Upcoming Release

[Colen]

Lawful_g wrote:
>
>
> How about the ability to make custome materials, i.e. in the Dragonlance
> Campaign Setting there is no such thing as Mithral, instead there is
> Dragonmetal, which is similar but with a natural enhancement bonus.
> Adamantine is replaced by starmetal, so on and so forth. Certain
> sourcebooks have added new materials, like Green Steel in one of the
> Feindish codexs (I can't remember which) and Kheferite (sp?) from
> Sandstorm...


I'll see how much work it'll be to get materials into the editor for
next release.


--
Colen McAlister (colen@wolflair.com)
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development
http://www.wolflair.com/

 

[Colen]

Culhwch wrote:
>
>
>> >
>> > I'd like to see support for monstrous classes,
>>
>>
>>What do we need to do to support these? I was under the (perhaps
>>erroneous) impression that you could do these just like normal classes.
>
> Monstrous classes combine a monster's hit dice and level adjustment into
> a class. So, for example, a "centaur class" would be 6 levels, 4 of
> which add hit dice, skill points, etc. and 2 that do not, but could add
> other things (say going from a medium creature to a large creature for a
> centaur). If this currently can be done, that's cool. I would just need
> to figure out how to do it.


Changes that only happen at certain levels would have to be script-based
(like the size change you mentioned).


> Oh, and I should also mention that, unlike other classes, if you are taking levels in a monster class, you can't multiclass until you have taken all the levels in the monster class (so, for example, I can't take my first level of fighter until I've taken all 6 levels of centaur). Also, I can't take levels in any other monster class (so no 6th level centaur/5th level hill giant's running around).


Interesting. So I think we need to add:

"Monster Class" type of class that restricts multiclassing
Certain levels not adding skill points and hit dice
Odd saving throw and attack bonus progressions (like the Centaur for
example)


For monster classes to work. Does that sound right?


--
Colen McAlister (colen@wolflair.com)
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development
http://www.wolflair.com/

 

[Mathias]

Colen, don't forget that the monster classes he's referring to are from the book Savage Species (for 3.0), and are not SRD. They're still something that ought to be supportable, though.

For the monster races in the SRD, all the values for feats, BAC, HP, and saves are derived from the progressions for each monster type, based on the creature's HD, just as they would be for a regular class. However, in the SRD there isn't a provision for playing monstrous creatures at a lower HD+ECL than their normal version - that's what Savage Species added.

Glancing through Savage Species, so far, it looks like the dead levels apply to everything but special abilities. So, whenever the creature increases its Hit Dice, the BAC, Saves and Skills increase according to the normal progression for that monster type. There are just some levels where the ECL increases and special abilities are added, without adding to the Hit Dice (something similar is also needed for the bloodlines concept in Unearthed Arcana).

One thought for design - you may want to design things so that the race and its special abilities are one item, and all the special abilities are functions of the race, simply linked to the character level. Then, create all the various monster hit die progressions (Humanoid, Dragon, Fey, etc.). A specific monstrous race would be limited to taking levels in a specific hit die progression until it had all the required levels (although I'm not sure how to make the ECL kick in at the correct levels that way).

 

[dartnet]

Or once you get to 2nd level, are your
1st level action points forgotten entirely and you now have used 0 of a
possible 6?

Thats how they work in Eberron.

 

[Lawful_g]

I'd like to point out that Savage species, as you said, is a 3.0 supplement. Monster classes have since been presented in an updated version in 3.5 supplements like Races of the Wild and the other Races supplements. If I understand you correctly mgehl, it sounds like they haven't changed much, but I don't own Savage Species (because I was a 2nd edition holdout until 3.5) so I can't compare directly. However where/if there are conflicts the more recent should be followed, yes?

And Colen, it sounds like you have it about right. In case you don't have access to Races of the Wild I'll include the info for centaur here as an example... I was going to type the whole thing but probably not be kosher to do so in a public forum, so I'll just hit the highlights.

1st level gives 1st Monstrous humanoid HD (including 2+Int mod x4 skill points and simple wep + longbow and longsword prof) get 1st feat, +1 nat armor and 2 reduced str hoof attacks and modifiers to Int and Dex

Level 2 gives another HD with Hp and skill points, increase in BAB and saves and modifier to Str and Wis.

Level 3 no HD increase so no more Hp/BAB/save inc, natural armor increases, more bonus to Str and Con

Level 4 HD increase to 3 with HP, skills, BAB and saves, now has 3 HD so gains 2nd feat, more bonuses to Str and Dex

Level 5 no HD increase so no HP/skills BAB saves, natural armor increase, base land speed increase, more bonus to Str and Con

Level 6 increase to 4 HD so gains HP skills, BAB, and saves, size increase to large, hoof damage increases

Level 7 would be the first normal class level and would add HP BAB and saves as normal, skill points are not x4 and feats are based on character hit die, so this would be the 5th HD, no feat at level 7

 

[rob]

At 10:27 PM 6/13/2007, you wrote:

I'd like to point out that Savage species, as you said, is a 3.0 supplement. Monster classes have since been presented in an updated version in 3.5 supplements like Races of the Wild and the other Races supplements. If I understand you correctly mgehl, it sounds like they haven't changed much, but I don't own Savage Species (because I was a 2nd edition holdout until 3.5) so I can't compare directly. However where/if there are conflicts the more recent should be followed, yes?

And Colen, it sounds like you have it about right. In case you don't have access to Races of the Wild I'll include the info for centaur here as an example... I was going to type the whole thing but probably not be kosher to do so in a public forum, so I'll just hit the highlights.

We've got all the "Races of..." books here. The problem is that some races are covered in those books using the new level progression mechanism, while there are other races that are only covered in the older books and for which it's presented as an all-or-nothing level adjustment. So we need a solution that will work similarly for both approaches. We can't use a race selection for one and a level selection for the other, just because that might be easier to do. That would be confusing for users. Whichever method we adopt, it has to be the same for both as far as the user selecting the monstrous race is concerned. And that creates extra complexity that has to be sorted out properly. :-(

 

[Culhwch]

At 10:27 PM 6/13/2007, you wrote:

I'd like to point out that Savage species, as you said, is a 3.0 supplement. Monster classes have since been presented in an updated version in 3.5 supplements like Races of the Wild and the other Races supplements. If I understand you correctly mgehl, it sounds like they haven't changed much, but I don't own Savage Species (because I was a 2nd edition holdout until 3.5) so I can't compare directly. However where/if there are conflicts the more recent should be followed, yes?

And Colen, it sounds like you have it about right. In case you don't have access to Races of the Wild I'll include the info for centaur here as an example... I was going to type the whole thing but probably not be kosher to do so in a public forum, so I'll just hit the highlights.

We've got all the "Races of..." books here. The problem is that some races are covered in those books using the new level progression mechanism, while there are other races that are only covered in the older books and for which it's presented as an all-or-nothing level adjustment. So we need a solution that will work similarly for both approaches. We can't use a race selection for one and a level selection for the other, just because that might be easier to do. That would be confusing for users. Whichever method we adopt, it has to be the same for both as far as the user selecting the monstrous race is concerned. And that creates extra complexity that has to be sorted out properly. :-(

Ack! I should have realized it should have been tricky to implement, especially since I write software for a living, and know all about making things "user friendly."

I don't mind if it can't be done. I just thought it would be a nice to have. Races are much better anyway since I'd bet that's what most people use anyway.

 

[chogenkiboy]

Monk Weapon Proficiency Bug for Custom Shuriken

This is similar to weapon proficiency posts I noticed elsewhere, but I believe this bug is present in 1.1G.

I have a monk character that I printed with an ealier version of Hero Lab (I don't know which specific version). That character sheet has shuriken, (alchemical) silver shuriken, and cold iron shuriken, and all correctly printed with the same bonus to hit.

I made some character profile updates in version 1.1G, checked print preview, and noticed the silver and cold iron shuriken attack bonus now include a non-proficiency penalty.

I deleted all shuriken weapons and re-added basic shuriken, custom cold iron shuriken, and custom alchemcal silver shuriken. The non-proficiency penalty is still present for the custom shuriken.

I then started a new monk character and added basic shirken and custom shuriken with no special properties. Again the basic shuriken was OK, but the custom shuriken with no properties refelcts a non-proficiency penalty.

I then tried adding a Kama and Custom Kama. Both were fine. One difference I noticed is the Kama shows up as highlighted text (I presume for proficient weapons) on both the basic and custom weapon selection screens , but the shuriken does not show up as highlighted text in the custom weapon selection screen.

I did not test additional weapons or classes.

 

[Colen]

chogenkiboy wrote:
>
>
> This is similar to weapon proficiency posts I noticed elsewhere, but I
> believe this bug is present in 1.1G.
>
> I have a monk character that I printed with an ealier version of Hero
> Lab (I don't know which specific version). That character sheet has
> shuriken, (alchemical) silver shuriken, and cold iron shuriken, and all
> correctly printed with the same bonus to hit.
>
> I made some character profile updates in version 1.1G, checked print
> preview, and noticed the silver and cold iron shuriken attack bonus now
> include a non-proficiency penalty.
>
> I deleted all shuriken weapons and re-added basic shuriken, custom cold
> iron shuriken, and custom alchemcal silver shuriken. The non-proficiency
> penalty is still present for the custom shuriken.
>
> I then started a new monk character and added basic shirken and custom
> shuriken with no special properties. Again the basic shuriken was OK,
> but the custom shuriken with no properties refelcts a non-proficiency
> penalty.
>
> I then tried adding a Kama and Custom Kama. Both were fine. One
> difference I noticed is the Kama shows up as highlighted text (I presume
> for proficient weapons) on both the basic and custom weapon selection
> screens , but the shuriken does not show up as highlighted text in the
> custom weapon selection screen.
>
> I did not test additional weapons or classes.


Thanks for the excellent bug report. This issue is due to how the
shuriken was being handled differently for use in magic weapons (Hero
Lab was thinking that it counted as a separate weapon in some ways, but
not in others). I've fixed this, so it should be working in the next
version. (This will also fix the problem of the Shuriken appearing twice
in the Exotic Weapon Proficiency list.)


Thanks!


--
Colen McAlister (colen@wolflair.com)
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development
http://www.wolflair.com/

 

[dartnet]

Could you in the next update allow to add our own

arcane familiars
animal companions
fiendish servants
paladin mounts

Thank you.

Dartnet

 

[rob]

At 03:41 PM 6/20/2007, you wrote:

Could you in the next update allow to add our own

arcane familiars
animal companions
fiendish servants
paladin mounts

The new V1.1h update should now provide dummy entries where you can specify what type of familiar/companion/etc you have. One of the things on our todo list is to fully support these various creatures, with full stats. When we do that, you'll be able to add your own custom familiars/companions/etc in gory detail. Until then, we need to keep things simplified so that we won't break existing characters when we add the full implementation. So please be patient on this one so that we can do it right and not break anything in the process.