Help with Custom Class?

[sophistry]

Hi All,
First off, I'd like to say Kudos to Lone Wolf for Hero Lab - it's really an incredible tool for paperless use in my tabletop game.

So, I started my first Pathfinder campaign and decided to try this all out on my iPad. However, this is a custom Earthdown-esque world converted to Pathfinder, with all sorts of custom abilities, classes, and combinations.

So I'm currently at 6th level, 5 of which are a "Nethermancer" - Which, for this game, is a Wizard with access to 3 schools of magic: Conjuration, Necromancy and Transmutation. I've mostly figure out how to add the new class and specify the specific schools and customize certain spells to fit the aesthetic as the GM specified.
Our group is also has "training" that gives us particular bonuses: +1 physical stat, +1 mental stat, special armor, allows us to get 'Favored Class' bonus in any multiclass we take, some minor psionics abilities.

In addition, one of my levels is in a Customized Prestige class. It's a Summoner type that specializing in abyssal creatures, should stack with Nethermancer for Caster Levels, and only has a few options available to it.

So far, I think I've wrangled the immense Editor to add the Nethermancer class and allow me to set up the character and use him in play. I've run into a few problems, though...

- After adding the custom prestige class, I can't figure out how to make them both Favored for the bonuses.
- Add psionics abilities - can't figure out where or how.
- After adding the Prestige class, extra spells showed up in my spell list, greyed out. They look like all the summoning spells I added for the prestige class.
- The Prestige class has a single summonable companion, that is always essentially the same, is intelligent, and a minion. How can I add that as a 'spell' I have to cast, and then shows up as another character I can activate during play?
- When I add a new wizard-like class, do I have to go through and create/copy to all the wizard-like abilities, feats and school bonuses?

Thanks for any help on this! I ran the Character on Hero Lab on my iPad yesterday for the first time, and it worked fairly well, but I want to get it all hammered out for my next session.

I'm really enjoying the software right now, but I'm super excited for more updates to improve the experience.

-sophistry

 

[sophistry]

Also should mention, I'm having trouble figuring out how to set up the Prestige class to count towards my normal Caster Level. IE: At level 6, I should still be counted as Caster Level 6. And ... the spells greyed out in my active Spell list, are not spells I've actually learned in my spellbook, they're just custom spells I've added as possible spells for the Prestige class.

 

[sophistry]

I found the feats "Multitalented" and "Eclectic" that I should be able to copy and create new feats that allow for multiple favored classes, so that problem should be solved.

I still can't find within my Prestige class where I can tell it to stack Caster levels with Nethermancer. Any ideas?

 

[Aaron]

I don't know your level of proficiency with HL programming, so if any of the below needs further explanation, please just say so.

Hi All,
First off, I'd like to say Kudos to Lone Wolf for Hero Lab - it's really an incredible tool for paperless use in my tabletop game.

So, I started my first Pathfinder campaign and decided to try this all out on my iPad. However, this is a custom Earthdown-esque world converted to Pathfinder, with all sorts of custom abilities, classes, and combinations.

So I'm currently at 6th level, 5 of which are a "Nethermancer" - Which, for this game, is a Wizard with access to 3 schools of magic: Conjuration, Necromancy and Transmutation. I've mostly figure out how to add the new class and specify the specific schools and customize certain spells to fit the aesthetic as the GM specified.
Our group is also has "training" that gives us particular bonuses: +1 physical stat, +1 mental stat, special armor, allows us to get 'Favored Class' bonus in any multiclass we take, some minor psionics abilities.

In addition, one of my levels is in a Customized Prestige class. It's a Summoner type that specializing in abyssal creatures, should stack with Nethermancer for Caster Levels, and only has a few options available to it.

So far, I think I've wrangled the immense Editor to add the Nethermancer class and allow me to set up the character and use him in play. I've run into a few problems, though...

- After adding the custom prestige class, I can't figure out how to make them both Favored for the bonuses.

Try making a copy of the Eclectic feat (which lets you choose 1 more favored class), or the Multitalented Mastery feat (which makes all your classes favored), and study the eval scripts on those.

- Add psionics abilities - can't figure out where or how.

Psionics is not currently officially supported, though we have plans to work on this relatively soon. There is also a fan built system for that, I believe. However I do not know the details of how that works.

- After adding the Prestige class, extra spells showed up in my spell list, greyed out. They look like all the summoning spells I added for the prestige class.

You probably bootstrapped the spells. When you say "Added for the prestige class" what do you mean? What was your intention?

- The Prestige class has a single summonable companion, that is always essentially the same, is intelligent, and a minion. How can I add that as a 'spell' I have to cast, and then shows up as another character I can activate during play?

If I understand you correctly, this minion does not change or grow more powerful as you gain levels in the class. If that is the case, you may want to create a minion on that tab in the editor, and then bootstrap it to a class ability that can be activated. When bootstrapping the Minion, give it a bootstrap condition which checks for the activation of the ability (the relevant field is "abilActive"). Then you can just toggle the minions presence on and off on the In-Play tab.

- When I add a new wizard-like class, do I have to go through and create/copy to all the wizard-like abilities, feats and school bonuses?

You should be able to use the existing lists for custom abilities. Check the original wizard class on the "Allow custom abilities...." button in the editor (or "Allow secondary abilities", and so on).

For the bonus feats allowed you can set up the same list fairly easily in the editor, in the "Bonus feats allowed" button.

 

[Aaron]

Also should mention, I'm having trouble figuring out how to set up the Prestige class to count towards my normal Caster Level. IE: At level 6, I should still be counted as Caster Level 6. And ... the spells greyed out in my active Spell list, are not spells I've actually learned in my spellbook, they're just custom spells I've added as possible spells for the Prestige class.

Do you mean just Caster level or do you mean Effective Level for spellcasting?

Caster level only = You add +1, and the effect of all known spells increase but the number of spell slots and new spell levels remain the same

Effective Level for spellcasting = You add +1, and the effect of all known spells increase and you gain more spells per day/spells known, and so on.

 

[sophistry]

I don't know your level of proficiency with HL programming, so if any of the below needs further explanation, please just say so.

Thanks so much for your response. My proficiency is at the level "complete newbie". I can script in other languages though, so if I have to go hacking through the code, I could probably figure it out eventually.

Try making a copy of the Eclectic feat (which lets you choose 1 more favored class), or the Multitalented Mastery feat (which makes all your classes favored), and study the eval scripts on those.

Will do.

Psionics is not currently officially supported, though we have plans to work on this relatively soon. There is also a fan built system for that, I believe. However I do not know the details of how that works.

I saw that elsewhere on the forums, I'll check that out.

You probably bootstrapped the spells. When you say "Added for the prestige class" what do you mean? What was your intention?

If I understand you correctly, this minion does not change or grow more powerful as you gain levels in the class. If that is the case, you may want to create a minion on that tab in the editor, and then bootstrap it to a class ability that can be activated. When bootstrapping the Minion, give it a bootstrap condition which checks for the activation of the ability (the relevant field is "abilActive"). Then you can just toggle the minions presence on and off on the In-Play tab.

There were some spells I added to the Summoner class in the editor, and somehow ended up greyed out in my active spell list on the iPad, even though they were never added to my spellbook. I'm not sure why that happened, I'll double-check those spells when I get home.

The 'Prestige' Class (Summoner) only has a few things it can do to start - specifically "Summon Planar Ally", which is the Minion I described.
The "Summon Planar Ally" is a 'Class Ability' according to the GM, and he stated that the Ally DOES scale with my level (Is this considered an Eidolon?). She just doesn't add any abilities until I take additional levels in Summoner.

What he says about stacking is this: Summoner Levels Stack with Nethermancer levels for the purposes of determining caster levels and spell abilities.

I'm taking that to mean your latter example - the way I've been playing is by adding a level of Summoner, I'm still essentially adding a level of Nethermancer, expanding my spells-per-day list, improving abilities affected by "CL", but not gaining Nethermancer domain spells, Skill bonuses (1+Int for Summoner versus 2+Int for Nethermancer), and the like.

You should be able to use the existing lists for custom abilities. Check the original wizard class on the "Allow custom abilities...." button in the editor (or "Allow secondary abilities", and so on).

For the bonus feats allowed you can set up the same list fairly easily in the editor, in the "Bonus feats allowed" button.

Thanks again,
I'll be taking another look tonight at the spells and minions/eidolons.

-sophistry

 

[sophistry]

The core of the Summoner Prestige class is dealing with the Abyss and Planar creatures. Would this be a somewhat similar Prestige class to a Demoniac? Maybe a Planes Walker, Genie Binder or Dragon Initiate?

 

[Aaron]

There were some spells I added to the Summoner class in the editor, and somehow ended up greyed out in my active spell list on the iPad, even though they were never added to my spellbook. I'm not sure why that happened, I'll double-check those spells when I get home.

Does the "Summoner" PrC have it's own spellcasting slots? I was under the impression it added to another existing caster class. Considering that, are you intending to make the existing class have access to spells not normally on it's spell list? In that case, you would want to add "ClsAllowSp.XXXXX" (XXX is the unique ID of the spell you want to add to the class list) to the existing class' class helper (the unique ID of the class helper starts with cHelpXXX, I.E. cHelpWiz)

The 'Prestige' Class (Summoner) only has a few things it can do to start - specifically "Summon Planar Ally", which is the Minion I described.
The "Summon Planar Ally" is a 'Class Ability' according to the GM, and he stated that the Ally DOES scale with my level (Is this considered an Eidolon?). She just doesn't add any abilities until I take additional levels in Summoner.

If it functions as an eidolon or animal companion as far as advancement, then you can add those under the "Minions" Section on the class tab (It starts with "Animal Comp. Starts at...")

If it functions in a way other than standard, then things will be very complicated. Not impossible, but you'll have to make a special minion on the Other tab with a lot of workarounds. TBH, I've heard of it being done (I think ShadowChemosh did something similar), but I have never done it myself so he might be able to offer better guidance on this.

What he says about stacking is this: Summoner Levels Stack with Nethermancer levels for the purposes of determining caster levels and spell abilities.

I'm taking that to mean your latter example - the way I've been playing is by adding a level of Summoner, I'm still essentially adding a level of Nethermancer, expanding my spells-per-day list, improving abilities affected by "CL", but not gaining Nethermancer domain spells, Skill bonuses (1+Int for Summoner versus 2+Int for Nethermancer), and the like.

Then you can just click on the "Extra Magic/Power Levels" and enter in the number of extra levels each level. Then, as you add levels in the PrC a table will be present with some selectors, and you can choose which class gains the Magic Level benefit.

 

[sophistry]

It looks like Eclectic and Multitasking are not in the normal Pathfinder license, is that true? Where can I find them?

 

[Aaron]

Eclectic is from the APG, here is the eval script in question:

PostLevel 10000

      ~ If we're disabled, do nothing
      doneif (tagis[Helper.FtDisable] <> 0)

      perform hero.assign[Hero.Multitalen]

Multitalented Mastery is from ARG

First 100

      ~ If we're disabled, do nothing
      doneif (tagis[Helper.FtDisable] <> 0)

      foreach pick in hero from BaseClLev
        perform eachpick.assign[Helper.FavorClass]
        perform eachpick.pulltags[FavClass.?]
        nexteach

      perform forward[FavClass.?]

 

[sophistry]

I'm sorry, some of this is going over my head - I'm new to Pathfinder and Hero Lab. I'm not sure what the difference is between and eidolon and a familiar. I'm trying to have a a byssal ally (a named creature) show up as a drop down in the iPad app when I click the Activate button on the class skill in my list.

Also, trying to figure out how to stack extra Caster Levels when I add levels of the PrC - only sure fire way I've found so far is to add an adjustment within the iPad app. Ideally, I'd want to just add a level of PrC and it just shows the CL for Nethermancer spells increase as well. It looks like the 'Extra Magic' piece gives a full level to Nethermancer - so I think I was mistaken, the effect should be Caster Level Only.

As for the greyed-out spells, I think it has something to do with calling on the Nethermancer spell list from within the PrC tab.

-sophistry

 

[Aaron]

1. I don't know what an "abyssal ally" is, it sounds like something homebrew, so I am afraid I can't help you much further with this unless you can give me more information. For your edification:

A familiar is a small or tiny animal imbued with magic and intelligence by a spellcasting master to serve as a spy and servant. Familiars are normally gained by either wizards or witches, and are not really intended to be used in combat.

Eidolons are outsiders summoned and given form and purpose by their summoner. While they can be adapted to many roles depending on powers selected, they are much more formidible combatants. The only class which can summon eidolons are the Summoners.

2. Is this PrC supposed to increase the CL of:
A. all caster classes on the hero
B. one chosen caster class on the hero
C. only the nethermancer, no other class would gain spellcasting benefit from this PrC

3. For the greyed out spells, why don't you send me a copy of the .user file and I can look at it to determine what's going on here.

 

[Mathias]

In that case, sophistry, back up - figure out a different piece of this class (or some other project) that's less complex, and get more practice with the basics. Minions (like animal companions, familiars, and eidolons) are one of the most complex things in Pathfinder (because they're almost like lots of other things, but with a small exception in so many of their details), and therefore one of the most complex things in Hero Lab.

Can you think of anything else in the game that increases the caster level of a class? For example, the Magical Knack trait.

If you create a fresh character, does it have the greyed out spells? If not, then the original problem is a glitch that occurs when you give a character automatic spells, and then remove those spells - Hero Lab loses the context for those spells. If that's the case, the problem lies in that specific saved character file.