Pathfinder Creature Parser - Alpha release

[Callum]

I'm going to say one more thing, and then leave Trenloe to get on with his outstanding work. If you're going to keep the colons, they should be adjacent to the word to their left. That underlined space haunts my dreams!

[Trenloe]

That underlined space haunts my dreams!

I like haunting people's dreams, so I think I'll just leave it in!

Being serious, there is actually no space in the formattedtext code, for example the following appears with a space before the : despite there not being one in the data.

b><u>Spell-Like Abilities</u>:</b>

Looks like the formattedtext control is adding the space in.

Looks like your dreams will be forever haunted! :-o

Or, I may just remove them - I'll see how I feel. I actually like them!

[Callum]

You're quite right, Trenloe -the formattedtext control adds a space in after a section of formatted text. I've noticed this when applying formatting using the GUI, and I've learned to always include punctuation in the formatting to minimise the appearance of extraneous spaces! This means that the punctuation itself gets formatted, which is not ideal, but is definitely the lesser of the two evils. So, in your example, you need to change

<b><u>Spell-Like Abilities</u>:</b>

to

<b><u>Spell-Like Abilities:</u></b>

in order to get rid of that haunting space.

I actually don't mind the colons, myself - dumping them seems to be a stylistic decision that Paizo have made. So I'd be happy to put them back in to ability descriptions, for example:

Explosive Rebirth (Su): When killed, a star archon explodes...

For spell lists (and SLAs, etc), the colon needs to go after the parenthetical info, as in:

Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 19th; concentration +26):

Also, whether or not you keep them in other places, they really shouldn't appear after section headings:

Special Abilities

[Blackfoot]

Personally, I like the colons... I might like them better without the space between the text and the underlined title.. but I tend to add them when I reconstruct my 'Other' tabs.

[S Ferguson]

Personally, I like the colons... I might like them better without the space between the text and the underlined title.. but I tend to add them when I reconstruct my 'Other' tabs.

What he said.

[Macgreine]

Hey guys,
I am working with some stat blocks from some third party adventures from Frog God and Necromancer. They are formatted for Pathfinder but the dont seem to go through the parser right. I was wondering if someone could take a look at a sample and tell me whats wrong with it and if its a simple edit I can do them all that way.
Thanks , Mac


DREAD WRAITH CR 11
XP 12,800
LE Large undead (incorporeal)
Init +13; Senses darkvision 60 ft., lifesense 60 ft.; Perception
+23
Aura unnatural aura (30 ft.)
AC 26, touch 26, flat-footed 16 (+7 deflection, +9 Dex, +1
dodge, –1 size)
hp 184 (16d8+112)
Fort +12; Ref +14; Will +14
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +2, incorporeal; Immune
undead traits
Weakness sunlight powerlessness
Spd fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee incorporeal touch +20 (2d6 negative energy plus 1d6
Con drain)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks create spawn
Str —, Dex 28, Con —, Int 17, Wis 18, Cha 24
Base Atk +12; CMB +13; CMD 40
Feats Improved Natural Attack (incorporeal touch), Blind Fight, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Dodge, Mobility,
Spring Attack, Step Up
Skills Diplomacy +23, Fly +30, Intimidate +26, Knowledge
(planes) +19, Knowledge (religion) +22, Perception +23,
Sense Motive +23, Stealth +24
Languages Common, Giant, Infernal
Create Spawn (Su) A humanoid slain by a dread wraith becomes
a full ordinary wraith in 1d4 rounds. Spawn are under
the command of the wraith that created them until its death, at
which point they lose their spawn penalties and become freewilled
wraiths. They do not possess any of the abilities they
had in life.
Constitution Drain (Su) Creatures hit by a dread wraith’s
touch attack must succeed on a DC 25 Fortitude save or take
1d6 points of Constitution drain. On each successful attack, the
wraith gains 5 temporary hit points. The save DC is Charismabased.
Lifesense (Su) A dread wraith notices and locates living creatures
within 60 feet, just as if it possessed the blindsight ability.
Sunlight Powerlessness (Ex) A dread wraith caught in sunlight
cannot attack and is staggered.
Unnatural Aura (Su) Animals do not willingly
approach within 30 feet of a dread wraith, unless a master
makes a DC 25 Handle Animal, Ride, or wild empathy
check.

[Macgreine]

I think I figured it out. Theres no paragraph space between the divisions.

[Talen]

This may be obvious to some, but just came across this one. A monster name with a period will blow things up. For example, Mr. Plugg in the skull and shackles ap.

[Trenloe]

This may be obvious to some, but just came across this one. A monster name with a period will blow things up. For example, Mr. Plugg in the skull and shackles ap.

Thanks for raising this.

A little bit more info about exactly what "will blow things up" means would have helped me identify the issue quicker. I was quite disappointed when there were no fragments of NPC statblocks flying around - it really wasn't that impressive!

I've included a fix in version 2.0 - which will hopefully be out next month.

[Talen]

Thanks for raising this.

A little bit more info about exactly what "will blow things up" means would have helped me identify the issue quicker. I was quite disappointed when there were no fragments of NPC statblocks flying around - it really wasn't that impressive!

I've included a fix in version 2.0 - which will hopefully be out next month.

Sorry, was sending this as I was walking out the door! Here's what happened: the parse created the mod and I didn't notice an error. But when I opened the mod and tried to add mr. Plugg to my list of mpc's, a new blank npc would be created in my mod when i tried to open him prior to dragging him over and fg would hang and crash when I did drag him over.

The pyrotechnics may, admittedly have been unrelated to the parser.