Help - Newly Infected Character

[Valentet]

I have a mage that has just been infected by a Ghoul. The GM has approved me playing the character so I went to add the Infected Quality on the Advances Tab.

This is where I run into problems. Pre Infection the Stats are:

B:3 A:3 R:4 S:3 W:6 L:4 I:5 C:4

The Stats change radically before I've even picked the increases. The Quality states Stats change as: CHA -1, LOG -1, but instead they are:

B:7 A:3 R:6 S:6 W8 L:2 I:6 C:1

Am I doing something wrong, or is this a known bug? Does it need to be reported?

[Mathias]

First, what Hero Lab does is to keep all the values the same distance from the minimums that they were before adding the infected - it's less obvious when you change races from human to elf or ork - the attributes adjust themselves somewhat, so that the cost you're paying for your attributes stays the same.

Second, Catalyst really needs to define how the attribute penalties for infected actually work - are they added in before or after calculating costs? If so, why not just apply that change by reworking the minimum and maximum? Perhaps they're meant as changes to apply for those characters that become infected during play - in a lot of cases, but not all, they'd help a character who was already near an attribute maximum stay within the new maximums for being infected.

[Valentet]

Thanks for the quick response, however I'm still confused. The minimums for a human ghoul are still 1 in each stat, it's the maximum stats that change, as per p. 135 of Run Faster:

Ghoul (Human) 1/10 1/6 1/8 1/9 1/8 1/5 1/7 1/4

Plus in this case it is a character that is already in play. My understanding is that you first apply the new maximums to each stat, (so in the current example the stats are unchanged), then you subtract 1 from the current Logic and Charisma, and then you can apply either a +2 to one physical and one mental, or +1 to two physical and two mental.

It seems the program is using the Stat Block from the Core Rulebook and not the new stats in Run Faster.

[AndrewD2]

If you believe that is the case I would file and official bug report

[Valentet]

It's not a case of whether I believe this is happening or not. It's actually happening, and is repeatable.

What I wanted to know was if there was another step to complete or if this was a known bug.

It seems all Herolab does is change the race of the character from human to Ghoul or Vampire or whatever, and does not apply the new templates from Run Faster at all. None of the Infected Templates actually raise the minimums for a Stat but every application of the Infected Quality does just that.

So, Bug Report filed.

[Mathias]

In my earlier post, I was mis-remembering the details. Rather than holding the attributes at a specific distance from the minimum, it maintains the same distance from the maximums. Sorry about that.

Unfortunately, Catalyst does not include any rules on how the attributes should or should not be changed to reflect the new attribute ranges when the templates are applied during play.

On the Advances tab, you can use the unlock option to return to creation mode, change the attributes, and then on the advances tab, return to advancement mode.

[Valentet]

Thank you. I'll certainly use this as a workaround.