Question before buying

[Neil P]

Hi,

I am considering purchasing HL Pathfinder and all of the Pathfinder add-ons. However, before I do this I just want to be sure that it will work as expected.

We use a house rule that gives all characters Sorcerer spells as a Sorcerer of their level.

E.g. A 3rd level Archer would have all of the benefits of being an Archer plus the spell casing abilities of a 3rd level Sorcerer.

Is this possible in Hero Lab ? If so then what would be the easiest way ?

Would I do this by adding an archetype that adds Sorcerer spells ? This assumes that classes can take multiple archetypes (e.g. the Archer archetype plus my Sorcerer Spells archetype).

Alternatively would I need to edit the core classes and add Sorcerer spells that way ?

Would either of these methods be possible ? If so then how easy would it be for me to do this given that I will be new to the software.

Are there likely to be any issues such as Sorcerers getting twice the number of spells ?

I appreciate any advice.

Thanks.

Neil.

 

[Lord Magus]

Hi,

We use a house rule that gives all characters Sorcerer spells as a Sorcerer of their level.

E.g. A 3rd level Archer would have all of the benefits of being an Archer plus the spell casing abilities of a 3rd level Sorcerer.

Is this possible in Hero Lab ? If so then what would be the easiest way ?

Would I do this by adding an archetype that adds Sorcerer spells ? This assumes that classes can take multiple archetypes (e.g. the Archer archetype plus my Sorcerer Spells archetype).

Alternatively would I need to edit the core classes and add Sorcerer spells that way ?

Would either of these methods be possible ? If so then how easy would it be for me to do this given that I will be new to the software.

The easiest way would be, in the editor, to create a new archetype for each base class allowing it spellcasting as a sorcerer, with the appropriate spell progression. If your archetype does not remove any class feature, it should play nice with the other archetypes for that class. However, I'd say you will not be able to create a single archetype applicable to all classes; you'll have to do one for each. But you won't have to fiddle around the base classes.

Maybe a single template, applicable to all creatures, would be more "elegant", but would also be somewhat harder to code.

As for the ease of the process, the editor always looks difficult for new users; don't expect to code your archetype immediately after buying. However, by watching the tutorial videos referred elsewhere (don't have the reference handy; go to youtube and search for HeroLab tutorial) and looking (through the editor) at other things in the game that have similar properties to what you want to code, you should be able to get through this rather quickly.

If you have any questions while going through the process, don't hesitate to ask on these boards!

 

[Aaron]

Archetypes might work well for classes that don't have spellcasting, but since there is only one set of fields for those purposes you're going to run into problems when trying to add sorcerer spells to a paladin, for example.

Actually, I would approach this through the route of racial spellcasting (like the rakshasa and dragons get). You may be able set up a mechanic which adds that capability to the currently selected race. It would, however, be pretty complicated. This is not the first project I'd recommend to anyone starting out with Hl programming.

 

[AndrewD2]

Archetypes aren't even the easy way to add spell casting to classes that don't have it, just the easiest. You still have to work with some fields that the archetype doesn't modify with spell casting.

 

[blzbob]

If you just want to be able to keep track of it and the scripting is difficult, you can get a hireling and give it your level as a sorcerer and Charisma score plus any applicable feats and gear and use that to at least keep track of your spells that way. You can at least do this until you figure out how to do the actual scripting.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

If you just want to be able to keep track of it and the scripting is difficult, you can get a hireling and give it your level as a sorcerer and Charisma score plus any applicable feats and gear and use that to at least keep track of your spells that way. You can at least do this until you figure out how to do the actual scripting.

That is a really cool idea blzbob! It would defiantly work and would remove the need of using the editor cause I agree with Aaron that it not a simple thing to do right off. I took a look at the Archetype last night and ran into exactly what Aaron said that a class only has one list of "Spells" it can have.

I wonder if a template could apply "Racial Spell Casting" to a character to allow access to Sorcerer spells....

@Neil P - I have to say this is one of the most "unique" house rules I have seen actually.

 

[Neil P]

Wow. Thanks everyone for getting back to me so promptly with some really insightful replies.

I’m all for keeping it simple at this stage so blzbob has hit the nail on the head for me; I will use a hireling as all I want to do is keep track of the spells. Then I will play around with the other methods at my leisure.

@ShadowChemosh – There is a back story as to why we have Sorcerer spells but the real reason is that I live in New Zealand and we only have a small gaming group so it’s a different take on Gestalt. It’s all about fun for us so we’re happy to wing it when necessary.

Well then, I’m off to the shopping cart to spend some money.

See you around.

Thanks

Neil.