Supermodels update

Over the past 48 hours, we have deployed a major set of software and content changes to the site. These changes allow the modeling of a number of things that were missing and introduce additional flexibility to some that were already there. The major changes are outlined in brief below.

Item Upgrades

Items got a major change to the way they are modeled to add many of the same capabilities that already existed for feats, races, and classes. An item can now grant all sorts of abilities to the character in possession of it.

A full description of each button can be found here.

Item Attunement

Items that require attunement are shown in a new Item Attunement section of the character sheet. Items that require attunement have no effect unless they are attuned.

Character Abilities that Modify or Create Items

Support has been added to model character abilities that either create or modify items. Anywhere character abilities are modeled (races, classes, feats, and backgrounds), two new buttons have been added: Create Item and Alt Create Item. These buttons invoke the Create Item dialog.

You can specify a custom name for the button that appears on the character sheet (Pact Weapon, Bless Armor, etc.), specify a filter on a number of attributes that allow narrowing of what kind of item can be modified, and then specify the abilities of the item in the same manner as discussed above. Additionally, you can specify a replacement set of characteristics that apply as you level up. Example: +1 to hit and damage for items created by a level 1-5 character, but +2 to hit and damage for items created by a character level 6 or above.

The drop down at the top can also be used to specify whether you are picking an existing item or creating a specific item one out of thin air.

A new version of Pact of the Blade that uses this capability has been published as have several features in the extended Playtest Material.

Modeling for Custom Types

While the ability to create custom types has been in Shard from the early days of testing, they were just text that got added to the character sheet. Now they have modeling support that allows them to grant any feature, just like feats, backgrounds, race, and class.

This combined with Create Item modeling turns out to be super useful for any class that gets a set of abilities that can create things (Inventors, Tinkerers, …). Just create a Custom Type by going to My Creations in the reference section and pressing New Custom (perhaps call it Inventions or Infus….) and then create a few instances your new type (Enchant Weapon, Enchant Armor, Create <name of item>, …). Then create a class or race that can pick a certain number of these things and away you go.

Fighting Styles

The content update that accompanies this release, converted Fighting Styles to a custom type and added several new styles. This does mean that any character with a fighting style will need to re-select it from the level options dialog. It also means creators and dms can easily add their own custom fighting styles. As modeled, Fighters have access to the full list of styles, while other classes are limited to ones that specify a keyword matching their class in the definition of the feature.

Feedback Welcome

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You can also follow us on Twitter @shard1982 for regular updates on what we are doing.