Standard Practices

These standard practices will help you create content that is conform with the current content. This will help make all information have the same look & feel!

Unique Names

One of the most important aspects when creating new content, is to use names that are unique. If you fail to do so, then you will not be able to access the new item you just created. This is because when Excel searches through a table, if stops searching when the first match is found. So any other items with the same name will not be accessed.

Class Abilities

Class abilities have been defined using the Ability name and the class name to which it applies. This ensures that a custom class will be using a unique name - and that if an existing ability if used, we know from which class it is taken from. The format is: AbilityName (ClassName).

Examples:

• Inspire Courage (Bard)
• Damage Reduction (Barbarian)
• Divine Inspiration (Divine Emissary)

Race Abilities

Racial abilities that can be activates (i.e. turned 'On') have been defined using the racename followed by the ability name. Examples:

• Deep Dwarf vs Orcs/Goblinoids
• Doppelganger Change Shape
• Duergar vs Orcs/Goblinoids

Racial abilities that are permanent (meaning they apply their effect at all times) uses the racename followed by the word "race". If the race requires more than 6 effects, another permanent entry is created with a trailing numeral. Examples:

• Dwarf race
• Half-elf race
• Half-elf race 2

Spell Names

When defining spell names, do not use any commas in the name itself. So for instance the spell Enlarge Person, Mass should actually be Enlarge Person (Mass). All the core spell included in TOS+ are using this syntax.

Furthermore, the Sheet uses the American English for words spellings like armor, instead of the armour used in European countries.

Both the above standards will become more important starting with TOS+ v1.30+, since the Spell Names are now included in the .tos file!

Listing Abilities

Sample ability list This sample shows how to create a list of abilities that have limited uses per day. Each ability is on one line and uses the BULLET named cell to get the proper offset and bullet. When a Difficulty Class applies, is it displayed as shown for the "Suggestion" ability. Here is a sample formula for the Suggestion line: =BULLET&"Suggestion 3/day, DC"&(13+i_CHAModif)&" "& IF(t_CheckMark="",""," <"&REPT(t_CheckMark,3)&">") Most creators prefer to 'group' similar lists onto the same cell, using the CR seperator, which is a "Carriage Return"

Trailing Periods

It is not essential to add a period on the last phrase of an ability description. Periods will be useful if an ability description has many phrases, to seperate those.

DC and CL without spaces

When listing a DC (Difficulty Class) or a CL (Caster Level), do not add a space between that and the following numeral. For instance, write "DC12" instead of "DC 12"

Long Descriptions

Example of ability indentation You should always verify that the ability you are describing 'fits' in the width of the INFO area on the BACK worksheet. If you cannot reduce the length of the description to fit a single line, you can use multiple lines. In such case, you should use the TAB named cell to automatically add indent for this continuation. The image on the right is the result of the formula below (for the Sahuagin race): ="Light Blindness (Ex): Abrupt exposure to bright light causes"&CR&TAB& "1 round of blindness and dazzles after that"

Times per Day

When creating an Ability that has a "times per day" limitation, you should always add a simple formula that will display the check marks representing that number of times per day, which is very useful for those using the paper version of TOS+. Here is an example:

="Dimension Door (Sp): 1/day, CL7 "&IF(t_CheckMark="",""," <"&t_CheckMark&">"

The named cell t_CheckMark represent the Character (by default, the capital 'O' character) that will be used to denote each 'check mark'. The times per day for an ability should always be displayed as part of the description (in this case as 1/day). For an ability that is used more than once per day, the REPT() excel function can be used to repeat the number of desired check marks, as shown here:

="Dimension Door (Sp): 3/day "&IF(t_CheckMark="",""," <"&REPT(t_CheckMark,3)&">"

Evidently, a formula returning an Integer can be used for times per day that can change according to some other factor.

It is possible to 'turn off' the display of the Check Marks; go to the Customize worksheet and click on the 'CheckMarks' link found in the "Other" section. One of the option there represent the character used for check marks: If that character is deleted (i.e. empty), then all check marks will disappear (at least, those coded as shown in the standard guide!!)

Bonus Feats

When a Class (or race) receives bonus feats, there are several things to do.

1. First, you need to take into account all 'bonus' feats, and increase the total number of feats accordingly, using the Bonus Feats effect. For example of this, refer to the AbilityData worksheet, and scroll down to the existing Bonus Feat (class_name).
2. Second, you need to tell the user about this bonus feat. This is done through the features.
3. Third, you have to check if the use has indeed selected that free feat in the feat area on the BACK worksheet. For example, this formula will check to see if the Track feat has been selected for a Ranger: =IF(COUNTIF(tSel_Feats,"Track")=0,"Track feat missing from the Feats section {Ranger}",""). For a Class, this code would appear in the Class Status section. For a race, a similar check would be placed in the Race Status section.
4. Finally, you have to consider that the prerequisites for a feat might be overruled by a class receiving a bonus feat. For example, a Monk may select Deflect Arrows as a bonus feat at 2nd level, even if he does not meet the prerequisites. Simply use the feat_name Prereqs Met effect to tell TOS+ that this class is authorized to take that feat, irrelevant of prerequisites:

Table: Applying the Prerequisite Met Effect

Permanent	Effect Name	Effect Type	Effect Modifier
Yes	Deflect Arrows Prereqs Met	Unnamed	1

ORDINAL(): Adds st, nd, rd or th to values

ORDINAL

Appends a trailing st, nd, rd or th to numbers.

Syntax

ORDINAL(value)

Remarks

Use only with Values

Negative values will work

Example

="Cast spell as a "&ORDINAL(SUM(i_CHAModif,i_CharacterLevel))&" level character"

Computing Efficiency

When creating an Ability that has a complex formula, try, if possible, to avoid having excel compute that formula when it does NOT apply to the current Character. For example, this Racial Trait for the Nixie race:

=IF(tSel_Race="Nixie","Charm Person (Sp): 3/day, CL 4, DC"&11+i_CHAModif&" Will "&IF(t_CheckMark="",""," <"&REPT(t_CheckMark,3)&">"),"Inactive")

As you can see, the first thing that this formula checks is IF the current race is a "Nixie". (tSel_Race contains the race that has been selected on the Front Worksheet). Only if the current race is a "Nixie", will the Charm Person ability be computed and displayed. If the current race is not a Nixie, then this will evaluate to "Inactive", just to note this formula is not currently needed.

Miscellaneous Tips

• When giving a distance in feet, use ft. instead of a single quote
• Avoid the use of the [ and ] characters as they are used as the delimiters for .tos files
• There should always be 2 white spaces in front of the < symbol used to start check marks

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