Dragon Shaman special abilities

[AWizardInDallas]

Hi, mgehl! The source is the Player's handbook II. Basically, the Red Dragon Shaman gets a free Skill Focus feat at 2nd, 8th, and 16th. The skills that must be selected have to be Appraise, Bluff or Jump (i.e. in other words the actual class skills for a red dragon). The notable exception is that should the shaman already have Skill Focus in these three skills, the shaman can then pick any other dragon class skill as the Skill Focus target.

The monk gets bonus feats at 1st, 2nd, and 6th so it's sort of similar but looking at the .dat file doesn't help because i *think* Hero Lab does things a little differently now.

[AWizardInDallas]

I think I almost have it at this point! Now I just need to know how to validate the user's skill selection and make sure they pick focus in Appraise, Bluff or Jump only. Because I copied the existing feat it already causes a validation error that keeps them from selecting the same one twice! So were cool there! Now, if they already have skill focus in all three of these THEN I need to allow Skill Focus ONLY in Disguise, Gather Info, Heal, Hide, Move Silently, Spellcraft, Survival, or Swim.

[AWizardInDallas]

Okay I have been at this all evening. While I have made some significant progress there's still much I've not figured out yet. I'm posting the list of stuff I've not figured out in case someone has more of a clue than I do.

1. I need a place to store the draconic aura value for later calculations; the aura is level-dependent number from 1 to 5. I tried to store it in a user tag but couldn't figure out how to update it or refer to it.
2. Fire Shield Aura (Su): Enemy attacker takes Aura x 2 fire damage when striking the shaman. I'd like to display the precalculated damage value but it's not a deal-breaker.
3. Power Aura (Su): Add Aura value as damage bonus on all melee weapons. (See #1; otherwise I plan to add using tDamLight, tDamOne, tDamTwo, etc.)
4. Presense Aura (Su): Add Aura value to Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate. (See #1; don't know how to pass the variable aura value as the bonus, otherwise I do know how to add a skill bonus.)
5. Resistance Aura (Su): Add Aura value x 5 as DR/fire. (See #1; don't know how to add damage reduction but was going to try using the #applyresist macro.)
6. Senses Aura (Su): Add Aura value to Listen, Spot and initiative. (See #1; same problem as #4 too and don't know how to add to initiative.)
7. Toughness Aura (Su): Add Aura value as DR/magic. (See #1; same problem as #5.)
8. Breath Weapon: Would like to show the breath weapon as an upgrade. (I know about the upgrade check box but it doesn't seem to do anything? Still looking at Rogue sneak attack as it's similar though.)
9. Natural Armor: +1 to +3 level-dependent; the code I'm using doesn't seem to work.
10. Is there a way to add Fly 60 ft. (good)? This happens at 19th level.

Well that's about it. I'm going to work on my wererats for a while.

[Mathias]

Originally Posted by AWizardInDallas

1. I need a place to store the draconic aura value for later calculations; the aura is level-dependent number from 1 to 5. I tried to store it in a user tag but couldn't figure out how to update it or refer to it.

I wouldn't worry about storing it (although it looks like the class needs a special for the purpose of displaying the aura) - just come up with the code to calculate the aura strength, then cut-and-paste to every other script that needs it.

2. Fire Shield Aura (Su): Enemy attacker takes Aura x 2 fire damage when striking the shaman. I'd like to display the precalculated damage value but it's not a deal-breaker.

field[xSumm].text and field[CustDesc].text are where you can put text that changes.

ex:

var aura as number
aura = field[xTotalLev].value/4 ~aura = level/4
aura = round(aura,0,1) ~rounded up
aura = aura*2 ~in this script, damage = aura*2

field[xSumm].text = "Any creature striking you with a natural attack or non-reach weapon takes " & aura & "fire damage."

3. Power Aura (Su): Add Aura value as damage bonus on all melee weapons. (See #1; otherwise I plan to add using tDamLight, tDamOne, tDamTwo, etc.)

tDamBonus covers all those.

4. Presense Aura (Su): Add Aura value to Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate. (See #1; don't know how to pass the variable aura value as the bonus, otherwise I do know how to add a skill bonus.)
5. Resistance Aura (Su): Add Aura value x 5 as DR/fire. (See #1; don't know how to add damage reduction but was going to try using the #applyresist macro.)
6. Senses Aura (Su): Add Aura value to Listen, Spot and initiative. (See #1; same problem as #4 too and don't know how to add to initiative.)
7. Toughness Aura (Su): Add Aura value as DR/magic. (See #1; same problem as #5.)

#applyresist[xDamRsFire, aura*5]
hero.child[Initiative].field[Bonus].value +=aura
#applydr[xDamRdMag, aura]

don't forget to bootstrap xDamRsFire and xDamRdMag to the class - their code is set up so they won't actually show themselves until they are assigned a value.

8. Breath Weapon: Would like to show the breath weapon as an upgrade. (I know about the upgrade check box but it doesn't seem to do anything? Still looking at Rogue sneak attack as it's similar though.)

The first time you add a special like this, put a script on it that calculates the value of the special and have that one change its field[livename].text, field[xSumm].text, and field[CustDesc].text to whatever the value should be. The later instances of the special all have the upgrade box checked, and don't have scripts. That way, only the first one shows up in the special list and charges, but all of them show up on the class tab, to properly display whether or not they've been obtained.

9. Natural Armor: +1 to +3 level-dependent; the code I'm using doesn't seem to work.

Here's the script from the improved natural armor feat (First, 10000):
hero.child[ArmorClass].field[tACNatural].value +=1

10. Is there a way to add Fly 60 ft. (good)? This happens at 19th level.

Bootstrap xFly to the class. Next, go to the tags button for that bootstrap, and add the following:
Value<tab>60
Maneuver<tab>Good

Next, go to the condition button for that bootstrap.
Enter First, 1000 for the timing (First,0 is the default, but will not work), and for the text:
count:Classes.cRedDragSh >=19

Of course you'll need to use whatever ID you gave the class in place of cRedDragSh.

[Mathias]

As far as I know, this sort of thing isn't handled by HL (yet - talk to Colen), I'd just bootstrap fSkillFoc three times (with the appropriate condition statements), and trust the user to pick the correct ones.

Originally Posted by AWizardInDallas

I think I almost have it at this point! Now I just need to know how to validate the user's skill selection and make sure they pick focus in Appraise, Bluff or Jump only. Because I copied the existing feat it already causes a validation error that keeps them from selecting the same one twice! So were cool there! Now, if they already have skill focus in all three of these THEN I need to allow Skill Focus ONLY in Disguise, Gather Info, Heal, Hide, Move Silently, Spellcraft, Survival, or Swim.

[AWizardInDallas]

Hi, mgehl. Thanks for your reply. Here's where I stand so far:

2. Fire Shield: It always shows "0" for the damage amount no matter what. Is there a particular phase this needs to occur in. Here's the eval script:

var aura as number 
aura = field[xTotalLev].value/4
aura = round(aura,0,1) 
aura = aura*2

field[xSumm].text = "Any creature striking you with a natural attack or non-reach melee weapon takes " & aura & " fire damage."

field[CustDesc].text = "Any creature striking you with a natural attack or non-reach melee weapon takes " & aura & " fire damage."

3. Power Aura: If I'm not mistaken if I use tDamBonus won't that also include missile weapons? I'm assuming so, so I'm only applying the bonus to non-missile weapons. Here's my eval script:

var aura as number 
aura = field[xTotalLev].value/4 
aura = round(aura,0,1) 
aura = aura

~ Add aura bonus to the damage from all melee weapons
hero.child[Damage].field[tDamLight].value = hero.child[Damage].field[tDamLight].value + aura
hero.child[Damage].field[tDamOne].value = hero.child[Damage].field[tDamOne].value + aura
hero.child[Damage].field[tDamTwo].value = hero.child[Damage].field[tDamTwo].value + aura

4. Presense Aura: Aura bonus yields "0".
5. Resistance Aura: Aura bonus yields "0".
6. Senses Aura: Aura bonus yields "0".
7. Toughness Aura: Aura bonus yields "0".
8. Breath Weapon: Untried since xTotalLev is yielding "0" but I understand and will attempt it when I get the auras fixed.
9. Natural Armor: Will this work if the character doesn't normally have natural armor? In any case this doesn't seem to do anything.
10. Wings: I get an error: -> Tag 'Classes.cDragShamR' not defined. It is defined though:

Condition (First/10000)
count:Classes.cDragShamR >=19

File Itself:
<thing id="cDragShamR" name="Dragon Shaman, Red" compset="ClassLevel" maxlimit="20">
    <fieldval field="cHitDice" value="10"/>
    <tag group="ClassType" tag="Normal"/>
    <tag group="AlgnReq" tag="ChaotEvil"/>
    <tag group="AlgnReq" tag="ChaotNeut"/>
    <tag group="AlgnReq" tag="NeutEvil"/>
    <bootstrap thing="cHelpDsr"></bootstrap>
    <link linkage="helper" thing="cHelpDsr"/>
    </thing>

[Mathias]

For all the custom abilities, I forgot to mention that accessing xTotalLev directly only works from within a class special. If you want to use it in a special or a custom ability, use #levelcount[]

aura = #levelcount[DragShamR]/4

Originally Posted by AWizardInDallas

Hi, mgehl. Thanks for your reply. Here's where I stand so far:

2. Fire Shield: It always shows "0" for the damage amount no matter what. Is there a particular phase this needs to occur in. Here's the eval script:

Since we're trying to look up the level, it needs to happen no earlier than the Post-Level phase. UserPostLv, 100 worked for everything you want to do when I tested them.

3. Power Aura: If I'm not mistaken if I use tDamBonus won't that also include missile weapons? I'm assuming so, so I'm only applying the bonus to non-missile weapons. Here's my eval script:

I hadn't read the class closely enough to see that its a melee-only bonus. I don't think there's a way to get melee/ranged damage modifiers yet, so I guess that's the way to go. Don't forget to save yourself a lot of typing with the += syntax:

hero.child[Damage].field[tDamLight].value += aura

9. Natural Armor: Will this work if the character doesn't normally have natural armor? In any case this doesn't seem to do anything.

In the files you sent me, the natural armor class specials hadn't been bootstrapped to the class. They work once added.

10. Wings: I get an error: -> Tag 'Classes.cDragShamR' not defined. It is defined though:

My mistake, I forgot to have you use the class' tag reference, DragShamR, rather than the class' unique ID, cDragShamR

[AWizardInDallas]

Thanks for your help mghel! It came out even better than I expected.

[AWizardInDallas]

And now I have all ten classes done.

I'd be interested to see how you did it. I've been struggling trying to get a Copper Dragon Shaman input.