Revision as of 13:59, 29 April 2013

Pathfinder on Roll20

This is only on how to use Pathfinder within Roll20. To get the rules and everything from Paizo, buy the book and/or go to www.d20pfsrd.com

Setting up your Character Sheet for players

There's several ways to setting up the player character sheet, but the most important one, is that the GM makes it available to the player.A good way for the GM is to have a general Player Character Sheet made already, and simply duplicate it, and give permissions as suited. Normally those would be that All Players can see, the relevant player can edit.

Basically your entire Pen&Paper character sheet can be added in Roll20. The things you need to figure out as a GM when making the standard, is how much effort you (and your players) should do to make the character.Questions you can ask yourself to find out what you need on your character sheet and how detailed it should be:* Is it a one time campaign?

• Will the campaign stretch over several levels?
• Will you have the same players playing every time?
• Are the characters supposed to be low or high level?

If it's only a one-shot campaign, you might not need such elaborate character sheets. The basics would probably suffice, with Ability modifiers, HP, AC, maybe even Base Attack Bonus. The corresponding macros usually aren't that complex either, but they would still be time-saving. If, on the other hand, you're going to take your normal Pathfinder-group online, and keep on playing, level after level, hour after hour, getting the Character Sheet right, already at start, is extremely time-saving.

Example of a Character Sheet going for the long run

You would probably find (or create) a nice picture for your Character, type in some bio that you have planned, and start with the automation on the "Attributes & Abilities"-tab.

The list of Attributes could look like this:

• HP 26/26
• AC 18
• Level 3
• High Save
• Low Save
• Base Attack Bonus 3
• Strength 2/15
• Dexterity 1/12
• Constitution 0/11
• Intelligence -1/9
• Wisdom 1/13
• Charisma -2/7
• Long Sword 1d8
• Weapon Focus (Long Sword) 1
• Weapon Specialization (Long Sword) 2
• Masterwork +1
• Short Sword 1d6
• Magic Enhancement +1
• Lightning Damage 1d6
• Two Weapon Fighting -2
• Ring of Protection +1
• Breast Plate AC +6
• Breast Plate Check Penalty -4

Notes:

• The Ability scores is written "backwards" because it's the modifier which is used, and not the score. This way you can keep track of score (when it gets modified) while the modifier is used.
• Normally a Fighter would simply use Level instead of Base Attack Bonus, and not need this at all, but since this is an example this is added, so it's easier to switch to other classes.
• If there's planned multiclassing, it might be easier to simply use Fortitude, Reflex and Will, than High and Low Save.
• Instead of Long Sword and Short Sword, you might consider using "Weapon", as it's easier to change the weapon in the macros, unless you do like this guy, and go all inn on Long Sword, which means he will probably use this weapon forever. Protip: Use "Weapon 1", "Weapon 2" and such, and keep on the Bio (or in the macro) which weapon is which.
• It's practical to have the stuff that changes in the top, already from the creation of the character sheet, since you can't change the order of the abilities.

Setting up Macros in Abilities

There's two ways of saving macros in Roll20, that both can be found very useful in your session.Normal marcos, found under My Settings in is mainly used by players, and only to give the abilities a shorter name in the macro quick bar. But mainly both players and GMs should keep to using Abilities on the Character Sheet. When using abilities together with attributes, you get a quick way of doing "everything" with your character.

With the Character Sheet above us, we can make the player really effective, and we don't need to wait for the slow calculation of adding it all up. You can even add some flavor text with the /me-functionality.

Example of Abilities

Attribute: Full Attack

• /me does a mighty strike with his Long Sword, and his glowing Short Sword!
• /r 1d20+@{Base Attack Bonus} +@{Strength} +@{Weapon Focus (Long Sword)} +@{Masterwork} +@{Two Weapon Fighting} To hit with Long Sword. Critical: 19-20x2
• /r @{Long Sword}+ @{Strength} +@{Weapon Specialization (Long Sword)} Damage with Long Sword.
• /r 1d20+@{Base Attack Bonus} +@{Strength} +{Magic Enhancement} To hit with the Short Sword. Critical: 19-20x2
• /r @{Short Sword} +@{Strength}/2 +@{Lightning Damage} +{Magic Enhancement} Damage with Short Sword.

This gives you the two hits, both damages if they are hits, and everything with no math involved. Note that if you didn't use Base Attack Bonus on your character sheet, use level instead of base attack bonus, like this: /r 1d20+@{Level}+@{Strength}.... Another strenght of this way of doing it, is that every time you wonder how you got to that number, you can simply check everything in the macro, and it's easy to remove and add effects and modifiers for later time. Say to get the Long Sword enchanted, simply remove Masterwork and add the Magic Enchantment Bonus.

You can also use the Attributes for way more than just "simple" attacks.

Initiative:

• /me throws himself into the battle, as soon as he figures there's gonna be a fight!
• /r 1d20 + @{Dexterity} Initiative

Skill checks:

• /me taking a jump.
• /r 1d20+@{Dexterity} +@{Level} +3 -@{Breast Plate Check Penalty}
• You can jump your jump score in feet long, and one fourth of the jump score high.

Checking the AC, to see why your AC is what it is, or if you have forgotten to update it:

• /me simply checks his AC
• /r 1d1-1 + 10 + @{Dexterity} +@{Ring of Protection} +@{Breast Plate AC}

Throwing saves, and remembering all the effects that we so often forget:

• /r 1d20+@{High Save} +@{Constitution} Fortitude Save
• Remember +2 vs poisons and sleep effects

A quick reminder on what to do when leveling up:

• /me has DINGed! DINGDINGDING!
• /r 1d10+@{Constitution}
• http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/character-advancement
• http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter
• Checklist: HP (Check),Level, Favored Class Bonus, Skill Ranks, BAB, Saving Throws, Feats, Class Features, Spells, Consequnses of these changes that doesn't go with the sheet, (extra language for upped in Int, and such).