Pathfinder Creature Parser - Alpha release

[Blackfoot]

I'm actually wondering how it got as far as tactics without screwing up. Shouldn't it have missed OFFENSE and DEFENSE as well? Both of those had trailing spaces too.

[Trenloe]

I'm actually wondering how it got as far as tactics without screwing up. Shouldn't it have missed OFFENSE and DEFENSE as well? Both of those had trailing spaces too.

I added the tactics code in a later release to the code that checks for OFFENSE, DEFENSE etc. I thought I would have used the same code as the other headings (which does strip trailing spaces), but I obviously didn't. I don't have the latest code with me, so I can't check. But, I've put this in my list of updates for the next version.

[Tubel]

Holy Mother of God! That is brilliant!! Trenloe, thank you so much for this sausage machine magic!

I don't know how much time I've spent copying NPCs laboriously by hand into my burnt offereings module, but this sure did the trick for chapter 4.

If you're interested in hearing the tweaking issues I had with a straight cut from the Rise of the Runelords anniversary edition PDF then this is what caused me grief.

1. the "CR #" in the PDF appeared after the XP bit so I had to manually shift those entries around
2. I copied the traps in at first and that caused their entry to concatenate with the following critter - removing the traps from my txt fixed that.
3. I noticed the spells didn't go into the spell tab in FG. Not sure if that is a 'feature' or whether that is normal. They seemed to appear in the other tab.

All in all though that saved a hell of a lot of time (and given I've got 5 more modules of the rise of the runelords to go, it will be worth the hour it took me to figure it all out)

thanks again!

[Talen]

Just an fyi since its the first time I've come across it. Some PDF's will eliminate the space in the cr line. "CR 9" works. "CR9" does not.

[Trenloe]

2. I copied the traps in at first and that caused their entry to concatenate with the following critter - removing the traps from my txt fixed that.

Traps aren't part of the creature parser. I may look into it in future, but it's not high on the list.

3. I noticed the spells didn't go into the spell tab in FG. Not sure if that is a 'feature' or whether that is normal. They seemed to appear in the other tab.

This is normal and how the parser is currently designed. Spells in the spells tab is on the to-do list, but may not be done for a while as this will require a lot of additional coding to do as most of the functionality is tied into the dropping of the spell link into the tab and not the background NPC Fantasy Grounds DB format.

[Ironman]

I know this is going to sound dumb, but I have tried to use this several times and I have been very unsuccessful. Is this something someone who is not very computer literate can use? If so could someone give me a step by step?

[Trenloe]

I know this is going to sound dumb, but I have tried to use this several times and I have been very unsuccessful. Is this something someone who is not very computer literate can use? If so could someone give me a step by step?

There are some basic steps included in the readme.txt file in the zip file downloaded from the first post.

The main thing to know is that the application takes a text file as input. This text file contains creature statblocks that adhere to the Paizo format as defined in the first chapter of the Pathfinder Bestiaries.

I've tried to design it so you can just copy/paste the creature statblocks out of a PDF - there are some gotchas depending on what your source PDF is, see the first post.

There is an "Example Creatures File.txt" file in the downloaded zip that provides you with an example.

If you have specific issues please post here.

[Ironman]

Thanks Trenloe! It am always amazed at what I can learn by reading the directions and why I never go to them first. This is a really great program and an incredible time saver.

[Bidmaron]

Glad it's working for you. Yeah, I've been very surprised with the time save - I imported all the custom monsters from Carrion Crown 2 in about 5 minutes!

I'm currently around 30% into a first pass of Bestiary 2 - currently up to Dragons (there are a lot of A's and D's in Bestiary 2!). So far, everything parses through OK - a couple of things to sort out, the main one being single attack format...

Looks like "Gear" slipped through my "do comparisons case insensitive" code. I'll update in the next release. Before then, if you want to avoid "no match" appearing, use "Gear", "Combat Gear" and "Other Gear" (leading capitals on all).

Yep, I'm sure anything other than creature stat blocks will break the parser. I've no plans to bring in traps - basically, because there is nowhere to put them in Fantasy Grounds! I suppose they could be put in as freeform story entries, but you may as well copy/paste them directly into FG yourself...

Does my trap extension not work? This should give you a place to put traps.

[Blackfoot]

Does my trap extension not work? This should give you a place to put traps.

Isn't this incorporated into the base ruleset now.. or at least something similar? I know traps are an option in the 3.5e/PF creatures tab now.