare spells.
If I select combat, all the cantrips disappear, including energy ray and daze which are combat spells.

So how is this supposed to actually work?
Adding a quick paragraph to the wiki on how this is supposed to actually work would be handy.

Hey Grumpy, I'm also in favor of a little experimenting but I understand you. 4 out of my 5 players also rely on me setting everything up as a GM and the just tell them what to click on. So to maybe answer your questions:

To cast a spell, first of all you go to the spell tab of your character sheet (obviously). After that, on the bottom there are two very much relevant buttons they are called Mode and Display and following your description of things they are probably on preparation and summary, you want to change that to standard and actions. Once you did that next to your spells names there will be little icon depending on what Fantasy Ground actually parses from the spell description when it was added. In some cases you will need to change these but for now these are the things you need to click on to actually cast a spell. Clicking on a spells name doesn't cast it.

For Energy Ray: since you can see the icons to the right of the spells now you can also click on the magnifying glass even further to the right. This will open a drop doen for the specific spell. Energy Ray should get parsed like this if I remember correctly (I'm also doing this from memory right now): The first thing is a cast button, this should be correct with the R(EAC) next to the Atk icon and a CLC check. The one below that is the damage this is where Fantasy Grounds gets something wrong. The should be just a 1d3 in there. Now you need to click on the magnifying glass to the right of the damage window. This opens up the editor where you can tell the program what to do when the spell does damage. First of all I'd advise you to switch the Spell Dmg? button to know. Even though this is technically spell damage, damage types are a bit wierd right now but I'm not gonna go into detail with this. Further down at the place there Type is written next to it is a text field with a "the" or something like that in it. You change that to an A or C or E or F for the different damage types. Now I gave my players with this spell 4 buttons (1 for each damage type) but you can just as well change it in there every time you cast it (or whenever you want to).

For Preparing: Since the SFRPG Ruleset is based on the PFRPG Ruleset it adapted a lot of things that aren't in Starfinder or just work differently, preparing spells is an example of that. It just doesn't exist in Starfinder. My advice here would be to add a placeholder spell called "1st Level Spells" or something similar switch to preparing mode once and click all the spellslots in from of this placeholder spell. Then you switch back to standard and they should appear there as well. Now every time you cast any spell that is 1st level you tick of one of the boxes of the placeholder spell and you can keep track of your casted spells that way. You just need to change this whenever you get more spells per day and you obviously need to create more placeholder spells for all the other levels once you get them.

For Combat Mode: Don't use it, its bs! To at least explain what happens, it only shows you spells you have prepared, now that doesn't work in Starfinder because (like I mentioned above) you don't prepare spells in this system.

I'm here for further questions and I can also make some screenshots if these explanations don't fix your issues.

[GrumpyOldAndy]

Hey Grumpy, ...
Thanks, this is the information I was looking for. The game is played on Mondays, so I won't get to try until then, but this should make my life a little easier.
I still think that this needs a paragraph in the FGU wiki under Starfinder Ruleset as it is not sufficiently obvious.

[bmos]

Thanks, this is the information I was looking for. The game is played on Mondays, so I won't get to try until then, but this should make my life a little easier.
I still think that this needs a paragraph in the FGU wiki under Starfinder Ruleset as it is not sufficiently obvious.The Starfinder documentation is sorely lacking (in my opinion). To be clear, I know there are limited resources to devote to documentation and development so I think this makes sense. Just commenting on it.
It inherits most of that stuff from Pathfinder (but that's not always intuitive when you're reading through the Starfinder documentation).