How to choose from a limited set of ability scores

[Zedwimer]

I've searched the forums to no avail on this (I'm probably not using the right keywords?), so I'll just ask away here.

I've got a race that, among its racial traits, allows you to choose three things: +2 to one ability score (other than WIS or CON) and +2 to any two skills (which also become class skills). I might be able to figure out the skill selection, but I'm really struggling with how to allow the player to choose from only four ability scores. There's an existing racial special that grants +2 to one ability score, but I couldn't figure out how to restrict it to only STR, DEX, INT, or CHA.

Any help with the choosing the two skills as above would be deeply appreciated as well.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

Under the where you select the type of dropdown is a place to enter a "Custom Expression". You can setup a simple expression to include the four ability scores you want using their "thingid.?" group and tag. So the tag for Strength is "aSTR" in example. You can easily right click on an ability score to get its "unique ID". Then you use the pipe symbol to do a "or" statement. FYI "&" means "and" if you later need more complex expressions and that can include using () to separate out logic.

So this custom expression allows only Wisdom and Strength to be chosen:

thingid.aSTR|thingid.aWIS

Note change "Select From..." back to "- none -" when using a custom expression.
Set "Restrict List to..." to "All Picks on Hero".

 

[Zedwimer]

Under the where you select the type of dropdown is a place to enter a "Custom Expression". You can setup a simple expression to include the four ability scores you want using their "thingid.?" group and tag. So the tag for Strength is "aSTR" in example. You can easily right click on an ability score to get its "unique ID". Then you use the pipe symbol to do a "or" statement. FYI "&" means "and" if you later need more complex expressions and that can include using () to separate out logic.

So this custom expression allows only Wisdom and Strength to be chosen:

thingid.aSTR|thingid.aWIS

Note change "Select From..." back to "- none -" when using a custom expression.
Set "Restrict List to..." to "All Picks on Hero".

Awesome. I've got the basic functionality working, but two strange things are happening.

First, where I pick the stat under "Racial, Template & Faction Abilities", it always displays the trait's full Name, never the Short Name, no matter how long the Name is. Any idea how to get it to show the Short Name there instead?

Second, I'm getting a "Choose Higher Power" validation error with the attribute selection trait. Any idea what might be causing that? Is it because I created this as a Custom Race Trait rather than a Racial Cust Special or Racial Special?

 

[Zedwimer]

Awesome. I've got the basic functionality working, but two strange things are happening.

First, where I pick the stat under "Racial, Template & Faction Abilities", it always displays the trait's full Name, never the Short Name, no matter how long the Name is. Any idea how to get it to show the Short Name there instead?

Second, I'm getting a "Choose Higher Power" validation error with the attribute selection trait. Any idea what might be causing that? Is it because I created this as a Custom Race Trait rather than a Racial Cust Special or Racial Special?

I answered part of my own question already; the "Choose Higher Power" error went away when I recreated this as a Racial Special. I'm still struggling with the name problem, but when I shortened the Name to "+2 to Ability Score:", at least it now fits on the screen. I'd still like to use the Short Name in there somehow though, as Hero Lab's not doing it on its own.

I've got a new question now... actually, it's part of my original question. I've got another Racial Special that allows the player to pick two skills. The character gets +2 to each skill and it becomes a class skill. Picking the two skills and adding the +2 to them was the easy part. Now the hard part (for me, that is): not only do I need the chosen skills to become class skills, but I need to get a validation error for (or just outright prevention of) the selection of the same skill twice. Can you point me in the right direction?

 

[Zedwimer]

I answered part of my own question already; the "Choose Higher Power" error went away when I recreated this as a Racial Special. I'm still struggling with the name problem, but when I shortened the Name to "+2 to Ability Score:", at least it now fits on the screen. I'd still like to use the Short Name in there somehow though, as Hero Lab's not doing it on its own.

I've got a new question now... actually, it's part of my original question. I've got another Racial Special that allows the player to pick two skills. The character gets +2 to each skill and it becomes a class skill. Picking the two skills and adding the +2 to them was the easy part. Now the hard part (for me, that is): not only do I need the chosen skills to become class skills, but I need to get a validation error for (or just outright prevention of) the selection of the same skill twice. Can you point me in the right direction?

I figured out how to make the skills Class Skills (a bit more searching in the forums turned up the answer). I'm still stuck on the validation error for picking the same skill twice though. I'll poke around a bit more tonight and see if I can figure it out.

 

[Zedwimer]

I figured out how to make the skills Class Skills (a bit more searching in the forums turned up the answer). I'm still stuck on the validation error for picking the same skill twice though. I'll poke around a bit more tonight and see if I can figure it out.

Problem solved. For those who are curious, this little eval rule worked:

~if two skills are chosen AND they have different names, we're valid
  if (compare (field[usrChosen1].chosen.field[name].text, field[usrChosen2].chosen.field[name].text) <> 0) then
    if (field[usrChosen1].ischosen + field[usrChosen2].ischosen = 2) then
      @valid = 1
      done
      endif
    endif

~otherwise mark the tab as invalid
  container.panelvalid[background] = 0

Now on to the other race I need to build...