Question about creating effects for spells and abilities

[dogfisc]

I'm creating Pathfinder characters for the first time, and have some questions about effects.

Dwarf Fighter: to simulate Hatred and Defensive Training, I created a new spell class called Abilities with two entries.
Defensive Training; IF: TYPE(giant); AC: 4 dodge
Hatred; IFT: TYPE(orc; goblinoid); ATK: 1
The hatred works (tested against orc and goblin) but the defensive training does not. I've tried attacking him with ogre, hill giant, ettin, and cyclops, and a custom NPC called "giant" with a type of just "giant" and no defensive bonus shows up. If I remove "IF: TYPE(giant)" then he gets a +4 defensive bonus against every attack, as I would expect.
On a lark, I tried "IFT" instead of "IF" and that does work, which surprised me. Isn't the ogre the source actor, and thus "IF" should be correct? If that isn't the case, maybe someone can clarify the difference between "IF" and "IFT" because I obviously don't understand it.

Halforc Wizard (Evoker): I'm trying to figure out the best way to simulate the evoker's Intense Spells ability. Is there a conditional that looks at the magic school before including the effect? Something like:
IF: SCHOOL(evocation); DMGS: 1
It appears not, so I think the best way to use this ability it to just add the damage to each evocation spell directly (0.5 x CL, with a fixed +1 at first level because the ability is an exception to the rounding rule). That's actually not as much work as it sounds, especially at first level. I could also have a one-round effect of DMGS: 1 but the player would have to remember to apply it every round they cast an evocation spell.

Lastly, can effects use maths operators? I saw the H[], X[], and -[] but I'm looking for a divide function. So for Shield of Faith (can "CL" even be used for caster level?)
AC: 2 + CL / 6 deflection
AC: 2 + 0.17[CL] deflection

Thanks! I had a lot more questions, but between the 3.5E Effects wiki page and some other threads I found here, they're mostly answered for now.

[Kelrugem]

I'm creating Pathfinder characters for the first time, and have some questions about effects.

Dwarf Fighter: to simulate Hatred and Defensive Training, I created a new spell class called Abilities with two entries.
Defensive Training; IF: TYPE(giant); AC: 4 dodge
Hatred; IFT: TYPE(orc; goblinoid); ATK: 1
The hatred works (tested against orc and goblin) but the defensive training does not. I've tried attacking him with ogre, hill giant, ettin, and cyclops, and a custom NPC called "giant" with a type of just "giant" and no defensive bonus shows up. If I remove "IF: TYPE(giant)" then he gets a +4 defensive bonus against every attack, as I would expect.
On a lark, I tried "IFT" instead of "IF" and that does work, which surprised me. Isn't the ogre the source actor, and thus "IF" should be correct? If that isn't the case, maybe someone can clarify the difference between "IF" and "IFT" because I obviously don't understand it.

Halforc Wizard (Evoker): I'm trying to figure out the best way to simulate the evoker's Intense Spells ability. Is there a conditional that looks at the magic school before including the effect? Something like:
IF: SCHOOL(evocation); DMGS: 1
It appears not, so I think the best way to use this ability it to just add the damage to each evocation spell directly (0.5 x CL, with a fixed +1 at first level because the ability is an exception to the rounding rule). That's actually not as much work as it sounds, especially at first level. I could also have a one-round effect of DMGS: 1 but the player would have to remember to apply it every round they cast an evocation spell.

Lastly, can effects use maths operators? I saw the H[], X[], and -[] but I'm looking for a divide function. So for Shield of Faith (can "CL" even be used for caster level?)
AC: 2 + CL / 6 deflection
AC: 2 + 0.17[CL] deflection

Thanks! I had a lot more questions, but between the 3.5E Effects wiki page and some other threads I found here, they're mostly answered for now.

I just skimmed through your text, I do not have so much time

First: IFT: TYPE(giant); AC: 4 dodge, it is IF not IFT The attack one is probably also wrong (but your effect for testing was seemingly correct), do only use semicolons to separate different parts of the effect, i.e. IFT: TYPE(orc, goblinoid); ATK: 1

No, you cannot test for school, but there is an extension for that

Aabout PC tags; yes, some simple operations work. First of all, the wiki is confusingly written: So, you can multiply with any number (between 1 and 9 I believe, only full numbers) as in [XCL] (the square brackets for that in the wiki serve as a placeholder to be replaced not for the brackets you actually use, as said, confusingly written) So, also [HCL], [-CL] etc.

For addition as in your examples use: AC: 2 [CL] (observe the space between 2 and [CL], that will be replaced with a plus )

[tahl_liadon]

.
@dogfisc

hmu (dm) if you'd like an xml file that i created which may help. it's a generic npc xml that contains stuff you're hoping to achieve and more (like the magic school).

like @kelrugem mentioned: wiki write-up is ok and effects limited, and some what you're wanting to do require extensions (namely his awesome ones X-D -- which i used to create my effects library).

[dogfisc]

I just skimmed through your text, I do not have so much time

First: IFT: TYPE(giant); AC: 4 dodge, it is IF not IFT

I thought it should be IF not IFT, but it seems to work the other way:
ogre_vs_IF.png
ogre_vs_IFT.png

The attack one is probably also wrong (but your effect for testing was seemingly correct), do only use semicolons to separate different parts of the effect, i.e. IFT: TYPE(orc, goblinoid); ATK: 1

Gah! I always berate my users at work for not testing correctly, and here I am doing just that! The ";" was making the bonus apply to all attacks, and I never tested on anything other than orc and goblin. After correcting that, it works on goblin and not ogre, but also not on orc--because the orc entry in PFRPG Bestiary doesn't have the "(orc)" type. I'll deal with that separately.

No, you cannot test for school, but there is an extension for that

Aabout PC tags; yes, some simple operations work. First of all, the wiki is confusingly written: So, you can multiply with any number (between 1 and 9 I believe, only full numbers) as in [XCL] (the square brackets for that in the wiki serve as a placeholder to be replaced not for the brackets you actually use, as said, confusingly written) So, also [HCL], [-CL] etc.

For addition as in your examples use: AC: 2 [CL] (observe the space between 2 and [CL], that will be replaced with a plus )

That's much clearer. And your extensions look amazing; I'll defintely check them out.

hmu (dm) if you'd like an xml file that i created which may help. it's a generic npc xml that contains stuff you're hoping to achieve and more (like the magic school).

Excellent, I'll contact you.

Thank you both so much! This has helped quite a bit.

[Kelrugem]

I thought it should be IF not IFT, but it seems to work the other way:
ogre_vs_IF.png
ogre_vs_IFT.png


Gah! I always berate my users at work for not testing correctly, and here I am doing just that! The ";" was making the bonus apply to all attacks, and I never tested on anything other than orc and goblin. After correcting that, it works on goblin and not ogre, but also not on orc--because the orc entry in PFRPG Bestiary doesn't have the "(orc)" type. I'll deal with that separately.


That's much clearer. And your extensions look amazing; I'll defintely check them out.


Excellent, I'll contact you.

Thank you both so much! This has helped quite a bit.

IFT stands for "if target [...]" Since it is about the target, use that (though in that context, target means opposed actor). So, IF always looks at the carrier of the effect, IFT at the opposed actor

About the orc: When you find any errors, typos, missing stuff etc. in the official modules, then you can report them in the stickied bug thread

[dogfisc]

I thought that since the ogre was attacking, it would be the source actor, so IF. Your explaination is clearer than the wiki.

Already submitted a bug report or the orc.

[Kelrugem]

I thought that since the ogre was attacking, it would be the source actor, so IF. Your explaination is clearer than the wiki.

Already submitted a bug report or the orc.

Yeah, I understand the issue, depending on the point of view one can certainly misunderstand certain terms

Thanks for reporting the orc

[tahl_liadon]

.
@kelrugem, i thought this could have worked, but seems like dmg does not work here? would you confirm:

Intense Spell; IFTAG: spell; IFTAG: evocation; DMG: [HLVL];

[Kelrugem]

.
@kelrugem, i thought this could have worked, but seems like dmg does not work here? would you confirm:

Intense Spell; IFTAG: spell; IFTAG: evocation; DMG: [HLVL];

It works, but only for non-spell damages because you used DMG (so, the action needs to be declared as non-spell (there is some checkmark somewhere there))

But out of context you want that for spells, then rather write Intense Spell; IFTAG: spell; IFTAG: evocation; DMGS: [HLVL], so, use DMGS instead of DMG (one may even not need IFTAG: spell, but then it also applies e.g. to spell-like abilities )

[tahl_liadon]

use DMGS instead of DMG... one may even not need IFTAG: spell, but then it also applies e.g. to spell-like abilities

.
very cool. did not know about "dmgs", and no iftag tip is usefull too!... learn something new today. thx!

@dogfisc - as you can see, you can script as seen above.