E-Tools: Implementing PrCs

[jaults]

Re: How To....(long)

Originally posted by Feaelin After that is a series of fields I don't fully understand yet, but appear to be related to "Monster Advancement" (feats/level, skills/level, etc.)

    I just found out, from Q100, that the last two fields in the "info Class" table, BonusFP and LevelsForBonusFP, are related to Bonus Feats (called Feat Points in eTools, hence "FP"). Enter a 1 in BonusFP if your class has bonus feats, and then enter the appropriate number in LevelsForBonusFP for the feat progression - 2 for a Ftr since they get bonus feats every 2 levels, 5 for a Wiz since they get bonus feats every 5 levels.
    Then add the applicable feats to the "info Class Bonus Feats" table. This will allow you to select from the proper list when selecting a bonus feat.
    Great tutorial, Feaelin! You fixed one of the problems I was having. I had missed the base "info Features" table all together.

Thanks,
    Jason

 

[shadoe]

On the +1 caster level, I have not heard of anyone having success on it, but I do have a possible idea for a work arround if it can't be made to work. This work arround would require a lot of work however, and I am not sure it would work(I haven't looked at the DB yet).

I'm not sure how clear this is but, here is the idea. Create a new class starting from 1st level going up, at the appropriate level add the new class features for the prestiege class including +1 caster level. For example:

1 st level Wizard
2 nd level Wizard
3 rd level Wizard
4 th level Take new prestige class with + 1 caster level
5 th level Take new prestige class no + caster level
6 th level Take new prestige class with +1 caster level
etc.

The only problems that I can think of if this is valid is that you could only build the levels 1 at a time, and that you would to have to make a new class for each prestige class combination.

Anyway just throwing out some thoughts on the +1 caster level thing.

 

[EricNoah]

The way I see it there are three broad categories of PrCs -- those that don't cast spells at all, those that have their own spell list and spell progression, and those that do the "+1 level of spellcasting class" method. The first two should be quite doable in the database; the last doesn't seem possible currently.

 

[Chaz]

I Think its great you guys are figuring this stuff out. However I sure hope they add the ability to do this to the program, or somebody comes up with a utility to do this. I dont have access and I know many who use the program dont either. So I hope we can get the ability to do these things ourselves without access.
Still, Good work so far

 

[EricNoah]

From what I hear, Davin's working on an interface to do stuff like this without Access.

 

[Tarek]

+1 Spellcaster level

Actually, you don't need to do the +1 spellcaster level in the E-tools database; you just need to see that it shows up in the statblocks, battle blocks, and character sheets.

Since you can "overspend" on spells known, why not just find a talented XML programmer to modify the XML templates so that the other changes relevant to the feature show up on the character sheet?

The ONLY place where I'd see this as a possible problem is when getting access to a new spell level, such as moving from 6th level Wizard to 6th level Wizard/1st level Elemental Savant. I haven't tried to see if you can "learn" a spell of higher level than E-tools thinks you've earned.

Tarek

 

[EricNoah]

You can't access new levels of spells by "overspending." Good thought, though.

What would take care of about 90% of PrCs is if there were a "+1 spellcaster level" flag somewhere in the DB that could be set to Yes or No for each level of the PrC. So far I haven't found it.

 

[Cergorach]

I've been looking in the db but can't seem to find it either, i think it isn't there. Has anyone from fluid commented on this, Eric could you ask around? I think it's in the core.dll file, i've been bussy disassembling the .dll, but need to know what i'm looking for. I'm going to experiment a bit with the database to find out hat exactly is used to call the +1 casterlevel from the core.dll. I think it's the guid (unique number/code), maybe we can use it to call the +1 casterlevel. Otherwise we might be able to add additional callings in the .dll but i don't know yet how difficult that's going to be...

 

[Cergorach]

The Guid number is the thing that E-Tool calls for the +1 caster level. I've been experimenting with the db, but i can't seem to find a way to use the Guid number from the loremaster to get an new prestige class +1 casterlevel AND keep the Loremaster. I can replace the Loremaster with a new +1 casterlevel prestige class. Maybe a good work around would be to remove the Loremaster and add a +1 caster level prestige class that the user is going to use (it's going to suck if you have/want more than 1 such prestige class).

This still leaves the posibility to add aditional Guid numbers to the .dll files, although i currently don't have a clue on how to do that...

Other idea i had was looking at the "info Spells Per Day" table, maybe we could add a feature that would simulate the additions of the progression table.

 

[galliand]

Problem with new class activating

Has anyone had a problem with a new class "activating" in the leveling list?

I inserted the Brother of the Cloak from Path of the Sword into the E-Tools database following the demo on this thread. Then I entered E-Tools and started creating a character, making sure I gave all the prereqs I inserted into the database. When I went to level up, the prestige class did not highlight as active.

Any thoughts?