How to do spell-likes added at a given level?

[mxyzplk]

Hey all, new Hero Lab user. I'm working on adding the Serpentfolk from Into the Darklands as a character race. I've figured out most of what I need to do. The one point I can't figure out, however, is how to make a spell-like "kick in" at a given level. What I'm trying to do is:

"Once a serpentfolk achieves 4th level in any class, he gains two new spell-like abilities usable once per day each: major image and dominate person."

I think I may be needing something in the "Container Requirement Expression" of those spell-likes but I can't find an example of one. I tried putting

@valid = 0
if (#totallevelcount[] >= 4) then
@valid = 1
endif

in there but it didn't like that... Any tips?

Thanks...

 

[Mathias]

Classes.? >= 4

Timing: First/500

 

[Mathias]

Note - rather than putting this in the containerreqs of the thing itself, find the "condition" button on the bootstrap, and put it there.

Second note - within the last 6 months, we've added what we hope is a better solution to spell-like abilities - near the class skills, racial weapons, special abilities, etc. sections, you'll find a "Spell-like Abilities" button that lets you simply select the spells you're interested in granting and how often they can be used. You can add the same condition to those as you could if you created a new special for it (so that it's only available at 4th level). Hopefully that's faster than creating a special and bootstrapping it to the race.

 

[Mathias]

Just a thought - do serpentfolk have racial HD? If so, use this condition:

Classes.? - Classes.Race - Classes.Template >= 4

So that it will only pick up class levels.

 

[mxyzplk]

That worked, thanks! So "Classes.?" is really total Hit Doce?

 

[Mathias]

Yes, races and templates also add Classes.? tags (Classes.Race and Classes.Template, respectively), so #totallevelcount[] is actually total HD.

 

[mxyzplk]

Related question on SR. I added SR as a special ability. (supposed to be 10+HD). So then in the top level "Eval Scripts" I added (cut and pasted from an example...)

~SR 10 + class levels
var SR as number
SR = 10 + #totallevelcount[]
#applysr[SR]
(post-levels users, pri:10000)

But oddly this is coming out with a too-high SR (23 for a 9 HD serpentdude). If I do it pre-levels it comes out SR 10 as I'd expect.

 

[mxyzplk]

Oh, I just noticed it's counting my 5 HD serpentfolk as 9 "monster" levels in the character interface. Hmmm. I do have its LA set to 4 and CR set to 4, is one of those being added in? I wouldn't think that should happen.

 

[mxyzplk]

Oh, that is what's happening. But that's a bug, isn't it? LA isn't supposed to be "on top of" HD. It is for ECL but ECL is only for limited uses, it's not the level as it should be used for other stuff. Do I need to use Classes.? - Classes.LevelAdjustmentOrSomething?

 

[Mathias]

Classes.Race = HD + Level adjustment in HL.

(I actually haven't touched LA since branching the Pathfinder files off from the d20 files - the concept was removed - you may want to look into leaving off the LA for your d20 - Pathfinder conversion).

 

[Mathias]

Since you know your level adjustment is 4, you can simply subtract 4 from the total.

 

[mxyzplk]

OK, I'll just leave it off, but even in d20 it's not supposed to work that way, right, for this reason? The LA isn't supposed to add to all the powers and whatnot that work off character level - ECL is only supposed to be used for XP progression and starting $$.

 

[Mathias]

Thinking about it more, the rHDFinal field is the best thing to look up for racial HD.

So, if your Eval Script is running on the race:

SR = 10 + field[rHDFinal].value

That will catch any HD added to the race by templates or additional HD added on the classes tab, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't include LA.