Cheat Sheet for NPC Effect Shortcuts

**frostbyte000jm** · December 11th, 2015, 04:34

Is there a cheat sheet for the things you can do when making NPCs? like: 1d3+4 damage will roll damage.

Is Damage Reduction possible?
Is there a way so the NPC can heal (her/himself or others)?

I know there are more things I am going to need to do. I just got stumped on trying to figure some of these things out.

I wasn't around for 4e so I never got an insiders account and now you can't get one so parcing a bunch form the web doesn't seem possible. For 5e I just saw how others were doing things and stole that.

I have tried searching and I am apparently not using the right words. Can someone help me?

**Zacchaeus** · December 11th, 2015, 12:29

You should find some information here and here and also here.

The best advice is to follow the wording on existing NPCs or from the Monster Manual. If you still have questions after giving the wiki a read then post them here and we'll try to help.

And welcome to the forums and to FG.

**frostbyte000jm** · December 11th, 2015, 12:41

Thank you for having me.

Maybe this may be a foolish question, but how do I get a monster manual? I don't see one on the store, and DnD Insider is no longer selling accounts. I would actually prefer having a monster manual so I can steal how they did it.

Also, is there an easier way to enter NPCs? did someone write an app?

**Zacchaeus** · December 11th, 2015, 13:03

Originally Posted by frostbyte000jm

Thank you for having me.

Maybe this may be a foolish question, but how do I get a monster manual? I don't see one on the store, and DnD Insider is no longer selling accounts. I would actually prefer having a monster manual so I can steal how they did it.

Also, is there an easier way to enter NPCs? did someone write an app?

My apologies; I didn't notice that you were writing in the 4e forum; I was answering your question as if it were for 5e. Ignore those links since they will not help you with 4e (at least I don't think they will). I don't know anything about 4e for FG so I will step aside and let someone who does answer your question.

**damned** · December 11th, 2015, 13:21

Originally Posted by frostbyte000jm

Thank you for having me.

Maybe this may be a foolish question, but how do I get a monster manual? I don't see one on the store, and DnD Insider is no longer selling accounts. I would actually prefer having a monster manual so I can steal how they did it.

Also, is there an easier way to enter NPCs? did someone write an app?

Zacchaeus is a 5e man!
Some of the 4e guys will be along sooner or later

**frostbyte000jm** · December 11th, 2015, 14:07

Yeah, I suspected that when I started clicking on his links, but I wasn't sure if those events were universal.

**Griogre** · December 11th, 2015, 19:26

Its a shame you can't get DDI anymore and parse automatically because that means you are going to have to do things manually. However, my original 4E monster manual was done that way before the parser was available. I don't remember all the keywords and phrases but the 4E ruleset has a very good internal parser which looks at powers and changes the common patterns into something you can double click or drag and drop on. It's like 90%+ accurate. The key is you have to use the *exact* wording of the powers and if WotC was consistent most powers will work as you expect.

The ruleset does do damage reduction you just have to enter it in the monster in exactly the right place, with the right wording - but you have to use the 4E wording out of the books. If you are going to run a 4E game, you should probably get a PDF, because the easiest way to get the precision you need is to copy and paste the text in of the powers. WotC did finally start selling PDFs for 4E: https://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?ke...t=&pfrom=&pto=

If you have an ongoing campaign you should have the books, but if you are just starting up I'm not sure 4E is a good choice just because it will now be a ton of work if you can't get a DDI account.

If you need help with the specific wording or filling out the NPC form, let me know. For your player's powers, just tell them to fill them in manually using the exact wording. Without DDI it's not worth it to parse the 1,000s of powers when they will each only use a few dozen. The time cost to usage ratio is way too low.

**Zacchaeus** · December 11th, 2015, 19:29

I'd suggest 5e

**damned** · December 11th, 2015, 23:17

Originally Posted by Zacchaeus

I'd suggest 5e

Or Pathfinder. Or Castles and Crusades!

Thread: Cheat Sheet for NPC Effect Shortcuts

Thread Tools