Help with homebrew 3.5 new PRESTIGE class input into PF HL

[ProphetPX]

I have been wanting to input a PRESTIGE CLASS from a 3.5 homebrew site, and code it into Hero Lab, while converting it for Pathfinder usage on-the-fly...

How would I code this?
Please teach me. I want to learn so i do not have to ask anyone stuff like this.
I badly need this (and the Pyro feat which i posted in another thread) for a game i need to resume running. It's a matter of high demand of my time to get this done for myself and my friends.

Here is a quote of the class info:
---

Becoming a Fire Born

A Fire Born studies the nature of the world and sees the purity and power of fire. Eventually they transcend their mortal forms and become elemental beings themselves.

Before one can become a Fire Born they must first meet peacefully with a fire elemental or creature with a fire subtype that can chose to test their affinity to fire. The Test of the Fire Born is unknown to the participant and up to the DM.

A Fire Born often are intrigued by the natural world and how fire, though destructive, is ultimately rejuvenative. They find satisifaction in the unleased purity of fire energy forms, and they become a Fire born to grow closer to Fire's purity.

Most Fire born's come from druids, although some wizards or sorcerers venture to the class it is rare to see one. A cleric with the sun domain could also qualify for the prestige class.

Entry Requirements Skills:
Knowledge (Nature) 8 ranks
Knowledge (The Planes) 4 ranks
Feats: Pyro
Spells: Able to cast at least 4 spells that deal fire damage. One of the spells has to be at least 3rd level.
Special: Must make a peaceful contact with a Fire elemental or outsider that has the fire subtype. (can be a summoned creature) Must display an affinity to fire by way of test given by the elemental.(up to DM decision see #Test of the Fire Born)

Table: The Fire Born
Hit Die: d4

Level Base
Attack Bonus Saving Throws Special Spellcasting
Fort Ref Will
1st +0 +0 +0 +2 Fire specialty,

Resistance to Fire 5
+1 level of existing spellcasting class
2nd +1 +0 +0 +3 Immunity to sleep,

Bonus Feat
+1 level of existing spellcasting class
3rd +2 +1 +1 +3 Fire Penetration +2 +1 level of existing spellcasting class
4th +3 +1 +1 +4 Resistance to fire 10,

Fire Adaptation, Spell Secret
+1 level of existing spellcasting class
5th +3 +1 +1 +4 Fire focus +1,

Summon Fire Elemental 1/day
+1 level of existing spellcasting class
6th +4 +2 +2 +5 Wild Shape Fire +1/day +1 level of existing spellcasting class
7th +5 +2 +2 +5 Resistance to fire 20 +1 level of existing spellcasting class
8th +6/+1 +2 +2 +6 Fire Penetration +4,

Bonus Feat
+1 level of existing spellcasting class
9th +6 +3 +3 +6 Immunity to paralysis and poison +1 level of existing spellcasting class
10th +7 +3 +3 +7 Fire Perfection,

Fire Focus +2 Fire Immunity
+1 level of existing spellcasting class

Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level)
Concentration(Con), Craft(Int), Diplomacy(Cha), Handle Animal(Cha), Heal(Wis), Knowledge (nature)(Int), Listen(Wis), Profession(Wis), Ride(Dex), Spellcraft(Int), Spot(Wis), Survival(Wis), and Swim(Str).
Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency : Fire Born gain no additional proficiency in weapons or armor.

Spells Per Day : When a new Fire Born level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if she had also gained a level in a spell casting class she belonged to before adding the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained, except for an increased effective level of spell casting. If a character had more than one spell casting class prior to becoming a Fire Born, she must decide which class she adds the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Fire Specialty : Beginning at 1st level, the Fire Born may substitute Fire as a free action in any spell she casts with an element descriptor. For bards and sorcerers, this supersedes the requirement that a metamagic feat applied to a spell takes a full-round action to cast. Note that the spell’s normal casting time (typically 1 action) must still be taken.

Fire Resistance : Beginning at 1st level, the Fire Born gains increasing resistance to fire. This resistance is 5 points at level 1, and increases to 10 points at level 4, 15 at level 7, and becomes full immunity at level 10.

Immunity to Sleep : At 2nd level, as an Fire Born continues to transcend her mortal form, she gains immunity to sleep effects. She also at this point begins to look slightly more elemental(red streaks in hair, hot to the touch, slight orange glow in the eyes).

Fire Focus : From 5th level on, a fire born is better able to manipulate fire. The save DC for any fire spell increases by 1. At 10th level, these save DCs increase by 1 again (total increase of 2). These increases are cumulative with those granted by the Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus feats.

Fire Penetration : The fire Born begins to further refine their fire energies, and gains the ability to penetrate spell resistance with greater ease, if they are using a fire spell. She gains a +2 competence bonus on caster level checks (1d20+caster level) to overcome a creature's resistance. At 8th level, this bonus increases to +4. These bonuses stack with those granted by the Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration feats.

Fire Adaptation : At 4th level, the Fire Born no longer takes environmental damage or suffers from hazards relating to heat or fire. In addition, she suffers no ill effects and has no difficulty moving and navigating through hot or fiery climates. However, spells that duplicate hot environments(i.e.ball of fire) do inflict their normal damage, after the fire resistance is factored in.

Spell Secret : The fire Born can select one spell she knows and alter it so that it always works as though modified with a metamagic feat The altered spell does not use up a higher-level spell slot, and the Fire Born does not need to know the selected metamagic feat.

Wild Shape Fire : The Fire Born gets an additional or first wild shape per day as well as the ability to take the form of a fire subtype creature.

Immunity to Paralysis and Poison : As a Fire Born approaches Fire perfection, she gains immunity to paralysis and poison at 9th level.

Fire Perfection : At 10th level, a Fire born, through long association with elemental entities and extensive study of their secrets, completely transcends her mortal form to become an elemental creature. Her type changes to elemental. She no longer needs to eat, sleep, or breathe (though she must still rest to regain spells). She gains an elemental creature's immunity to stunning, and she is no longer subject to extra damage from critical hits or flanking. A Fire born gains the speed and movement modes, natural attacks, special attacks, and special qualities of a Medium fire elemental, as noted in the Monster Manual, except that the save DC against here elemental attack form, if any is 20 + her Con modifier. Unlike a normal elemental, a Fire born retains a soul separate from her body. She can be raised from the dead as normal for a creature of her previous type.

Fire Immunity : From 10th level on, a Fire Born gains immunity to Fire.
Ex-Fire Born's

If a Fire Born wanders from seeking the purity of Fire for any reason since it is an independent study no negative effects are present in the character, but if they choose to pick it up again after a year of inactivity they must regain alignment with the fire by meeting with the elemental again and possibly testing again. (test of the fire born)
Playing a Fire Born
This section is not complete, and needs to be finished. Edit this Page

Combat: <-Typical role in combat->

Advancement: <-Typical advancement options for characters with this class. Include desirable multiclass options->

Resources: <-What kind of assistance members of this class can expect from each other including possible organizations->
Fire Born's in the World
This section is not complete, and needs to be finished. Edit this Page
“ As soon as he came to Vsrintgard there was arson reports left and right. We decided to start investigating. You've probably never heard of Vrintsarg, well, now you know why-> ”

<-Where characters of this class fit in a d20 world->

NPC Reactions: <-How NPCs react to characters of this class->
Fire Born Lore
This section is not complete, and needs to be finished. Edit this Page

The Fire born are part of an ancient group that predates Druids or Elemental Savants. This group known as The Children of the Elements (Elemental Children) were once a great and powerful group. Very few if any have been made in the last millinia and the ones that are rarely are able to find the resources to dedicate themselves to the task. None are known to worship dietys but rather worship nature and the elements themselves. As man came to being and began settling more and over taking nature itself many of them have dwindled to non-existence. Only the snow born are even seen rarely because of the cold climate that the cold spirit dwells in, the snow born are the most active of the classes. Elemental children are all chosen at birth and their nature drives them to this path When they are born they are visited by the very elemental that will test them. This elemental will sometimes bear supernatural gifts to the child that can only be unlocked by the snow born through years of personal search. Many times the character will be restless before taking up the path, they often get a sense of incompleteness or just a yearning for something.

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (nature) can research Snow born's to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.
Knowledge (nature) DC Result
21 They become Fire Elementals
26 They are more ancient than sevant's
31 Many Fire Borns are outgoing in nature and are part of the group of elemental children
40 Fire Born's are pre chosen at birth and their nature drives them into the class. When they are born they are visited by the very elemental that will test them. This elemental will sometimes bear supernatural gifts to the child that can only be unlocked by the fire born through years of personal search.
Fire Born's in the Game
This section is not complete, and needs to be finished. Edit this Page

<-How characters of this class fit in the game (PC and NPC) and what roles they play->

Adaptation: <-Fitting this class in your campaign->

Sample Encounter: <-DM placement for NPC of this class->

EL whatever: <-Encounter scenario and character info on sample NPC including stat block. The CR of the NPC is typically the same as the EL for the encounter->
The Test of the Fire Born

The Player rolls a d4 and depending on the roll must complete 1 of the following tests:

1: Cast a harmful Fire spell on a nearby creature
2: Sit in a very hot room, until they reach the point at which they might die. (if they stay in until released at the last moment they pass)
3: Create fire using no spell components
4: Survive a week in a heated climate with nothing but what they can carry.

These tests can take any amount of time as the participant is taken to another time dimension and no time passes in the native dimension.

Related Elemental Children
Snow Born (DnD Prestige Class)
Fire Born (DnD Prestige Class)
Earth Born (DnD Prestige Class)
Air Born (DnD Prestige Class)

(SOURCE: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Fire_Born_%283.5e_Prestige_Class%29 )

I know this is a rather LARGE request. But even just some pointers in the right direction to show me how to do each thing, is better than nothing because I will do whatever suggestions i can get. I am not asking people to do it for me, just to show me how so i can do it on my own. Thanks.
(But i certainly will not object if someone does the whole thing for me and just pastes the code and i will gladly take it! LOL)

 

[Aaron]

Requirements
First, create a new class in the editor, this will make 2 things. A Class Helper (which handles the majority of the mechanics of the class) and a Class Level (which is the actual pick you choose on the Classes tab, and will handle the pre-requisites for the PrC).

Now select your Class Level. Pre-requisites are handled by 3 related buttons on the upper right. Expr-reqs are single lines of code which are checked for validation. Pre-reqs are like Expr-reqs but can be multiple lines so they can handle more complex requirements. Eval Rules only run when something is a pick (that is, once it is added to a hero) and unlike the other two can change things on the hero at the same time they validate themselves.

The first three requirements are common simple expr-reqs. Think of some other PrC which requires a feat and/or some number of ranks in a specific skill. For example, Assassin requires some skills, and Arcane Archer requires a feat. Now go to the "New Copy" button in the lower left and copy the class levels of those two things to look at their Expr reqs. You should be able to copy those and just change them slightly to refer to your new skill's/feats unique IDs.

The last two pre-requisites, for the spells known and must undergo a trial by fire, will have to be text only. I would put a bolded section prior to the PrC's description text reminding users of them.

 

[RavenX]

Since you posted this in the pathfinder section, I assume this is going to be a Pathfinder conversion. One thing to do is bump the hit die up to a d6 as per the standards used by Pathfinder. Another thing I'd think on is cutting 3 ranks per skill requirement. Remember that a 1st level 3.5 character gets to put up to 4 ranks into a skill, while in Pathfinder you can only put 1 rank at 1st level. This class's requirements skill wise could have been met by a 3.5 character at 5th level, so the pathfinder conversion should take this into account.

 

[Aaron]

Base Statistics
By this I mean things like how the BAB and Saves advance. Select your class helper and scroll down the central column, filling in details as you go. I would note that nothing in Pathfinder uses a d4 for it's HD, so consider bumping that up do d6 on the "Hit Dice # of sides" field. Attack bonus should be Medium, and choose Fast or Slow for each save advancement. You can also select the class skills this PrC grants in the button after Will saves.

For the "+1 level of existing spellcasting" things, that is an array field on the line "Extra Magic/Power Levels" (it's way down near the bottom). For arrays, each row represents a level (row 0 = level 1), and if I am reading your post correctly, each row should increase by 1 over the last.

 

[Aaron]

Class Abilities
These need to be created separate from the class itself, on the "Class Specials" tab, and then bootstrapped to the class helper using the blue Bootstraps button in the upper right of the Class Helper.

I'm not going to go through each of the class abilities required, other than to say if you run into a problem feel free to post here.

 

[ProphetPX]

Requirements
First, create a new class in the editor, this will make 2 things. A Class Helper (which handles the majority of the mechanics of the class) and a Class Level (which is the actual pick you choose on the Classes tab, and will handle the pre-requisites for the PrC).

I understand all of that. I've got a new problem though. Apparently this PrC is a prestige class that is a part of an overall group of PrC's.
Like, the Fire Born is actually part of an overall group called "the Elemental Children" and Snow Borns (as opposed to the Fire Borns which i need more than anything else) are the most popular or most common.

So, my next question is, should i not just develop a PrC with 4 different archetypes? Each with their own elemental tie?

I originally wanted just the fire born. Now it just makes sense to code or input all 4 EC/borns into HL Editor while i am at it.

How hard would it be to just make 1 PrC and then "split off" all the abilities into archetypes? Because I do not think there is just a plain "Elemental Child" -- only 4 elemental specific ones.

Or, should I just make the Snow Born as the main Elemental Child, and just split off the other 3 (fire, air, earth or whatever) into archetypes?

As far as the Pyro feat, I've done some of that work already. I posted about that in another thread here.

Now select your Class Level. Pre-requisites are handled by 3 related buttons on the upper right. Expr-reqs are single lines of code which are checked for validation. Pre-reqs are like Expr-reqs but can be multiple lines so they can handle more complex requirements. Eval Rules only run when something is a pick (that is, once it is added to a hero) and unlike the other two can change things on the hero at the same time they validate themselves.

The first three requirements are common simple expr-reqs. Think of some other PrC which requires a feat and/or some number of ranks in a specific skill. For example, Assassin requires some skills, and Arcane Archer requires a feat. Now go to the "New Copy" button in the lower left and copy the class levels of those two things to look at their Expr reqs. You should be able to copy those and just change them slightly to refer to your new skill's/feats unique IDs.

The last two pre-requisites, for the spells known and must undergo a trial by fire, will have to be text only. I would put a bolded section prior to the PrC's description text reminding users of them.

So far I have done all of this -- just as you said. This part is the EASIEST part. No problem.

 

[ProphetPX]

...
The last two pre-requisites, for the spells known and must undergo a trial by fire, will have to be text only. I would put a bolded section prior to the PrC's description text reminding users of them.

I understand how the trial event might have to be "text only" but is there no construct to check whether a given event has happened in the character's journal? Something as simple as maybe checking in the Journal for something like: "Successfully completed Trial of the Fire Born" etc etc.... ?
Does Hero Lab record game events like that where they can be checked by abilities? I could make this PrC refuse to level into the 1st level of it until the DM him/herself approves it and then it puts a message into the journal and THAT would then thus enable the PrC to go through... ? or is that too overly sophisticated???

I just want to be able to learn or do everything in programming as much as i possibly can, and i want to AVOID any "text only" stuff as much as I can, as well. If possible. I want to make everything I can to be digitally interactable and not just a nicely printed bit of text on a printed character sheet.
(Though i suppose that will suffice if that is all i can do. At the least).

Also, it does not seem to me that it should be hard to check whether or not a character is a divine caster (most Fire Borns tend to come from Druids but some can be Alchemists and Sun Clerics as well as maybe even Wizard (Arcane) Evokers, or Wizard Fire Elementalist school, too -- since Fire Born is a fire element based PrC.)

Just trying to learn. Thank you.

 

[Aaron]

I understand all of that. I've got a new problem though. Apparently this PrC is a prestige class that is a part of an overall group of PrC's.
Like, the Fire Born is actually part of an overall group called "the Elemental Children" and Snow Borns (as opposed to the Fire Borns which i need more than anything else) are the most popular or most common.

So, my next question is, should i not just develop a PrC with 4 different archetypes? Each with their own elemental tie?

I originally wanted just the fire born. Now it just makes sense to code or input all 4 EC/borns into HL Editor while i am at it.

How hard would it be to just make 1 PrC and then "split off" all the abilities into archetypes? Because I do not think there is just a plain "Elemental Child" -- only 4 elemental specific ones.

Or, should I just make the Snow Born as the main Elemental Child, and just split off the other 3 (fire, air, earth or whatever) into archetypes?

Archetypes would be one way to do it, though probably not the most elegant way.

If the 4 versions of the prestige class have different pre-reqs for entering them, then it might be best to build them as seperate classes completely.

If they share the same pre-requisites (aside from whatever special pre-reqs you are leaving as text only), then I would have the class select it's element by adding a custom special (kind of like how kineticists choose their elements). Then build the class specials to either alter themselves based on the element chosen (if common to all elements) and have each element chosen bring a different set of abilities by bootstrapping different class abilities (for class abilities which only are associated with one element).

Further Edit:
If you really want to bring the "you must complete the trial" thing to the fore, you could make it a pre-req which always fails before the class level is added (thus warning the user), but is satisfied if the user decides to ignore the warning and add a level anyway. Drawback to that is that no one will ever see the class as valid when choosing among classes. I would prefer leaving things text only because of that drawback.

 

[Aaron]

I understand how the trial event might have to be "text only" but is there no construct to check whether a given event has happened in the character's journal? Something as simple as maybe checking in the Journal for something like: "Successfully completed Trial of the Fire Born" etc etc.... ?

Does Hero Lab record game events like that where they can be checked by abilities? I could make this PrC refuse to level into the 1st level of it until the DM him/herself approves it and then it puts a message into the journal and THAT would then thus enable the PrC to go through... ? or is that too overly sophisticated???

Hero lab does not have any mechanism like that included in journals. You might be able to hack something together using string compares, but it would be incredibly brittle and wouldn't detect even a variance of a single letter. It's not worth it, IMO.

Also, it does not seem to me that it should be hard to check whether or not a character is a divine caster (most Fire Borns tend to come from Druids but some can be Alchemists and Sun Clerics as well as maybe even Wizard (Arcane) Evokers, or Wizard Fire Elementalist school, too -- since Fire Born is a fire element based PrC.)

Just trying to learn. Thank you.

Any character which can cast Divine spells will have a number of Hero.Divine tags equal to the highest level of spells they can cast +1 (1 tag for 0th level spells, 2 for 1st level spells, etc). Same with Arcane spells and Hero.Arcane.

 

[TheIronGolem]

I understand how the trial event might have to be "text only" but is there no construct to check whether a given event has happened in the character's journal? Something as simple as maybe checking in the Journal for something like: "Successfully completed Trial of the Fire Born" etc etc.... ?
Does Hero Lab record game events like that where they can be checked by abilities? I could make this PrC refuse to level into the 1st level of it until the DM him/herself approves it and then it puts a message into the journal and THAT would then thus enable the PrC to go through... ? or is that too overly sophisticated???

I don't recommend it, but if you really want a mechanism for tracking in-character events, you could create a custom feat for each such event. The feats themselves would be text-only, with no scripts. When the character completes the event, give the character that feat, and also use the "Feat, Bonus" adjustment so that the feat doesn't count against their total. Finally, make the feat a prerequisite for your PrC.

Like I said, I don't really recommend this, because it ends up being a lot of busywork for very little gain in functionality. But if it helps you, then maybe it's worthwhile.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

I don't recommend it, but if you really want a mechanism for tracking in-character events, you could create a custom feat for each such event. The feats themselves would be text-only, with no scripts. When the character completes the event, give the character that feat, and also use the "Feat, Bonus" adjustment so that the feat doesn't count against their total. Finally, make the feat a prerequisite for your PrC.

Like I said, I don't really recommend this, because it ends up being a lot of busywork for very little gain in functionality. But if it helps you, then maybe it's worthwhile.

If going this way I would make these "Extra" feats simply adjust the Bonus resource up by one when added. That way they don't take up a Feat slot.

I am with everyone else in that I see "no" useful reason to do this. You can't ever "STOP" someone from adding the class no matter what. All you could do is display an error. If the player is going that far to "mess" with the game the problem exists at a level that HL will not solve. I would advise "talking" to your group and DM and work through the issue. HL is not a straight jacket meant to fix human communication issues.

 

[TheIronGolem]

If going this way I would make these "Extra" feats simply adjust the Bonus resource up by one when added. That way they don't take up a Feat slot.

Arglebargle. Yes, I meant "Extra", not "Bonus". I always forget that "Bonus" is for bypassing prerequisites, and "Extra" is for maintaining slot count.

 

[ProphetPX]

I don't recommend it, but if you really want a mechanism for tracking in-character events, you could create a custom feat for each such event. The feats themselves would be text-only, with no scripts. When the character completes the event, give the character that feat, and also use the "Feat, Bonus" adjustment so that the feat doesn't count against their total. Finally, make the feat a prerequisite for your PrC.

Like I said, I don't really recommend this, because it ends up being a lot of busywork for very little gain in functionality. But if it helps you, then maybe it's worthwhile.

That sounds like one of those in-game "Achievement" type feats that some of the Pathfinder Adventure Paths sometimes give out (Jade Dynasty, for one example). That is an interesting idea, even if only a "kludge". I might consider that. Thanks!