Complete Mage import to herolab

[Sendric]

Originally Posted by OverTheSwamp

I've just finished creating a prestige class for the Master Specialist, Conjurer version. Willing to share. Still need to figure out how to working the pre-reqs though.

You can post it here or email it to me using my username here on gmail. I'll take a look at the pre-reqs and will include it in the community set.

[OverTheSwamp]

I either copied he Master Transmogrifist or the Alienist and modified from there. I've added the Expr-reqs on the Class Level tab, but somehow I think it is the Pre-reqs scripts that are needed, which is out of my comfort zone at the moment.

If I've done an acceptable job of creating this. I can make up another. Or let me know if I need to up my editing skillz before submitting! Ha!

[Sendric]

Ok, so I took a look. I have a recommendation. I would change the name of the class to Master Specialist, then for each of the Esoterica class specials, use the Item Selection dialogue and set "Select From..." to "Schools". This way you won't have to make a different class for each school. You could also try "Schools with Spell Focus" though to be honest, I'm not sure what the difference is.

I also might check "User Text is Optional?" for the Expanded Spellbook specials. I only suggest this because the ability allows you to select a new spell for your spellbook. It might be useful for some players to keep track of what spells they choose but since it isn't necessary and doesn't do anything in the code, it might be nice to not have a warning when you don't enter a spell there. Not a big deal either way.

As for the Entry Requirements, it looks like you are missing two. You can use an Expr-Req for the first one (Spellcasting: Must be able to cast 2nd-level arcane spells). Take a look at other classes that have similar reqs, such as Mystic Theurge (use New Copy on the class level) and see how that class handles it. For the other (Special: Must be a specialist wizard), I feel like I tried tackling this once before, but I can't remember what I did. If I come up with anything, I'll let you know.

Overall, I'd say it looks pretty good though. This class appears to be mostly data input with not a lot of actual scripting being required (due to there being so many situational modifiers). That's a good way to get yourself familiar with the editor. I would be more than happy to have you do other things from that book or any other source.

[Sendric]

Originally Posted by Sendric

Complete Mage has the following items entered:

Abjurant Champion
Shining Blade of Heironeous
Ultimate Magus
Unseen Seer

Feats
Invocations
Spells A-B

Looks like there's plenty of stuff to enter in. If you felt like tackling the spells, go for it. I've started going through the class spell lists checking for duplicates and incorrect levels. Its gonna take me a while, and having someone else work on the CMag spells would be very beneficial. Thanks!

I've just discovered some spells from the Complete Mage are located in a file called CDiv - Staffs. I don't know why they are there, but I'm going to transfer them to a new file (Complete Mage - Spells) and add the ones from the CMag A and B files so they are all in one place. If anyone is working on these spells, you might want to check this file out so you aren't duplicating anything.

Edit: It looks like there are Staffs from Complete Mage mixed into this file along with the Complete Divine staffs. I'm going to try to reorganize them so they are in the proper locations. This won't affect the end-user trying to buy staves, but for people using the editor it should make things a little easier to locate.

[CptCoots]

So, as usual if it is not in the distribution I assume it doesn't exist so I made the Master Specialist PrC from scratch without making specific ones. The only thing it doesn't do at this moment is make sure you can cast 2nd level arcane spells because I have no idea how to do that.

It has a lot of dummy checking with the Greater Spell Focus and Skill Focus feats, BUT if those feats are taken before hand it does not default to excluding them from your level progression. The skill focus behaves as it should (if you took Skill Focus (Spellcraft) and THEN a level of master specialist the bonuses do not stack). However, my way to handle the Greater Spell Focus does not correct for selecting the same thing twice (but it does force you to select specialist school).

Looking for some feedback on this build.

[Sendric]

Originally Posted by CptCoots

The only thing it doesn't do at this moment is make sure you can cast 2nd level arcane spells because I have no idea how to do that.

Typically in HL, this is done using this expr-req:

tagcount[Hero.Arcane] >= 2 + 1

[Sendric]

Two additional comments, with the disclaimer that I have not tried to make any changes to your user file.

1) I'm not sure you need to do Skill Focus: Spellcraft as a custom ability. This could probably just be done as a class special.

2) Have you tried bootstrapping the feat to the Greater Spell Focus ability? One of the things I was looking at here (when I first considered taking a look at this one) was to make each school a separate custom then do all my scripts there for the various school esoterica abilities. Your way seems to work well, too, though.

Otherwise, it looks pretty good to me. I know someone else started working on this a while back, but the only did one of the schools. I gave them some feedback but never heard from them again.

[CptCoots]

Originally Posted by Sendric

Two additional comments, with the disclaimer that I have not tried to make any changes to your user file.

1) I'm not sure you need to do Skill Focus: Spellcraft as a custom ability. This could probably just be done as a class special.

2) Have you tried bootstrapping the feat to the Greater Spell Focus ability? One of the things I was looking at here (when I first considered taking a look at this one) was to make each school a separate custom then do all my scripts there for the various school esoterica abilities. Your way seems to work well, too, though.

Otherwise, it looks pretty good to me. I know someone else started working on this a while back, but the only did one of the schools. I gave them some feedback but never heard from them again.

So my first attempt has Skill focus and GSF as class specials adding the feats, but the feats weren't idiot proof (you could select other skills and spell schools). So I had made special copies of the feats with the added functionality ONLY for the PrC. That seemed like a dumb idea to me. So i re did them in the way I posted. One think I may do is have the GSF push the HasFeat tag.

[CptCoots]

Oh and i love how I did the Esoterica. Cuts down on entries.

[Sendric]

Originally Posted by CptCoots

Oh and i love how I did the Esoterica. Cuts down on entries.

Yep. No complaints on how that was done from me. Well done.

As far as the Skill Focus, I didn't mean for you to bootstrap it, I just meant you could do the exact same thing as a class special and skip the having to choose it step. Doesn't really make much difference either way, though.