Creating a new feat

[mmartin7260]

I'm new to Hero Lab and I'm in the process of re-creating some characters that I'm already playing using Hero Lab. My problem is that in one game we use two armor feats that are not Pathfinder feats and are home-grown feats. The two feats are :

Armor Focus
Prerequisite: Proficiency with armor (in my case Banded Mail)
Benefit: When wearing selected armor, Check Penalties to Skills are reduced by 1. Max Dex bonus is increased by 1.


Armor Focus, Greater
Prerequisite: Armor focus and fighter level 8
Benefit: Gain +2 AC when wearing focused armor. May sleep in armor without getting fatigued (this part may not apply to Hero Lab).

I read and followed the tutorial about using the Hero Lab Editor to create a new feat. I tried creating the Armor Focus feat first since it seemed the easiest to make. I made the feat and tested it with no problem. I applied the feat to my character but nothing happened. The Check Penalties and Max Dex remained the same. I followed the instruction in the Editor Tutorial 1 to the the letter. Any input or ideas as to what I should do would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Mathias]

Armor Focus sounds a lot like things that already exist. Have you tried going to the Traits tab in the editor, and using the "New (Copy)" button to pull up a copy of the Armor Expert Traits? That'll give you the Armor Check Penalty part.

For max DEX, how about the fighter's armor training ability? That's on the class special tab.

Study the Eval Scripts on each of those, and see if you can figure out how they alter the ACP and max dex of the armors.

(we'll get that one before moving on to the second feat)

 

[mmartin7260]

Armor Focus sounds a lot like things that already exist. Have you tried going to the Traits tab in the editor, and using the "New (Copy)" button to pull up a copy of the Armor Expert Traits? That'll give you the Armor Check Penalty part.

For max DEX, how about the fighter's armor training ability? That's on the class special tab.

Study the Eval Scripts on each of those, and see if you can figure out how they alter the ACP and max dex of the armors.

(we'll get that one before moving on to the second feat)

I found the script for the armor Expert trait and it looks like this:


foreach pick in hero from BaseArmor where "EquipType.Armor"
eachpick.field[arArmorChk].value += 1
nexteach

I copy and pasted it into my custom Armor Focus feat by clicking the Eval Scripts editor and pasting it in. Not sure if that is the right way to do this since I'm terrible with scripts.

I then went into Special Class and found the script for Armor Training and the script looked like this:

field[listname].text = "Armor Training " & field[xIndex].value

~only perform the calculations for the first copy
doneif (tagis[Helper.FirstCopy] = 0)

~ If we're not shown, just get out now
doneif (tagis[Helper.ShowSpec] = 0)

field[abValue].value += field[xCount].value
field[abValue2].value += field[xCount].value
field[livename].text = "Armor Training " & field[abValue].value
field[abSumm].text = "Worn armor -" & field[abValue].value & " check penalty, +" & field[abValue2].value & " max DEX."

~Improve the armor check penalty and max dex stats of our armors.
foreach pick in hero from BaseArmor where "EquipType.Armor"
eachpick.field[arArmorChk].value += field[abValue].value
eachpick.field[arMaxDex].value += field[abValue2].value

~if we're level 7+, remove the slowing effect of heavy armor
if (field[xCount].value >= 2) then
if (eachpick.tagis[ArmorClass.Heavy] <> 0) then
perform eachpick.delete[ArmorCateg.Slows]
endif
endif

~remove the slowing effects of medium (and light) armor
~light armor was added because it is possible for a user to define a light armor that slows the wearer - this ability ought to remove that, too
if (eachpick.tagis[ArmorClass.Medium] + eachpick.tagis[ArmorClass.Light] <> 0) then
perform eachpick.delete[ArmorCateg.Slows]
endif
nexteach

Looking for the right parts of this script to add to the second part of the Armor Focus feat is waaaayyy out of my depths. The script for check penalty looks relatively straight forward...I think, but this script is just to complex for me. I wouldn't even begin to know that parts to keep and what parts to edit out.

 

[Mathias]

Also remember to note the Phase and Priority that's at the top of those scripts. You'll want to use the same phase & priority for a script you're writing that's based on these.

See any portions of Armor Training's script that look a lot like Armor Expert's? (It's around the middle) That where the change to both armor check penalty and max dex are happening - they're right on top of each other. So can you see how to modify the script you pulled out of Armor Expert to also handle max dex?

 

[mmartin7260]

Also remember to note the Phase and Priority that's at the top of those scripts. You'll want to use the same phase & priority for a script you're writing that's based on these.

See any portions of Armor Training's script that look a lot like Armor Expert's? (It's around the middle) That where the change to both armor check penalty and max dex are happening - they're right on top of each other. So can you see how to modify the script you pulled out of Armor Expert to also handle max dex?

Ok... I think I found the part of the script you wanted to find. I copy and pasted the following into my new feat script....

~Improve the armor check penalty and max dex stats of our armors.
foreach pick in hero from BaseArmor where "EquipType.Armor"
eachpick.field[arArmorChk].value += field[abValue].value
eachpick.field[arMaxDex].value += field[abValue2].value

When I tested it, I got this.... (armfobm.user is the file name foe the custom feat)


Hero Lab was forced to stop compilation after the following errors were detected:

File: armfobm.user (line 10) - Thing - invalid unique id
File: armfobm.user (line 20) - Thing - invalid unique id

 

[Aaron]

Do you still have things you copied in your file? Things that have unique IDs that look like "f???"

Things like that will stop compilation. Delete them and try again.

 

[Mathias]

What value is Armor Expert adding to the ACP?

+= 1 - in other words, +1

Unlike Armor Training, whose effectiveness is variable, depending on level, Armor Expert and your feat add a fixed +1, so all you need is a fixed +1:

~Improve the armor check penalty and max dex stats of our armors.
foreach pick in hero from BaseArmor where "EquipType.Armor"
  eachpick.field[arArmorChk].value += 1
  eachpick.field[arMaxDex].value += 1
  nexteach

 

[mmartin7260]

What value is Armor Expert adding to the ACP?

+= 1 - in other words, +1

Unlike Armor Training, whose effectiveness is variable, depending on level, Armor Expert and your feat add a fixed +1, so all you need is a fixed +1:

~Improve the armor check penalty and max dex stats of our armors.
foreach pick in hero from BaseArmor where "EquipType.Armor"
  eachpick.field[arArmorChk].value += 1
  eachpick.field[arMaxDex].value += 1
  nexteach

Entered the code you sent into the Eval Script box, made Phase: Post-levels, Priority: 3000, Index: 1

Got back


File: armfobm.user (line 3) - Thing - invalid unique id

 

[mmartin7260]

What value is Armor Expert adding to the ACP?

+= 1 - in other words, +1

Unlike Armor Training, whose effectiveness is variable, depending on level, Armor Expert and your feat add a fixed +1, so all you need is a fixed +1:

~Improve the armor check penalty and max dex stats of our armors.
foreach pick in hero from BaseArmor where "EquipType.Armor"
  eachpick.field[arArmorChk].value += 1
  eachpick.field[arMaxDex].value += 1
  nexteach

That did the trick! Thanks!

Any ideas on how I could get the +2 AC for the Greater Armor Focus?

 

[Mathias]

Homework assignment - find something in Pathfinder that improves the AC of a piece of armor or a shield. What script does it use to do that?

Hint - in the core rulebook, there are two feats that do this. One is the greater version of the other.

 

[mmartin7260]

Homework assignment - find something in Pathfinder that improves the AC of a piece of armor or a shield. What script does it use to do that?

Hint - in the core rulebook, there are two feats that do this. One is the greater version of the other.

Got that too! Thanks again for all of your help.