Free 5E extension to prompt the GM when reaction is triggered.

[illahad]

Hello everyone!

I made an extension to solve my problem, and I think it may be useful for others as well. The problem is that while I like to use complicated monsters, for example those from MCDMs “Flee, Mortals!” or The Tome of Beasts or Monsters Menagerie, I constantly forget about all the reactions they have. So many times my players had a much easier time that it could be only because I forgot that the monster explodes on death, or can intervene when its ally is attacked etc.

So the extension now takes care of this for me. Then an NPC is added to the combat tracker, it parses the text of its traits and reactions and keeps an index of them. And when the proper trigger happens, it makes sure that monster is not incapacitated and that it can see the target if the reaction requires it and so on. And if everything is fine - a message appears in the chat, with the link to the reaction text. Oh, my players are going to suffer now, mwahahahaha! Just kidding, I love my players :)

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You can get the extension for free in the Fantasy Grounds Forge (https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1463/view) or on GitHub (https://github.com/IvanKostruba/Prompt-Reaction)

PS. If you want to report that something is not parsed, please attach the exact wording of a trait or reaction. As a workaround, you can try to change wording to a more standard, e.g. if “when the monster is dealt damage” is not parsed, try “when the monster takes damage”

[illahad]

Version 1.0.1 is now out, with the following changes:

* Start Turn reactions now only triggered by PCs to reduce noise

* New trigger supported: The monster suffers a crit. Typical wording is "when a creature scores a critical hit against the monster_name" or "when the monster_name suffers a critical hit".

* Monster fails an attack. Typical wording is "when the monster_name fails an attack roll" or "monster_name misses with an [possibly melee|ranged] attack"

* Creature regains hit points. The wording is practically that.

[rocketvaultgames]

This seems awesome so far. I'm pretty bad at remembering to Parry with the NPCs...

The only downside I'm seeing is that it is checking NPCs that are in the CT but not currently displayed in the CT due to being in a hidden Combat Group a la https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/154/view.

Is there any way you can make it only announce available reactions for actors currently displayed in the CT?

I know Legendary Assistant (https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/590/view) had an issue like this at first as well, but was able to be changed to play nice with Combat Groups.

Thanks much!

[illahad]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I'll try to look into that, but I don't use the former extention myself, so I cannot test, but I guess I'll take a look at the latter's code.

I guess, this is different from a creature being hidden, right?

I also want to find a way to detect spellcasting as there are many creatures what do something when someone casts a spell, but the FG doesn't really mark spell-related actions internally as it seems.

[rocketvaultgames]

It is not the same as just having visibility toggled off in the CT. The actor is in a group (from Combat Groups ext) that can be toggled visible/invisible in the combat tracker for the GM.

This allows you to have multiple encounters (and parties) all staged in the combat tracker with their effects and tokens on maps, but then hide them so you are only seeing what you want at any given time.

I'm happy to answer any questions or help test.

Thanks much for your consideration.

[MrDDT]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I'll try to look into that, but I don't use the former extention myself, so I cannot test, but I guess I'll take a look at the latter's code.

I guess, this is different from a creature being hidden, right?

I also want to find a way to detect spellcasting as there are many creatures what do something when someone casts a spell, but the FG doesn't really mark spell-related actions internally as it seems.

Also work, thank you so much for this.

I know BCEG (Better Combat Effects Gold) does detect spell casting, maybe talk to the author in that.

[illahad]

Version 1.0.2 is out, changes are:

Added two configuration settings -
"Notify for hidden tokens": now you can hide notifications for combatants, hidden in the combat tracker
"Notify in hidden Combat Groups": compatibility option for "Combat Groups" extension, allows to turn off notifications for unseen combat groups.

@mattvictim -- please check for updates go get the version 1.0.2 and you should be fine. If it doesn't work -- please let me know.

[rocketvaultgames]

Looks perfect now. Thanks!!

Not terribly important, but just to let you know that this exists if you want to have it show updates for your extensions: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/726/view

[illahad]

Great! And thanks for the hint.

[illahad]

Hello everyone!

I'm happy to say that version 1.1.0 is out with the following features:

* Now it can handle distances! If you use a grid, and the reaction says "within X feet", the extension will measure fow far the involved tokens are apart and notify you if the distance is too long.

* Another QoL improvement is that "Parry" style reactions got special handling. The extension will tell you, whether applying the bonus is enough to deflect the triggereing attack or not.

I hope you will like these changes. Cheers!

[illahad]

Hello again,

Today, version 1.1.1 is released, that added the parsing and detections of spellcasting. So reactions like "When a creature that the monster can see casts a spell" will trigger messages when a PC casts a spell.

With this, I implemented everything that I planned, so active development is over, but feel free to post suggections or bug reports.

Cheers!

[Naimed]

Awesome extension! Thank you very much!

I know this is a lot to ask but.. could you give me a hand with an extension that I need? I think it should be fairly simple.. I've send you a DM :ninja:.
Thanks!!

[illahad]

Thanks, I'm happy that it's useful.

Sure, I'll check DM and see what you've got.

[MrDDT]

@illahad
Thank you for this great ext, I've noticed that whenever someone is resistance to something, it will throw out the chat "Total mismatch in damage type totals"

I'm guessing this is some left over debugging or something from this ext.

I attached a picture.
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=59456&d=1702319313


Also noticing that the first attack/damage roll of a session start is showing the triggers for all reactions of people in the CT, is this behavior meant to be like this and not able to detect to only show when its triggered?

[illahad]

@illahad
Also noticing that the first attack/damage roll of a session start is showing the triggers for all reactions of people in the CT, is this behavior meant to be like this and not able to detect to only show when its triggered?

Thank you for trying it out!

This latter behavior is expected as the extension scans the NPCs that remained in CT from the previous session when a reaction may be triggered (attack, damage or save is rolled or PC starts turn) or when you add an NPC to the CT. If you don't want to see reports regarding the scan results, you can turn it off with "Report parsing results" option (but then you will not see how an NPC is parsed when it added to CT as well).

Regarding the "Total mismatch" message, I assume it does no appear without my extension? The extension definitely does not produce this message itself, but maybe there's some hidden interaction, I'll take a look, thanks for bringing this up.

[MrDDT]

Thank you for trying it out!

This latter behavior is expected as the extension scans the NPCs that remained in CT from the previous session when a reaction may be triggered (attack, damage or save is rolled or PC starts turn) or when you add an NPC to the CT. If you don't want to see reports regarding the scan results, you can turn it off with "Report parsing results" option (but then you will not see how an NPC is parsed when it added to CT as well).

Regarding the "Total mismatch" message, I assume it does no appear without my extension? The extension definitely does not produce this message itself, but maybe there's some hidden interaction, I'll take a look, thanks for bringing this up.

Correct, in the picture you can see how I set it up, and its only your ext loaded. Without this ext, it doesnt show that message.

Thanks for the info about the other parsing thing. I'm on the fence which I want to do, see it each time I load up (once) or not see it all the time even when added NPCs to the tracker haha.

[illahad]

I guess I can make an option to only show parsing results when NPC is added.

[illahad]

Correct, in the picture you can see how I set it up, and its only your ext loaded. Without this ext, it doesnt show that message.

Thanks for the info about the other parsing thing. I'm on the fence which I want to do, see it each time I load up (once) or not see it all the time even when added NPCs to the tracker haha.

Hey, I think I fixed the problem that you encountered. Please update, and with version 1.1.2 that warning message about damage should be gone. Also, I added config option to display parsing messages only when NPC is added to the CT (and not when the initial bulk scan happens).

Feel free to post if you will find more issues.

Cheers!

[MrDDT]

Thank you so much, working perfectly, set that NPC added setting and only showing now when I add, the other text is gone on resisted damage. Very nice, very quick work. Thank you so much.

[rocketvaultgames]

Loving this extension! Just a thought with no expectation of implementation, but is there any chance a reminder could be triggered by an actor becoming "bloodied" (half max hit points or less)?

I have a number of custom NPCs with abilities like: "When first bloodied, the cambion can use its Fiendish Charm ability as a reaction."

Would it be helpful to implementation to phrase the ability differently with the "bloodied value"?

In this case the cambion has 82 hit points so maybe the wording is: "When first bloodied (41), the cambion can use its Fiendish Charm ability as a reaction."

[illahad]

I have a number of custom NPCs with abilities like: "When first bloodied, the cambion can use its Fiendish Charm ability as a reaction."

Would it be helpful to implementation to phrase the ability differently with the "bloodied value"?

Hello, thanks for posting, I'm glad to hear that you like my extension!

I think it can be done, you are not the only one who uses that, I believe "Level Up Advanced 5e Monster Menagerie" also uses this keyword. Or maybe some other keyword with the same meaning, I don't remember at the moment. The thing that's unlikely to get implemented is the "_first_ bloodied" because that would require to keep track which creature have already been bloodied before and that's too much complexity for the value added.

"Bloodied" condition itself is rather easy to detect, and you don't need to change your wording for it, since extension has the data of the full health of every NPC.

I'll consider your request, I'll also check again "Monster Menagerie" and "Flee, Mortals!" because potentially monsters from these sources can also benefit from such a feature.

Cheers!

[rocketvaultgames]

Thanks for taking a look.

I completely agree with not caring about "first".

I just had an idea... maybe even just the following would suffice: a (toggleable on/off in options (or on/off/friendly/ally/enemy/faction)) where whenever any actor in the CT became bloodied, the chat would get a message: "So-And-So is now bloodied!"

[claedawg]

Thanks for taking a look.

I completely agree with not caring about "first".

I just had an idea... maybe even just the following would suffice: a (toggleable on/off in options (or on/off/friendly/ally/enemy/faction)) where whenever any actor in the CT became bloodied, the chat would get a message: "So-And-So is now bloodied!"


I believe the Trigger Me Timbers extension will do what you are wanting but I'm not sure as I've not actually used it.

[rocketvaultgames]

I don't think so, but I could very well be missing something...

It looks like the available event triggers are:

After Attack Roll
After Saving Throw
Before Damage Taken
Dice Rolled
New Combat Round
Power Used
Turn End
Turn Start

[illahad]

By the way, are all of your NPC abilities phrased like "When first bloodied, the cambion can use its Fiendish Charm ability as a reaction." or is there some more variation in conditions?

[rocketvaultgames]

That is the standard I've been using, but I'm not opposed to changing if it helps you make this possible.

There are others that are "While bloodied, yada yada", but those wouldn't need a triggered reminder.

[illahad]

Good, then probably I will detect words like "When first bloodied ... reaction" and then as for the others I wll show the full text by the link. Maybe I will be able to extract the name of ability that is between "its" and "ability" and display a link to that. But again I will also check some other sources that use bloodied keyword and try to make something universally applicable if possible.

[rocketvaultgames]

Sounds good. In my opinion that fact that I see a reminder is much more important than being reminded of what the actual ability is.

Thanks much!!

[illahad]

Hey!

I've implemented what you was asking for. Try updating to version 1.1.3

The supported wordings are:
"when the monster_name is first bloodied" or "when first bloodied, the monster_name". (monster_name is not necessary)
"when reduced to half (of its) hit points"

I don't track "FIRST bloodied" so if the monster gets healed above half health and then drops again, you will see the notification again. But I think it's not a big deal.

Cheers!

[rocketvaultgames]

I just did a little testing and this seems PERFECT. Thanks much!!

[illahad]

I just did a little testing and this seems PERFECT. Thanks much!!

welcome, welcome ))

[MrDDT]

Does this EXT detect when an NPC has the Shield spell and can defect the attack? Like Parry can on NPCs?


Shield
Level: 1
Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when you are hit by an attack or targeted by the magic missile spell
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 round
Range: Self
An invisible barrier of magical force appears and protects you. Until the start of your next turn, you have a +5 bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and you take no damage from magic missile.

[illahad]

Does this EXT detect when an NPC has the Shield spell and can defect the attack? Like Parry can on NPCs?

Currently it doesn't. Some third-party monsters put shield spell into the reaction list. So far the extension checks only reactions and traits lists.

Checking the spell lists might be a feature to add.

[MrDDT]

Currently it doesn't. Some third-party monsters put shield spell into the reaction list. So far the extension checks only reactions and traits lists.

Checking the spell lists might be a feature to add.

Thanks for the fast reply. Thanks for your hard work on this.

[Nalistar]

Hey, loving this extension, but for some reason it stops working when Mad Nomad's Filterable Inventory is loaded.

Would it be possibile to look into it? Thanks

[illahad]

Hey, loving this extension, but for some reason it stops working when Mad Nomad's Filterable Inventory is loaded.

Would it be possibile to look into it? Thanks

Hi, sure, I'll try to take a look on the weekend.

[illahad]

Hey, loving this extension, but for some reason it stops working when Mad Nomad's Filterable Inventory is loaded.

Would it be possibile to look into it? Thanks

Hello Nalistar, I found out that this "Filterable Inventory" extension is a paid extension and I don't have it. For this reason I can't look into its code and check what's going on. Since that extension's author took your money, maybe they can look into this problem. From my side, I'd be happy to make any reasonable change in my extension to make it compatible.

Sorry that I can't be of much help otherwise.
Cheers!

[illahad]

Does this EXT detect when an NPC has the Shield spell and can defect the attack? Like Parry can on NPCs?

Hey MrDDT, some good news: I added parsing of reaction-type spells so the shield spell should work. Please update to the version 1.1.4.

Currently it works with Shield, Absorb Elements, Hellish Rebuke, Soul Cage and Counterspell from the WotC sources. Silvery Barbs are not supported yet as it uses some trigger types that aren't implemented yes (saving throw or skill check success). I will add it later.

It detects reaction spell if it has casting time: "reaction, which you take ..." and then it looks for different kind of triggers like casting a spell, taking damage, being hit by an attack etc. The wording of triggers can vary, just as with other reactions.

[MrDDT]

This is so awesome. I will check it out once I get a chance. Exciting.

[illahad]

Version 1.1.5 is out that also can process Silvery Barbs reaction spell correctly. Also includes some bug fixes when reactions that referred to creature types for example: "When an Undead under X's control ..." were not parsed, because parser expected words like "ally", "creature" etc. instead of a monter type. Now it should parse such reactions correctly (type is still not involved in triggers evaluation, so even if the reaction says "a friendly undead takes damage", any creature can trigger that reaction).

[Nalistar]

Hi, great extension!

I have a couple of questions for thing I can't get to work as intended.

- What's the language I need to use for the extension to recognize when a monster/NPC fails a saving throw? The instructions say "The monster or an ally fails a saving throw.", but I've tried several version of this wording to no avail.

- For "a creature (within X feet) of the monster casts a spell", I have managed to get the reaction reminder to pop when I add the monster to the CT, but I can't get it to pop when the action is performed. What do I need to do for FGU to recognize that someone is "casting a spell"?

- Last thing, is it possible for the extension to recognize double conditions, such as "the monster is hit with an attack or fails a saving throw"?

Thanks for the great work!

[illahad]

Hello!

Thank you for the kind words and for your questions!

- Saving throws. The phrasing that the extension is looking for is [ another | other | ally | allies ] ... fails ... saving ... throw. I added an example to the description in Forge and GitHub.

- Spell casting. In my testing and usage it works when I press one of the "Save" "Damage" or "Effect" buttons on the character sheet, see the attached screenshot.

- Multiple conditions. Right now the extension stops matching when it finds one condition. Technically it is possible to continue, but there are some caveats (possible false positives). I will play with this idea and see how it goes, but for now it is not supported.

Screenshot: 63438

I hope it helps. If you have further questions or something doesn't work, I will be happy to help.

Cheers!

[Nalistar]

Thank you for the reply!

I'll test the spell casting option as soon as I'm home.

As for the first bullet point, does that mean that the trigger for the reaction can't be the NPC itself failing a saving throw? Does it have to be another creature?

To be clear, I'd like to know if a wording similar to the one used for AC (for scenarios like the Shield spell, for example) but for saves would be possible. For example, something like "If Monster_name fails a saving throw, it can use a reaction to..."

Cheers!

[illahad]

Thank you for the reply!

I'll test the spell casting option as soon as I'm home.

As for the first bullet point, does that mean that the trigger for the reaction can't be the NPC itself failing a saving throw? Does it have to be another creature?

To be clear, I'd like to know if a wording similar to the one used for AC (for scenarios like the Shield spell, for example) but for saves would be possible. For example, something like "If Monster_name fails a saving throw, it can use a reaction to..."

Cheers!

No, it doesn't have to be another creature. There are two different programmatic triggers and my mind focused on one of them :)

The words for the creature itself failing saving throw is [monster name] ... fails ... saving ... throw. Typical example would be a legendary resistance, like "When the XX fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead." That should work. If it doesn't - please let me know.

EDIT: this trigger is currently only works in monster traits not in reactions section, because I originally made it to handle legendary resistances which are always in traits section.

[illahad]

Update to the previous post for visibility:

EDIT: this trigger ("[monster name] ... fails ... saving ... throw") is currently only works in monster traits not in reactions section, because I originally made it to handle legendary resistances which are always in traits section.

[Nalistar]

Update to the previous post for visibility:

EDIT: this trigger ("[monster name] ... fails ... saving ... throw") is currently only works in monster traits not in reactions section, because I originally made it to handle legendary resistances which are always in traits section.

Oh, ok. That explains why it wasn't working for me.

Thank you for the update!

[rocketvaultgames]

I'm getting this error when rolling a healing roll without a target.

Not too big of a deal because that shouldn't ever really happen, but still would probably better not to have the error pop up.

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[illahad]

Thanks for letting me know, I'll look into it.

[illahad]

Please update to version 1.1.6, the nil dereference when rolling heal is fixed there.

[MrDDT]

Awesome thank you.

[rocketvaultgames]

We had an issue last night with a reaction message being shown to the players, unfortunately spoiling the presence of the monster:

64651


I feel like this shouldn't be possible with the settings as they are (haven't touched these in ages):

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[illahad]

Thanks for reporting, I will take a look in the nearest days.

[illahad]

We had an issue last night with a reaction message being shown to the players, unfortunately spoiling the presence of the monster:

64651


I feel like this shouldn't be possible with the settings as they are (haven't touched these in ages):

64652

Thanks again for reporting the problem.

Please update to the version 1.2.0, the bug should be fixed. Not only the healing was affected, but the whole prompt visibility setting (GM only vs. everyone) was implemeted incorrectly as it seems.

[rocketvaultgames]

Thanks for the update!

[PauTL]

I have an issue where the extension only parses the reactions the first time I hit next turn(or any other trigger for the parser). if I try adding another creature with reactions, it won't parse no matter what i do, my only option is to restart Fantasy Grounds.

[illahad]

Thank you for reporting a problem, I'll try to take a look this week.

[Lo Zeno]

I've downloaded your extension from The Forge, from here:
https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1463/view

but instead of Prompt Reaction I have TN-Difference in my FGU, even though I do not own that one. I think you uploaded the wrong extension

Prompt Reaction page on the Forge:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=65550&stc=1&d=1759485702

TN Difference page:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=65551&stc=1&d=1759485726

And on FGU:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=65552&stc=1&d=1759485746

And indeed, when I start a campaign with that extension, I have the TN Difference section in the settings, not the Prompt Reaction section.

[illahad]

Now that's an important bug report! Thank you so much for bringing this up!

Indeed, the two extentions sit right beside each other in my filesystem, so my muse must have slipped.

I reuploaded the correct file, please try downloading it again.

Apologies for stupid mess up.

[Lo Zeno]

Yep now I have the correct extension!

There's a funny side-effect though: the version of TN-difference that was uploaded previously instead of Prompt Reaction has remained in my FGU data folder. It will probably not update when you upload new versions of it, but it's an "interesting" thing to be careful about when dealing with PAID extensions...

[illahad]

A new version 1.2.1 is released with added support for Monster Manual 2024 reaction texts format

[illahad]

I have an issue where the extension only parses the reactions the first time I hit next turn(or any other trigger for the parser). if I try adding another creature with reactions, it won't parse no matter what i do, my only option is to restart Fantasy Grounds.

Dear @PauTL, please try to download the latest version 1.2.1 and then to reproduce the problem.

If it happens again, I would ask you to describe in detail, what steps do you take exactly to add NPCs to Combat Tracker.

It would also help, if you run /console command and click "compile logs" there, and attach the results to the report.

I could not reproduce the problem that you faced on the first try, so it will be a great help to have some more details.

Cheers!

[PauTL]

After much trying, I found the problem was it was conflicting with Combat Tracker Scroll by fxg42, which makes sense. I'm sorry for wasting your time :(.

[Seleh]

Seeing the following error after patch 5.1.2

Script Execution error: [String "..had-ReactionsPrompt:..eactions_prompt.lua"]:247:get DistanceBetween:Invalid parameter 2

[illahad]

Thank you for reporting! I will try to take a look and fix it in the nearest days.

[illahad]

Hey @Seleh, would you please elaborate the sequence of actions that led to that error?

I tried to reproduce it, but in simple testing with a battlemap the extention worked for me without errors.

I assume you have a battlemap open, what exactly were you (or your players) doing?

[Seleh]

Sorry about the very late reply. With some recent updates seems I'm not having the errors anymore. I'll double check again, and confirm. My apologies

[illahad]

No worries!

I'm happy to hear that you no longer have problems with the extension.

If any errors appear again feel free to let me know, and it would be useful to also describe what exactly was the context - who clicked what action, was it with an open battlemap, or simply in combat tracker etc.

Cheers!

[Seleh]

Noticed with the newest update, I'm seeing the following error:

[5/6/2026 12:52:30 PM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "..had-ReactionsPrompt:..eactions_prompt.lua"]:32: attempt to index global 'ActionHeal' (a nil value)

[Seleh]

This can be fixed by doing a find/replace on the following in :

ActionHeal -> ActionHealD20

Per MoonWizard, this could probably also effect ActionDamage and would need to be changed to ActionDamageD20

[illahad]

This can be fixed by doing a find/replace on the following in :

ActionHeal -> ActionHealD20

Per MoonWizard, this could probably also effect ActionDamage and would need to be changed to ActionDamageD20

Thank you for your report and suggestion! I'm on it.

It is a little bit trickier, because the method `onHeal` which I decorated before is also gone, but I will fugure out which of the new methods to use.

[Seleh]

Also wanted to note that last night running a game with a cloned version, I was getting this error also:

Handler error: [string "..actionsPrompt:..eactions_prompt.lua"]:408: attempt to call field 'onRollReProOrig' (a nil value)

[illahad]

Thanks everyone for error reports!

I published version 1.2.2 that should address the reported issues.

Please let me know if you encounter any other problems.

[GKEnialb]

With only this extension loaded in a 5e campaign, when rolling hit dice, the hit die number never drops (so if you have 5 HD, and roll one, you get the healing but the number on the character sheet stays as 5, so you can roll way more than 5 times).

[illahad]

With only this extension loaded in a 5e campaign, when rolling hit dice, the hit die number never drops (so if you have 5 HD, and roll one, you get the healing but the number on the character sheet stays as 5, so you can roll way more than 5 times).

Thank you for reporting, I will look into it. Currently I'm extremely busy at work, but hopefully I can jump on it closer to the end of the week.