Hi! I'm creating a wizard subclass that relies on homebrew spells. It's a nightmare.
The class is private because it relies on homebrew spells and breaks conventions. It also is based on Unearthed Arcana. For these reasons, I do not believe I can share it.
For context: The subclass is designed to fake the Psionic Mystic so that I can play with my character using D&D beyond. I have successfully re-created all class features except for one: Psionic Disciplines. I'm going to go into a few implementation details for this feature so that you can understand exactly what I'm trying to do.
In the "Psionic Discipline" class feature I have a list of 41 Class Feature Options, each of which represents a different Psionic Discipline.
New choices are offered to the player at the following levels: 1,2,3,4,5,7,9,12,15,18 (The same levels at which new disciplines are learned for the Mystic Class)
Each time a player makes a new selection, they can choose between one of several class feature options (Disciplines).
Each of these class feature options (Disciplines) provides the user with a short list of Spells (all of which are homebrew spells created to duplicate the effects of the psionic abilities they represent - level in this case corresponds to the cost in psi points as closely as possible and I have to track usage outside of the app - there are some downsides to this implementation but it works well enough once you hit level 13).
The problem I am having is with how the spells I am adding to my class feature options (Disciplines) show up on the character sheet. I think it is badly broken. The primary issue I'm seeing is that spells added in this way always count as having multiple levels regardless of whether they are supposed to.
I have created a spell named "Immortal (Giant Growth): Ogre Form" (based on the unearthed arcana ability).
Spell Level = 2
Spell School = Transmutation
Casting Time = 1 Bonus Action
No VSM components
Range = Self
Duration Type = Concentration 1 Minute
Available for Class: Wizard
Description = Filler for now
No other checkboxes checked
No other settings set or changed
No modifiers added.
The class feature option (Discipline) "Immortal: Giant Growth" grants the player access to a list of spells when selected. I've added each spell to this list separately. Cantrips (used to represent focus abilities) work just as expected. Other spells of higher levels do not. I added "Ogre Form" to the list with the following options:
Spell: Immortal (GiantGrowth): Ogre Form
Consumes Spell Slot: Yes
Counts As Known Spell: Yes
Always Prepared: Yes
All other fields are left blank
Expected: When my test character selects the "Immortal: Giant Growth" as a Class Feature Option upon level up, I should see that spell on my character sheet as a level 2 spell. And nowhere else.
Observed: Instead, I see it as a 2nd level spell that can be cast as a 3rd level spell or a 4th, 5th, or 6th (presumably 7th, 8th and 9th as well but my test character is not that high a level yet). Seeing as I never put in the effort to add new levels I'm not sure why this is happening. It has no higher levels.
I have double checked that I do not have "At Higher Levels Scaling" checked. I have also not added any higher levels to the spell.
I have tried going into the Class Feature Option and editing the Spell Mapping to list "Spell Levels" as "2". Expected: I would be granted ONLY the 2nd level of the spell (this worked earlier today for an spell that DID have multiple levels). Observed: Nothing changes.
The same spell, obtained through an item, does not seem to present me with options to cast it at a higher level.
The same spell, obtained by adding it to my spell book (via Manage Spells) and preparing it, does not give me the same problem.
I have been playing around with the various settings all day and have discovered several other issues I suspect to be bugs. The following settings in the Spell Mapping appear to not work correctly:
Spell Levels, Counts As Spell Known, Always Prepared.
Expected: Setting "Spell Levels" should allow the caster to cast only specific levels of the spell. Observed: It does nothing, even when I have a spell that IS designed to have multiple levels. You just get all casting levels between the starting level and the max you can cast. I mentioned this before.
Expected: Setting Counts As Spell Known to True and Always Prepared to false should make it appear as a known spell in your spellbook, but not in my list of prepared spells and not on my character sheet. Observed: The spell appears in neither the spellbook nor the list of prepared spells and instead is placed directly in the character sheet (once again... at every single level). When I manage my spells, I can see that my spells known number is increased, and the number of spells and cantrips (combined total) that have been added from class features. But they are added directly to my character sheet as if they were prepared and do not appear in my spellbook.
I have not checked yet whether selecting both as false will add it to the list of class spells for my character, allowing me to add it manually to my spellbook and then prepare it. I was not interested in further testing at that time. It's been a very long day wrestling with this part of the tool.
Additionally: I've been noticing that there's some weirdness happening with "Available At Character Level":
If the list of spells is not ordered based on this value, then the spell that breaks the order will not show up in my character sheet. So for example if I have one spell that leaves this field blank and the next one I add is available at character level 3, then if the third spell on the list isn't available until character level 2, it won't be granted no matter how high you level. I did only very fast testing to confirm this. I could be wrong, but the point is that sometimes the spell simply does not appear when you reach the appointed level. It may also be due to the fact that the player has selected this option long after the spell would have been made available, and it is somehow skipped? I don't know for sure but I'll try and iron it out.
In general font inconsistencies and lack of tooltips and weird bugs makes me think this feature is more in the works than most.
Okay one more really weird thing:
Frequently when I try to edit my class feature Psionic Disciplines, I end up editing the following instead:
Forge Domain > Channel Divinity: Artisan's Blessing (or some other random class feature)
I can edit it but if I save it I get a 403 forbidden. I had to try, man, I had no idea what that was going to do if it worked. I just had to know! It did nothing. Hard as hell to reproduce intentionally (haven't managed yet) but sometimes it happens randomly (it's happened to me three times when I try to navigate back to "Psionic Disciplines" from the Spell Mapping Edit form (or possibly from the edit form for one of that discipline's options - all I really remember was that I clicked on the link at the top to navigate back after a lot of editing.
I care more about the issues with adding spells to class feature options. But I found that last bug really interesting.
Issue 1: Spells added to Class Feature Options display as having multiple levels whether they have them or not.
Steps to reproduce:
Create a new homebrew spell at level 1 or higher with no extra levels.
Create a new homebrew subclass of wizard
Create a new class feature
Designate the class feature as a feature that has options by checking the checkbox under the feature's basic settings.
For Class Levels Where Options Known, select 1.
Add a new option (I had more than one from the start, but you should only need one).
In this new option, add a new spell
In the Edit Spell Mapping form, select the following options:
Spell: The homebrew spell you created before
Consumes Spell Slot: Yes
Counts As Known Spell: Yes
Always Prepared: Yes
Available At Character Level: 1
Save changes
Create a new character using your homebrew subclass.
At level 1, select the option you created.
Expected: The spell shows up once at its normal level on your character sheet Observed: It shows up over and over at every level above the spell's default level.
I will work on STR for the other bugs, but this was my primary focus so I got it done first. The possibility exists that I misunderstood the usage of the tool but my gut tells me that a lot of these things are likely bugs.
This is because casters can cast spells of lower level, using a higher level slot, even if it does not gain them any boosts to the spell. For example, you've run out of 1st level spell slots, but still want to cast the spell Knock. You still can, you just use a 3rd level slot (or higher) instead. The sheet is working as intended.
If that were the case, then I would expect that preparing the spell normally would do the same thing. It does not. When the spell is prepared normally from your spellbook it only lists the spell at its lowest level. The behavior in either case should be identical.
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Hi!
I'm creating a wizard subclass that relies on homebrew spells. It's a nightmare.
The class is private because it relies on homebrew spells and breaks conventions. It also is based on Unearthed Arcana. For these reasons, I do not believe I can share it.
For context: The subclass is designed to fake the Psionic Mystic so that I can play with my character using D&D beyond. I have successfully re-created all class features except for one: Psionic Disciplines. I'm going to go into a few implementation details for this feature so that you can understand exactly what I'm trying to do.
In the "Psionic Discipline" class feature I have a list of 41 Class Feature Options, each of which represents a different Psionic Discipline.
New choices are offered to the player at the following levels: 1,2,3,4,5,7,9,12,15,18 (The same levels at which new disciplines are learned for the Mystic Class)
Each time a player makes a new selection, they can choose between one of several class feature options (Disciplines).
Each of these class feature options (Disciplines) provides the user with a short list of Spells (all of which are homebrew spells created to duplicate the effects of the psionic abilities they represent - level in this case corresponds to the cost in psi points as closely as possible and I have to track usage outside of the app - there are some downsides to this implementation but it works well enough once you hit level 13).
The problem I am having is with how the spells I am adding to my class feature options (Disciplines) show up on the character sheet. I think it is badly broken. The primary issue I'm seeing is that spells added in this way always count as having multiple levels regardless of whether they are supposed to.
Expected: When my test character selects the "Immortal: Giant Growth" as a Class Feature Option upon level up, I should see that spell on my character sheet as a level 2 spell. And nowhere else.
Observed: Instead, I see it as a 2nd level spell that can be cast as a 3rd level spell or a 4th, 5th, or 6th (presumably 7th, 8th and 9th as well but my test character is not that high a level yet). Seeing as I never put in the effort to add new levels I'm not sure why this is happening. It has no higher levels.
I have double checked that I do not have "At Higher Levels Scaling" checked. I have also not added any higher levels to the spell.
I have tried going into the Class Feature Option and editing the Spell Mapping to list "Spell Levels" as "2". Expected: I would be granted ONLY the 2nd level of the spell (this worked earlier today for an spell that DID have multiple levels). Observed: Nothing changes.
The same spell, obtained through an item, does not seem to present me with options to cast it at a higher level.
The same spell, obtained by adding it to my spell book (via Manage Spells) and preparing it, does not give me the same problem.
I have been playing around with the various settings all day and have discovered several other issues I suspect to be bugs. The following settings in the Spell Mapping appear to not work correctly:
Spell Levels, Counts As Spell Known, Always Prepared.
Expected: Setting "Spell Levels" should allow the caster to cast only specific levels of the spell. Observed: It does nothing, even when I have a spell that IS designed to have multiple levels. You just get all casting levels between the starting level and the max you can cast. I mentioned this before.
Expected: Setting Counts As Spell Known to True and Always Prepared to false should make it appear as a known spell in your spellbook, but not in my list of prepared spells and not on my character sheet. Observed: The spell appears in neither the spellbook nor the list of prepared spells and instead is placed directly in the character sheet (once again... at every single level). When I manage my spells, I can see that my spells known number is increased, and the number of spells and cantrips (combined total) that have been added from class features. But they are added directly to my character sheet as if they were prepared and do not appear in my spellbook.
I have not checked yet whether selecting both as false will add it to the list of class spells for my character, allowing me to add it manually to my spellbook and then prepare it. I was not interested in further testing at that time. It's been a very long day wrestling with this part of the tool.
Additionally: I've been noticing that there's some weirdness happening with "Available At Character Level":
Okay one more really weird thing:
Frequently when I try to edit my class feature Psionic Disciplines, I end up editing the following instead:
Forge Domain > Channel Divinity: Artisan's Blessing (or some other random class feature)
I can edit it but if I save it I get a 403 forbidden. I had to try, man, I had no idea what that was going to do if it worked. I just had to know! It did nothing. Hard as hell to reproduce intentionally (haven't managed yet) but sometimes it happens randomly (it's happened to me three times when I try to navigate back to "Psionic Disciplines" from the Spell Mapping Edit form (or possibly from the edit form for one of that discipline's options - all I really remember was that I clicked on the link at the top to navigate back after a lot of editing.
I care more about the issues with adding spells to class feature options. But I found that last bug really interesting.
Issue 1: Spells added to Class Feature Options display as having multiple levels whether they have them or not.
Steps to reproduce:
Expected: The spell shows up once at its normal level on your character sheet
Observed: It shows up over and over at every level above the spell's default level.
I will work on STR for the other bugs, but this was my primary focus so I got it done first. The possibility exists that I misunderstood the usage of the tool but my gut tells me that a lot of these things are likely bugs.
Issue 1:
This is because casters can cast spells of lower level, using a higher level slot, even if it does not gain them any boosts to the spell. For example, you've run out of 1st level spell slots, but still want to cast the spell Knock. You still can, you just use a 3rd level slot (or higher) instead. The sheet is working as intended.
If that were the case, then I would expect that preparing the spell normally would do the same thing. It does not. When the spell is prepared normally from your spellbook it only lists the spell at its lowest level. The behavior in either case should be identical.