Skills

System Requirements

Mac OS X 10.3 or later (supported)

Links

Home Page
AD&D page
E-mail bugs & feedback.

Installation

The Skills application can be run from anywhere though it is usually put in the Applications folder.
The file Skills-3.5.txt, SA_Feats.txt, Races.txt and Class_Skills.txt files must be placed in the directory ~/Documents/SA_Files/.
The SA_Files directory must be created manually.

Overview

Skills is a skill point allocation application.
It is designed to allow easy skill point buying for characters of any level.
The software is written for people who know how to play AD&D v3.5 and know the how skill allocation system works.
This document or the application does not explain the skill point buying rules (or any core rules for that matter). It assumes that you know what you are doing.

Character List Bar

This "bar" (window) is used for creating new characters. To create a character, you enter a name.
If the name* doesn't already exist, the New button will activate.
Newly created characters are added to the popup menu attached to the edit box. Selecting a character name will bring the Character window to front.
The Delete button will delete the character currently shown in the edit box. Not necessarily the frontmost window.
* Important : the character name is NOT necessarily the name of the Character's file (when saved). Skills will use the Name attribute to determine the character name.

Main Window

This is the main character window.
Most of it is self-explanatory to those who know AD&D.
The Feat button brings down a sheet window listing all feats which affect skills. (See Feats Sheet below).
The Copy button invokes a sheet which allows displaying, copying and formatting of skills. (See Copy Sheet below).
The Update button displays all skills which the character can use in the Skill List. It lists the skill name, number of ranks and total modifier (including all feats, ability score & synergy bonuses*).
* does not yet include Epic synergy bonuses
The Zero button resets and zeroes the entire character. Currently it does nothing.
The Domains button is enabled when a class that can use domains is selected in the Class list. It will invoke the Domains sheet. (See Domain Sheet below)

The Primary Class is defined as the Class or Race that has the 4xmultiplier for first level. If the selected race has a HD of 2 or higher, it is always the Primary Class. If it's HD is only one, the Primary Class is the first class listed in the Class list.

The Skill Modifier edit box allows for skill points to be added or subtracted. The value is always applied to the Character's Race, even if it is a one HD race such as the Human.

The Skill > below the Size Popup Menu opens & closes the Skill Drawer.(See Skill Drawer below)

Skill Window

Quick steps to use:

1. Select a Class/Race from the Class Popup Menu
2. Select a skill from the above List
3. Click on the Little Arrows to increase or decrease the Points spent.

The Class column is the Ranks purchased for that skill for the current class.
The Total column is the total Ranks purchased for the skill from all classes.

Subskill window

This window is used to create and add sub skills for the encompassing skills Craft, Perform, Knowledge, Speak Language and Profession.
Changes made to the Mother skills affect all Characters and the changes are written to the Subskills.txt file.

The New button adds a new entry in the Subskill list titled "untitled X" where X is a number. It will be editable by default.
The Remove button will remove the highlighted subskill, as will the Delete key.
Important. The list is not updated unless the Update button is clicked. If you choose a different Mother skill, all changes are lost*.
The Auto Update check remedies this. When you choose a different Mother skill, the subskill list for the previous Mother skill is automatically updated and saved.
*Temporary store of edited list will be implemented later.

Classes Window

This window is used to add and remove classes (characters can also be removed by pressing the Delete key in the Character's class list) to the Characters.
The Edit Box is the level for the class. If it is empty, it is considered to be level 1.
If the class already exists when, adding will set it to the current level.
The Edit button does nothing.

Copy Sheet

This sheet allows the user to copy and edit the skills and their ranks/total.
The options are self-explanatory.
The edit area is writable, it does not affect the actual skill values or character.
The skills are displayed in the order that they are listed in the Character window.

Feats Sheet

This sheet is a list of all Feats that modify skills (including those which are circumstantial*).
*Circumstantial modifiers are never included in the skill total in the main window. They are (or will be) used in the Copy Window.

When a feat is selected, it's modifier is added when the Update button is clicked on the main window.
The Add button is used to add Skill Focus & Epic Skill Focus feats to the list, so they can be selected.

If the SA_Feats.txt file contains feat which has the Source=<source> attribute, a list of check boxes for each source will be added to the sheet.
The feats of a particular source are not shown in the list unless it's corresponding check box is ticked.

The Education and Artist feats have bonuses which apply to a subset of a range of skills. These have been hard coded into the application, as I haven't figured out a method to make it user adjustable in the Skills-3.5.txt file (as an attribute).

Education Feat Skill Selection

When the Education feat is checked, a message will be shown asking for the two knowledge skills for which the +2 bonus applies.
The knowledge skills will be listed in the popup menu.
The skills are selected one at a time.

Artist Feat Skill Selection

When the Artist feat is checked, four Craft skills will be listed in the popup menu. Select the skill for which the bonus applies to.

Expert Class Skill Sheet

The Expert class class skills can be any 10 that the character chooses.
To open the Expert Sheet, double-click the Expert class in the Character window's class list.
You then select (up to) 10 skills which will be the class skills.
If you select more than 10, the Close button will deactivate.

Cleric Domains

The Domain sheet is available to any class* which allows Domain selection.
*some races also allow this. This option is not currently available

Demo Mode

In demo mode, the following restrictions are in place:

• Max class level is 5th. Even if opened from a saved skill file.
• Only two classes can be added.

Skills-3.5.txt File Format

Red is required
Silver represents the invisible characters TAB and SPACE. If indicated, they must be entered.
Pink is optional
Green indicates that one of the following is to selected.

#skills
skill_name:tabAbilitytabArmourPenaltytabuntrained=notabSynergy...tabSubskill

• #skills : marker indicating the start of the skill section. It is required.
  Any line which a # as the first character is treated as a comment if it is not a recognised marker.
• Ability : ability=Str | Dex | Con | Int | Wis | Cha | None
• ArmourPenalty : currently ignored
• untrained=no : used to indicate that the skill cannot be used untrained
• Synergy : Synergy[Ranks=X, SKILL=MODIFIER, CIRCUMSTANCE="the descriptive string"]
  X is the number of ranks required to get the synergy bonus. SKILL is the skill name, MODIFIER is the modifier applied to the skill. The CIRCUMSTANCE attribute is optional. If it is present, the modifier is never applied to the final total of the skill. It is (or will be) used in the Copy Window.
  The commas are required.
  Important : the synergy attribute is currently ignored. The application has the modifiers hard coded in. This will change.
• Subskills : this indicates the Skill is an encompassing name for individual skills. These are currently Craft, Knowledge, Perform, Profession and Speak Language.
  The file Subskills.txt lists each individual skill for each of the "Mother" skills.

SA_Feats.txt File Format

Red is required
Silver represents the invisible characters TAB and SPACE. If indicated, they must be entered.
Pink is optional
Green indicates that one of the following is to selected.

#Feats
feat_name:tabskill_name + | - modifier...tabskill_name[modifier,Circumstantial,"circumstance string"]...

• #Feats : maker indicating start of Feats section. It is required.
  Any line which a # as the first character is treated as a comment if it is not a recognised marker.
• skill_name : string name of skill. It the skill consists of word seperated by a space, that space must be replaced with the underscore(_) character.
  Example : Move Silently would be written as Move_Silently.
• modifier : any positive or negative integer in the form of +X or -X. The + or - is required.
• skill_name[...] : this format is used for circumstantial modifiers. Any feat that modifies a skill due circumstance only is never included the the Total in the Character Window Skill List.
  The order is important.
  • The first attribute must be the modifier.
  • The second attribute, which is optional (but must exist if the third attribute exists), must be the circumstantial word.
  • The third attribute, which is optional, the the circumstance string. The quotes ("...") are required.
• The other attributes seen in the SA_Feats.txt file can be ignored. They are currently either unsupported or for internal use only.

Class_Skills.txt File Format

Red is required
Silver represents the invisible characters TAB and SPACE. If indicated, they must be entered.
Pink is optional
Green indicates that one of the following is to selected.

#class_skills
class_name:tabskills[skill_name,...]tabPerLevel=value

This file is also used as the master file for all classes.

• #class_skills : marker indicating start of class skills section. It is required.
  Any line which a # as the first character is treated as a comment if it is not a recognised marker.
• class_name : name of class.
• skills[...] : list of all class skills seperated by a comma , . The skills do not need an underscore character if they consist of more than one word. Leading and trailing spaces/tabs will be stripped.
  For skills that encompass a range of skills (such as Knowledge), it can be of two forms (using Knowledge as an example):
  • Knowledge(Arcana) : Knowledge(Arcana) is a class skill.
  • Knowledge(...) : All Knowledge skills are class skills. The (3 periods, NOT ellipsis) ... is required.
• PerLevel : this is the number is skill points the class gets each level. If it is not present, it is assumed to be 2 points per level.

Races.txt File Format

Red is required
Silver represents the invisible characters TAB and SPACE. If indicated, they must be entered.
Pink is optional
Green indicates that one of the following is to selected.

#races
race_name:tabtype=race_typetabPointBonustabskill_name=modifier...tabSize=F | D | T | S | M | L | H | G | C | VtabHD=X | Vtabskills[skill, ...]

• #races : marker indicating start of races section. This is required.
  Any line which a # as the first character is treated as a comment if it is not a recognised marker.
• race_name : required. Name of race.
• type : racial type. If this is not present, it is assumed to be Humanoid. The race type string must replace it's spaces with underscores _. Example : Monstrous Humanoid becomes Monstrous_Humanoid
• PointBonus : indicates the race gains an additional skill point per class level of Hit Dice. Human being the most common example.
• skill_name=modifier : this is the racial bonus for the indicated skill.
• Size : if this is not present, the race is assumed to be size M(edium).
  Sizes : Fine, Diminuitive, Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, Gargantuan, Colossal and Variable.
  Variable size is for a race which has more than one size. (eg Dragons).
• HD : Race Hit Dice. Either a set value (X) or variable (V).
  If this attribute is not present, racial Hit Dice is assumed to be one.
• Skills[...] : race "class" skills. Same format as in Class_Skills.txt file.