Custom Class Creation Tutorial

**billyorkfellz** · December 8th, 2020, 17:04

Hi everyone.

Are there any tutorials regarding the construction of a custom character class from scratch? In case there is, can anyone point me to it?

Thanks a lot!

**Evolivolution** · December 8th, 2020, 21:22

Are you looking for a tutorial to create a homebrew class, or do you already have a homebrew class and want to implement into your campaign?

**billyorkfellz** · December 9th, 2020, 00:02

Hello! Thanks for the reply. The second option, I have a class and want to implement it into Fantasy Grounds.

**Evolivolution** · December 9th, 2020, 14:08

Okay, in that case I don't know of any tutorials but I think I can help you out here.

Here is what I did and what works for me and my players:

Go to the Classes tab in your campaign and click the edit button and the plus to create a new class.
A window will open that represents your new class. This window has two tabs on the right Main and Features. As far as I'm aware all the relevant stuff is in the Features tab and the Main one is just for the looks and doesn't actually have any funtion for the characters, so we'll focus on the Features tab for now.
The first lines here are the base stats off you class. I will go along with the creation of the new Precog class that is currently in playtest to give you a visual. (In case your interested you can find the download here) So I put in 5 as both Stamina and Hit Point values. The I switch through the Key Ability roller and select Dexterity. A quick look at Table 1-1: Precog also allows us to find a medium BABadvancement and a good Reflex save. Also the Precog gets 6 Skill Ranks. Here is what you should have so far. Now in case you are wondering where the "+ Intelligene Modifier per Level" comes from, you can actually left click on the white space next to the Skill Ranks section and just write it in there. Although I'm certain this doesn't change any functionality it just looks better.
Now we input the selected Skills and Proficiencies for our class. I'm pretty sure that the programm pulls from these 3 text fields when creating a character to give them the right Skills and Proficiencies on the character sheet so double check you get your spelling right. Put in the Skills with their respective Attributes and separate entries by a comma. Same goes for the Proficiencies. Now the Precog gets a choice here between advanced melee weapons, longarms and sniper weapons. Now since I don't really now how this is programmed and I'm pretty sure a choice system isn't possible here. I just put down all of them. I'd then try to remember at character creation that my player has to decide for one of these and delete the other two on their character sheet but since this is an exeption to all classes released so far you shouldn't run into this problem. (Also it's not that bad if this gets forgotten since 2 more proficiencies aren't anything OP). A quick checkup.
Moving on to the annoying part: Features. These are the features your character gets at any given level. Now this would be an easy thing to do if you could just create the features and then paste them in here but you can't, you need to create all the features for every level again and again one by one. This gets espacially annoying with the choice features like Operative Exploits, Soldier's Gear Boosts or the Precogs Temploral Anomalies because you have to put in all the choices everytime a characters gets to choose between them, because you also can't copy links from a feature to another. I'll show you what I mean later. (If the Devs read this: Please change this!) First of all I pressed the edit button and then the plus a whole bunch of times and then wrote in all the Features listed in Table 1-1: Precog. Another checkup. Now as you can see this looks pretty promising but all of them are still empty.
1. We'll need to do some extra steps under Features here. I'll start with creating all the features of the class in the Features tab of the SFRPG ruleset, which is located here. Now to keep a good overview I create a new group first. Let's call it "Homebrew Precog" to stick with my theme here. Now this group is pretty empty and I'll fill it with all the Precog features.
2. Here is how to create a feature: you click the edit and then the plus button to create an empty entry. Then you fill in the information. Name is just the name. Source I'm pretty sure you could leave empty, I put "Homebrew" in there for anything I create. Class is also self explanatory. Feature is needed if you have something that is part of something else, I'll get to that in a sec. Level is the level on which the character first gets access to this feature. Info always gets left empty and the last field is where your features text goes.
3. For me there are 3 types of features: 1st would be basic features that just have a plain text and no shenanigans around them. An example here would be the Proficiency and Specializations features or maybe Evasion. Here you can just input all the stuff you know and don't need to pay special attention. The other two types would be the "path" and the "tricks". (Thats just the names I use for them). The Path is the thing you pick at character creation. The operatives specialization or the mystics connection are examples for these. The Tricks are the features that allow you to greaty customise your character by offering a choice out of a large pool of features on a given level. Examples for this are the envoy improvisations or the mechanic tricks. As far as I'm aware, every class has these three types. Now the path and the tricks are something you need to put a little more effort in when creating them in FG but let's put a little picture here so you can see what I'm talking about.
4. On the left is the Operative's Specialization for reference. Now below that is the Paradox feature I created for the Precog. As you can see pretty simple stuff here, no Feature and Info box used. The on the right half is the Precog's Anchor Feature which is a "path". As you can see I created all the different paths and their respective features seperatly and then put the links inside of each other. Note that I filled the Feature section here with the name of the feature that the feature is part of. That is a lot of features in one sentence but I hope I can get my point across here. Also note how I put the tick at the top in Special Feature for all the features.
5. Here is another picture, this time you can see the "trick" features I created. On the left again the operative for reference. You can see the base feature "Temporal Anomaly" is a Special Feature and the others are marked as Features, also it's level 20. I'm gonna be honest I don't know if this actually has any influence but I like to stick to the formating the devs use for a uniform look. Make sure to, again, fill the features section where needed.
Once all features are created and inside the databank we can go back to our class window and start filling in the information into there. For this I open the window of the feature in the class window and the window of the same feature in the database and start copying all the information. You will notice that if you copy any text with a link in it, it won't copy the link information. So you will need to go ahead and put in the links again for every itteration of the feature. That's what I meant earlier with the annoying part. It will also put an unnessesary amount of empty lines when you copy a text that you will have to remove. (Again, if any Devs read this: Please change this!). But this is why I recommended to create all the features beforehand because while annoying, it's only copy-paste from here.
When you copy the "tricks" features you will notice that you have to copy it a multitute of times, depending on how often a character gets to choose a trick. Make sure to only put in the features that are available on any given level and not just copy the whole text each time. Here a comparison of the Temporal Anomaly on level 2, level 5 in the charactersheet and the one in the database (Left to right).
For the features that increase in strength but stay essencially the same, like the operative edge or chronomatic defense features, copy the whole text every time and just change the name of the feature in the class window. Here you can see the database original on the right and the class window itterations besides it.
For the path features copy the features you created for the single levels not the whole thing and also not the specific ones of any of the paths. Just like so!
When you done with all of the features, congratulations, your class is playable, now for some polish! Let's fill the main tab of the class to make it look good. For this I stick to the style of the classes made by the devs, because like I mentioned, I like the uniform look. I do change some stuff around though. Here, here, here and here are some side by side comparisson shots.

Cut because of character limit!

**Evolivolution** · December 9th, 2020, 14:10

Now all that's left to do is to quickly create a character and test if everything works as expected. Now if you've done everything correctly you can quickly check HP, SP, BAB, Saves and Skill Ranks. Resolve Points sometines have some issues calculating correctly but you can fix that manual, thats SFRPG ruleset issues not from your class. Now for me I made a mistake with my save bonuses and I had some issues with the proficiencies. Luckily thats why you test stuff and I fixed the saves really quick. I don't know why the proficiencies are broken for me but since these are changable manual I just did that. Now the cool thing is because we did all the preparation with the features the character sheets looks neatly organized now, after you delete all the duplicate features and select the ones you want. Here and here my new level 15 precog's features page!

Aaaand that's it! I really hope this is what you where looking for. If anything in here is not detailed enough feel free to ask.

**Evolivolution** · December 9th, 2020, 14:28

And since I already created it, I might as well share the Precog class for everyone to use.

NOTE: Deleted the attachment, because the playtest is over.

**billyorkfellz** · December 9th, 2020, 20:54

This is EXACTLY what I was hoping to get around here, and it's just awesome. I can't thank you enough for the time you put into it, it's really helpful!!!

Very, very much appreciated!!!

**Samarex** · December 11th, 2020, 09:52

Hi Evolivolution,
For Feature creation,
First the features listed in your class table (those on the features tab) do not actually need to be in the features master list.
I.E looking at a Technomancer you wont find Magic Hack in the features master list. You will find the actual hacks.

So if a Feature is a stand alone feature like Paradox (in your Precog) you only need to make it in the class record features window, and what I do if I need that feature to repeat say 5 times I add 5 new features in the class window. Then open all 5 putting them side by side, assign the Source, Class and Level to each one, select Special Feature then back to Feature (this ensures that field is written), Then fill out the text for the highest level one first, then its copy and paste from there to the others removing anything that is higher level than the one I'm working on.

Now for features (called special features) that have choices (IE Magic Hacks). Yes first go thru and make all the sub features I.E for Magic Hack you would create all your hacks in the Features Master List window(again these would be classified as (Features). Then in your class window create a new feature for each time you get it doing the same as above putting in all the info that is the same and select (Special Feature). Then you can open your features master list, Filter by the feature (Magic Hack) and Level if you want only the 2nd level ones to show. Then Drag and drop them to the open features from your class record they apply to, change the level filter to the next level and repeat until you have applied all the sub feature links to each of the feature windows. .

When filling out the Main Tab Open the features (I pick the highest level one for ones that repeat) from your Class Record then switch to main tab and you can drag n drop the features to there.

I had plenty of practice since I had to create all the Classes after the structure was changed.

The system adds the feature from your class record to you characters abilities when you hit that level. If it like Magic Hack I would then need to open the Magic Hack feature and pick which hack I want and drag it to my abilities list.

Nice work on the Precog everything looks good other than not really needing some of the features in the Master List.

**Evolivolution** · December 11th, 2020, 12:37

Hey, I'll just quickly comment on this with my thoughts. All in all I totaly agree with you, I guess we just have a different approach with some little things.