Newbie Combat questions

Hi FG'ers, thanks for taking the time to read this, turning to the community hoping for a answer as my efforts at finding them has been a bit lackluster :cry:

I watched the Core-3.5E vid-tut, Talen's PF specific videos and FG's own specific one, as well as many others from fellow enthusiasts which collectively took me from not being able to do combat at all to being able to do it but in kind of a clumsy fashion. So I'm posting these questions to see if I'm doing it correctly or if there are more efficient ways to do the same thing that I'm not aware of.

Melee:
In Talen's video @3:14 he had Ironjaw target 2 rats by left clicking each one, double clicking the attack and FG rolled a attack on each one. Further he then rolled the damage by double clicking the damage field on the char sheet, and it only did damage to the rat that had been hit.

• I can't get this to work at all. First left click doesn't do anything but put a dark circle around the token I'm declaring as a target of the attacker, and when I go to roll the attacks, it doesn't target said dark circle, all it does is say a attack roll with no declared target. I've since stumbled onto using CTRL+L-Click to declare a target, or even multiple targets, but first I have to target the active token (I.E. the character doing the attacking), putting a shadowed effect around the active token. This is contrary to what I saw in that video as how targeting works, but far as I can tell, this is how to do it. However I run into several issues.
  
  • I.E. I have a Monk capable of 4 FoB attacks. If I have him target 4 different targets and click on the Full Attack button (i.e. the button that has 4 little attack dice), it rolls 4 attacks on each target I had selected, not one attack per target.
    
    • Assumption: If a Char is capable of multiple attacks and is spreading his attacks over a number of targets, FG doesn't split up the attack on a 1:1 basis, I have to do them separately (including damage rolls) until the Monk has used up all his attacks. Is this correct?
    
    
  • Assuming a char has 2 attacks, and he attacks one target 2x, and both attacks hit but lets say one of them was a critical hit, I was under the impression that after the attack roll, all I had to do was double click the the damage roll and it would automatically calculate both the regular damage and the crit damage, lumping both together for a final damage tally. I am not able to get this to work. Even if a attack doesn't score a crit, if both attacks hit and I double click the damage field, it only calculates one damage result, not two. Am I mistaken in believing that FG can resolve the damage of 2 successful attacks with one roll?

Magic

Similiar to melee above, in FG's video (2nd one listed above) he has a caster targeting 2 targets with burning hands. He shows that both critters roll their resists separately with one click of the cast-save button and @14:42 he rolls the damage, which since they both failed their saves, they each took the full damage value.

• My first issue is that though FG rolls the resists of multiple targets seperately and correctly calculates the resists, it does not calculate the damage properly for those who saved vs those who don't.
  
  • I.E. Sorc A targets 7 people with Acid Spray who are all in a line. Spell says save for half damage, after targeting the 7 and rolling the cast, FG calculates that 5 failed their save and 2 succeeded. I have 2 damage buttons, one for a failed save, one for a successful save. If I click on the failed save damage button, the 5 who failed their save suffer the full damage effect, however the 2 who made their save receive no damage at all. In fact, the two who made their saves were automatically deselected as targets and took zero damage.
    
    • Assumption: Though FG will calculate the success/fail of a group of foes for a spell correctly, if a spell does half damage with a successful save I have to manually retarget the ones who saved and manually apply a half damage effect. Is this correct? (if so, that's disappointing as I was hoping it would do that all at once :square:).
    
    
  • When I cast a spell that has a save for half mechanic at someone, should they succeed on their save and I click the full damage icon, FG calculates the full damage on that target regardless if the save was made.
    
    • Assumption: If a target saves for half damage, I have to manually select the half damage button. Is this correct?
    
    
  • A number of damage spells will do a initial damage increment and then more over subsequent rounds, such as Evard's Black Tentacles or Acid Arrow.
    
    • Assumption: FG does not track these spells from round to round, I have to remember to manually continue applying that damage for the proper number of rounds. Is this correct? (if this is correct, are there any tips for being able to keep track of that? I.E. if a critter got hit with Acid Arrow and takes damage for 2 more rounds and is running about, what's a good way to visually denote this so that its easy to keep track of?)
  
  
• A few spells put out a persistent AoE effect over a area, such as Stinking Cloud or a Wall spell. So far the way I've handled this is to use a pointer, and then draw either a circle, square, etc with the filled color of the caster to represent where this spell is placed.
  
  • If such a effect is mobile, like say Cloudkill, are GM's just supposed to redraw the pointer to represent its moving or is there some tip that will allow one to move/drag a marker? Every time I've tried to drag the area it only gets bigger and doesn't move. :confused:

Miscellaneous:
This is embarrassing to admit to, but I'm absolutely horrible at creating macros unless I have a detailed step by step guide. I was interested in creating some macros that i could place in the hot keys at the bottom of the UI, but I'm at a loss as to how to go about setting those up.

• Are there any tutorials that go into detail on this? (I've tried both forum and general google searches to no avail)
• Are there any macros that the experienced GM's recommend creating? (examples of how to make one would be greatly appreciated).
• If I have a character in my campaign claimed by a player, is the player able to make any alterations to the character from his end? I.E. such as when he gains a level, can he add the feats/spells of choice or do I have to do that for him? Likewise, if he is able to as a class feature unlearn a spell and replace it with a different one, can he do that from his end or is this all stuff the GM has to do? (If the player can edit characters from his end, how is this done?)

I'm sure these are a bit of a pita to answer, so anyone who makes the effort, you have my heartfelt thanks.

Targeting changed in FG 3.0. It sounds like you have the gist of of it, but just in case see the "targeting" section on this page: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Tokens

Selecting multiple targets and then rolling multi attacks will roll it against each target as you are finding out. Basically, whatever would be rolled if you double-clicked on the attack without any targets will be applied to each of the targets.

Double clicking damage will not total up the damage based off the number of hits. Double-click damage once for each of your successful hits.

Spells:

Half damage has to be calculated and applied manually. Your assumptions are correct. The community and the devs have been discussing some of this here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...eting-Question The main issue here is trying to cater for the cases that don't apply (such as evasion and other means of avoiding damage) rather than just having a blanket half-damage-on-save feature.

Ongoing damage/effects - use effects to automatically apply ongoing damage (DMGO) for the number of rounds, and other effects: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/...p/3.5E_Effects

Markers - you can move the markers. Hover over the centre of a marker and a handle will appear, click and drag that handle to move the marker around without changing its size.

Macros: What kind of "macros" do you want to create?

Most people use the hotkey slots for frequently used rolls such as initiative, perception, etc. - click and drag the roll from the character sheet to the hotkey slot and the correct roll with be applied to that slot. Just remember with this that the roll stored in the hotkey slot is static, it will not change if the original roll details in the character sheet change (such as when a PC levels up), so you need to re-drag them if they change.

Yes - Click your token - ctrl+click your target to set up targetting
Yes - FG cannot split the multiple attacks - it will apply the full attack to all targeted opponents - create a separate attack/weapon entry with one attack and re-try
Yes - roll damage separately for each successful hit - try dragging the appropriate damage dice onto the token for the situation when you are splitting attacks?

Yes - there is no ability to do the half damage to successful saves - there is a way to put a number in chat window and drag it back to the saved pcs/npcs as healing in effect reducing the already inflicted damage
Yes - spell implementation is still missing automation in most cases. check out Effects in the Wiki. These are your best bet for now (afaik).
Yes - thats pretty much what i do for cloudkill - but let the player manage it

Ill take a total pass on the macro's.

There is an almost infinite number of variables that make up a combat encounter and some just are not (yet?) supported. I think you also pointed out about the 5/6/7 attacks for the monk? Spells have so many possible permutations. The half on save is a biggie - go vote for it on the wish list.

You look like you are really getting across a lot of things though - well done.

You are probably past these already but Ive just started making some beginners guides for new GMs using teh Castles&Crusades ruleset. It doesnt really answer your questions (except confirming the initial targetting question/answer) but you might find something else useful in them.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...r6UcaaLvD7YlJd

Wow, thanks guys, i didn't expect a reply till Sunday or so. Feeling better about the FG community every day. :cool:

I'll dig into those suggestions more over the next couple of days, I'm slowly seeing the light in all this and for a old guy feeling pretty good at the potential it offers for my gaming future.

@Trenloe Dude...do you like have the forums directly linked to your brain? I'm rapidly acquiring a certain awe towards the speed, depth, and frequency with which you post :eek:

@Damned Thanks for the reply and the vids, I don't play C&C but I've gotten in the habit of watching a number of different systems being rendered on FG as each one of them has given me a little something to take away.

I know you are playing Pathfinder :)
Pathfinder really has so much complexity in it with so many races and classes and feats etc.
Castles&Crusades and Pathfinder are both built on CoreRPG so many elements are the same but Pathfinder has more bells and whistles.

Dont feel you have to save all your questions up for one weekly post!

And yes... Trenloe... he does seem to have all the answers :)