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Idea/Suggestion for Enlarge/Reduce Person Attack Macro

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 1:59 pm
by Paradox
This is just an idea/suggestion. I'm not really a coder, but I use the PF framework enough to be a little dangerous.

My players use Enlarge Person all the time. We have an existing Active Mod that works just fine, no complaints. The limitation, of course, is that the attack macro can't assume any increase or decrease in weapon size. So, practically speaking, what happens is that the damage is still rolled manually in the chat window. No easy way around that, or so I always understood.

However, as each weapon is set-up, there is a box for the base weapon damage (plus any enhancements that are not ability score related). I.e. a +1 greatsword is listed as 2d6+1 in your weapon set-up. If there is any Strength Bonus or Power Attack, or so on, those are handled separately.


At the risk of making the attack macro any more complicated than it already is.. what if there was a box that allowed you to put in an alternate base weapon damage for that attack only? Much like there is a box for Sneak Attack Damage or Misc. bonus damage?

So, using the example above, if the PC is affected by enlarge person, they activate the existing enlarge person mod, and when they run the attack macro they would put in 2d8+1 in this special new box. The attack macro would use that value instead of 2d6+1 from the weapon set-up. The box would not be persistent, so the player would have to put it in every round they're affected by enlarge person (and would prevent them from forgetting to set it back, for say half of the campaign). WHAT POSITIVE THING this does, is you're still using the attack macro (and not hand typing the damage expression in the chat window), and I think it should be fairly easy to code? I mean if there is no data in that box, then the attack macro just defaults to the normal weapon set-up? And if the weapon set-up is set to ranged, it uses the weapon set-up damage no matter they put in the box?

Just an idea. I'm not in a position to do it myself so I am at the mercy of others.. but maybe someone will consider it a worthwhile idea.

Re: Idea/Suggestion for Enlarge/Reduce Person Attack Macro

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 3:03 pm
by neofax
Wouldn't it be easier to just add the weapons a second time with (Enlarged) or (Reduced) in the weapons setup? If they use it all the time I think this would work for now. At least until someone re-writes the attack system to use JSON's and can be manipulable(sp?) by the Active Mods system. Should there be any verification that the player typed in the damage correct? i.e. Greatsword goes from 1d8 to 2d6 but the player puts in 2d8 Or, would you rather have the tooltip change to show the original weapon damage line and the new weapon damage?

Re: Idea/Suggestion for Enlarge/Reduce Person Attack Macro

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 3:14 pm
by Paradox
neofax wrote:Wouldn't it be easier to just add the weapons a second time with (Enlarged) or (Reduced) in the weapons setup? If they use it all the time I think this would work for now. At least until someone re-writes the attack system to use JSON's and can be manipulable(sp?) by the Active Mods system. Should there be any verification that the player typed in the damage correct? i.e. Greatsword goes from 1d8 to 2d6 but the player puts in 2d8 Or, would you rather have the tooltip change to show the original weapon damage line and the new weapon damage?
Admittedly, I do that already, and it does work. Invariably, they change weapons on me, or I sunder or disarm them. Two out of five players understand the weapon setup enough to do it without me.

is it essential? Nah.

Just a thought.

Re: Idea/Suggestion for Enlarge/Reduce Person Attack Macro

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:33 pm
by lmarkus001
Ayup... this would be part of the rework of the attack mechanism. A really big project at this point and I am engaged in the huge Area Targeting mess atm :-)

Re: Idea/Suggestion for Enlarge/Reduce Person Attack Macro

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 7:24 pm
by Azhrei
A short-term solution that might not be too much work: separate the damage roll so that the "2d6" and the "+1" are separate fields. If one field is *ONLY* the base damage, the attack macro can look at it and automatically bump it to the next size if the ActiveMod for Enlarge is turned on. (There is already a SizeMod, right?) So the "2d6" becomes "2d8".

Re: Idea/Suggestion for Enlarge/Reduce Person Attack Macro

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 8:44 am
by neofax
You could just have the attack macro check the size of the token and do a lookup on a table versus the current damage line. So, if the token was medium(set in a property somewhere) but is now large and the damage is 2d6 then the attack macro does a lookup in a table for 2d6 and what is the large value...2d8 and swap the two. Granted, this may be the long way round the river instead of taking the bridge, but that is how my non-code brain works.
Also, we as a community should make a database of all of the weapons that can be used and what their values should be. This way DM's could just grab the line they want, double click the token and paste in weapon20's line or so forth. Or make a macro that can add this to the token based on what the player selects. That way we know the numbers are valid and correct. Granted, I wouldn't go crazy and have all of the special properties, but the norms like keen, burst, energy, holy and the magical bonus of +1-+5. I think I may work on this as it would benefit me.