Adding and Deleting Classes

[MPHopcroft]

Imagine you wanted to use the base d20 mechanic system, but were rebuilding the dataset for a specific title that uses a much different class set from standard SRD D&D. Will there be a way in the Authoring kit to block off original classes you do not wish to you, and distinguish a new class you Do wish to use that has the same name from the old, blocked class?

That way, which it would be transparent to someone looking at the character sheet, you would know that you are using your system's version of "Rogue" rather than the SRD version.

[RayPrancer]

At the moment, the best way to do this, if you have an alternative class, is to use the "Replaces Thing ID" box and fill in the details for what you want to replace there. For example, to overwrite the Rouge, enter cHelpRog in the box.

[rob]

> Imagine you wanted to use the base d20 mechanic system, but were
> rebuilding the dataset for a specific title that uses a much different
> class set from standard SRD D&D. Will there be a way in the Authoring kit
> to block off original classes you do not wish to you, and distinguish a
> new class you Do wish to use that has the same name from the old, blocked
> class?

This is already possible. :-)

Within the Editor, there is an option to specify a field labeled as
"Replaces Id". Entering the unique id of another thing (e.g. a "core"
class defined in the basic files) causes the new thing to wholesale
replace it EVERYWHERE. For example, we had someone ask as the show today
if he could create a new Ranger class that omitted all spell casting
capabilities, since that's how things work in his game. So we created a
copy of the existing Ranger class, turned off spell support by toggling
the checkbox, designated the new class as replacing the core Ranger class,
and we were done. The "Ranger" class appeared in the list for user
selection, but that class had no spell capabilities. The core "Ranger"
class was completely gone from the user's perspective.

This technique can be even more powerful, though. Let's say that you want
to change the damage of all longswords. You can define your own longsword
class that is a copy of the core longsword class and modifies the damage.
By using the "replaces" mechanism, the behavior of ALL longswords
throughout HL will be changed. This includes all pre-defined magic
longswords that exist in the magic weapons list from the DMG.

You should be able to find some additional information about this within
the documentation, in case you want more details. Or you can ask more
questions here.