Let's Create - A character

[Zacchaeus]

NOTE: A much improved version of this post is now amalgamated into the Wiki.

A number of factors have conspired to make me think about writing this post, not least of all the upcoming FGCon and various posts that have appeared recently and in the past about creating characters, and what FG can and can’t do. So I thought I’d take the plunge and write up a step by step guide to creating a character and along the way pointing out some of the things players (and of course DM’s) need to be aware of and also to give some insight into creating effects and ending with a character sheet with as much utility as possible. This one is for people who like it written down rather than on video of which there are many excellent ones on this subject.

Now I’m not saying this is the only method, or even the best method; but it is one that works and eliminates many basic errors. So let’s get started. We are going to create a Dwarven Cleric of Life.

We will start with her abilities. There are two reason for starting here, firstly we don’t need to do any maths when we add the race, it’ll be done for us (with a couple of exceptions) and when we add the class the correct hit points will be calculated (well mostly). So let’s give our Cleric the standard array allocating 14,12,13,10,15,8. You will see that after we do this AC has gone up to 11, the saves have correctly added in modifiers and initiative is at +1. If you check the skills tab you’ll see that they too have numbers in them.

Next we’ll choose the race. Again we are doing this before the class so that we can minimise maths. We have our base abilities, once we drag in the race the abilities will change as necessary. If we did the race first then we’d need to work stuff out, and that is prone to error. We are going to choose Hill Dwarf because of the increase in Wisdom. So find Hill Dwarf in the PHB and drag that into the race slot in the character sheet. Note that not only has this given us all of the Hill Dwarf benefits but also the benefits we also get from just being a dwarf.

If we look at the ability scores you can see that we now have 16 WIS instead of 15 and also our CON has increased to 15. So our CON is now at its final level and when we drag the class in the correct hit points will be calculated (although in this case we will still have to make an adjustment as we’ll see). If we had put the class in first, then adjusted our CON, hit points would not be recalculated.

Ok, so now let’s put in the background. We’ll have her be an acolyte. Drag that into the space provided. You will have noticed that every time you have dragged stuff into the character sheet the chat window has mentioned what you have done and what has been added. If you flick through the character sheet you will see that a couple of skills (from the background) have been made proficient and a host of Features, Traits and languages have also been entered into the sheet. So far there’s nothing in the actions tab.

Finally we can enter the class, so go ahead and drag Cleric into the sheet. A dialog pops up asking for two skills, we’ll select History and Medicine, and on the next selection dialog select Life Domain.
Now, we have our hit points, our saving throw proficiencies have lit up, our skills are filled in, a pile of abilities and even the actions tab has something on it.

The next thing I would now do is fill up the inventory. First up a weapon. We’ll select a Warhammer since our Dwarvenness gives us proficiency in it and a light crossbow for range. We take chainmail because we have the strength for it and our domain allows us to be proficient with heavy armour. We’ll have the explorer’s pack, a shield and our holy symbol and round things off with 20 crossbow bolts.

Right, now it’s time to revisit the main page of the character sheet. There are two things we need to do; first click on the little magnifying glass next to the AC in the middle of the page. We can see here that at the bottom of the dialog our Base AC is 10. Next to that we need to enter a figure for armour and since we have Chain Mail which gives an AC of 16 we need to enter 6 (16-10) in the box. (Yes, I know but that’s how WotC do it so FG does it that way too.)
Next we should enter ‘2’ under shield since we are carrying one and then we need to click on the box under DEX until it reads none because we don’t get any DEX bonus when we are wearing heavy armour. Make sure that the ‘Proficient?’ star is yellow. It should be, it defaults to proficient but this is the place you would uncheck if you were wearing armour that you weren’t proficient with. (OK hands up, who does that?). Finally click the little check circle beside stealth disadvantage because again we are wearing heavy armour. Close the box and note that your AC should now be 18 – not too shabby.

Now, I know I said our hit points would be correct didn’t I? Well they would be about 95% of the time but our Dwarven Toughness gives us an extra hit point per level. So click the little magnifying glass beside HD right at the bottom and enter a 1 in the ‘misc’ box. This is fine for when you level up but right now our HP is still short so just change the 10 to 11 in the MAX box.

Next up we need to tackle spells, so let’s get on to the Actions tab. Before we start dragging spells in here let’s first think about Domain spells. Our Cleric has two domain spells that she always has available and they don’t count towards her total that she can prepare for the day. We want to set these up before we select our other spells for a number of reasons. We also don’t want these mixed up with our other spells, since that’s just confusing. So what we’ll do is create a new power group in the actions tab and drop the domain spells in there.

To do that click the little brown button at the bottom right hand corner of the sheet and then click the button with a star (which says ‘Add Power’ when you mouse over it). A new group will appear with ‘POWERS’ written on it and below that two boxes, one with <<name>> and the other blank. In the blank line type in ‘Domain Spells’. This will change the power to read ‘Domain Spells’. Now we can drag in our two domain spells that we get at first level, Bless and Cure Wounds. Find the spells in the PHB and drag the spell and drop it on the line that says ‘Domain Spells’. You will see that as you drop them in a new entry is created with the spell name in the left hand box. We can go ahead now and delete the line we started with (the one with <<name>> still in it) since we don’t need it. Click the little red button to the right of the line twice.

Ok, so now we want to tidy up the domain spells section. First click on the little magnifying glass on the ‘Domain Spells’ header. This brings up a dialog with the group name at the top. Right under it you will see a little sword icon; click on this until it’s an open book. You will notice now that Domain Spells has changed to Domain Spells (Level 1). We just told FG that these are all spells in this group so that it’ll know how to handle attacks etc from this particular group. Below the Group Type you’ll see an ‘Ability’ box; click on this until it says Wis. This is telling Fantasy Grounds that all attacks and saving throws for anything in this group have WIS as their ability modifier. You can change the Attack and Save DC to also show Wis but it isn’t absolutely necessary. You can now close the dialog, and then click the little brown button at the bottom right to finish editing.

Now some of you sharp eyed chaps might have noticed that when we dragged Cure Wounds into the actions tab a little cross popped up next to a line reading 1d8. That indicated that Fantasy Grounds recognised words in that spell and used those words to create an effect. If the player targets one of his companions in the Combat Tracker and then clicks that button his companion will be cured of 1d8 wounds. Furthermore you might have noticed that when you changed the modifier for the power group the number changed to 1d8+3. This was Fantasy Grounds taking into consideration the characters spellcasting ability. In other words if you look at the spell FG took the words “regains a number of hit points equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier” and turned that into HEAL:1d8+3. Clever eh?

[Zacchaeus]

Now, not every spell will ‘parse’ like this and luckily we have an example of that right before our very eyes in the Bless spell. We can see that this spell hasn’t parsed at all and hasn’t created any kind of effect. If we read the spell it tells us that we can cast it on a number of companions who can then add a d4 to any attack and saving throw rolls for the next minute (if you keep your concentration). So let’s create an effect for this spell.
Start by right clicking on the line that says ‘Bless’ and select ‘Add Action’ (the arrow) from the context menu that appears. Now select ‘Add Effect’ (the little man) from the next menu that appears. Below the Bless spell we now have a blank line with a little icon to the left and a magnifying glass to the right. Click the magnifying glass to bring up the dialog box. In the Description/Conditions/Modifiers box type the following: Bless; ATK: 1d4; SAVE: 1d4. Below that next to RND type in 1 and then click on RND until it shows MIN. Now close the dialog.

What you have created here is an effect which, when applied to a character, will automatically add 1d4 to every attack and saving throw roll that character makes for the next 6 rounds of combat (1 minute). So let’s break it down. Firstly there’s Bless; This is purely a descriptor. FG doesn’t know what Bless means and by adding the ‘;’ after it we are telling the software to ignore the word. It is there purely so that the character knows that she has been blessed. We don’t actually need it at all but if you end up with a half dozen effects on you it can make things a bit clearer.

The next part ATK: 1d4 tells FG what to do when the player attacks. ATK is a modifier and it should always be followed by a ‘:’ and then we need to tell FG how we want to modify the attack. In this case we are telling it to add 1d4. We follow the 1d4 with a ‘;’ to separate the first part of our effect with the next part which is SAVE. Again this is a modifier so needs a ‘:’ followed by how we want to modify the save, in this case 1d4.

Right, we have done with Domain Spells so let’s finish up the spells for our Cleric. She knows 3 Cantrips and she can prepare 4 1^st level so let’s just give her 4 spells (Technically we could drag in every 1^st level spell but that would make our tab huge and unwieldy and most players aren’t going to use most of them anyway – are they?). So we give her Guidance, Sacred Flame and Spare the Dying for her Cantrips and Command, Guiding Bolt, Healing word and Shield of Faith.

Now that we’ve done that let’s check whether there are any spells that either didn’t parse at all or that parsed incorrectly. First up is Guidance, nothing parsed from this and reading the spell it’s not going to be possible to automate this spell. The recipient can roll the d4 anytime over the next 6 combat rounds so that’s something only the player will know. We can add a ‘dummy’ effect; just a word or two which reminds the player they have the spell on them, and this is useful also for tracking when the spell will expire. To do that we right click over the spell name, select ‘Add Action’ and then ‘Add Effect’. Click the magnifying glass and in the Modifiers box type in Guidance;. Change the duration to 1 MIN and close the dialog.
Spare the Dying hasn’t parsed anything but reading this spell there’s nothing there that we are going to need to create an effect for. In fact ‘Stable’ is a built in effect which you can get from the Effects dialog. All of the other spells have parsed except for Shield of Faith and we’ll want an effect for that one.

The spell tells us we can increase a creatures AC by 2 for 10 minutes. Again we right click on the spell and select ‘Add Action’ and ‘Add Effect’ and then click the magnifying glass. In the modifiers box we type in AC:2 we change the duration to 10 MIN and close the dialog. When we drag this effect onto the character that is the recipient of the spell his AC will increase by 2. Now it won’t actually change his AC on the character sheet but if you look at the attack rolls against the character you will see that FG takes account of the additional two points of Armour class when computing whether the attack hit or not.

So, spells are done and whilst we are on the actions tab we may as well have a look at the weapons at the top of the page. We can see that Fantasy Grounds has filled everything in for us; it has correctly calculated the attack and damage rolls based on the appropriate ability (STR for melee and DEX for ranged by default). So we could just leave it but the Warhammer is a versatile weapon which means it can be used in two hands for more damage. So let’s give the player that option.

Click on our old friend the brown dot at the bottom of the page and this time click on the sword icon to create a new weapon. You’ll see a new line at the very top of the screen. Type in ‘Warhanner (two handed)’ into the empty line and press tab. Now click on the little magnifying glass at the end of the new line to bring up the weapon dialog. In the properties box you can type in ‘Versatile (1d10)’ for completeness but it isn’t necessary. In the attack section you can leave everything as it is. The ‘Base’ under ‘Stat’ just means that FG will use the base ability for this weapon (STR). If you want you can change it to STR (by clicking on ‘Base’) but it isn’t necessary.

Next we want to click the little brown icon next to ‘Damage’ and then click the green cross to add a new line. Drag a d10 into the ‘Dice’. If you want to you can change the ‘stat’ to STR but it isn’t necessary and then type ‘bludgeoning’ into the ‘type’ field. You can now close the dialog and admire your new weapon entry.

Now of course if our Cleric does use her weapon two handed that means she won’t be getting the benefit of her shield until she swaps back to using her Warhammer in one hand. So there’s a couple of ways we can do this. If you look at the AC box in the main page of the sheet you’ll see a little ‘+’ above and to the right of the 18. This means that you can alter the value. Hover your mouse pointer over the number 18 until you get a hand icon. Then hold down CTRL and move the middle mouse button up or down. A little bubble appears with a positive or negative value which is applied to the AC. So when the Cleric is using her Warhammer in two hands the player could temporarily alter the AC in this way.

There is another method which is the one I prefer since it is less likely to be forgotten about and that is to create an effect. This one is much like the Shield of Faith spell, except we are going to apply a negative rather than a positive effect.
So let’s start by getting back to the Actions tab, click on the little brown button and then add power. In both fields of the new line that gets created type in ‘No shield’ and press tab. Now right click on the new line created and select ‘Add action’ and then ‘Add effect’ and then click the magnifying glass at the end of the row created. In the modifiers box type in AC: -2 and leave everything else as it is. Close the dialog. Now, when the Cleric uses her weapon two handed she can drag this effect onto herself to temporarily negate her shield value. It will also be a more visual reminder that she isn’t wearing her shield, over the previous method described.

We are nearly done but we want now to go through all of the Features and Traits to see if there is anything we can automate or that needs an effect created and generally tidy this bit of the sheet up.
First is Bonus Proficiency (Life) which tells us we have proficiency in heavy armour. We can leave this as it is or if you are like me change the armour proficiencies to Armour: All.

Next we have Disciple of Life. This tells us that our healing spells get a bonus, so we need to make sure that this happens. We have two spells that could be affected; Cure wounds and Healing Word. Let’s do the Cure Wounds one first. Click the magnifying glass at the end of the line that starts Heal (if this isn’t visible click the magnifying glass at the end of the line that says Cure Wounds first), and in the pop up box type in 3 in the ‘bonus’ field (it’s 3 because we get a bonus of 2 + spell level). Close up the dialog and then do the same for Healing Word.

Back to the Abilities tab and the next thing we want to have a look at is Dwarven Resilience. This gives us some resistance to poison and advantage on saving throws against poison. We should create an effect for this.
So by now you should know the procedure; Actions Tab, brown dot, Add Power, Name the power, right click, Add action, Add effect, click the magnifying glass to get the dialog. In the Conditions box type in RESIST: poison; ADVSAV: poison. Change the ‘targeting’ to read Self and close the dialog.

This effect should be dragged onto the player’s character in the CT and it should remain there always since it can never be removed. The effect will reduce poison damage by half and if the character needs to save vs poison it will be done with advantage. All taken care of automatically so no-one needs to remember that dwarves have this ability.

We’re pretty much done now. We need to select a couple of languages and fill in the notes, give her a name, portrait and token and all those things I leave up to you.
So, that’s it. Leave comments if this was useful, or useless. And if you’d like to see other classes given a walkthrough then do say so. Finally the completed character is attached for you to use if it’s of any use to you.

[midas]

You know what would be incredible: a list of what spells don't parse (updated as people find them) and how best to add their effects (such as your entry above for Bless). I think that'd be quite beneficial to have that, either on the forums or on the wiki.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Awesome walk through. I admit, one of my weak spots with FG is setting up powers and spells. I plan to use a lot of homebrew spells in my next campaign so this is really helpful in the steps to automate things. Thanks Zacchaeus.

[kylania]

Needs more screenshots. Otherwise, nice work!

[Zacchaeus]

Needs more screenshots. Otherwise, nice work!

Yeah, I considered this, but the post was huge as it is.

[Moon Wizard]

Sounds like a great wiki article for 5E. Interested?

JPG

[Zacchaeus]

Sounds like a great wiki article for 5E. Interested?

JPG

Yeah, I could have a go at that. How do I get started with that though?

[Moon Wizard]

Sent you an e-mail.

Cheers,
JPG

[Gumbi.ZA]

Fantastic Post! Glad to see someone else using the logic I do, Race, then Background, then Class