How to add a chooser for a school ability?

[EightBitz]

Trying to add a Class Special, in the editor, to allow a player to choose a school ability.

Looking at the editor, there's an option to add expressions for selection lists. For the first selection, I can choose "Schools". That's easy enough. For the second selection, I have no idea what to do. None of the options in the "Second Selection From..." list give me what I'm looking for, and I'm not sure what kind of custom expression I might be able to add.

A bit of debugging showed me that there are lesser abilities and greater abilities, but those tags don't relate to the selected school. So, I'm not really sure where to go from here.

(Yes, I'm taking a crack at the Warlock Class, but this is my first time creating a class, so don't get too excited.)

[EightBitz]

So, I was able to get the list I wanted, only to discover that the abilities themselves don't identify their level. I would either have to modify each ability, or duplicate and modify, or I would have to figure out a way to query every school and see at what level it bootstraps each ability, then somehow script that in to determine which abilities are valid at which levels.

That last bit, especially, is more trouble than it's worth to me, and I'm not too excited about the other options either. So, that's that.

[Aaron]

I'd do something like the eldritch scion, bootstrap a configurable, add the school to said configurable, then disable whichever bootstrapped school abilities need disabling.

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by Aaron

I'd do something like the eldritch scion, bootstrap a configurable, add the school to said configurable, then disable whichever bootstrapped school abilities need disabling.

That wouldn't solve my problem. A Warlock gets to choose items from a list of school abilities. The items they choose cannot exceed their level. For instance, "Energy Absorption" (from the Abjuration school) should not be available until 6th level, and "Dimensional Steps" (from the Conjuration school) should not be available until 8th level.

But if I look at either of those things on their own, there's nothing to indicate what level abilities they are. That is only determined by the bootstrap conditions specified within their associated schools.

[EightBitz]

Also, they don't get automatically get all the 1st level abilities at first level and all the 8th level abilities at 8th level. When they have an opportunity for a new ability, they have to pick which one they want.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by EightBitz

Also, they don't get automatically get all the 1st level abilities at first level and all the 8th level abilities at 8th level. When they have an opportunity for a new ability, they have to pick which one they want.

Reading this quickly this sounds exactly the same as Rage Powers, Rogue Talents, Alchemist Discoveries etc. You build these as Custom Abilities in the editor and then setup the class "Custom Abilites" to control at what level the gamer can make a choice.

Then each new Custom Ability Thing has a pre-req that controls the level requirement.

Another example if you want to see the whole class at once is the Soulknife from the community Pack. It gets Blade Skills as choices.

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

Reading this quickly this sounds exactly the same as Rage Powers, Rogue Talents, Alchemist Discoveries etc. You build these as Custom Abilities in the editor and then setup the class "Custom Abilites" to control at what level the gamer can make a choice.

Then each new Custom Ability Thing has a pre-req that controls the level requirement.

Another example if you want to see the whole class at once is the Soulknife from the community Pack. It gets Blade Skills as choices.

Yeah, that's what I figured. I just didn't want to have duplicate all those items.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by EightBitz

Yeah, that's what I figured. I just didn't want to have duplicate all those items.

Why do you need to duplicate stuff when you are adding new Things?

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

Why do you need to duplicate stuff when you are adding new Things?

Conceptually, I'm not adding new things. Unless I'm reading it wrong, the Warlock is able to select school abilities from Arcane schools. For example, the Abjuration school specifies the following abilities:
Resistance
Protective Ward
Energy Absorption

The Conjuration school specifies the following abilities:
Summoner's Charm
Acid Dart
Dimensional Steps

I'll stick with those two just for the sake of example. So at first level, a Warlock can select two school abilities from that list, excluding Dimensional Steps, because that's an 8th level ability.

So, at first level, from those two schools, I want to list all the abilities that do not have a level restriction.

Those abilities already exist within the Hero Lab product. What they lack, so far as I can tell, is some self-contained indication of their level. So if I loaded up Dimensional Step, there is nothing within its definition that indicates it's an 8th level ability.

If I load up the Conjuration School, I can see that Dimensional Steps is bootstrapped with a condition for 8th level, but that's the only indication I can find that it's an 8th level ability.

If, on the other hand, I duplicate Dimensional Step, and add some field or tag or value or something that indicates it's an 8th level ability, then I'll able (I'm assuming) to build an expression to include abilities appropriate for the Warlock's level.

[EightBitz]

Or, now that I think of it, and maybe this is what you were trying to say, instead of building just one instance of the ability selection, I can create multiple instances, one for each level where the Warlock gets to choose an ability, and build a different expression for each instance. That would actually work out better.

EDIT: Sorry. I can be a bit thick at times. It looks like that was indeed what you were trying to say.