Statblocks

Is anyone else running into issues with statblocks? I keep getting an error message saying the data is too large, limit of 5,000 bytes. And these are low level NPC's....

I'd like some means of formatting statblocks to be more readable with highlighting, bold, underlines, etc. I really don't care if it is "standard" for the industry. Make your own RW standard, make it useful and robust, watch everyone adopt it because it just makes sense.

And I'd like to be able to see statblocks as a pulldown or something really fast rather than as a text page that loads. I can't see the other information about the NPC the way it is currently implemented which really makes it a lot less useful.

I've not run into issues with size, but I also do statblocks for Savage Worlds which are pretty short.

I believe the formatting abilities has been requested on the Feature Requests thread, and is definitely something I'd like to see implemented as well.

You might want to start a thread suggesting it show up as a pulldown or pop-up or the like, though. That could be helpful for not getting you too far removed from the rest of the data surrounding that statblock. Although if you use Hero Lab you kind of get that in a way now in the sense that it opens up Hero Lab so you've got a separate window in that sense. I like the idea, though!

I seem to be able to write to my heart's content in normal text fields, but I'm limited to 100 characters for any other field, including statblocks... which of course is simply no where near enough.

I hope they are planning on changing this.

It seems to me the field was meant to be brief, with a more detailed information located in a linked file (HeroLab, .pdf, whatever). Currently, all I'm using my Statblocks for is name, alignment, gender, race, class, and level. For example:

Hurin, chaotic good male dwarf Barbarian 8

While I do use HL, I'd like to be able to see at a glance the NPC/creature/whatever without having to fire up another program.

Three options that I see:
1) HL needs to be modified to create a RW compatible shortened statblock
2) RW needs to support standard statblocks
3) RW needs to rename this snippet so as to not confuse users to something like Really-Short-Sort-Of-Stat-Grouping-That-Is-Really-Short so we know it's not really a statblock like we are familiar with in every other incarnation, but rather something new and less than useful.

Ok, it's pre-release and the features are being tweaked. This is probably a stub that will get expanded upon for release and I'm just being a butt-head. In the end though, the statblock field really needs to be large enough to hold standard statblocks, pretty please.

Oh wait, you guys must be talking about the little text box next to the statblock. That's just for a short descriptive text or maybe a name. The actual statblock is pulled up by hitting that little Play-button-looking-icon that opens up a full page for entering text. That page needs formatting allowed (although it looks like it will accept formatted text if you paste it, it just loses it when you close it), for sure, but it should easily fit any size statblock you need. The problem there, I think, is that it doesn't show you some form of statblock w/in the rest of the snippet flow, you have to hit that button to see it.

zarlor said:

Oh wait, you guys must be talking about the little text box next to the statblock. That's just for a short descriptive text or maybe a name.

Click to expand...

Nope. I mean the statblock itself. It's not large enough for most of the low level NPC and mob statblocks I have created with HL and copied as plain text. It can only get more problematic as spell lists and gear increase at higher levels.

Ah, gotcha. Sorry. I do forget about spell lists since we don't need those in Savage Worlds.

Here is a sample that will not import from clipboard into RW statblock for others to test out but it WILL paste in with a copy/paste. So perhaps the issue is with the clipboard importation. This is from the RotRL community material (brilliant work by those contributing) in encounter area B13-Cathedral of Wrath.

Erylium CR 4
XP 1200
Female Demon, Quasit Witch 3
CE Tiny Outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +9
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Defense
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AC 19, touch 17, flat-footed 14 (+4 Dex, +2 size, +2 natural, +1 dodge)
hp 35 (3d10+3d6+9); fast healing 2
Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +6
DR 5/good or cold iron; Immune electricity, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10
--------------------
Offense
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Speed 20 ft., flight (50 feet, perfect)
Melee +1 Returning Cold Iron Dagger +11 (1d2/19-20/x2) and
Bite (Demon, Quasit) +10 (1d4-1/x2) and
Claw x2 (Demon, Quasit) +10 x2 (1d3-1/x2)
Space 2.5 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks poison (dc 12)
Spell-Like Abilities
At will—Detect Good (At will), Detect Magic (At will), Invisibility (At will)
1/day—Cause Fear 30 ft radius (1/day)
1/week—Commune (1/week)
Witch Spells Prepared (CL 3):
2 (2/day) Hold Person (DC 14), Summon Monster II
1 (3/day) Summon Monster I, Ray of Enfeeblement (DC 13), Command (DC 13)
0 (at will) Touch of Fatigue (DC 12), Bleed (DC 12), Daze (DC 12), Dancing Lights
--------------------
TACTICS
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Before Combat Erylium becomes invisible as soon as she hears enemies approaching.
During Combat Although tough to hit and capable of healing from wounds quickly, Erylium remains something of a coward in a fight. She uses flight to maintain ranged superiority over foes, using spells like summon monster or hold person (aimed at the best-armored of her foes) in the first few rounds of combat. She uses her Tiny +1 cold iron returning dagger against foes once she runs out of spells, but if cornered, she fights with her claws and bite.
Morale If reduced to 5 hit points or fewer, Erylium becomes invisible and flees, waiting for her fast healing to fix her up before returning here to attack the PCs again.
--------------------
Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 15, Wis 10, Cha 13
Base Atk +4; CMB +6; CMD 16
Feats Combat Casting, Dodge, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +4 (+0 jump), Bluff +10, Fly +16, Intimidate +10, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (planes) +8, Perception +9, Spellcraft +11, Stealth +21
Languages Abyssal, Thassilonian; telepathy (touch)
SQ +3 bonus on diplomacy, alternate form (su), deliver touch spells through familiar, empathic link with familiar, hexes (slumber [dc 13], tongues [3 minutes/day]), patron spells (shadow), share spells with familiar
Other Gear +1 Returning Cold Iron Dagger, Black silk gown, Obsidian unholy symbol of Lamashtu, Tiara, 85 GP of Valuables
--------------------
Special Abilities
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+3 bonus on Diplomacy You gain the Alertness feat while your familiar is within arm's reach.
Alternate Form (Su) You can assume the form of a bat, monstrous centipede, toad or wolf.
Cause Fear 30 ft radius (1/day) (Sp) Cause Fear (DC 11) 1/day, 30 ft radius
Combat Casting +4 to Concentration checks to cast while on the defensive.
Commune (1/week) (Sp) Commune 1/week, ask 6 questions
Damage Reduction (5/cold iron or good) You have Damage Reduction against all except Good or Cold Iron attacks.
Damage Resistance, Acid (10) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Acid attacks.
Damage Resistance, Cold (10) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Cold attacks.
Damage Resistance, Fire (10) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Fire attacks.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Deliver Touch Spells Through Familiar (Su) Your familiar can deliver touch spells for you.
Detect Good (At will) (Sp) As the spell. Caster level 6th
Detect Magic (At will) (Sp) As the spell. Caster level 6th
Empathic Link with Familiar (Su) You have an empathic link with your Arcane Familiar.
Fast Healing 2 (Ex) You heal damage every round if you have > 1 Hp.
Flight (50 feet, Perfect) You can fly!
Immunity to Electricity You are immune to electricity damage.
Immunity to Poison You are immune to poison.
Invisibility (At will) (Sp) As the spell, self only. Caster level 6th
Poison (DC 12) (Ex) Poison—Injury; save Fort DC 12; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Dex; cure 2 consecutive saves.
Share Spells with Familiar Can cast spells with a target of "You" on the familiar with a range of touch.
Slumber (3 rds) (DC 13) (Su) Foe in 30 ft falls asleep for duration, or until damaged or roused by ally (Will neg).
Telepathy (Touch) (Su) Communicate telepathically if the target has a language.
Tongues (Comprehend Languages) (3 minutes/day) (Su) Understand any spoken language, as comprehend languages.
--------------------
Although the Catacombs of Wrath are now open and Erylium is free to leave, her thousands of years spent as the catacombs’ queen have left her with a bit of agoraphobia and the senseless worry that if she leaves her catacombs, someone could move in and steal her crown. As a result, she still spends nearly all of her time here.

When the PCs enter the room, the quasit flies into a rage. She shrieks, accuses the PCs of “daring to intrude upon the Mother’s sanctum,” and slashes her own wrist with her dagger, allowing some of her blood to drip into the minor runewell and form a sinspawn. As she does, the minor runewell’s glow diminishes noticeably. A DC 20 Sense Motive allows a character to note the sudden look of worry that Erylium gets when she sees this. She does not create any more sinspawn after the first one.

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Pathfinder® and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC®, and are used under license.

Wow. That isn't a stat block. That is complete character/NPC write-up.

Stat blocks are mini blocks of minimum information that could fit on an index card.

Or, gaming has really changed since my day and I am woefully out of date

Yeah, that is a lot. And while I get that it's the full amount of stuff that gets pulled out from HL I'd suggest at least some of that doesn't really belong in the Stat Block anyway, but rather at the Ecounter level (or whatever you're putting the statblock in). Like Tactics, in particular, non-usable gear, and description stuff at the bottom. That's still leave a huge statblock, though. Reminds me why I've mostly avoided d20 variations again. Yowsa!

Integration with Hero

We just expanded support for Hero Lab portfolios in version 129, you should be able to use a Hero Lab Portfolio snippet type to load the whole portfolio and then show the statblocks in a new tab (including pictures).

The Statblock snippet type is intended for brief summaries, i.e. things you might see embedded in the encounter text of an adventure module (as opposed to a full npc/monster entry in an appendix or bestiary).

For appendix-style entries I suggest either a Hero Lab portfolio or a regular Text snippet.

Spence said:

Wow. That isn't a stat block. That is complete character/NPC write-up.

Stat blocks are mini blocks of minimum information that could fit on an index card.

Or, gaming has really changed since my day and I am woefully out of date

Click to expand...

That's a verbose stat-block. Most of it is standard 3.x/Pathfinder stat-block format. The "Special Abilities" section usually is not spelled out that way in the published adventure (ex. the "Defenses" section lists the DR and energy resistances; these would not be re-printed in the "Special Abilities" section). Any non-standard (new or altered) abilities would get their description included in the Special Abilities block.

Tactics are a little "iffy". Some, like the ones here, are re-usable if the NPC gets away and can be encountered again. In other cases, the Tactics really are very specific to the encounter. In those cases, I'd list them in the encounter description itself and not in the HeroLab entry.

Edit: All that being said, I think HeroLab has some settings that are per-character which can output the stat-blocks in a less-verbose format.

Whoah, folks. Put the torches down. I'm pointing out issues I have with RW and while you may be able to work around them, that doesn't make them go away. I'm hoping Lonewolf wants to know if there are issues so they can decide how/whether they need to address them.

The example statblock I posted is standard HL output, chosen at random from the first module of encounters in RotRL which was input by the community and released as d20pfrsd data sets. This is a sample of the content many of us that play Pathfinder will be importing because entering every single NPC by hand for every adventure, adventure path, etc. when the content is already available is just looney.

Yes, if I was writing these NPCs/creatures up myself, tactics and such would undoubtedly fall under the encounter in RW. If I could import the statblocks, I would likely edit that material out. I can't get to that step easily right now.

Yes, embedded HL portfolios are cool. But they are also unusable if I am not at home.

I absolutely need statblocks in RW in addition to embedded HL portfolios due to the by-computer licensing requirements for HL. I will always be able to access RW no matter where I am because it is account based. I will almost never be able to access HL content remotely as none of my players have any need for bestiarys, etc.

After you've added the Hero Lab profile to Realm Works, you have the options: View, View in new tab, and View externally. Only the latter option launches Hero Lab. The other two open up a complete stat block in Realm Works. It's not useful for snipping data to move, but it might be an option.

Thanks for pointing that out for viewing. That's very helpful and I hadn't found that yet.

Yes AEIOU, we definitely want your feedback. We hope the html statblock view is useful, if not please let us know. In the next several weeks I hope to squeeze a few more features into it, like being able to choose which statblocks to show, turning images on or off, perhaps even reordering them. I can't promise we'll implement every suggestion we get but I can promise we'll listen to them.

Actually that is basically the same sort of stat block I use since I switched over to PF (Greyhawk).

The character writeups can go any where from half a page to four pages.

So the existing stat block does need modification (IMHO)