[Mathias]

Data File Authoring

• Adjustments can now enter a Custom Expression for the options they offer for selection, and are no longer limited to the pre-set options in the "Show Menu".
• Created the DescAppend field. This is intended as a way to condense many similar abilities into a single modifieable ability which can be bootstrapped multiple times with unique text each time. This is distinct from the #appendesc[] macro because that acts on the thing, and thus the change is applied to all copies of a thing on the hero. For example, many monsters have a Disease ability (and some templates or other abilities add other disease abilities). Until now each of these had been created as a seperate, unique pick with its own description. With the DescAppend field there can be a single "Disease" special which sets the description when bootstrapped. Text placed in DescAppend will be displayed after the normal description text, but before any text added by SpInfo or DescInfo tags.
• Created the abRange field. Similar to abDuration, this is a numeric field meant to store a certain type of value. Until now, most Aura abilities used one of the abValue fields for storing their range, and that will still work, but if using abRange the statblock output will be displayed closer to the Paizo standard (with the range inside the same parenthesis with any DC). Many other abilities have been switched over to use abRange in thier displays, but old bootstraps should remain working in most cases.
• Attack and Damage has now been made granular, so that you can apply a typed bonus to only melee attacks, only ranged attacks, or so on, and have it stack appropriately. This is accomplished by a new set of fields, but the same #applybonus macro as before is still used.
• Attack and Damage fields have been added to specials, and they may now be shown on the weapons tab.
• SpecType tags may now be added to spells, to mark whether a spell should be shown on a certain line of the automatically generated statblock. It should be added as an autotag when Bootstrapping a Spell-like ability which is Constant. For example, a monster with Constant True seeing would bootstrap that spell with SpecType.Sense, so it shows on the Senses line of the statblock.
• Created the Hide.Statblock tag. This prevents a special from being added to the output hero statblock (used for Situational Stealth bonus and similar abilities).
• Created the Helper.ShowStatbl tag. This signals that a special should show in the Generate Hero Statblock, even though it is not shown on the Specials tab (indicated by Helper.ShowSpec). An ability with neither Helper.ShowStatbl nor Helper.ShowSpec will not be shown in the statblocks.
• Added the StatblHide tag group to be able to hide specials on individual sections of the statblock (StatblHide.Attack, StatblHide.Immune, etc). For example, the Trample special is a natural weapon in HL but it is also a special attack. With these tags, we can hide it on the melee line but not on the special attacks line. Similarly, statblocks often show a single ability which is a bundle of other things which are not shown. "Undead Traits" includes many different immunities which normally would be shown on the Immunity line alongside it. Now the special can apply the StatblHide.Immune tag to each of those.
• The sbName field, introduced in previous releases, has been consolidated to set itself to a standard set of behaviors if left empty. Where a special varies from the normal rules, an eval script has been added to that thing to set it specially. You can also bootstrap a thing with sbName already set, and override the standard behaviors that way (for example, with Change Shape).
• Some specials (Regeneration, Lingering Breath, Swallow Whole) had previously been designed around bootstrapping the special with a livename that was only part of the final livename. In general, this is to be discouraged. The previous method should work, but most of this functionality is moved over into abText, and that should be used in the future.
• Created the #applyvalue2, #applyvalue3, and #applyvalue4 macros. They function just like #applyvalue but they target a different abValue field each.
• Expanded the SpecType tag group to add SpecType.Initiative and SpecType.ArmorClass. Marked abilities show right of the initiative bonus in the statblock (such as Dual Initiative) or right of the AC bonus breakdown (like "never flat-footed").
• Added the Helper.NoAttrDam tag. When added to a special attack, the current attribute does not add it's damage to the damage fields. This is useful for many special attacks that do attribute damage (for example), and thus the strength of the attack is not related to the strength attribute.
• Types and Subtypes now have abValue fields, which can be used to store various values (for example, energy resistance values), and then have those accessable to be changed from outside.
• Races have the rReachNote field, which is transfered to the sister field tReachNote on the hero. If there is any text in tReachNote, an asterick will appear next to the displayed reach, and the user can mouseover it to see notes. This is necessary for many monsters which have some natural attacks with longer reach than their base.
• Weapons can now have the Helper.NoAttrDam tag, which prevents any damage bonus from the active attribute.
• Created the Helper.NoAttacks tag, for specials which do not make attacks but nonetheless should be shown on the melee line of the statblock/on the weapons tab. This is used for the Swarm attack special ability.
• The tooltips for the fortitude, reflex, and will save as well as the attack bonus progression on the class tab in the editor were incorrect.