Development Update February 2023

Greetings Adventurers!

What a month, huh?

To say the D&D community has been in somewhat of a crisis this month would be no overstatement. Whilst the drama over the OGL seems resolved for now, it was undoubtedly a nerve-wracking time for many folks in the industry.

I personally believe that playing different RPG's is very healthy, good for DM's and Players. In the last year I have played in a Starfinder game (Archibald, awakened space bear), run Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and DM'ed Rime of the Frostmaiden (twice). Different games emphasise different elements and explore different ideas than heroic fantasy. So if you're curious about other systems, don't be afraid to give them a try.

In the same vein, I have released an experimental module called Pathmuncher. It tries to import Pathfinder characters from the Pathbuilder 2e website into Foundry. This is very new, and no doubt littered with bugs, but please give it a try if you play Pathfinder.

Nevertheless, the DDB Development Kobolds have not been hard at work! This month the D&D 5e System version 2.1.x landed very quickly and has brought with it a lot of disruption. Major rewrites on the Monster parsing code were required. That did have some beneficial side effects though, it has allowed Companion Muncher to now exist!

What's Companion Muncher? Well it's for the new summoning spells/companion types introduced in Tasha's.

If your character has these spells/abilities and you have Arbron's Summoning (5e) module installed, it will generate appropriate actors in a world folder, and link them in the spell.

What's coming this month?

I'm quite excited about the upcoming release of Keys from the Golden Vault (due 21st February). This is an anthology of heist adventures - I understand it should (hopefully) be available for pre-order later this week on DDB. My aim is to get this completed in the latter part of February.


Key Expiry

If your key has expired, you can generate a new one at https://activate.ddb.mrprimate.co.uk/

Many thanks for your continued support

MrPrimate/Jack

Condensed Change Log

DDB Importer

• Third Party Scene import would fail if there were scenes in the world not in folders.
• Symic Hybrid Carapace will now generate an AC effect.
• Characters skill bonuses did not always calculate successfully if not using effects.
• Export unlinked notes in scene config for adventure muncher.
• Ice Knife and Witch Bolt macro tweaks.
• Monsters with multiple actions with the same name (e.g. Legendary Actions), would have an action removed on a monster upate.
• Improve tag parsing to compendium items.
• Features which added bonuses to initiative such as Dread Ambusher could end up with the character having a stupidly high initiative bonus (like +32000).
• Some fixes for upcoming schema changes/enforcement in the newest D&D system version, 2.1.0.
• Tools default ability did not always set.
• Numeric class advancements did not set the type correctly.
• Some ScaleValue names will change during munch to meet new schema requirements.
• Improve Spell Sorting on character imports.
• Major code refactoring for Monster parsing to support upcoming features.
• Cloudkill checked save at wrong point in the turn.
• Fixcritters function removed as no longer needed.
• Experimental bulk import mode has been removed due to duplication of data issues.
• Legendary resources no longer tracked by default on bar2 monsters with legendary actions.
• Monster parsing: New option to strip things like the recharge and action cost from feature names.
• Parsing is now supported for schema changes in D&D System v2.1.x. These necessitated major changes, especially to monster parsing. Risk of breakage high.
• Improved parsing of Monster Feature types into Weapons, Actions and Features.
• Monster Parsing: Dragon Wings now detect reach.
• Monster Parsing: Slightly improved damage detection for some actions.
• Prevent spell duplication for some feat choices.
• Effects: Tweaks to DamageOnlyWorkflow macros to support levels auto cover and midi-qol when cover is enabled.
• Character Updates: if the death saves were cleared rather than set to 0, update to DDB would fail.
• Extras Import: Would duplicate folder, extra or move extras to root directory.
• If not using effects global spell attack bonuses might not always stack correctly.
• In certain circumstances and class combos, some subclass features would not be correctly evaluated and added to a character sheet, depending on the levels of those subclasses.
• Hunters Mark Macro updated to match midi sample item where it will check if spell is already cast and target is dead when item is rolled again.
• Improve the handling of feature descriptions that use character values to ue new inline calculations rather than fixed values.
• Experimental mode to generate actors from stat blocks in spells and features. This is for features like Primal Companion, Summon Wildfire Spirit, and the new Summon Spells in Tasha's. It requires the Arbron's Summoning (5e) module by Arbron https://foundryvtt.com/packages/arbron-summoner. It will generate appropriate actors in a world folder, and link in the spell. Unfortunately (for now), there is no avatar/token art, so you will need to source that yourselves.
• Fix an issue syncing back to DDB if using D&D System 2.1.x
• Polymorph and light now have the midi flag "friends automatically fail" set if generating spells with effects.
• A race condition could prevent item spells parsing correctly.
• Darkness effect improvement if using Perfect Vision (thanks @dinesh)
• Handle notes not linked to Journals.
• Prevent Images in journals opening in a new tab when clicked.
• Legacy monsters would be duplicated rather than updated.
• Extra parsing failed for monsters that had skill or prof adjustments.
• Global bonuses sometimes sum up correctly, e.g. Aura of Protection and Cloak of Protection could add up to 51, not 6.
• Some spell icon improvements from @Raccoomph
• Hand of Healing was not parsing as Heal action.
• Companions: should be friendly disposition.
• Companions: did not always parse all restricted options, e.g. Draconic Spirits would not parse Damage Resistances for Gem spirits, only Chromatic and Metallic.
• Feature Effect: Momentary Stasis.
• Some sorcery Metamagic features consumed the wrong amount.
• Psionic Recovery now consumes Psi Points correctly.
• Correct CSS changes in some adventures for Read Aloud aside blocks.
• ToD support.

DDB Adventure Muncher

• ToD support.

Data Packs

• LMOP Redbrand hideout would not load on D&D 2.1.x system version.
• ToD data added
• MooT: Scene updates for changed formatting.