D&D 5e Community Pack

I'm not opposed to updating the Blood Hunter. It's just that there are so many first-party things that still need to be done (mainly monsters and items from Waterdeep onward). So it's not my focus and won't be for quite a while, unless one of my players that uses Hero Lab decides they want to play the class and need it working.

That said, if anyone wants to try and update it for the pack, they're always welcome to do so! And I and others here would gladly lend our help with any questions that person has.

I have a question about the protection domain (UA 11/2016). My 3rd level cleric has this domain, and it's giving me protection from energy and slow at 3rd level, but those spells aren't gained until 5th level.

I don't know to get that fixed. HL is showing me that I can't have those spells (which is correct), but I didn't pick them - they were granted when I took the domain.

mastratton said:

I have a question about the protection domain (UA 11/2016). My 3rd level cleric has this domain, and it's giving me protection from energy and slow at 3rd level, but those spells aren't gained until 5th level.

I don't know to get that fixed. HL is showing me that I can't have those spells (which is correct), but I didn't pick them - they were granted when I took the domain.

Click to expand...

Yup, this is definitely an error with the file. I'm fixing it for the next release. In the meantime, you can fix it by doing this:

1. Open the Editor (Tools > Show Editor)
2. Open COM_5ePack_UA - Cleric.user
3. Go to the tabs Class > Custom Ability, and click on "Protection (UA - 11/2016)"
4. Click on the Edit button by "Spell-Like Abilities" (should have a x10)
5. On the line for Protection from Energy, click the "Tags" button
6. On the tag for "BonusSplAt" change the number from 3 to 5
7. Click OK
8. Repeat steps 5-7 for Slow
9. Repeat steps 5-7 for Guardian of Faith and Resilient Sphere, but change the number from 4 to 7.
10. Click OK
11. Save the data file (click yes when it asks you to save the record)
12. Close the Editor
13. Reload Hero Lab with Ctrl-R

So whoever set these up put in the wrong numbers there; you'll notice the correct numbers are the level you get these bonus spells (hence the tag "BonusSplAt", or Bonus Spell at Level....).

TCE Magic Items missing

I see that Tasha's Cauldron of Everything has been added, and that's amazing. I can't express how much I appreciate all the work you guys do.
I'm not able to find some/all of the new magic items from TCE, but the rest of the content seems to be there. Have the new items not been added or am I possibly doing something wrong when configuring my hero?

The Tasha's items haven't been added yet. Only stuff called out in patch notes are included, so if something (IE the items) aren't on there, they're not in the pack. They are on my to-do list, though!

I finally got around to installign the last Community pack. Fantastic work Fenris. I have yet to update to the lastest GIT version. I hope to do so over the next few days.

Fenris447 said:

So whoever set these up put in the wrong numbers there; you'll notice the correct numbers are the level you get these bonus spells (hence the tag "BonusSplAt", or Bonus Spell at Level....).

Click to expand...

Hey, Fenris, thanks! I never would have figured that out on my own!

Appreciate the help!

-Mark

Release 3.1, which I am calling Monster Mash, is coming along nicely. In addition to the spell adjustments mentioned earlier, it will focus on getting in a lot of the monsters that have yet to be programmed in. Right now I can promise GGtR and IDRotF monsters will be in, but I’m working towards a lot more than that. I’m also hoping to get a bunch of items in, especially TCoE. But those are a whole lot of text to rewrite, so without any help it is very time-consuming.

In case anyone is interested, I can pull back the curtain on the process on programming in monsters. I have a way of pulling dumps of the monsters for a particular book in spreadsheet form. One enterprising HL user (I can’t remember who otherwise I’d give credit) had developed a spreadsheet that can convert such data into Hero Lab’s programming language. Over the years, I’ve built on that format. It can pull almost all the stats in a stat block in automatically, with a few exceptions.

With changes I’ve recently made, it can even pull in the basic attacks (those that have +# to hit, #d# damage) and generate them automatically. It also now can identify when a caster is a named NPC, so that their spellcasting description doesn’t say “The john mageman’s casting ability is...”, and instead properly rewrites that text.

The few things that require manual touches still take a ton of time. Any special abilities, actions, reactions, legendary actions, and lair actions all must be rewritten to strip out descriptive text and to not be direct copies (for copyright reasons) of what’s in the book. So I have to pull all those out, type out their new text, and tweak their damage, range, type of action, etc. in another spreadsheet that generates that specific code. Then I dump those programmed abilities into the HL file.

The next step is to open the editor and manually match each of those abilities to their monsters. This is relatively easy, but again, time consuming.

Finally we build a .stock file, which is the same as your .por files for your saved heroes/parties. You create each monster as an NPC, selecting that monster for the NPC’s race. Any armor or regular weapons (short sword, mace, longbow, etc.) get added here. Also, any spellcasters with prepared spells (versus innate, which are programmed manually in the editor) must have their spells chosen at this stage.

Finally, you review the monster in the .stock file to make sure it matches the book version of that monster. Some things have to be tweaked. For instance, Hero Lab can only add Telepathy up to a range of 600 ft. by default. For a monster with 1,000 ft. of telepathy, I had to make some tweaks in the editor.

Once all that’s done, you save the .stock file to your 5e data folder. Once Hero Lab reloads, you can see those monsters in the Encounter Builder. And that’s how I program monsters.

I’m working on a similar solution for programming items. On the whole, items require more individual programming than monsters, since their effects are far less universal. But at least I can get rewritten descriptions, weights, rarities, sources, attunement, etc. automated. But again, rewriting the descriptions takes a ton of time!

So if anyone is interested in helping without having to do any programming, there’s plenty of work in that rewriting. It’s pretty straightforward. Think back to your school years, where you copied stuff off the internet for a report. You re-stated it, making the words different while still saying the same thing. That’s exactly what we do for all abilities, items, spells, etc. in the community pack. That, plus removing the fluff. We don’t need text like “the Druid calls upon its bond with nature, summoning a powerful ally.”

Edit: accidental duplicate post

Just to update, almost all text-rewriting for all outstanding items and monsters (with the exception of Wildemount items) has been completed. Now’s the fun part: programming it all. I’m fairly confident that everything from Tasha’s, Icewind Dale, and Eberron will be done for the next release. But there are tons of other books that are all in some stage of progress. If you’d like to give your opinion on what to prioritize, head to this thread.

I'm back! Gotta make the move to HL for 5E. How comprehensive is the 5E community pack? (87 pages to review is just me being too lazy to go through them all.)

Also, I'm open to any community scripting as well, once I'm fully back in.

The Community Pack currently has all virtually all player options (races/subraces, classes/subclasses, backgrounds*, feats, supernatural gifts, variant class/race features, spells, etc.) The stuff that's missing is items and monsters from various sourcebooks dating back a few years. Also, we have patch notes on the GitHub that are a lot shorter than these 88 pages, in case you want to read through them.

Most of the outstanding stuff is currently in a WIP state in one form or another. I'm the only person currently working on stuff (that I know of), and I am tackling things in large batches; IE I have much of the basics of the uncompleted monsters and items built out. The remaining work for items is programming their specific functions, and the work left for the monsters is matching batch-created abilities to the specific monsters, creating the stock files, and tweaking them for anything else my batch processes didn't cover.

If you have an interest in working on something specific, let me know and I can upload the WIP version of it to a branch on the GitHub for you to pull down and have at it. We'd probably need to get together over Discord or something if you want to do monsters, so I can show you how they're currently set up and how to finish them off, since I don't want you to have to do some things that are already done. I'd be very happy to have help!


*With the exception of a few adventure-specific backgrounds, like Acquisitions, Inc. and Baldur's Gate. If anyone needs these, I can prioritize them for release.

So I just discovered that the Battle Balloon and Mechanical Beholder vehicles from noAcquisitions, Inc. were never uploaded to the pack, depsite the fact that I said they were included in release 3.0. Nobody has said anything, so I probably could have gotten away with just sneaking it into 3.1. But it's my mistake to own! So sorry, guys.

You shouldn't worry so much haha
I don't think anyone's going to complain, you do great work and you've been doing it largely by yourself. Besides, if no one said anything, then I imagine noone even noticed

Here's a status update on Release 3.1. I'm aiming to have it done before Candlekeep Mysteries hits this month. The stuff here is, aside from the bigger books, the quick hits. The bigger books like the Waterdeep adventures, GGtR, EGtW, and MOoT all need a bit more time in the oven before they're ready, but are all in some degree of progress.

EDIT: Everything's done! Gotta do some quality control reviews but I'm hoping I'll have this pushed for release by the weekend. Definitely aiming to have it out before the 16th, when Candlekeep Mysteries hits.

Spell Adjustments - 100%

Eberron (Wayfinder's Guide and Rising from the Last War)

• Items - 100%
• Languages - 100%
• Monsters - 100%
• Subraces (Aerini and Valenar Elves) - 100%

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

• Charms - 100%
• Items - 100%
• Language - 100%
• Monsters - 100%
• Spells - 100%

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything

• Items - 100%
• Monsters - 100%

Adventures with Muk

• Dankwood Goblin race - 100%
• Monsters - 100%

Hunt for the Thessalhydra (Stranger Things)

• Item - 100%
• Monsters - 100%

Infernal Machine Rebuild

• Items - 100%
• Monsters - 100%

Locathah Rising

• Monsters - 100%

Lost Library of Kwalish

• Items - 100%
• Monsters - 100%
• Spells - 100%

Rick and Morty

• Item - 100%
• Monsters - 100%
  

Sapphire Anniversary Dice Set

• Monster - 100%

The Tortle Package

• Item - 100%
• Monsters - 100%

Tomb of Annihilation

• Charms - 100%
• Yuan-Ti Transformation - 100%

There are a handful of other goodies and improvements coming too, and they'll be in the patch notes.

EDIT: FYI I'm updating this as I make progress.

Fenris447 said:

The Community Pack currently has all virtually all player options (races/subraces, classes/subclasses, backgrounds*, feats, supernatural gifts, variant class/race features, spells, etc.) The stuff that's missing is items and monsters from various sourcebooks dating back a few years. Also, we have patch notes on the GitHub that are a lot shorter than these 88 pages, in case you want to read through them.

Most of the outstanding stuff is currently in a WIP state in one form or another. I'm the only person currently working on stuff (that I know of), and I am tackling things in large batches; IE I have much of the basics of the uncompleted monsters and items built out. The remaining work for items is programming their specific functions, and the work left for the monsters is matching batch-created abilities to the specific monsters, creating the stock files, and tweaking them for anything else my batch processes didn't cover.

If you have an interest in working on something specific, let me know and I can upload the WIP version of it to a branch on the GitHub for you to pull down and have at it. We'd probably need to get together over Discord or something if you want to do monsters, so I can show you how they're currently set up and how to finish them off, since I don't want you to have to do some things that are already done. I'd be very happy to have help!


*With the exception of a few adventure-specific backgrounds, like Acquisitions, Inc. and Baldur's Gate. If anyone needs these, I can prioritize them for release.

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I'll download the community pack and take a look at it. I'm willing to help anyway I can, but outside of the scripting, is there other code you have access to, you seem to imply that you do?

I've done all my own homebrew in 3.5E and worked a bit on the community scripts when I was active, but have since moved on to 5e, which I will homebrew as well. But most of 5E will remain intact, which is why I wondered what was available in it.

I'll let you know when and if I can put my hands into the mix. \

Kendall-DM said:

I'll download the community pack and take a look at it. I'm willing to help anyway I can, but outside of the scripting, is there other code you have access to, you seem to imply that you do?

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As I complete stuff, I add it to my own branch on the GitHub. Then, once a release is ready, all that gets moved into the main branch.

I don't have any of my WIP stuff up there, like the partially-completed monsters. But I can upload that stuff too, if you or anyone else wants to see or work on it.

I'm happy to report that 3.1 is prepping for release! See the Pending Changes page on the GitHub for a list of everything included. I have a bit of QC work to do before I ask for it to be pushed to everyone.

In the meantime, consider this the last call for Spell Adjustment suggestions. If there's something I overlooked, let me know so I can get it in. Keep in mind that anything that cna be done with an existing adjustment, like how Shield just gives you +5 to AC and we already have an AC bonus adjustment, are not worth making their own adjustmnet. Conversely, Barkskin sets your AC to a minimum of 16, which isn't something that can already be done by an existing adjustment. Hence it gets its own.

Release 3.2 is going to be pretty limited in focus, unless I find a bunch of spare time. I'm right now calling it "Candlekeep and Waterdeep," as those are my two main priorities for it. I.E. everything in Candlekeep Mysteries and everything from the two Waterdeep adventures. I have a lot of the baseline info done already for the Waterdeep items and monsters. I spent all day yesterday working on finishing the Eberron monsters and Tasha's items, so anothe day like that should be all it takes to blast through Waterdeep. As for Candlekeep, I've reviewed the table of contents that leaked online and saw it has 26 new stat blocks. No word on new items, but they'll be included too barring anything absolutely crazy.

And another apology from me: a few releases back, I tweaked the Wild Shape adjustment, as it was incorrectly throwing errors that prevented users from selecting it. Though I fixed that error, I think I also broke all the rest of its functionality. So I've fixed what I broke for 3.1. However, in reviewing it, I noticed that the adjustment doesn't quite accuratley apply the Wild Shape feature. Mainly, it's giving the Druid's proficiency bonus to the beast form's attacks, which is not how Wild Shape works. EDIT: I was going to put the fixed version into 3.2, but I had some time today so it's going to make it into 3.1 instead.

Release 3.1 - Monster Mash is ready to go! I've requested it be pushed to the update server, so you should see it soon. For a full overview of what's been added, check out the release notes.

By the numbers, here's what's been added to the pack:

• 157 Monsters
• 74 Items
• 5 Spells
• 1 Player Race (the Dankwood Goblin)
• 4 Player Subraces (Aerini and Valenar high and wood elves)
• 34 Adjustments, 19 of them Spell Adjustments
• 15 Racial templates (for customizing generic humanoid stat blocks)
• 6 Languages from Eberron, Icewind Dale, and Exandria
• 32 Deities, the full Exandria Pantheon
• 19 Charms & Supernatural Gifts

Altogether, this finished off all content from Eberron, Tasha's, Icewind Dale, two branded starter sets, and five Extra-Life adventures.

There's a lot more; Spell Adjustments that'll let players easily see how spells affect their characters, a dozen adjustments that let DM's easily tweak monsters, and several stat blocks from exisiting spells added to the Encounter Builder, so you can track your Animated Object or Tiny Servant like any other creature!

There's plenty more to do before we're caught up to all released 5e content. We're getting there, slowly but surely.

Fenris447 said:

Release 3.1 - Monster Mash is ready to go! I've requested it be pushed to the update server, so you should see it soon. For a full overview of what's been added, check out the release notes.

Click to expand...

Any idea when the update will be pushed? I'm still not seeing it and I've got a session in a couple days, I'd love to have it loaded before then