How do I create a tag like Hero.Raging?

[Redcap's Corner]

I have an ability similar in complexity to wild shape, broken out into different sub-abilities. Each of those sub-abilities has in-play activation, but sometimes I want to write if-then statements that only care IF any one of them is activated, and not which one it is. I know I can just add up my abilActive fields to check whether the sum is greater than 0, but there are eight different options and that makes for awfully long and cumbersome if-then statements. Is there a way for me to create a tag like Hero.Raging and just have each of these sub-abilities assign the tag when activated so my if-thens can just check for the existence of that tag?

[shatterjack]

Yes, you can. Here is an example from the Path of War package:

  <group id="PathOfWar" name="Path of War">
    <value id="Config"      name="Configurable"/>
    <value id="selDisc"     name="Configurable"/>
    <value id="Manuever"    name="Manuever"/>
    <value id="ManueverOn"  name="Manuever Readied"/>
    <value id="Class"       name="Class"/>
    <value id="Stance"      name="Stance"/>
    <value id="StanceOn"    name="Stance Activated"/>    
    <value id="StanceUp"    name="Stance Allowed Up"/>
  </group>

The tags would then be accessed as "PathOfWar.Config", "PathOfWar.Stance", etc.

You can't do it in the HL editor though, you need to use a text editor. The file needs to be named with a .1st extension (at least I think it does, never tried it with .user)

[Redcap's Corner]

Excellent. Thank you! Is it okay for me to use an existing group id like "Hero"? And would it be okay for the file to just be the following? I don't need to anything else?

<group id="Hero">
  <value id="Enspirited"      name="Enspirited"/>
</group>

[AndrewD2]

The easiest way is to use "Custom" tags that you can create by going to the bottom of the entry in the editor where it says "User Tags" and clicking the button and selecting "Add New", the tag would be Custom.Enspirited or whatever your ability is but it saves the work of making a .1st file. I'm also not sure if you can use existing groups in such a manor.

[Aaron]

I don't believe you can add onto existing tag groups like that. I agree with AndrewD2, making a Custom tag is probably simplest.

[Redcap's Corner]

My worry with using the user tags field was that I don't want anything to have the tag by default. I only want the hero to gain it if one of a number of abilities is activated. I guess I thought that if I used that field to create the tag it would only "remember" it if I left it on whichever pick I used to create it.

[Aaron]

That's correct, but there is nothing saying you have to create the tag on the thing that uses it. You can create a dummy generic ability which nothing will ever use as a box for your custom tags. Or define a new tag group of your own, as shatterjack recommends.

[Redcap's Corner]

If I create a new tag group, do I just save that file in the data/pathfinder folder, as I would my .user files?

[Aaron]

Probably. I encourage experimentation, it's half the fun of learning!

[Redcap's Corner]

Normally I agree with that sentiment. I ask so many questions on here because every time I hit "Test Now!" the code compiles for a solid five minutes before I can see if it worked. My laptop isn't what you'd call "top of the line". This leads me to trying to make as many changes as possible before testing, which is of course very very bad protocol for programming, but I will literally otherwise spend three times as often sitting around while code compiles as actually programming.