Add "coding" to ability in the Special tab

[Nargath]

I'm building a custom cleric type for a game my group is running.

The setup is that he still has channel energy, but it's a subset of bigger ability called Divine Word.

Divine Word has uses per day similar to Channel Energy, except that you share those uses with 3 other potential abilities, Protect Ally, Smite, and Call Weapon.

How I want to set it up is have an entry in the Specials tab for each of the sub abilities, so I can at a glance see what they do (very early days in this game).
So I've set each of them up as a seperate class ability in the Class Special tab in the editor. Sorted.
I've also got the main Divine Word ability set up to show as a tracker in the In Play tab.

What I want to know is if there's a way to change the name of the Divine Word: Channel Energy ability in the Special tab, so that at a glance I can see how much healing/damage I do, and the save DC.

I've copied some of the stuff from the custom Priest class that's on d20pfsrd.com, and copied its eval script from the Channel energy ability to the class special. But I only get it to put out a 0d6, and it doesn't give me any other info. Eval scripting is something I know nothing about :s

TL;DR: I want a Divine Word: Channel Energy in the Specials tab of Hero Lab to read (for example):
Divine Word: Channel Energy 2d6 (DC 13)
And then have it dynamically change as I level up or change my stats.

 

[Nightfox]

I don't have any of the coding in front of me, and HL is on a different system, so I'm just going to troubleshoot some quick problems.

1) It sounds like you copied the script from another class. Did you change the class references? It may be that the coding is looking for how many levels you have in that other class to determine the damage. Since you have none, the script is returning zero values.

2) Timing is everything. When you first open the eval script dialog box, it defaults to timing of First/100. Depending on what the scripts need to reference and what they need to do, you probably want Post Level, Post Attribute, or Render phases. Unless the script needs to be performed before something else in the same phase, timing of 10,000 is usually the safe bet.

 

[Aaron]

Another thing to keep in mind is that the way Channel Energy calculates its bonus in HL changed about.... a year ago I think? Prior to that all classes which granted Channel Energy stacked, but then it was pointed out that all should calculate their damage and number of uses individually. This necessitated some changes in the code.

I don't know how long ago this custom priest class was made, but if it was pre-change, you may be better served to look at the way one of the core classes grants Channel Energy, as they are updated.

 

[Nargath]

THe problem is, is that I have no real reference for HOW the eval scripts work, what field references what, what the symbolism in the eval scripts mean, etc.

I've tried copying a base cleric, but because I want to call it something different, again I need to know what the tags and symbols mean, and the syntax to them.

It doesn't help that the channel mechanic for this class gets its increase in channel dice at different intervals than a normal cleric :s

 

[ShadowChemosh]

THe problem is, is that I have no real reference for HOW the eval scripts work, what field references what, what the symbolism in the eval scripts mean, etc.

I would advise reading FAQ Question#2 then. That leads you to locations to read up on. The videos are a great start in how to work in the editor. Mathias's articles on scripting are very good also.