A new breed of cat...

I've leveled or added HD to an existing "stock" creature from Miscellaneous Monsters, but now I want to create new breed of creature. A cat.

I'm thinking that I want to start with the existing "stock" cat and somehow use the HL Editor to modify the creature. Is that going to work? Are there any gotchas I should know about?

Actually, the cat is only the first of several new "monsters" I want to create/modify using HL. I just wanted to ask for advice before I screwed things up rather than afterwards.

Well, I've started without anyone's input. I've run into a problem.

I started with the basic Cat. I created a new Race by clicking the "New (Copy)" button. Then I selected the stock Cat and started making changes.

One thing I can't figure out. I've read the Help and I've been all over the window and I can't figure out how you set the creature's default Ability Scores. Would anyone care to point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

[Edit]
Never mind. You see, when I can't sleep and stay up all night working on stuff like this, my brain gets a little fuzzy. I just re-read the help info and there it was in the first paragraph. I must have looked at it a half dozen times without it registering. Maybe it's time I went to bed.

Help!

Well, clearly I've done something wrong. I think I've got everything done to my "new breed of cat". I've saved it and clicked the "Test Now!" button and HL says, "You may now use 'Cat, Elven' within Hero Lab." But, when I create a new portfolio and go to select race, it doesn't show up.

Any guesses on where I goofed?

Did you create a source for it? If so, you would need to select that source in the Configure Hero window.

Sendric said:

Did you create a source for it? If so, you would need to select that source in the Configure Hero window.

Click to expand...

BINGO!!! Thanks humongously!

Glad I could help.

I've got my new feline critter created and most everything seems alright. This feline is storied as the familiar of an extraordinarily powerful wizard and has a level or two of sorcerer. I've already added Knowledge-Arcana to his skill list. Problem is on the Sorcerer tab, under Special Abilities, I cannot select an Arcane Bloodline Class Skill. Screen shots are attached.

This problem is really being a ... well, a problem.

You need to manually add whichever Knowledge skill that you want for the arcana bloodline to the skill tab first.

Then it will be available for selection.

chava said:

You need to manually add whichever Knowledge skill that you want for the arcana bloodline to the skill tab first.

Then it will be available for selection.

Click to expand...

I already did that, and I said I had already done that in my last post.

Daeorian said:

I already did that, and I said I had already done that in my last post.

Click to expand...

I think he's saying to go to the Skills tab and make sure that Knowledge (arcana) is selected as a skill. You don't have to put ranks into it but you do need to make sure that it is showing up on your skill list. You need to do that with all the Knowledge, Craft, Profession, and Perform skills in order for them to show up in class and race specials.

blzbob said:

I think he's saying to go to the Skills tab and make sure that Knowledge (arcana) is selected as a skill. You don't have to put ranks into it but you do need to make sure that it is showing up on your skill list. You need to do that with all the Knowledge, Craft, Profession, and Perform skills in order for them to show up in class and race specials.

Click to expand...

And I'm saying I have done exactly that and I actually HAVE put ranks in it. I've attached a screen shot of the Knowledge skills and the ranks in them.

So I created a sorcerer with just an elf as the race. I am having the same problem. This may need to be put in the "bugs" thread unless someone else can figure out what's going on.

Knowledge Arcana is already a class skill for the Sorcerer. You have to pick a different one. I did that and it worked fine.

Sendric said:

Knowledge Arcana is already a class skill for the Sorcerer. You have to pick a different one. I did that and it worked fine.

Click to expand...

I shouldn't try to figure things out when I'm tired. Even his screen shot shows that it is already a class skill. I should have noticed that. Good catch.

blzbob said:

I shouldn't try to figure things out when I'm tired. Even his screen shot shows that it is already a class skill. I should have noticed that. Good catch.

Click to expand...

I know the feeling.

OK. I already had Knowledge Nature and Knowledge Arcana. Knowledge Nature is not a class skill for Sorcerer, but it wouldn't show up in the drop-down list.

So, per comments by Sendric, I added two more Knowledge areas, then went to select the Arcane Bloodline Class Skill. The two new items plus the pre-existing Knowledge Nature now show up in the drop-down list. (See attached screen shot.)

My question: why didn't Knowledge Nature show up before? It was there, it just took adding something extraneous to make it show up.

This sounds like a bug.

The second screen shot attachment shows that there is no description for Knowledge Engineering. Not exactly a bug, per se, but an oversight on someone's part, perhaps?

I can't reproduce that, Daeorian. Not saying you didn't see it, but when I add in just Knowledge Nature, or have both that and Knowledge Arcana, Knowledge Nature shows up in the dropdown for me. Not really sure what that means...maybe it was some sort of fluky thing, or it requires a very specific set of steps to reproduce.

Maybe it was the order in which I did things. I just tried to re-do a 'test' cat and could not get the bug to repeat.

One question came to me during my testing: If Knowledge Arcana is a class skill for a sorcerer with the Arcane Bloodline, why doesn't it automatically show up under skills?

Here's what I did for a test:
1st - create new hero named "test".
2nd - de-select EVERYTHING under Settings except the output options, then click OK.
3rd - under Classes, choose favored class of Sorcerer.
4th - under the Magic tab, buy "for free" the Amulet of Proof Against Detection & Location (to be my bonded object in a later step.) Equip the amulet.
5th - under the Background tab, choose race Human, alignment True Neutral, and select Charisma for my +2 bonus.
5th - under feats HL is prompting me to select a feat. I chose Combat Casting.
6th - back to the Classes tab and level up with my 1st level of Sorcerer.
7th - under the Feats tab, HL prompts for another feat. Selected Improve Initiative.
8th - under the Sorcerer tab, "Add more Bloodlines (1 left)!". Chose Arcane.
9th - "Add more Arcane Bonds (1 left)!" Chose Bonded Object.
10th - from drop-down list next to "Bonded Object: Choose (1/day) (Sp)", selected Amulet of Proof Against Detection & Location.

At this point I'd expect Knowledge Arcana to be showing under the Skills tab, but it's not. (See 1st attachment.) If I add it manually, it shows as a class skill. (See 2nd attachment.)

Why aren't class skills automatically added?

Daeorian said:

OK. I already had Knowledge Nature and Knowledge Arcana. Knowledge Nature is not a class skill for Sorcerer, but it wouldn't show up in the drop-down list.

So, per comments by Sendric, I added two more Knowledge areas, then went to select the Arcane Bloodline Class Skill. The two new items plus the pre-existing Knowledge Nature now show up in the drop-down list. (See attached screen shot.)

My question: why didn't Knowledge Nature show up before? It was there, it just took adding something extraneous to make it show up.

This sounds like a bug.

Click to expand...

I also can't reproduce this. Sounds like it could just have been a weird fluke. I get them no matter what software I'm using. Sounds like you did too.

The second screen shot attachment shows that there is no description for Knowledge Engineering. Not exactly a bug, per se, but an oversight on someone's part, perhaps?

Click to expand...

There are a few things that are like that. It's not a bug, just something that hasn't been completed yet. Mathias is spending much of his time making sure that the mechanical portions of the software are running and that as much of the new stuff gets entered. I generally don't worry about minor details like this (I would rather look it up anyway).