5E Effects for Advanced Automation

One of the most powerful features of the built in 5e ruleset is effects. It is also, judging by the number of forum posts, the area where most users find the learning curve steepest. In Fantasy Grounds an effect is anything which gives the character either a bonus or penalty of some kind to a dice roll they are about to make. In order for the effect to be properly executed the character must be on the Combat Tracker (CT) and either they or another actor must make a dice roll which involves the character. In other words effects are checked when a character attacks, does damage, makes a saving throw (including death saves) or makes an ability or skill check. Effects are also checked when that same character is attacked, or damaged or has a saving throw, ability check or skill check forced on them (such as from a spell).

Many effects are created automatically for you in the 5e ruleset when you create a character or level one up either by dragging and dropping from the source material or by using the Character Wizard. For example dragging spells into the actions tab will in almost every case create an effect. Where an effect is not created via this method the probability is very high that either the spell doesn't require an effect or Fantasy Grounds doesn't have a built in way to handle whatever the spell is trying to do. For example the spell 'Animal Messenger' doesn't require an effect since this spell and others like it are simply 'Theatre of the Mind' spells. As another example the spell 'Counterspell' won't create an effect either because Fantasy Grounds can't know what the difficulty class of the incoming spell might be. For more information see the 5E Character Sheet

In the case of NPCs effects appear on the Combat Tracker when the NPC is placed there either from the NPC list or from an encounter. This action causes Fantasy Grounds to attempt to parse the information contained in the NPC sheet and create the effects. Most of the standard NPCs from the Monster Manual will, when dragged to the Combat Tracker, create any necessary effects so that the DM can use them. Again, not everything will create an effect either because one isn't required or Fantasy Grounds doesn't have a way to create one. For more details see the 5E NPCs and Encounters and the section below on the wording used to create NPC effects.

In the Player Character Sheet, Effects are created in the Actions tab. An Effect can be added to an existing power or if no power exists a new one can be created. To create a new power group, click the 'Add Power' icon at the bottom right of the Actions tab (you may need to unlock the Character Sheet first). To add a new item to an existing power group, click on the green '+' icon next to the power group name.

• Create a new power group and add a new line to that group; or add a new line to an existing one.
  See the Character Sheet article on how to create power groups.

• Now, right click on the new line created above to bring up the radial menu and select 'Add Action'. This will bring up a submenu which allows you to create the following:

  • Add Cast: this allows for an attack roll to be made against the target or forces the target to make a saving throw - or both

  • Add Damage: As it's name suggests this allows for the creation of a damaging effect to apply to the target

  • Add Heal: Create a healing effect

  • Add Effect: This adds an effect to the target. This can be almost anything from applying a simple condition such as ‘poisoned’ to a whole series of statements which might apply to the target.

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Whichever you choose, a new line will be created with a small cog icon to the right of the line. Click the cog icon to open up the dialog associated with each effect type.

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When you click on the cast dialog a new line is created with a Cast, Atk, and Save action. Click on the cog icon to the right of the line to open the cast dialog.

The first section is concerned with Attacks. Click the words under 'type' to cycle through the (self explanatory) options: Ranged, Melee or None ( - ).

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Under Base, click to cycle through the options:

• Group Attack+: This refers to the Power Group and the base attack will feed off whatever the base attack has been set within the power group (see the character sheet article for more on Power Groups).. So if the Power Group ability has been set to STR then this attack will use the character's STR to determine any bonus or penalty to the attack roll.

• Ability: This allows for setting an ability for this effect independent of whatever has been set for the Power Group. Click the 'Stat' field to cycle through the options. This includes all of the ability modifiers, classes, the character level (lvl) and the character's proficiency. This allows for extreme flexibility in setting up actions. Setting this to 'Base' will feed off the ability which has been set for the Power Group.

• Fixed: Allows for entering a straightforward number. This is useful if the attack is not based on any particular ability, class or level. In this case enter the number desired in the 'bonus' box.

• Bonus: Enter a number if any bonus is to be applied to this attack roll (for example, from a magic item or character feature).

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The second section of this dialog is concerned with Saving Throws.

• Type: Click to cycle through the options. For example, if you want the target to make a DEX saving throw, set this to 'Dex'. Once again, 'Base' represents the ability set in the Power Group.

• Base: This is the same as the 'Base' option described above in the attack section.

• Bonus: Again, this is the same as the bonus section in the attack section.

On Save: Click here to select 'Half on Success' if the creature takes only half damage on a successful Saving Throw.

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When finished creating the affects you want, close the dialog.

Once completed, the Effect will appear in the Actions tab ready for use. Clicking the small dice icon beside the Effect will cause Fantasy Grounds to make the Attack and/or Saving Throw against the target of the attack. Players can also perform the Attack and save separately by clicking first on the little sword icon, and then on the dice icon beside the save.

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When you click on the Damage dialog, a new line is created with a damage Action. Click on the cog icon to the right of the line to open the cast dialog and then click on the green '+' to add a new damage line.

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• Drag dice and drop them into the 'Dice' box for the damage amount. For example if the damage is 2d6; click and hold a d6, then right-click to add a second dice, and then drop into the box below 'Dice'.

• If the action gets a bonus from an ability click on the box below 'Stat' to cycle through the options. Once again 'Base' will feed off whatever ability was set in the Power Group. You can enter a value in the ‘multi’ box if the character gets a multiplicative bonus to the damage based on their ability modifier. For example, if the damage is 1d6 + half your dexterity modifier then set the Stat to Dex and enter 0.5 in the ‘multi’ box.

• Add any bonus to the damage if this is relevant.

• Enter the type of damage that the effect will do (all in lower case).

• You can add new lines by clicking the green cross icon if necessary. For example, if the action did 1d6 bludgeoning and 1d8 cold damage then you would need a line for each one.

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When you click on the Heal dialog, a new line is created with a Heal Action. Click on the cog icon to the right of the line to open the Heal dialog.

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• Select the target of the heal by clicking through the options in 'Targeting'. 'Self' will only heal the caster. Targets will heal any target selected including the caster if they are selected.

• Cycle through the options under 'Type'. 'TEMP' will give the target temporary hit points, 'HP' will remove wounds from any targets selected by the character using the cast.

• Drag dice from the dice pool and drop them into the dice box if the healing requires a dice roll.

• Select a stat if appropriate in the stat box by clicking through the options. Again 'base' will use the ability from the power group. There are also options to add level, proficiency or class.

• Enter a figure for any bonus to the heal (for example, from any magic items, or abilities that give the character a bonus to healing). This box can also be used when the healing is for a fixed amount with no dice roll required.

• More lines can be added if needed using the green ‘+’ icon (for example, if healing is based on character level plus an ability bonus create one line for the level and another line for the ability).

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When you click on the effect dialog a new line is created with an effect action. Click on the cog icon to the right of the line to open the effect dialog.

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The Descriptions/Conditions/Modifiers line is where you enter your effect. Almost anything can appear here including 'dummy' text. More information on how to create effects in this box is given below.

The Duration information is specified in time units. Click on the 'RND' word to cycle through the available time unit intervals (RND = Round, MIN = Minute, HR = hour and DAY = day). If the effect should never expire, enter a zero value or leave blank. Otherwise, enter a number to indicate how long until the effect expires using the selected time units.

• Click on Targeting to select whether the effect should apply to the caster (self) or to targets.

• Click through the Expend? options. This determines whether the effect can expire based on usage (i.e. expended), in addition to duration. The options are as follows:

  • Never: The effect will never be expended, and the length of the effect is only governed by the duration.

  • On Next Action: The effect will be expended on the next relevant action. So, if the effect is a damage effect, then it will be used up when the player next rolls for damage.

  • On Next Roll: The effect will be expended immediately on the next relevant roll made by the character. For example, if the effect modifies both attack and damage the effect will be used up on the next attack or damage roll. If there are several targets, then each of the targets will be affected by the roll not just the first.

  • Once per modifier: The effect will continue until a roll has been made involving all of the modifiers in the effect. For example, if there is an effect which applies to both attack and damage. The attack part will only be used on the first attack even if the character makes several subsequent attacks. The effect will then be expended completely once a damage roll has been made.

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So, let’s look at just one of the possible modifiers that you can use to create effects the ATK modifier. As its name suggests this modifies a character’s attack roll. Normally an attack is made by rolling a d20, but a variety of situations and spells can add or subtract from the number rolled.

Let’s start with a simple example, where the character has a spell cast on him which gives him a +1 to hit. This effect is written ‘ATK: 1’ (without the quotes). In longhand this is telling Fantasy Grounds to add 1 to the d20 dice roll when a player rolls to attack. The value after the modifier ATK can be a number or a dice value and either can be positive or negative. So, we could have all of the following ATK: -1d6, ATK: 4, ATK: -2, ATK: 1d4. The format as you can see is always the modifier (ATK) followed by a colon ‘:’ followed by the value ‘1d4’.

We can also specify a player’s attribute bonus as the value for the modifier. The format for this is ‘ATK: [XXX]’, where XXX represents STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS or CHA. ‘ATK: [WIS]’ will add the players Wisdom modifier (whether positive or negative) to the attack roll. We can also use the negative form ‘ATK: [-WIS]’ to reduce the roll by a specific ability modifier. We can even modify the attribute by halving or doubling it; ‘ATK: [HWIS]’ will add half the wisdom modifier to the roll and ‘ATK: [2WIS] will add double the wisdom modifier. Note that square brackets '[]' are used around the ability modifier. In addition to ability modifiers the character's level [LVL] or proficiency [PRF] or class level [BARBARIAN] can be used as a modifier.

In the case of ATK: 1d4 this will add a 1d4 to any attack roll that the player makes. However we can restrict this to just certain attacks by including a descriptor to the effect. Let’s say that we can only get a bonus on melee attacks; in that case our effect is written ‘ATK: 1d4, melee’. The descriptor is added after the value and separated by a comma ‘,’. Now when used on a character only melee attacks will benefit from the additional dice. If we substitute ‘ranged’ for ‘melee’ then only ranged attacks will get the benefit.

We can go even further and limit the benefit to only opportunity attacks. The format for this is ‘ATK: 1d4, opportunity’. Now FG needs to know when you are making an opportunity attack so when you make the attack hold down shift as you do so. If the player has the effect on him then he will get the bonus to the throw but otherwise nothing happens.

The following are all examples of effects which can be created using the ATK modifier

• ATK: 1d4 - Will apply a 1d4 bonus to the attack roll.

• ATK: [-STR] - Will apply a negative equal to strength modifier to the attack

• ATK: [HLVL], melee, opportunity - will apply half the character's level only to melee opportunity attacks.

• ATK: 1d6, ranged - will apply a 1d6 bonus to only ranged attacks

• ATK: [2CON], melee - will apply twice the CON modifier to any melee attack.

• ATK: [CLERIC] - will add the character's cleric level (only) to the attack. This is useful for multi-classed characters where the bonus relies on the class level rather than the overall level.

When an effect is applied to an actor in the combat tracker, some additional fields are available to the DM. See the 5E Combat Tracker for more details.

• Active State: By default, an effect is set to always be active (i.e. On). The active state can be toggled to Skip or Off. If set to Skip, the next application of the effect will be skipped, and then the effect will be set to On again. If set to Off, the effect will no longer be applied to rolls, but will remain in the CT.

• Duration: When the main duration field is set to Start/End Turn values, an additional field will be shown to track the initiative number when the duration should start/end.

• Applied By: The active actor will be used as the source actor of an effect, and shown in the lower right of the effect entry. If no actor is active, then this field is hidden. To set the source actor of an effect, drag the name field of a CT actor onto the label field of a CT effect entry. The source is usually just informational, but may occasionally be used to support advanced effects (such as Marked). Click on the Applied By field to clear the source actor.

• Targets: By default, effects are applied to relevant rolls for all targets. However, some effect components can be targeted (such as attack and damage modifiers). A targeting button is shown next to each effect entry, and can be dragged onto a CT entry or CT-linked token to specify that the effect is targeted to a specific actor or set of actors. Additional options to target all allies or enemies are available by right-clicking on the targeting button. The Targets field is hidden unless targets are defined. Click on the Targets field to clear the targets.

As described above in the dialog for Spell/Ability Effect there is a box for ‘Targeting’ which can be set either to ‘Targets’ or ‘Self’. It is important to understand that this isn’t asking you to tell Fantasy Grounds who the target of the effect is but rather where the effect should reside.

If we take a simple case of a character that has set up an effect to deal some extra damage, DMG: 1d6. It is the character who is the beneficiary of this additional damage (not the creature who is going to take it) and so when creating the effect, the character needs to set the ‘Targeting’ box in the dialog to read ‘Self’. When the player clicks the action button to apply the effect it will correctly be set on the character even if he has several enemies targeted on the Combat Tracker (or none at all).

On the other hand, suppose we have some spell or ability which means that an enemy gets disadvantage on attack rolls DISATK:. Clearly there’s no use this effect sitting on the character; it must be placed on an enemy and so when setting the targeting we make sure that it reads ‘Targets’.

So when setting the ‘Targeting’ to ‘Targets’ or ‘Self’ we need to think about what the effect is setting out to achieve, who should benefit or who should take the penalty. Once you have sorted that out you should be able to work out on which creature that effect should be sitting.

There is another layer of depth however to the effect system built into Fantasy Grounds – effect targeting. This concept is probably best illustrated with another example, and we’ll use the wizard cantrip True Strike. This spell tells us that on your next turn you gain advantage on your first attack against the target of the spell. Let’s say our spellcaster is up against 6 Goblins and he is going to cast the spell on Goblin 3.

Based on the above we need to figure out who is going to benefit from this spell and clearly it is the caster and so the ‘Targeting’ of the effect needs to be set to ‘Self’. So we set up an effect ADVATK: and set the targeting to ‘Self’. We click on the action button, and it places the effect on the Wizard. However, there’s a problem because we have just given our Wizard advantage on every attack roll he makes against any Goblin, not just Goblin 3.

What we need to do then is target this effect only at Goblin 3 and we do this by holding down SHIFT and dragging the effect onto Goblin 3. You will see that when you do so the effect appears on the Wizard (because we set the targeting to Self) not on Goblin 3. Now our Wizard will only get advantage on an attack against Goblin 3.

A similar kind of situation arises with the Hex spell which allows the caster to get an additional 1d6 necrotic damage against whomever the spell is cast upon. We create the effect DMG: 1d6 necrotic; and set the targeting to ‘Self’. When cast shift-drag the effect onto the target. Now, only against that target will the caster get the additional damage.

It needs to be noted that not every modifier can be used in this way. Modifiers which can be make use of effect targeting have a ‘T’ in the ‘Notes’ column in the tables below. For convenience these are ATK, AC, DMG, Invisible, RESIST, VULN, IMMUNE, COVER, SCOVER, ADVATK, DISATK, GRANTADVATK, GRANTDISATK.

As has been seen from the notes above there is a syntax which must be followed so that effects will work successfully.

• Modifiers need to be followed by a colon ':' if you intend to have anything after them such as a number, dice etc. If the colon is missed, then Fantasy Grounds assumes that there is nothing to follow. Thus, if the effect requires nothing after the modifier the colon can be missed out.

• Some modifiers can accept descriptors. These must follow the dice or number separated by a comma. For example, ATK: 1d6, melee

• If the modifier is to be modified by a player stat then that should be enclosed in square brackets '[]'. For example, SAVE: [CHA]

• Effects can be chained together but each must be separated by a semi colon ';'. For example, AC: 1; ATK: 1; DMG: 1d6

• You can add a description to an effect ending in a semi colon. For example, Bless; SAVE: 1d4; ATK: 1d4. this is useful for reminding players what the effect is.

• A special tag '!' can be used as a kind of logical NOT. For example, the effect "RESIST: bludgeoning, piercing, !magic" creates an effect which allows whoever has the effect to resist damage from bludgeoning or piercing weapons provided they are not magical. If they are magical then all of the damage will get through. Other useful delimiters are !silver and !adamantine.

In many cases when a Spellcaster casts a spell they must maintain concentration on that spell for the duration. If, whilst concentrating on a spell, the spellcaster takes damage they must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 10 or half the damage whichever is greater. On a failure concentration on the spell is lost. Fantasy Grounds can handle this automatically provided that the effect is affixed with ;(C). If the caster who is concentrating on the spell takes damage Fantasy Grounds will make the appropriate saving throw and on a failure remove any effects from any actors who are being influenced by the spell.

So, for example, if an effect is created for the Bless spell then it should be ATK: 1;SAVE: 1;(C)

In the pages that follow the meaning of various values and descriptors are noted below:

(T) = Effects can be targeted to only apply to conditions against certain opponents
(D) = Dice and numbers supported for value attribute
(N) = Only numbers supported for value attribute
(-) = Neither number nor dice supported for value attribute
[range] = melee, ranged
[damage type] = acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, thunder, adamantine, bludgeoning, cold-forged iron, magic, piercing, silver, slashing
[stat] = strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, charisma
[ability] = strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, charisma
[skill] = any skill name NOTE: skills with space such as Sleigh of Hand or Animal Handling should be written without the spaces. For example, SKILL: 2, sleightofhand
[condition] = Any condition as noted in the PHB (both legacy and 2024) apart from exhaustion. Note [condition] must be all lower case
[alignment] = LG, LN, LE, NG, NE, CG, CN, CE, lawful, lawful good, lawful neutral, lawful evil, neutral good, neutral evil, chaotic, chaotic good, chaotic neutral, chaotic evil, good, evil
[size] = T, S, M, L, H, G, tiny, small, medium, large, huge, gargantuan
[creature type] = aberration, beast, celestial, construct, dragon, elemental, fey, fiend, giant, humanoid, monstrosity, ooze, plant, undead, aarakocra, bullywug, demon, devil, dragonborn, dwarf, elf, gith, gnoll, gnome, goblinoid, grimlock, halfling, human, kenku, kuo-toa, kobold, lizardfolk, living construct, merfolk, orc, quaggoth, sahuagin, shapechanger, thri-kreen, titan, troglodyte, yuan-ti, yugoloth

When you see an asterix ( * ) against an entry it means that multiple entries of this descriptor are allowed (separated by a comma)

Conditions are built into the 5e ruleset and when applied to a character or NPC will apply the effects as noted below. Conditions can be applied either via effects in the action tab, or by applying it from the effects button accessed via the tool menu in the right-hand side of the UI. When applied from the effects button clicking on the condition will apply it to the currently selected character on the CT; the effect can also be dragged to any character by holding down the left mouse button and dropping it onto the character on the CT or onto a token on the map. When applied from the effects button the effect will remain until removed. If you want to limit how long the effect applies, then create them in the actions tab and use the effect dialog options to specify the limit.

When creating effects on the Actions tab use the effect dialog and type in the name of the condition; they are not case sensitive. Note also that effects do not stack; so, for example, a character that suffers Blinded and Frightened will not suffer double disadvantage on attacks.

It's worth mentioning exhaustion here as it is a condition but not one that appears on the effects UI. It can only be applied via the actions tab (or by creating a custom effect in the effects UI). The syntax is EXHAUSTION: x where x represents a number (no dice strings allowed). A character can have more than one EXHAUSTION effect on them and if they do the numbers are accumulated; hence if a character has EXHAUSTION: 1 and EXHAUSTION: 2 effects then Fantasy Grounds will treat that as EXHAUSTION: 3

In the legacy rules on a value of 1 or 2 EXHAUSTION will apply DISCHK and on a value of 3+ it will apply DISCHK, DISATK, and DISSAV. In the 2024 rules EXHAUSTION applies a cumulative -2 penalty to d20 rolls per level. Thus, if you have exhaustion 3 all d20 rolls will be made with a -6 penalty.

No other effects are applied automatically either for the legacy rules or the 2024 rules (for example speed is not reduced, nor are max hit points reduced).

• Format:  [tag]: [dice/number] [descriptors]

• Case-sensitive

• If colon missing, assume no dice, numerical modifier or descriptors.

• Modifiers stack as long as their bonus type is blank or unique. If two modifiers have the same bonus type, only the larger value will be used.

• When applying effects from PC sheet powers, bracketed ability tags ([STR],[DEX],...) can be added to the modifier dice and numerical portion to adjust by current PC attribute modifiers. The ability tags can be set to negative ([-INT]), half ([HWIS]) or double ([2CHA]). Two additional tags for level ([LVL]) and proficiency bonus ([PRF]) are also supported. Character Classes can also be used and will evaluate to the level for that character in that class. The full name of the class all in capital letters is needed e.g. [BARBARIAN], [CLERIC], [WIZARD] etc.