HL Editor for Shaman class specials - Help needed
 

Hello, this is my first message on the forum so please forgive me if I'm asking some noob questions.

I've been using Hero Lab with the Pathfinder ruleset for a long time, but now I'm playing a shaman in a Reign of Winter campaign and my GM wants to provide me with some (quite nice, actually) changes for my shaman, so I decided to give the HL editor a try. So far there are things I managed to do, but others still don't work and this is where help from advanced users would prove valuable. :)

So, my GM has created a new shaman archetype (he called it Spirit Channeller) which alters the shaman's wandering spirit ability and turns it into a Spirit Pact ability, but the effects are almost the same–i.e., you don't pick a wandering spirit each day, but choose a spirit animal you've made a pact with. So far so good: I just created a couple of new spirit animals, each with an unique name for the spirit I made a pact with.

Right now I have two spirit animals I've made a pact with (more will come later). Each spirit has a spell list; I've put that into the editor and it works perfectly well.

Now comes the trouble. The first spirit animal, Anuki, has a special ability which I'm copy-pasting here, as written by my GM.

---
Spirit of Retribution: after the shaman sees one of his companions wounded by an enemy or if he witnesses an injustice, he can mark the wrongdoer for retribution as an immediate action. He gains +1 to hit and damage against this target for every four shaman levels. This ability can be used 3 + Cha times per day.
---

The second spirit animal, Gurhal, has a special ability that resembles the traditional shaman's life spirit Channel ability, though Gurhal's ability can be used more often:

---
Spirit of Succor: The shaman can channel positive energy like a cleric, using her shaman level as her effective cleric level when determining the amount of damage healed (or dealt to undead) and the DC. The shaman can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier.
---

These two class special abilities are exactly what I can't manage to translate into HL terms. More accurately, I have created two class specials but they don't show up in the tracked resources (even if I check the "Show in Tracked Resources List?" button) and it seems there is no way for HL to show them anywhere in my character sheet.

Clearly, I can provide additional details if anybody is willing to help me. Thanks a lot for the support!

In order to provide more details, this is what I've done so far.

For Spirit of Succor, which resembles the Witch Doctor's archetype Channel Energy ability, I have created a class special in the editor and called it Spirit of Succor (cShaSpiSuc).

Problem: I can't get any mention of this new ability neither under the Special tab, nor as a trackable ability under the In-Play tab. If I add the Witch Doctor's archetype, I can see both. If I add both the Witch Doctor's archetype and the Spirit of Succor class ability, the number of times per day of the two abilities stuck and I can see a reference to the Witch Doctor's Channel Energy ability under the In-Play tab, meaning that Spirit of Succor actually exists and counts the number of times per day correctly. It just won't show up, however, and I don't have a clue why!

Additional information:

All the tags and bootstraps of cShaSpiSuc are an exact copy of the Channel Energy ability (cShaChaEne), with the following exceptions.

- Exception 1: the cShaSpiSuc Channel Energy Cond. is empty, while the cShaChaEne Channel Energy Cond. contains the (count:Classes.Shaman >= 4 & !AbReplace.cShaChaEne) line. Reason: I don't need to be at least level 4 to take the Spirit of Succor class ability.

- Exception 2: cShaSpiSuc has an additional tag, compared to cShaChaEne, which is (group id: abCategory | tag id: ShaSpAb). Reason: cShaSpiSuc is a spirit animal ability, provided by a specific spirit animal I have created (Gurhal).

These are the two Eval Scripts I have in cShaSpiSuc so far. I realise something is wrong here, but I don't understand what.

Eval Script 1 (Post-levels, 10000, 1)

~ If we're not shown, just get out now
doneif (tagis[Helper.ShowSpec] = 0)

~ If we're disabled, do nothing
doneif (tagis[Helper.SpcDisable] <> 0)

~ Set our name properly
var v_turnname as string
call cClrTurnNm
field[livename].text = v_turnname

var tagexpr as string
tagexpr = "SpecSource.arShaWitDo"
call ChanEnFind
doneif (state.isfocus = 0)

~ Add to our turning level.
focus.field[abValue].value += field[xAllLev].value

Eval Script 2 (Post-attributes, 10000, 2)

var tagexpr as string
tagexpr = "SpecSource.arShaWitDo"
call ChanEnFind
doneif (state.isfocus = 0)

~ we can turn undead 3 + CHA mod / day
focus.field[trkMax].value += 3 + hero.child[aCHA].field[aModBonus].value

I'm clearly unfamiliar with Eval Scripts but I think this is where my problem is, so I'm asking for help from someone who knows a bit more than me.
I realise that the reference to SpecSource.arShaWitDo has something to do with the Witch Doctor's archetype, but I think this only influences the name of the ability I'm trying to add (which will then be called something like "Witch Doctor's Channel Energy Ability" instead of "Spirit of Succor", but I don't know how to change this correctly).

Can anybody help me, please? Thanks a lot for the support!

Can you attach your .user file?

EDIT: And your .por file?

Sure! Here are the .user file and the .por.

The .por file contains several characters but the only one I'm working on is named Atka, along with his familiar, Ganniaq.

As for the .user, you will find several abilities. The one that is not showing up for me is Spirit of Succor (class special).

Thanks a lot!

You need to change the tagexpr field to match what will be on the xChannel Pick. The SpecSource in this case is the class helper ID of cHelpSha.

So change:
to
This will allow the procedure ChanEnFind to actually find xChannel that this class added and correctly set its values.

First of all thanks for the advice. I think I've changed the tagexpr as you suggested, but Spirit of Succor is still not showing up. I'm attaching the new version of the .user file (the .por file has not changed, but I'm attaching it nonetheless). Anyway, these are the eval scripts so far:

Post-attributes
Post-levels
Sorry for bothering, hope you can help me fix this! Thanks again.

xxxxxx

For testing I used your .user file. I added the Gurhal spirit and 4 levels of shaman and "Shaman Channel Positive Energy 3d6 3/day" correctly displays.

I used your .por file and I see the issue. You have Gurhal added not as a spirit but as a wandering spirit. So the 4th level ability to channel energy is being changed to level 8. If I raise the character to level 8 then the channel energy correctly shows. :)

Yes, you are right. My GM told me Gurhal (and other spirits alike) can only be wandering spirit. I just changed the "Gain at level 4" to "Gain at level 1" field for Spirit of Succor and now it shows up correctly!

Thanks a lot for the support!