Pathfinder ability drain vs. damage

[Blackfoot]

Would allowing for the effect types I suggested below make it too complicated? Seems like that would solve the issue... having the tracker and the main tab work differently is going to be confusing for users... it already was ... even when it was working the same on both.
Most users won't realize that drain and damage are effect modifiers and will just apply it as STR:-1.. mostly because they are lazy... but when it doesn't work as expected (like it did in my game last week) it'd be nice to have an option for making it work correctly.

[Nickademus]

I had the code for applying ability damage to PCs using a damage action (and thus not an effect). The section of the ruleset where I put the code in the extension was removed when the weapon UI was changed, but the logic is still sound.

Ability drain should use effects like normal, and every point should count. Ability damage should use the damage action and go straight to the DMG column of the PC.

This doesn't help for NPCs since they have no ability scores, but they are less likely to be taking ability damage and drain.

[Blackfoot]

That's not actually true. Spells like ray of enfeeblement or chill touch do ability damage regularly to both PCs and NPCs. The damage boxes on the main table are somewhat superfluous and cumbersome to work with for the GM... I was a proponent of creating spells that did damage directly to the main tab... but the more I've worked with handling it as effects... the more I'd like to just be able to do it that way. In the ruleset I'm coding I'm handling the effect creation for ability Aid and Drain through weapon damage (rather than through spell classes). It works pretty well and everything is there in the tracker where it is easy to see what's happening.

[Nickademus]

My extension made it so ability damage didn't need a spell class.

A shadow's attack line (with my old extension) was:
"incorporeal attack +4 melee touch (1d6 strength)"

When you moused over the '1d6 strength' it highlighted and you double click it. FG would roll a d6 and add that amount to the Str Dmg field, automatically calculating the penalty based on even number damage. I'm not sure how much easier you can get, especially since effects (and the spell classes they are in) cause lag when being added to the CT.

Also, I don't think an effect allow you to roll the modifier for an ability score. So you can't do an effect for STR: -1d6 (you'd have to do ABIL: -1d6 strength, but I'm not sure that would apply properly). My extension converted the damage from a damage action over into an effect when the players used it. So they would use their ray of enfeeblement to deal 1d6+1/2 CL (5) damage of the 'strength' type to the NPC and FG would translate it into something like 'STR: -5'.

I don't know how any of this could be done with FG as it is now.

[Blackfoot]

I still don't think that handling it differently for players and npcs is a good idea. It's not clean, clear, and simple for the end user... that's the most important thing.

[Nickademus]

I agree. Then again, I don't think having NPC stat handled differently than PCs is a good idea.