Are the 5E rules supposed to be incomplete? [ANGRY RANT]

[JohnSchwartz]

I bet if I searched the forums I'd find a bunch of similar threads, but I don't care.

I paid for the core 5E rulebooks modules, but I still have to handle a ton of rules by hand.

Rogue gets a sneak attack? I'm rolling d6s and adding it to the damage in the combat tracker. There's no visible way for the player to just hit a sneak attack button and have this done automatically.

Player takes the Heavy Armor Mastery feat? I, the DM, have to remember to deduct 3 from non-magical damage dealt to that character. Even though FG knows the character has the feat, it does nothing to implement the rules. So after rolling for enemy damage, I'm going back and fixing the combat tracker to reflect the feat.

Fighter has a Fighting Style? Well luckily I found a video by Philip Greig showing me how I can script that into the system myself. But that should not be necessary. That's why I bought the PHB module.

These core rules are all included in text form, so I can read about fighting styles and sneak attacks, but none of them are actually implemented in the combat system unless I create them myself.

I am furious about this. If FG were freeware I wouldn't trip. I paid hundreds for the license and the rulebooks, and I expected these sorts of rules to be implemented in the system. I love that it's flexible, but I can't believe that DMs to have to put all these things in themselves.

Is this intentional? Or will future updates fix these problems?

[SirGraystone]

Yes effects can be created for those, for example Heavy Armor Master [Feat] RESIST: 3 slashing,bludgeoning,piercing,!magic
you can find a list and help on this wiki https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/...php/5E_Effects

[Zacchaeus]

Not everything is automated but the effects system will pretty much cover most of what isn't.

Apart from the wiki linked above see this series of videos https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...-Videos-for-5E

[Bonkon]

Good Day and Welcome JohnSchwartz
For the Rogue Sneak Attack once the character has been made the player or DM need to open the Abilities tab and you will see it there. Now click to open the description. Now open the Abilities tab on the character sheet and drag the skill to the actions tab (Depending on the Theme you use it might be a dragon head, a square, a dot...) That will put it into the characters abilities. Now the character can simply (when appropriate) click the effects button and it will roll the extra damage and turn off the effect. One more thing, when the character levels up and gets additional dice, they will need to modify the Action tab damage by clicking on the magnifying glass icon.
This can be dome with many items in the Abilities tab, so you can just test to see which one work the same.

[esmdev]

Hi. I think the key is in expectations.

Fantasy Grounds isn't an MMO it is a Virtual Tabletop. The idea is that you can get together and play various games that would normally require being face to face, most games don't have a ruleset of any kind but you can still play, make a custom character sheet, use the map, roll dice, and the DM does what a DM does at a tabletop and there is no automation of any kind.

Some games, like D&D have extremely advanced pre-developed rulesets that do a lot of DM work automatically, but the DM still needs to be the DM, the rulesets are designed to make the job easier but not to replace the DM.

In the beginning, I found the D&D ruleset to be lacking in this or that, but as I became more familiar with the FG system I found it pretty easy to customize things that weren't automated. It actually can be better this way if you ever use house rules for anything.

My advice to anyone, player or DM, is to learn effects. Effects are a powerful set of systems that are used to assign permanent or temporary changes to the combat tracker. Like a temp bonus to AC, to hit, damage, resist, etc... It is used to reflect magic items, spells, class and race features, etc.

In addition there are a number of community created extensions, some free and some for sale on the DMsguild that increase functionality of the ruleset.

You might check here for the free ones located on this forum: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...r-5E-resources

[Granamere]

JohnSchwartz I can say when I started I felt exactly like you. Then I started pulling back the layers of the onion.

1 Fantasy Grounds is not a 5e DND game. It does it well but it is a framework to play games with friends on the internet. Step back and really think about it $100 for this frame work is really cheap.

2 The books you buy you really do not have to. With even the demo version of this game you can do it all yourself. (The limit there is you can not play with friends but back to that is were I think $100 to unlock that is cheap.) When I look at Players Handbook the amount of time it would take me to convert it to Fantasy Grounds is worth me spending $30 for the already converted version. Serious how many hours do you think it would take you to do it then you have to convert the rest of the books.

3 Yes you are completely right it is expensive but the amount of time I get to spend with friends through this program more than makes up for the money. If I met up with everyone once a week at a restaurant and there were 5 of us how much do you think that one bill would be. If we go $20 a person that would be $100 for the meal. After a month or two I bet it would cover you entire investment into Fantasy Grounds. I am just trying to add some perspective. Also asking your players for a book or module for birthday or Xmas does not sound out of place.

To fix the problems you have started there is a a secondary market on DMSGUILD.com. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/314...ter-Kit-BUNDLE would probably resolve most of your problems.

There are also a ton of free stuff that community has made. Lets start with Zacchaeus.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...ul-information

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and download his Complete package series for which ever class you need effects from (AKA just download them all)

There are tons of other free things but DM's guild is where people that have coded extras that want to get paid for their hand work post.

More free addons
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...sure-Generator
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...ion-ReadyCheck
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...oval-Extension
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...dule-Extension
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...sal)-Extension
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...tive-Indicator

Then on top of all of this there a free teachers for the program at https://fantasygroundscollege.net/. Take all of the classes and you can write a book, module or extension yourself and sell it on DMSGUILD and start earning money from your hobby. OK that is my dream at least.

[selocon]

You can't expect a program that's fully 100% customizable to do everything for you, can you? It take me literally a minute and a half to hand-code the effect of the sneak attack onto a sheet:

DMG:2d6

Change 2d6 to whatever it is for your level. Target: self. Then, if you hit and want to apply sneak attack, apply the effect. Roll damage from the weapon.

It's literally not that hard. This post makes it seem like you never even looked at the user guide or wiki, linked on the popup that comes up when you start up.

[LordEntrails]

Welcome.

FG can do more you think it can if you try to figure it out yourself. Even going through the basic tutorial will only get you familiar with a small part of what it can do. Checking the forums here will help. Taking free classes at www.fantasygroundscollge.net will help. Watching YouTube videos will help. Reading the wiki will help.

But having a positive attitude and when you can't figure something out asking politely on the forums here or in the Discord channel will get you lots of people helping you out.

[viresanimi]

Since this is a virtual tabletop, and not a computer game I am also wondering if this is based on perception / expectation. I have never found a sneak attack button on a piece of paper, that I could press. So all in all, I would say there is more automation here, than on a normal tabletop.

Chill and take the time to learn. I promise that there are loads of people that will happily take time out of their day to help. This IS a great way to game over the net.

And if you have a problem with Dungeons and Dragons lacking automation, God help you if you find interest in a non-D&D game here, that isn't Savage Worlds.

[JohnSchwartz]

Yes effects can be created for those, for example Heavy Armor Master [Feat] RESIST: 3 slashing,bludgeoning,piercing,!magic
you can find a list and help on this wiki https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/...php/5E_Effects

Yeah, I've been working on that today. Instead of planning for today's session, I'm going on the wiki trying to implement rules that I already paid somebody else to implement. Heavy Armor Mastery, Fighting Styles, Sneak Attack, and now I'm struggling with Elemental Adept. I come back to the forums, and I find a bunch of people basically saying to shut up and RTFM.

I'm looking through the manual and the wiki. Elemental Adept lets you ignore target resistance. I think it should be something like "IFT: RESIST: fire; !RESIST: fire" or "IFT: RESIST: fire; RESIST: !fire", but when I try to apply those it ignore the ! and just turns them into "IFT: RESIST: fire; RESIST: fire". This is just making me more mad, and more frustrated and I'm really starting to regret buying this product.

A five year old thread says that Elemental Adept is impossible to implement. Is this still the case? Is there any chance that it will be made possible in future updates?

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...al-Adept-in-FG