Help with classes

[Kinf]

I am trying to add the sniper and the heavy grounder from pathfinder amethyst renaissance and am having terrible time of it. For example the sniper has an ability at 1st lvl that lets him use Wisdom in place of Dex for attack and dam rolls, as well as for prerequisites for combat feats. I cannot figure out how to go about getting this into hero lab. Could someone with some experience in adding custom classes/feats/abilities help me please?

 

[Mathias]

Have you looked at the guided power - that's an item power that means you use wisdom for attack and damage on a weapon.

For the feats, you'll need to create replacements of the feats that can either function on dex, or will be satisfied with the correct wisdom + this ability.

 

[Kinf]

item power?

If it is an item power wouldn't it be forced to be on an item?

 

[Kinf]

Can you use an item power in the class tab?

 

[Aaron]

If it is an item power wouldn't it be forced to be on an item?

Mathias was suggesting that you look at the code for the item power, and then adapt that for the class ability you're making. Here's the code in question:

        perform parent.assign[MelAttOver.aWIS]
        perform parent.assign[RanAttOver.aWIS]
        perform parent.assign[DamageOver.aWIS]

This won't work without some changes, but it does tell you the tags needed to do the job. You just have to assign them to the correct place.

So, does this Sniper get the bonus on all weapons? Just some? What's the text of the ability?

 

[Kinf]

Act on Instinct: You may use Wisdom in place of Dexterity for all ranged attack and damage rolls. You can also use Wisdom in place of Dexterity for determin-ing prerequisites for combat feats.

The stuff you seem to be talking about seems WAY beyond the level of experience I have with HL. I only got HL a few weeks ago, and I had no idea inputting custom classes would be this complex.

So far the only way I can see to put either of these classes in is to completely throw out the alternate ability rule, and base the class abilities off of dex. This completely alters the way the classes were intended to be.
As a test I tried to do this, and I think I have most of the abilities in at the proper level.

 

[Kinf]

Sniper

I now do have all of the abilities in at appropriate level for the hvy grounder, and am starting the Sniper this evening. Both are currently using dex instead of original abilities at the moment.

 

[Aaron]

I'd try this eval script to make weapons use Wis instead of Dex, maybe in Post-Level 10000

~ Cycle through all ranged weapons on the hero
foreach pick in hero from BaseWep where "wCategory.Range?"
  ~ assign a tag which makes this weapon use either Wisdom or Dex (whichever is higher) for ranged attacks.
  perform eachpick.assign[RanAttOpt.aWIS]

  ~ assign a tag which makes this weapon use either Wisdom or whatever the default is (whichever is higher) for damage
  perform eachpick.assign[DamageOpt.aWIS]
  nexteach

 

[Kinf]

Does the eval script go on the class or the weapon?

 

[Aaron]

On the class ability, I would think.

 

[Kinf]

eval script works wonderfully

Thank you for the eval script, that works wonderfully for the sniper. The only remaining hurdles I would have for the Heavy Grounder is that he gets a similar ability called Recoil Absorption which uses Str, but is limited to a very few weapon groups.
Recoil Absorption (EX)~At 1st level, when wielding two-handed small arms, heavy weapons, or super heavy weapons, you can use Strength in place of Dexterity for all attack and damage rolls. You can also use Strength in place of Dexterity for determining prerequi-sites for combat feats.

I haven't been able to figure out if there is a way to add actual weapon groups yet, so I may need to try to figure out how to use some different sort of tag for those groups or something. Do you have any suggestions on that, or where I might go to read up on it myself? The other problem is adding an ability that lets the player choose between two abilities:
at level 1 you can choose one of the following:
Choice A
Choice B

I am almost positive I saw a tutorial about that somewhere while I was trying to figure out the wis/dex problem, but now that I am actively searching for an answer to this problem, I can't find it. Any suggestions or leads towards help would be appreciated.

 

[Aaron]

By "Weapon Groups" are you referring to this section of the description?

"wielding two-handed small arms, heavy weapons, or super heavy weapons"

If so, then I suspect you're right, you'll have to make your own Custom tags, and assign them to replacement weapons. To do that, follow these steps:

Step 1: Define the tags.
Choose the class ability Recoil Absorption in the editor and scroll down to the bottom, where there is a "User Tags" button. Click that and you'll see every existing tag of the "Custom" group, which is a tag group we let users add to, for whatever purpose they need. Choose "New Tag" (its the first box at the top), then OK. Another window will pop up for you to define the New Tag, give it a unique ID and name that seem appropriate, like "HvyGun" for the unique ID and "Heavy Guns" for the name. Hit OK. Add another tag for the Super Heavy Guns. Then Reload your HL program with Ctrl-R or close and re-open.

Step 2 - Weapon Replacements
Go to the Weapons tab in the editor and New (Copy) one of the Heavy Guns you want this class ability to work for. Make a note of the original Unique ID. Place that original Unique ID in the "Replaces Thing Id" field, it's on the right side, underneath the 2 rows of blue buttons, and above the big grey window for author comments. Give your copy a new (but similar) unique ID. Scroll down to the User Tags button for this weapon, and add the appropriate Custom tag for this weapon (one of those you defined in step 1). Hit Test Now for your weapon.

Step 3 - Write the Eval Script
Go to the class ability Recoil Absorption, and use the eval script I gave you as a base, but change it to look for weapons with your new Custom Tag. Also change it so it applies a tag for using Str instead of Wis. Hit Test Now! once you think you have the eval script right. If it errors out, adjust the eval script appropriately.

Step 4 - Test with your replacement weapon.
Check and make sure it is working correctly with your first replacement weapon. If not, return to step 3.

Step 5 - Replace more weapons
Basically do step 2 over again, but with more weapons.

Step 6 - More testing
Once you've got weapons in there from each of the groups, test and make sure an example weapon from each group is behaving as expected. If not, back to step 3.

Step 7 - Dance the dance of accomplishment.

If you run into trouble, give it a couple tweaks yourself, and if you're still having difficulty, post here on the boards and I'll give you some more pointers, but I think this is within your grasp.

 

[Aaron]

The other problem is adding an ability that lets the player choose between two abilities:
at level 1 you can choose one of the following:
Choice A
Choice B

I am almost positive I saw a tutorial about that somewhere while I was trying to figure out the wis/dex problem, but now that I am actively searching for an answer to this problem, I can't find it. Any suggestions or leads towards help would be appreciated.

For this, you can just create the two choices as primary custom abilities. On the class tab in the editor, choose you class and scroll down to the "Custom Ability Count" button. Enter 1 for the level they get the ability at (keep in mind, since it starts at Row 0, the level is going to be at 1 higher than the row). You can also enter the name of the custom abilities right below that button (for example, "Hex" would be entered here for the Witch)

Now go to the Custom Ability tab, and create the two abilities here. Most important thing is that you hit the "Available to Classes" button and choose the Heavy Grounder Class for each ability. Also, don't choose anything for the "Not Primary Ability?" dropdown.

Reload the game system, and test things by adding however many levels, and then choosing one of the 2 abilities.

 

[Kinf]

I am a little confused by this last. If a class has multiple abilities that allow them to choose between certain powers within that ability, how do we separate the powers from the other abilities powers? not sure if I am saying this right.