Sustaining Focus with specific spell

[mKell]

Happy new year to you all!

I'm currently trying to add the Missions NPCs to my game and have hit upon a problem.
Is there a way to specify what spell is currently sustained by a sustaining focus and have this selection directly reflected in the ratings, e.g. an Armor 3 spell that directly increases the armor rating of the character?

[CeaDawg]

If the focus is used only for that spell, just name it such in the item tool box window. As for tying it to that spell in the tactical screen idk.

[mKell]

I have done that as a stop-gap. But when using the tactical console, it would be quite helpful if the spell's effect (Armor, Increased Reflexes, etc) were directly figured into the statistics of the character.

Thanks anyway, I'll try some more, maybe I hid upon an epiphany.

[Mathias]

For Pathfinder, a great many adjustments that apply the effects of spells and class abilities have been built by users and donated for us to include with Hero Lab - I've been hoping people would do something similar for Shadowrun. Otherwise, they're on my to-do list, but at a lower priority than the core supplements and most of the other supplements, so I won't get to them for a while.

There are of course generic adjustments available, but those may not work correctly when taking astral/VR into account, and I'm not sure that they'll be able to handle every spell.

[Murrdox]

Hmmm this sounds like a fun challenge. I'll play around with it and see if I can get this to work. I have a couple ideas...

[Murrdox]

Right now Hero Lab doesn't have a function beyond the "In-Play Adjustments" tab to register any Spells currently cast on a character or NPC. So, if you cast a Spell on someone to increase Reaction by 3, you can go to the "In-Play Adjustments" tab, add a new Adjustment for "Attribute", select "Reaction" from the pull down menu, and then tick it upwards however powerful the increase is.

The problem with adjusting Armor Ballistic and Armor Impact in this way is that these adjustments are put there to MODIFY existing armor.

What I did to get around this was that I created a new armor piece, a Shield (because Shields stack with regular armor just like the Armor spell) and I named it "Armor Spell". I set it to a Ballistic and Impact armor rating of 0. Then I bought it for the character and equipped it.

Now when you go to the "In Play Adjustments" tab, you can add a Ballistic and Impact enhancement to the "Armor Spell" piece of equipment. Tick it up however powerful you want it to be. Unfortunately the enhancement will show up twice on the Tactical Console because it's technically TWO enhancements (Impact AND Ballistic, there doesn't seem to be a way to enhance both simultaneously) but it WILL show you the correct armor value for the character in the console.

If you want it simpler you could just forget about creating the "Armor Spell" piece of equipment. As long as the subject is wearing SOME kind of armor, you can enhance it on the tab. If the subject is naked though, you won't be able to.

[Mathias]

Actually, for the armor spell, I'd recommend looking at the Mystic Armor adept power - that'll show you how you can bootstrap a piece of natural armor from another thing (in that case, the adept power, in your case, from the adjustment), and then use a script to set both its ballistic and impact values.

[Murrdox]

Very good idea, I didn't think about the Adept Power. I haven't played around with building many Adepts in Hero Lab yet. I fooled around with it a bit last night and I see what you mean. Haven't quite gotten it to work yet though.