Spells in-play on Animal Companion

[grimlaf]

Both my Druid and his AC are set-up in HL, that's cool

I'm fond of casting/stacking buffs on my animal buddy- is there an easy way w/n HL that I can apply those buffs directly to the AC's profile?

I tend to prep digitally and game on paper (mostly). I'd like to print out several sheets of the 1st page of my AC's profile- base, base+magic fang, base+bull's str, etc. and tab them in a 3-ring binder.

Anyway to accomplish this? Thanks!

 

[Silveras]

Generally, the Spells have no effects themselves in HeroLab, other than tracking which have been used.

Spell-like abilities MAY have scripted effects that apply themselves through the In-Play tab (as do Supernatural and Extraordinary abilities).

The Adjustments tab is where you can find the tools for adding spell EFFECTS to a creature, as well as "Conferred" abilities (like Bardic Performance benefits, for example).

Add the appropriate Adjustments to your Animal Companion. Turn them on and off as needed, and print the variations you need.

 

[grimlaf]

so for a spell like "Atavism" I'm going to need to create separate adjustments for attack, damage, AC, CMD, yada/yada/yada in the "Other Adjustments" tab, turn them on 1x1, print that sheet, add another buff, ad infinitum?
lol, it'd just be easier to do it on-the-fly with a red pen.
thanks for your response though

 

[Farling]

so for a spell like "Atavism" I'm going to need to create separate adjustments for attack, damage, AC, CMD, yada/yada/yada in the "Other Adjustments" tab, turn them on 1x1, print that sheet, add another buff, ad infinitum?
lol, it'd just be easier to do it on-the-fly with a red pen.
thanks for your response though

That's why it's much easier to use HL at the table

 

[Silveras]

so for a spell like "Atavism" I'm going to need to create separate adjustments for attack, damage, AC, CMD, yada/yada/yada in the "Other Adjustments" tab, turn them on 1x1, print that sheet, add another buff, ad infinitum?
lol, it'd just be easier to do it on-the-fly with a red pen.
thanks for your response though

Well, if there is no existing Adjustment for that spell, maybe.
There are a lot of general Adjustments as well, especially in the Community Pack. So you would not need to create new Adjustments for AC, Attack, Damage, etc. ... but they would not be tied to that specific spell. You would need to add them, and enable/disable them, individually.

Not every spell has had a specific Adjustment created for it. Many of the existing ones were donated from the Community, and were created as someone had a need for it.

As Farling said, though, re-calculation of these things "on the fly" is what makes HeroLab valuable at the table. If you're going to work from a printed sheet, it may well be easier to make changes with a pen (or pencil) to a basic version of the character as needed.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

What you could also do using the Community Pack is use allot of the "Situational" Adjustments to add notes to the character sheet about spell bonuses or other Misc bonuses. Or use the "Custom Text" adjustment to add additional wording to a weapon or piece of equipment.

Using the above you could have info about a spell giving bonus to AC, skills, saves, etc. that will print to the character sheet. In addition your notes stay on your character and you don't have to keep re-adding them with a pen.

 

[grimlaf]

thanks everyone for the feedback
We try to go low-tech/old-school at the table... "we use to play with nothing but dice and pen & paper!"... yeah, but that was almost 40 years ago, we need crutches now
I will check out the Community Pack link, appreciate the tip.

 

[Ualaa]

One of my players likes Psionics, and there are several powers which are not available as adjustments...
But his favorite, or commonly used powers, I do as a clump of adjustments that are physically grouped together (added in sequential order) with one of the 'Source' field noting that it is due to this power being used.
A few of the options for Path of War are like this, where the class is available but using the stance doesn't do anything... but adjustments cover the bases well, even if it's not perfect it is workable... and that way, I know everything is stacking correctly, since I can specify the type of bonus the adjustment is adding usually.

At one point, I could specify that an ability increase was an Inherent bonus, but that seems to have disappeared quite a ways back, and Permanent adjustment works, with a note that it is an inherent bonus.
Initiative is the other adjustment, where for this one you only have the straight number and not a means to specify (aside from source/duration fields) what the type of bonus is.

Overall, adjustments work fine.

 

[Ualaa]

And as Shadow has said, Situational Adjustments work well too.

If you put them on the 'Personal' tab, you lose one of the fields.
But if you put them on the 'Adjustment' tab, you get both of the fields.

In Spheres of Power, when a caster does Invisibility they're gaining their caster level to their stealth check (Sphere's invis is your stealth vs the observer's perception, not a flat +40; but even if they observe your square, unless they have Ghost Sight/See Invis/True Seeing or the equivalent they still have the 50% miss chance).

I've added situational text, to Stealth, for each character who is a sphere's caster with the Invisibility power.
It works great, because the reminder is there right on the character sheet, but it's not something that is always on.