Conditions Editor

This help topic is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Gaming License v1.0a .

The conditions editor allows you to change the effect a condition has on a creature. Click on a condition in the list at right to select it. If you cannot see the condition you wish to edit, check the “Show Spell/Power/Item Conditions” checkboxes. To learn how to change a spell or power's conditions, see Editing Spells' and Powers' Associated Conditions .

The Create New button creates a new, empty condition. You can edit its effects as described above. You can also create a condition with just a name – this becomes in effect just a reminder that a spell/power/item is active.

The Delete button deletes the selected condition. You cannot delete locked conditions.

Editing a condition

Starting in version 2.15, the condition editor has been expanded and made much more powerful.

A condition can have one or more modifiers. A modifier has a certain game effect. See About Conditions for a description of the game effect of each modifier. Each modifier has 6 fields that can be filled in. These are represented by each column of the grid:

  1. Name: The name of the modifier. The name of the modifier identifies what game effect the modifier will have. You can define new modifier names – but the names that are used internally by DM Genie are in RULES.TXT. Any custom names would have to be used in your own scripting code.
  2. Subname: The "subname" is a specialization of the name. For instance, for skill bonuses in general Name is "Skill", but you need to specify Subname to the name of the skill, like Listen, Spot, etc... This also applies to DR and energy resistances.
  3. Type: the type of the modifier – this can be Luck, Circumstance, Enhancement, etc. or any of the standard modifier types. You can also define new modifier types – just type in a different value than those in the combo box.
  4. Value: The value of this modifier. For example, a bonus of 2 to strength would be +2 here. For most modifiers, this should be an integer, but it can also be a single (decimal) number. You can represent Booleans with 1 for true, and 0 for false. These will always operate as "OR" operations, that is if a single condition is true, then the result is true (>0) for that modifier.
  5. String: This is an extra string of information that, in this version, has no game effect.
  6. Variable: This is a string, and is normally empty.
    1. If you specify a string here, then the bonus applied will be taken from a custom variable (see Scripting – Creature Functions ). Custom variables are set with cr.SetVariable and retrieved with cr.GetVariable. This custom variable must be set via scripting – so it will normally be a non-zero value only if the condition was set and the variable set in a feat's script code. Unlike the Value field, which is the same for all creatures, the Variable field allows a condition to have a different effect for each creature.
    2. If the string is a number from 0 to 15, then instead of a named custom variable, one of the numbered custom variables is used. Those are accessible in scripting via cr.CustomVar(#), and can also be modified in the Custom tab of the main window.
    3. Anything in Value is ignored if a variable is specified (even if the variable has not been initialized for a particular creature).

Stacking and types of modifiers

The rules for stacking are described in the DMG and further clarified here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20040120a . The basics are that when confronted with two modifiers on the same thing, they can either stack, that is, are added together; or they can overlap, that is, only the largest one is considered.

         The standard stacking rules are that:

o        Modifiers of different types always stack together. So an Enhancement bonus and a Luck bonus add up together.

o        Modifiers of the same type overlap. So if one item gives a +3 Luck bonus to Saves and another gives a +5 Luck bonus to the same thing, then the highest value (+5) only is applied.

         There are special cases which override the general rule:

o        Certain types of modifiers always stack. This includes Dodge and Circumstance. So any modifier (of any name) with this type will stack with the others.

o        Certain modifiers always overlap. This includes values which are not really bonuses but quantities used in a different way: Miss Chance, Resistance, Spell and Power Resistance.

o        Certain modifiers overlap in reverse – that is, the lowest value becomes the one that is applied. This usually applies to penalties, like the Max Dex limitation to AC, and Check Penalty to skills.

These are the default rules. You can customize the exceptions by editing your campaign's RULES.TXT file.

Setting modifiers in Scripting

You can also use scripting to define modifiers that will act just like those in a condition. For this, you will use the cr. AddModifier command. The fields Name, Subname, Type, Value, VariableName are as described above. This allows full control on how the bonus will be applied, as per the rules above.

Sub AddModifier(BonusName As String , ByVal Value As Single , Optional ModType As String , Optional Subname As String = "" , Optional VariableName As String , Optional nSource As String , Optional ExtraString As String , Optional SemiPermanent As Boolean = False )

' ExtraString: Optional. This is an extra string of information that, in this version, has no game effect.

' nSource: Optional. String indicating what the source of the modifier is. This is set automatically in scripting to say 'Feat X', but can be overriden.

' SemiPermanent:

' Set to TRUE to put the modifier in the 'DM Modifiers' condition - that is, the modifiers that can be modified on the fly by the user in the 'Condition Modifiers Editor' (Ctrl+F6, see Detailed Modifier Viewer ). So use a call like this:

cr.AddModifier "Att Melee" , 2, "Morale" ,,,,, true

To give a semi-permanent bonus.

Importing/Exporting

To import or export conditions, see the Importing Other Files and the Exporting Other Files help topics.

A Note About Backwards Compatibility

Conditions and item's magical effect from version 2.14 and earlier use the old condition system, where except for AC, there was no "type" of bonus and so all bonuses were assumed to stack. When loading such a condition, it will be automatically converted to the new format, and the type will be an empty string – that is, an unnamed bonus. So these old conditions will automatically stack with everything else. You may want to edit the conditions to give the type if you want the stacking rules to apply to it as well.





Documentation for DM Genie and Player Genie, page Condition_Editor. Copyright © Mad Scientist Studios, 2006.
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