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  1. #1

    D&D 4E - Character Race Extension

    As a practice project to learn how to make extensions, I decided to add Races to the sidebar for DnD 4e. Personally, I like that some of the sidebar options that 5e has that 4e doesn't have, so while this is a fairly simple beginner project, I decided to upload it as an extension anyway in case others also find it useful. The hope is that I can eventually add more to the sidebar that you can drag and drop to your character sheet, but I'll start with this one until I feel like I fully know what I'm doing.

    Link to Forge Item: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/2194/view

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    Version 0.7.0

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    This extension adds a new library record to the sidebar for all races. You can input information into the races and then drag it onto your character sheet to automatically add everything from that race to your character. It also should work correctly with skelekon's portable compendium module maker.

    What This Extension Does:

    • Adds a record type for races in the sidebar
    • Allows you to drag a race record to a character in order to add that race to your character sheet
    • Adds a link in the character sheet to your race and its associated record
    • When a race record is dragged to your character sheet, it will automatically add all associated Racial Features and Racial Powers to your character as well.
    • (v0.4.0) Also now adds other traits: speed, special movement, size, senses, and languages.
    • (v0.5.0) Now adds skill bonuses and ability bonuses to the character. Skill bonuses are replaced if you switch out the race for another, but ability score bonuses will just keep getting added. (Will fix that later.) If you have a choice between multiple ability score bonuses, a dialogue will pop up where you choose one.
    • (v.0.6.0) It will undo ability score and skill racial bonuses when you add a different race to your character. When you add a race to your character, if you already have any languages, features, or powers, it will not add them again. However, it won't undo any languages, features, or powers from your character that were added via your race.
    • (v0.7.0) Has house rules for different variations of racial ability score bonuses.




    What This Extension Does Not Do (but it might do one day):

    • It does not automatically adjust any of your ability scores or skills. (added as of v.0.5.0)
    • It does not automatically adjust your speed. (added as of v.0.4.0)
    • It does not automatically add your vision or senses. (added as of v.0.4.0)
    • It does not automatically undo any additions to your character sheet when you add one race and then add another. (added as of v.0.6.0)
    • It doesn't account for sub-races, so it might be better to add them as separate races.
    • You can't drag a power onto a race to add it as a racial power.



    When adding skill bonuses, languages, or ability score bonuses, put in commas to delineate separate values.


    If you notice any bugs or have any suggestions related to this extension, let me know in this thread.


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    Changelog:
    0.1.0 - Initial release
    0.2.0 - Added new tabs and fields to the library records
    0.3.0 - Added speed
    0.4.0 - Added special movement, size, vision/senses, and languages
    0.5.0 - Added ability score and skill bonuses
    0.6.0 - It will undo ability score and skill racial bonuses when you add a different race to your character. When you add a race to your character, if you already have any languages, features, or powers, it will not add them again. However, it won't undo any languages, features, or powers from your character that were added via your race.
    0.6.1 - Fixed an issue where skill bonuses weren't being added.
    0.7.0 - Add support for some house rules for racial ability scores: Standard, Both Free (no restrictions on both abiity scores), 2nd Free (meaning any default ability score for a race is given, and instead of the second choice you can pick any ability score), and 1st Half and 2nd Free (meaning the first ability score is half free - you can choose between any of usually 3 ability scores associated with that race - and the 2nd ability score chosen has no restrictions). Also should now parse ability score bonus for Humans correctly.


    Github located here.
    Last edited by SieferSeesSomething; November 20th, 2025 at 03:11. Reason: updated to 0.6.1

  2. #2
    Grabbed this to tinker with today and noticed that the extension seems to be creating Power entries instead of what I had assumed would be a bunch of fields to drop notes and links into. Am I looking at the right thing?
    Races Are Not Powers.jpg
    I wrote a book about gods, monsters, and hopeless fights! And I'll do it again!

  3. #3
    Ya that was the quickest and easiest window to use lol. I think feats are the same way I recall. You could just use the Extra Info section to put text in for now.

    I was thinking of customizing it more like you're saying, though. Specifically, making it with two tabs, the first one just being blank with text, more free form and you could drag links and stuff it, and a slightly more organized second tab with a couple fields and a couple organized lists of features and powers (basically so I can copy how it looks in the 5e ruleset).
    Last edited by SieferSeesSomething; April 28th, 2025 at 16:06.

  4. #4
    So I made some updates to make it more like one would expect, modeled a bit after the 5e ruleset, but with a few changes.

    • The first tab will only have some description text fields to work with that basically just delivers straight text, such as from a library module.
    • There is a second tab for all the common racial traits, mostly flavor, but also languages, speed, vision, etc. It's also got a spot to add more additional custom fields.
    • And the third tab is for features and powers. When a race is dragged to your character sheet's main tab, it will add the racial features as abilities in the abilities tab, and it will add the powers in the powers tab.


    You currently can't drag power links over the race's power list to add powers to it, but that's on my to-do list. I wanted to get this out first.

    Hopefully it's a bit more like what you'd expect, @Muagen!
    Last edited by SieferSeesSomething; June 6th, 2025 at 02:55.

  5. #5
    Made another update. Now it should add skill bonuses and ability score bonuses. With this update, the extension should now add everything from a race to your character automatically when you drag the race onto the character's main sheet. If anything can think of something a race can give a character that I could have possibly forgotten, let me know, but I think I got it all now.

  6. #6
    I'm very excited to try it out, but it's not showing up in my extensions list for campaigns in the 4e ruleset. I've tried disabling and re-enabling it via my Forge Inventory, and I definitely saw the updater download it, but it is not there in the extensions list.
    I wrote a book about gods, monsters, and hopeless fights! And I'll do it again!

  7. #7
    Maybe there's a button I'm supposed to press or some setting I'm supposed to turn on in the Forge?

    EDIT: Okay, well, I found a button to set it to Listed instead of Delisted. Does that help?

    EDIT #2: Nevermind! Think I figured it out! I was compressing it wrong lol. It should definitely work now.
    Last edited by SieferSeesSomething; June 14th, 2025 at 01:08.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by SieferSeesSomething View Post
    Maybe there's a button I'm supposed to press or some setting I'm supposed to turn on in the Forge?

    EDIT: Okay, well, I found a button to set it to Listed instead of Delisted. Does that help?

    EDIT #2: Nevermind! Think I figured it out! I was compressing it wrong lol. It should definitely work now.
    Everything seems good now!
    Showing up now.png

    All the additional automation is great, as well! Thanks for making this extension!
    I wrote a book about gods, monsters, and hopeless fights! And I'll do it again!

  9. #9
    Added an new update! It adds some common house rules related to variations for Racial Ability Scores I've seen (or thought of using before). There's one I missed I didn't think of until right after I finished this update where it uses the original PHB1 and 2 ability scores for those races from those books instead of the "select from two" thing that was added later, so I'll add that in at a later time.

    (Also fixed an issue with humans not parsing their ability score bonuses correctly with this update.)

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    Instructions for New Options
    --------------------------
    (House Rules)
    Race: Ability Score Bonuses -
    - Standard: Ability score bonuses are given as normal, as described in the race entries (using the latest errata). Usually this means one ability score bonus given by default, and another abiity score bonus given as a choice between two different options.
    - Both Free: Two ability score bonuses are given without restriction. You can choose from every ability score for a +2 bonus twice.
    - 2nd Free: The first, usually default, ability score bonus is given as normal. Instead of a choice between two ability scores for your second choice, you can choose from all ability scores for this second bonus.
    - 1st Half and 2nd Free: This means the first ability score is half restrictions and the 2nd ability score bonus has no restrictions. The first ability score bonus for a race is given as a choice between any ability score bonuses that race is associated with (usually 3, so the default one given and the two others given as a choice). The second ability bonus can be chosen from any of the ability scores.

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