Reskinning the Pact Magic Feature

[aGeekNamedShane]

I'm trying to create an extension for the GM Binder Shaman class, which is basically a reskinned Warlock with some changes. One being that they get spell slots at 2nd level instead of first. I'm having trouble finding the content in the 5e ruleset that needs to be modified and then figuring out how to make those changes. The wiki doesn't explain well how to override functions of the 5e ruleset, and I'm no expert in Lua so I'm not sure how to best do it. Also do I recreate the arrays in the extension to allow for a "Primal Magic" feature in addition to Pact Magic and override the functions? Do I need to make a whole new ruleset that I have to recreate at every 5e upgrade? Please help. I have a player in a game I dm, but did not create the rules, who is a shaman. It's a large organized play so I have to live with the shaman class.

[johnecc]

I don’t think you need to learn any Lua, or create a new ruleset. All you are attempting to do is create a new Class. If you go to https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?55797-How-do-I-in-Unity and check out Video 35, “Creating a new class in Unity”, I think it will answer most/all your questions.

[LordEntrails]

I think the built in classes only have the options for full & half-casters. It sounds like this spell slot progression is neither of those. Correct? If correct, then you would require an extension.

Guessing, the code that you are going to want to change is probably in power_slots_cast.lua

[aGeekNamedShane]

I don’t think you need to learn any Lua, or create a new ruleset. All you are attempting to do is create a new Class. If you go to https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?55797-How-do-I-in-Unity and check out Video 35, “Creating a new class in Unity”, I think it will answer most/all your questions.

Sadly, I cant change the spell slots to all be the same level with spellcasting and can't change the first level pact magic slots are bestowed upon a character.

[LordEntrails]

Sadly, I cant change the spell slots to all be the same level with spellcasting and can't change the first level pact magic slots are bestowed upon a character.
Unless you write an extension that changes the code of the 5E ruleset. I'm 99.9999% positive that the spells slot logic is not in the core engine and is accessible via the ruleset. I'm just not sure where it is in teh ruleset files. Upon a deeper dive, it does not appear to be in the file I referenced, but it is close or related to that one.

[Zacchaeus]

Spell slots are tied to the Spellcasting ability and the number is determined by the level at which spellcasting is given to the class (level 1,2 or 3). Pact Magic is tied to the Pact Magic ability and will always give the same number of slots. So in the screenshot I've given the barbarian Pact Magic at level three; so it gets a single spell slot at that level.

As LE says you would need an extension if you want to automatically vary the number of slots that are given at what level. You can, of course, edit the number of slots and the level of those slots in preparation mode once the character is created.