Highlander for Hero Lab

[Frodie]

I am re-working my Highlander D20 book for Pathfinder and I am writing it so it will work in Hero Lab, (actually more on how easily I can put it into Hero Lab, lol). So I'm running into a lot of trouble, and I have, (and will have), a lot of questions and any help would be very much welcome. I'm not real good with the programing, but I can muddle through the editor somewhat.
First thing I have ran into was an ability based on Weapon Familiarity. Basically the Immortal can pick any one weapon (simple to exotic) to be proficient with. I found the other Weapon Familiarity abilities, but I can't figure out make them work so they can chose any one weapon.

Next is the Quickening Powers, I would like to base them off psionics, (roughly). Is there any way to do that or should I go another way.

And is there anyway to get the Honor score from the UA to show up and work?

Thanks again for any and all ideas and help.

Kev

[Frodie]

Ok, I got the Weapon Familiarity fixed. I made a feat and got it to work. NP there.
Any idea's on the other stuff, best way to go?

[Frodie]

It seems like the ageing effect do not work, is there something you need to do? Never mind I found it. It's not when you increase the age, you have to check the perm effects.

[Mathias]

You'll have to give me more detail about how the quickening powers work before I can help you figure out the best way to enter them.

[Frodie]

Basically it's a pool of points gathered from various different things, (which can be added using the counter, if I can ever get that to work right, lol). But each power is set up like the following:

Breathe without Air
Willpower Save DC: 10 + 1 per 10 feet bellow Water Level
Base Cost: 6 points
Upkeep Cost: 3 points per round

This allows the Immortal the ability to breathe without air. If the Immortal is underwater, then movement is still penalized. Any actions taken receive the appropriate modifiers in the Core Book II under Aquatic terrain.

I am re-working the rule to adjust to the Pathfinder system as I try to input them into Hero Lab. Basically, how I can get Hero Lab to take the rules is what I really am basing the rules on, lol.

Above was the old 3.5 way. I can go in a whole different direction if need. I was thinking of making them all like spells at zero level and cast “x” times a day, or feats, and/or maybe even skills, based on the Honor Score, ect. But that is just a few thoughts. It used to be kind of like psionics, and I see bits and peaces of psionics in the editor, but IDK if they are useable. So any good easy direction to get this to work would be most helpful.

Thanks,
Kev

[Mathias]

The psionics machanisms have not been converted from 3.5 to Pathfinder yet, so those can't be used.

You could create a special with a tracked resource, and add it to the class/race/etc. that represents this type of character. The user can then mark off the points used as they use them. Then, all you need to do is add each ability as a special of some sort (you might want to make them spell-like abilities if you want them separated onto the spells tab). The user can read the ability to figure out how many points they'll be spending, and use then up on the in-play tab.

[Frodie]

Cool, I'll give it a try. Thanks again!

[Frodie]

Is there a way to have the tracked resource unlimited charges, (I don't want to have a set number), and have it adjusted up or down? I would basically like to have a “pool of points” that has a perm number, (that can be modified) and a temp adjustment for an ability used.

[Frodie]

Ok I made a Custom Ability called Quickening checked the tracker box and gave it 10 points.
Then I made a Adjustment called Quickening and bootstaped the Custom Ability. It all shows up but the Adjustment will not work. I am sure I need some kind of scrips or something, I guess. Any help please, thank you!

[Frodie]

Ok, I think I am over my head and I am going to try and go in another way. MY plan is to make a Quickening skill and have the powers activated by a skill check, (kind of like SAGA). So far great. Have my Immortal template and a new skill Quickening. I want the skill to only to show and be available if the Immortal template is taken. I gave a prerequisite on the skill for the template, but it's still showing up on everyone's skill list and use it. I tried the box where you have to chose skill, but everyone can and it will not automatically add it to the skill list if the template is taken. Any thoughts?

[Frodie]

All right, never-mind. I got it to work. I seems sometimes you need to reboot HL to get it to work right after you have changed a few things. NP.

Ok, now I want to add 1 point to the Quickening skill. Just that skill. What would be the best way of doing that. A feat, magic item, spell, custom power?

[Frodie]

Alright the perm tracker in the Adjust tab works great. (Using add skill points). Is there a way to just copy that only the Quickening skill show up and adjust?

[Frodie]

Yea! I did it. Works great! Now I need to see how to add a Custom Power, (spell, feat or whatever) at will. Looks like the M&M is something like what I am doing. Is there anyway to copy part of that data set to Pathfinder?

[ShadowChemosh]

All right, never-mind. I got it to work. I seems sometimes you need to reboot HL to get it to work right after you have changed a few things. NP.
Yep I have found this to be true also. Especially if you get into bootstrapping with special tags and/or only bootstrapping under special conditions. Its best to do a total restart of HL as even doing a quick reload does not always work.

[Mathias]

Quick reload is limited when dealing with revising bootstraps or when you're modifying something (like condition adjustments or mechanics) that's added to all characters.

The switch game system option in the file menu - going back to Pathfinder once you get there, will produce the same results as a full restart, and it's slightly faster.

[Frodie]

Next issue, lol. Anyways. I made a Aging Effect in the adjust tab, basically the immortal get a +1 to a skill and 1 bonus feat every 100 years. All working fine. I can just stack the Aging Effect and it works fine, but is there anyway to get it tied into the character's age counter and/or make a counter just for this?

[Frodie]

Ok here is another one, How do you give a bonus feat of just one type. I made a Quickening Feat type and I want to be able to chose just from Quickening feats.

[Frodie]

Here is the scrip. Can yall help?

~ Add to feats allowed
foreach pick in hero from BaseFeat where "fCategory.Quickening"
#resmax[resFeat] += 1
nexteach

[Mathias]

The way to handle a bonus feat of a specific category is to add +1 feats allowed, and create an eval rule that requires at least one feat of that type.

In an Eval Rule (NOT AN EVAL SCRIPT):
Timing: PreLevels/10000


~add one feat allowed
#resmax[resFeat] += 1

~we're valid if the hero has at least one feat from the quickening category
validif (hero.tagis[fCategory.Quickening] <> 0)

[Mathias]

Next issue, lol. Anyways. I made a Aging Effect in the adjust tab, basically the immortal get a +1 to a skill and 1 bonus feat every 100 years. All working fine. I can just stack the Aging Effect and it works fine, but is there anyway to get it tied into the character's age counter and/or make a counter just for this?

Are characters realistically going to change ages during an adventure? The age is more likely to be something that the DM declares, and the declaration is more likely to be number of centuries, rather than number of years, so I'd say don't bother with the counter - just have the categories available to select.

The other alternative would be to have the incrementer on the adjustment represent the number of centuries, so give it a minimum of 1, and whatever maximum you choose, and the user can select the number of centuries worth of aging effects to add.

[Mathias]

Alright the perm tracker in the Adjust tab works great. (Using add skill points). Is there a way to just copy that only the Quickening skill show up and adjust?

Could you re-phrase this please, I can't understand what you're asking.

[Frodie]

Got it all to work at the moment. So just now I am re-writeing the rules as Input data. Thank you for your help along the way!
BTW - with the question above, I just needed to re-boot HL and everything worked great.

[Frodie]

The way to handle a bonus feat of a specific category is to add +1 feats allowed, and create an eval rule that requires at least one feat of that type.

In an Eval Rule (NOT AN EVAL SCRIPT):
Timing: PreLevels/10000


~add one feat allowed
#resmax[resFeat] += 1

~we're valid if the hero has at least one feat from the quickening category
validif (hero.tagis[fCategory.Quickening] <> 0)


Cool, ok do I need to make a script for it now?

[Mathias]

On whatever thing you've created that is supposed to be adding the bonus feat, press the "Eval Rule" button. Fill in the timings I've given, then copy what I've given you into the body of that Eval Rule.

[Frodie]

Thanks again for your help. IDK I did the above and it gives me a feat, but it from all feats not just the Quickening feats. In the Timing is the After or Before scrips is where I put the timing
Also what should be the scrip name?
Thanks again yall

[Mathias]

There's no need to press the "Timing" button until you're an advanced script writer - sorry I had forgotten that the script order tracking mechanisms are in a button labeled "Timing", and that it would be confusing for me to say "Timing: PreLevels/1000" - what I meant was "Phase: Pre-Levels / Priority: 10000" (those are at the very top of the page).

[Mathias]

This is intended to give +1 feats available. However, until you've selected a Quickening feat as one of those feats, you'll see the error message you gave this rule.

[Frodie]

Cool, thank you. Yea, I did try it at the top, (I thought that is where it went). But it seems that if you already have a Quickening feat it will then let you choose any feat. Is there a what to keep only chooseing Quickening feats?

[Mathias]

If you already had a quickening feat, that one can be considered your choice for the bonus quickening feat.

[Frodie]

Hum, I guess I need to try and clarify what I am trying to do. I want it to work similar to the Exotic Weapon Feat, but instead of choosing a list of certain type of weapons, you are choosing a list of certain type of feats, that can be applied multiple times, (even if you already have a feat of that type).
Again thank you for your help, I know you are very busy.

[Mathias]

Please re-phrase that, I don't understand what you mean.

[Frodie]

Yea, it seems like I am having a hard time trying to explain what I am try to do.

Ok, I need a special “whatever will work”, (ability, feat, etc), that will allow the player to chose a feat from only one type of feat category. This can be done multiple times even if they already have a feat of that same feat category.

It basically give you a bonus feat, but restricts the feat category from where they can chose from.

[Mathias]

What context will this be used in?

Do you have a Highlander template, and everyone who gets that template gets X number of free feats?

Is the number of free feats fixed, or are they dependant on something else?

Can external things, like other feats or classes, or whatever, add more of these choices?

(Just as a note, at some level of complexity, you just won't be able to verify that those extra feat choices were actually spent on feats of the correct type, because you can't add a new table for users to add feats to.).

[Frodie]

At the moment I am tying make it a feat called “Bonus Quickening Feat” so I can apply it to various other conditions, (i.e. Aging Effects, Quickening Tracker, etc)

[Mathias]

If multiple sources all offer the option for extra quickening feats, you'll need a central thing (use the Ability tab) to coordinate everything.

Abilities have the abValue field. Have everything else add to the abValue field of that:


#value[abQckFeat] += however many we're offering

(replace "abQckFeat" with whatever you use as an Id for your ability)

Then, modify the Eval Rule I gave you earlier to handle variable numbers of feats (this is on the ability):

Timing: Post-Levels/200000

~add to our feats allowed
#resmax[resFeat] += field[abValue].value

~we're valid if the hero has at least as many quickening feats
~as we've awarded
validif (hero.tagis[fCategory.Quickening] >= field[abValue].value)


(Note that I've moved the timing back about as far as I can so that other things have time to alter the abValue of the ability.

Now, if there's a single thing (I think you mentioned a template) that allows access to all of this, you can bootstrap the Ability from there.

Otherwise, at the top of the editor, make sure the Ability is set to a Uniqueness of "Unique", and then have each thing that needs it bootstrap the ability. (even if you can bootstrap it from a template, unique still works).

[Frodie]

I think it's time to through in the towel. Thank you again for all your time and help, but it just will not work for some reason. Each time it will let me pick a feat, but it is from everything, not just the Quickening feats. I made the Ability with the Eval Rule and timing. Then I went to the feat to bootstap it and I added it with the “#value[abQckFeat] += 1” in the script. Still all the feats are listed. Switched it up all kinds of ways. But no matter what I did, I could get an extra feat (sometimes 2 extra feats) but it still will not restrict the list to just the Quickening feats. I am sure there is a way, but at this moment I don't see it. Again, thank you for you time and effort with this. It's a great program, but I think this is just over my head.

[Frodie]

IDK if this helps or not:

</thing>
<thing id="abQckFeat" name="Quickening Feat" description="Quickening Feat" compset="Ability" summary="Quickening Feat" uniqueness="unique">
<usesource source="Highlander"/>
<evalrule phase="PostLevel" priority="200000" message="Quickening Feat"><![CDATA[~add to our feats allowed
#resmax[resFeat] += field[abValue].value

~we're valid if the hero has at least as many quickening feats
~as we've awarded
validif (hero.tagis[fCategory.Quickening] >= field[abValue].value)]]></evalrule>
<pickreq thing="tmImmortal"/>
</thing>

I can post the whole xml if that would help

Thanks again!

[Frodie]

Here is the whole thing I working on. Maybe that will help with the Quickening feat. Thanks again!

[Mathias]

It was never my intent to only allow the selection of just Quickening feats. All these bonus quickening feats are added to the same table on the feats tab as the feats you gain from leveling up.

What the rule does is to make sure you've taken at least as many quickening feats as you've received bonus quickening feats. That way, you know that you're not spending those bonus feat slots on other feats.

[Frodie]

Lol, well that makes me feel better, I thought I was going nuts, lol.

Anyways, there is no need to keep track of “how many” bonus feats they have. They are given out a various times. One Quickening feat when the template is taken. One Quickening feat on an Aging Modifier tracker, (every 100 years they get a skill point and a feat), and after winning a battle with another immortal, (same as the Aging Modifier tracker just renamed).
I can easily just add a “bonus feat” to any of that with no problem, I would just like the list of available feats limited to the Quickening category.

[Mathias]

The list of feats can't be restricted to quickening feats at one time and still allow the user to select all the feats they're entitled to from their level at another time. Instead, I've made sure that when the user gets a feat slot to spend on Quickening feats, he spends it on a quickening feat, not a regular feat.

[Frodie]

lol, ok, well I am glad that is settled and I can move on then, lol
Well the next thing on the block is: Can I have a trait that will give skill modifiers based on the character's alignment? I know I can just make a trait and call it XYZ – Lawful Good, ect and add the modifier. But is there nay way to tag it to read the character's alignment?

Again thanks for all your help, should be finishing up soon.

[Mathias]

Start with a blank character.

Go to the develop menu, and make sure that the first item, "Enable Data File Debugging" is checked.

Now, go to the bottom of that menu, "Floating Info Windows", and select "Show Hero Tags"

With that window visible, switch to the Background tab and choose an alignment, and watch how the list of tags changes when you choose an alignment and when you change alignments. You'll be able to identify the tags that store the alignment.

[Frodie]

cool thank you!
Ok, almost done. Got the Template, skills and feats done. Just a few more things! Thanks for all the help!
BTW - The work notes and the working data set for the new Highlander rules can be found here:
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/highlanderd20/

Thanks again yall