Wild Shape adjustments

[LifeofReilly]

Originally Posted by alientude

1) The 2d8 damage was a mistake - it should be 2d6. I've corrected that and updated the files in the first post.

2) The greataxe die increasing is something I can't do anything about - when Hero Lab runs the size increase/decrease, it automatically changes the dice for all weapons. Since polymorph effects cause your weapons to merge into your body, this really shouldn't be much of an issue. If the greataxe stays at 3d6 after the adjustment is clicked off, please let me know exactly which creature is doing this - it's a simple fix.

3) The Shambling Mound adjustment works for me - it correctly lists 2d6 as the damage dice. Can you attach a portfolio of yours that has it at 3d6?

4) I've noticed the Bat adjustment going to "-" damage on the druid I play myself. I'm not sure what's causing it, or how to fix it. It doesn't always happen, but it seems to be mostly when I have a lot of adjustments clicked on. At this point, it's not something I'm going to be able to fix, as I just have no idea what the problem is. Which creatures other than the Bat have you seen it on?

I'm wondering if the change in size isn't responsible for what we are seeing. When changing from a Medium creature to Large creature, 2d6 increases to 3d6. When turning into a bat- moving from medium to diminutive shifts the damage down to nothing, hence "-"

I've included my portfolio for my character in question. Thanks for all of this.

[alientude]

Okay, so I've figured out the problem with damage dice not being adjusted correctly. It has nothing to do with the size adjustments. For whatever reason (maybe how Hero Lab works, more likely the fact that I cobbled these adjustments together without truly understanding Hero Lab's systems), more than one of these adjustments sitting on your Adjustments tab, even if they're unchecked, causes issues.

To use the portfolio LifeofReilly updated as an example, the problem is coming from the Slam attacks. Since the portfolio has multiple adjustments that give a Slam attack, Hero Lab is throwing up a hidden error (need to have debugging enabled to see it):

"Attempt to access non-live child pick 'wSlam' from script
---
Attempt to access non-live pick via script fails for pick 'wSlam'"


The adjustment looks like it works in that it adds everything the character gains, but the last step of the adjustment is to change the damage dice from the size. Apparently, having more than one adjustment (even if not enabled) that gives a Slam attack confuses Hero Lab and causes it to stop running the script, effectively stopping the damage dice correction.

I tested this out in multiple ways, and while it doesn't happen 100% of them time, it's pretty reliable. Two adjustments giving natural weapons of the same type = error.

The workaround for this is to only ever have one of the adjustments on your tab at a time. This seems to work perfectly from my tests.

I can think of one way to fix this with my limited understanding of Hero Lab's editor - creating unique natural weapons for each creature. As in, Slam(ShamblingMound), Slam(FireElemental), etc. That's a ton of work and an incredibly messy way of fixing this issue, however, and not something I'm going to do. For the time being, at least, I recommend the workaround mentioned above: leave only one of these adjustments on your tab at a time.

[MPPace]

Wow! Thank you for creating these. Since a Druid can cast Shapechange at 17th level, which can be used for "Form of the Dragon" and "Giant Form" as well as "Beast Shape IV", any plans to add those as well?

[ShadowChemosh]

Maybe I am missing something but why are you doing all the DamageUp tags? HL already can adjust the size of Natural attacks for you based on the Bestiary rules. On your bootstraps of the Natural Attacks if you add "Helper.NatSizeDmg" then set the damage for what a Medium creature would have the damage is correctly adjusted when you can call "SizeChange".

You would not be able to make NEW natural attacks for every adjustment but you could set a custom tag onto the bootstrap attacks and then do a foreach loop instead looking for all the Claw attacks with your custom tag. This would allow you to separate out different Claw attacks per adjustment.

As long as you have the bootstraps set correctly as conditional then the natural attacks won't appear when you turn off the check mark.

Other notes is things like "xSwim" or "xFly" do NOT need to be bootstrapped anymore as they exist on every character always now. Instead in the eval script you just do:

#value[xSwim] += 1

I have never really seen HL get Confused actually. So I have to more wonder if its the way you coded the bootstrap conditions actually. Which two adjustments are causing the issues?

[alientude]

Updated (see first post for changelog).

[alientude]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

Maybe I am missing something but why are you doing all the DamageUp tags? HL already can adjust the size of Natural attacks for you based on the Bestiary rules. On your bootstraps of the Natural Attacks if you add "Helper.NatSizeDmg" then set the damage for what a Medium creature would have the damage is correctly adjusted when you can call "SizeChange".

Because I'm not in the least fluent with Hero Lab's scripting and systems, and this is how I managed to get it working. This tip is helpful, however, and I'll start going through all the adjustments and incorporating it.

You would not be able to make NEW natural attacks for every adjustment but you could set a custom tag onto the bootstrap attacks and then do a foreach loop instead looking for all the Claw attacks with your custom tag. This would allow you to separate out different Claw attacks per adjustment.

You lost me at the italics.

As long as you have the bootstraps set correctly as conditional then the natural attacks won't appear when you turn off the check mark.

All the bootstraps for the adjustments are marked as conditional on the adjustment being enabled using this:

Phase: First, Priority: 500
fieldval:pIsOn <> 0

Other notes is things like "xSwim" or "xFly" do NOT need to be bootstrapped anymore as they exist on every character always now. Instead in the eval script you just do:

#value[xSwim] += 1

Good to know. I can start updating that as well.

I have never really seen HL get Confused actually. So I have to more wonder if its the way you coded the bootstrap conditions actually. Which two adjustments are causing the issues?

Just as an example, if I put both the Plant Shape II - Shambling Mound and the Beast Shape III - Elephant adjustments on the character (both have slam attacks), that error will start coming up.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by alientude

Because I'm not in the least fluent with Hero Lab's scripting and systems, and this is how I managed to get it working. This tip is helpful, however, and I'll start going through all the adjustments and incorporating it.

Hmm my bad. I went with the level of coding as not new person so was wondering if you had a reason I was missing out on. No offense was meant.

Originally Posted by alientude

You lost me at the italics.

You can create Custom Tags similar to how "Helper.Helper" is a tag in HL. You do this on any Thing in the editor with the "Custom" button in the Bottom Right corner. Sorry not near HL to find the exact wording.

Then you can assign say "Custom.Slam" onto the Natural Attack on the bootstrapp so that the tag "Custom.Slam" gets attached to the pick on the hero. Then you could run code like:

~ this loops through all the picks on the hero in the Base Weapon
~ components and selects anything with the tag Custom.Slam on it
foreach pick on hero from BaseWep where "Custom.Slam"
   perform eachpick.assign[Helper.DamageUp]
nexteach

If you want to only find the first one and first one only:

perform hero.firstchild["thingid.wSlam & Custom.Slam"].assign[Helper.DamageUp]

Originally Posted by alientude

All the bootstraps for the adjustments are marked as conditional on the adjustment being enabled using this:

Phase: First, Priority: 500
fieldval:pIsOn <> 0

Yea I started looking at your code and saw that. I usually use 99 for weapons and I am pretty sure all the Spell Adjustments in HL use 99. But that should have no effect running it later. Unless your running a script earlier than First/500 or at the same exact time as First/500. As then it would be random of which goes first the bootstrap or your script.

Originally Posted by alientude

Just as an example, if I put both the Plant Shape II - Shambling Mound and the Beast Shape III - Elephant adjustments on the character (both have slam attacks), that error will start coming up.

I am not seeing anything in the RAW XML that looks incorrect but only looked really quick. If I get time tonight I will try running it and see if I see why its throwing that error.

Another hint is that DR is like Swim and Climb now they exist on all heroes. So instead of bootstrap you can go:

#applydr[xDamRsFire,10]

I often find the scripting method easier than doing the bootstraps and value tags. Easier later if you want to:

#value[xDamRsFire] += 5

to say increase our Fire Resistance by 5 where #applydr[] only ever applies the highest value it gets.

[alientude]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

Hmm my bad. I went with the level of coding as not new person so was wondering if you had a reason I was missing out on. No offense was meant.

No offense taken.

You can create Custom Tags similar to how "Helper.Helper" is a tag in HL. You do this on any Thing in the editor with the "Custom" button in the Bottom Right corner. Sorry not near HL to find the exact wording.

I'm looking through the editor and not seeing how to create a custom tag.

[Mathias]

#applyvalue[xSwim,30], rather than #value[xSwim] += 30.

That way, if you have more than one thing adding a swim speed, you'll get the highest of them, not the total of them.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Mathias

#applyvalue[xSwim,30], rather than #value[xSwim] += 30.

That way, if you have more than one thing adding a swim speed, you'll get the highest of them, not the total of them.

Thanks I meant to point that out better the difference between the two macros of #apply vs #value.

Originally Posted by alientude

I'm looking through the editor and not seeing how to create a custom tag.

Sorry not near HL so can't remember it exactly. Will try to remember tonight when I get home to get the exact button name.