WOTC Module NPC Sheet Updates

Hi folks, I wanted to make an official post tracking the NPC spellcasting updates in paid WOTC modules.  I'll be updating this thread as we move forward. Thank you for your patience as we get this sorted! To report specific 2.0 sheet bugs, please post them in the appropriate forum Current Status: NPC sheets should still retain original functionality. The message has been updated to reflect that users do not have to take action to update their NPC's. Clicking on spells functions exactly the same way as before.  11/13 Update : All module updates are complete on production side. Pushing them live is currently delayed for patch bugfixing.  11/20 - New update from the Dev team: Patching the modules and addons is further delayed due to issues arising with patches of this size. The fix for this is coming, but is taking longer than expected. For now, new module games (Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, etc) will be updated to the latest patch that we are working to implement. New addons (Tales from the Yawning Portal) will not have the latest patch until the aforementioned fix is applied, unless noted below. The following games did not run into this patching issue and should prompt for an update: Lost Mine of Phandelver Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan Tomb of Horrors Note: Patching these may take more time than usual, potentially several minutes. 2/7 UPDATE! All games should now be patching! This forum post will be closed on Friday.  Thank you so much for your patience as we rebuilt the patching process in order to fix this issue. Patches in the future should also be quicker, a general quality of life update for all! -Trivia

The topic isn't locked but I not sure if you are welcoming reports here but my issue is dragging spells into LMoP character sheets from the compendium results in a Save of 0 when the spell is cast.  The spells already in the sheet work as advertised though.

Alex S. said: The topic isn't locked but I not sure if you are welcoming reports here but my issue is dragging spells into LMoP character sheets from the compendium results in a Save of 0 when the spell is cast.  The spells already in the sheet work as advertised though. This is a known bug in the  5e OGL thread . The fix is to reset the spellcasting ability for the npc.

Kyle G. said: Alex S. said: The topic isn't locked but I not sure if you are welcoming reports here but my issue is dragging spells into LMoP character sheets from the compendium results in a Save of 0 when the spell is cast.  The spells already in the sheet work as advertised though. This is a known bug in the  5e OGL thread . The fix is to reset the spellcasting ability for the npc. Thanks v much... missed that one.

Thanks Kyle! :) ETA: For specific 2.0 sheet bugs, please  post them in the appropriate forum I chose to not close this thread as it's a form of communication specifically for WOTC Modules affected by the sheet update. If folks misuse it as a place to break CoC however, I'll be closing further comments. So far so good! :)

I am very happy to hear you guys will be doing this!  Just to verify, there are some NPCs such as the Warlock of the Archfey where the old version of the spell sheet is not showing up. Also older MM NPCs such as the Lich or a Cloud Giant show an innate spellcasting section with spells listed but cannot be cast from the sheet.  Are we getting all NPCs set up with spells or is there a line in the sand that certain NPCs will get the spell treatment and others will not?

Matt - The monsters in the Monster Manual will not have spellcasting sections updated, as they never had them set up in the first place :)  So all modules (Tales from the Yawning Portal, Storm King's Thunder, etc) - yes, but Compendiums - not currently. Avoiding issues like the ones that came up in this character sheet update are why those sections are not used in the Compendium entries; it keeps them very stable!

Would this crisp $20 bill change your mind? No but it would really really really help me as a DM to be able to pull up a NPC character sheet and just cast a spell without having to go into the compendium and look it up.  Just a suggestion!

Mel said: Matt - The monsters in the Monster Manual will not have spellcasting sections updated, as they never had them set up in the first place :)  So all modules (Tales from the Yawning Portal, Storm King's Thunder, etc) - yes, but Compendiums - not currently. Avoiding issues like the ones that came up in this character sheet update are why those sections are not used in the Compendium entries; it keeps them very stable! Just my opinion, but you should be able to pull a monster from the compendium and begin using it.  The more upfront prep work you need to do on them the less valuable they are.  So personally having spells ready and possibly even token actions ready would be a huge benefit.

It's absolutely on my to-do list! There's a few more things on the priority list that must be done first, but it's absolutely in our plans. The recent sheet update was part of that process :)   Edit for clarification: They will not be updated in the Module Update (the purpose of this thread) due to the difference between Compendium NPC structure and Module NPC structure, but we have it on the short list for updates one some more development is complete.

Awesome to hear it is in the pipleine!  Are you able to include all of the WOTC licensed spells/actions for the NPCs in the MM?  For example, Blade Ward is a cantrip some NPCs know but not something available in the Roll20 compendium (I assume because of licensing issues).

When the Monster Manual update is complete, all creatures dragged from the MM Compendium will be just as easy to use as those in modules, yep!

Will the updates to this content have a way to clearly understand how Monsters cast spell slots differently? As an example, the Cloud Giant below can cast 2 1st level spells at Will, and can cast several other spells x times a day. The format that was there initially made this really clear without me needing to refresh myself with the Innate Spellcasting trait above it. I get that I may have to better familiarize myself, but I always found this a lot easier, oh look, I can cast these spells as I please, and these others I can cast 3 times, etc.

Yes, we're going to add an indicator if a spell is "innate" and will mark that it's either "At Will" or "X/day", we're still working out exactly how that will be displayed, but it is being considered :)

Reminder: This thread is for the 5E OGL 2.0 sheet updates to WOTC modules only.  And an update: We finished up our production project last night, and I'm checking in on one task development side so we can begin work next week

Updates have begun. There is still the one task dev side we need, but quality-of-life improvements are being made and maps are being updated for Advanced Fog of War Dynamic Lighting optimization.

Any ETA or news on how the NPC spellcasting updates are going? Thanks.

I got word today that the last dev task has been completed. Many quality of life improvements have been implemented, and I am going to do my best to see if any modules will be completely ready by next week's code push. 

Storm King's Thunder, Curse of Strahd, and Dead in Thay will be updated this week

Mel said: Storm King's Thunder, Curse of Strahd, and Dead in Thay will be updated this week Any update on the NPC sheet now? My Curse of Strahd game didn't show that there was a patch available and my sheets are still giving me the "This section is now no longer supported." message in the spells section.

Hi Josh -  Dev has updated some of the process of module and addon updates that required some extra testing. The patches should be live this week instead. Apologies for not updating my update, I'll post in the thread (and the respective module/addon threads) once they are live with patch notes :)

Update: Most modules and Addons have been delivered to Dev side for pushes. Once dev side has cleared up remaining patch updates, they will be pushed live and I will be updating this thread

All modules have been delivered to Dev to be pushed. Some updates to patching still remain, I will keep updating as things go live, as well as posting in appropriate bug threads.  The wait here has been due to needing to update patch functionality, as there were unforseen issues in patching games that had specific changes. Thanks for your patience as we make progress on these processes!

Hi there, just wondering where you are on the ToA patch update for the NPC spells, as my group's NPC guide Eku is still to be updated. Many thanks.

New update from the Dev team: Patching the modules and addons is further delayed due to issues arising with patches of this size. The fix for this is coming, but is taking longer than expected. For now, new module games  (Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, etc) will be updated to the latest patch that we are working to implement. New addons  (Tales from the Yawning Portal) will not have the latest patch until the aforementioned fix is applied, unless noted below. The following games did not run into this patching issue and should prompt for an update: Lost Mine of Phandelver Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan Tomb of Horrors Note: Patching these may take more time than usual, potentially several minutes.

Hi Mel, When will the patches be available?  Are they getting released this week?

It looks like it will be another week or two. I sat in while dev members attempted to update the patches and each time for the games not listed above, they timed out. More fixes need to be worked on.  Roll20 has never had to implement patches of this size before this module update

Will the updates impact existing games? If so, will there be an option to not include? I've spent a LOT of time this weekend incorporating the new spell sections on NPCs myself. I don't really want an automatic update to go and mess everything up.

I would like to suggest an opt-out for this too. Not everyone uses the OGL sheet and making optimizations global that work only on one sheet will cause unexpected problems and junk data added to those who do not use OGL.

You can opt out of the patch by not updating the game when prompted. This will mean that any other bug fixes will not be implemented in an un-patched game.  Patching is not mandatory to use the module on Roll20 :)

Before I make any more decisions about spooling up a new instance of the game that's already converted to 1.8 or blocking the update from my existing game, I need to ask. How will this update actually happen? there's a lot of stuff that's been updated in 1.8 for Storm King's Thunder, so I guess have some questions as to how this will roll out....eventually. I guess I'll also make the assumption that people who have content like Storm King's Thunder will eventually get notified to update their game from 1.7 to 1.8 as well? I'll start from the top of the patch notes that are included with the game. Token Adjustments Will the tokens on the map for those items that use rollable tokens be replaced? Stat Block Adjustments How will the updates and changed to NPC character sheets happen? Will this just update things on the character sheet tab and attributes in cases where they've been added or corrected. Will it replace the character sheet and bio information? I ask, because I've gone through all my NPCs and added the Handout artwork to the NPC Character Bio tab to minimize the amount of content my players and I have in the journal. Granted, this is easy enough for me to go through and re-add the images from the handouts as opposed to the duplicate token image (this was mentioned in another post) Or will all of the existing NPCs just be replaced? What if we've modified some of the NPCs that come with the Module? For example, I've completely changed the Weevil in this campaign to be a Drugar Warlock to further the story with one of my players. Will this information be wiped out? Map Adjustments How will the maps be updated to incorporate the dynamic lighting changes? Will this overwrite the things that I've already incorporated, such as adding notes to the gm note callout tokens on the maps? These seem like big changes that could effect anyone currently running this module.

Patches are implemented by the game checking each changed asset while patching.  Tokens: If an actual token has been deleted and replaced, it will be in its by-the-book starting position. If the linked character sheet has been updated, this does not affect token placement.  Example: In Lost Mines of Phandelver, I needed to completely remake the "Ash Zombie" monster, so those tokens would be replaced .  Stat Block Adjustments: Only the Spells section should be updated. Portraits and other text should not be adjusted If you changed an NPC (kept the same NPC block but renamed it, changed the stats, etc) it may be affected. All new NPC's should not be affected. Example: If in Curse of Strahd I renamed Esmerelda to Bonnie and redid all her spells, those spells may be replaced with those from the book. If I had created a whole new Bonnie using Esmerelda's stat block as a base, she would not be affected. Map Adjustments: We kept these pretty light and only tested for Advanced Fog of War possibly exposing too much due to its grid basis. Only a few Dynamic Lighting lines were deleted, adjusted or added. No GM layer notes or dynamic lighting lines that the GM has added should be affected.  Please let me know if I failed to address any of your concerns, I totally understand wanting to make sure that your game is not adversely affected by these patches :)  

Trivia said: You can opt out of the patch by not updating the game when prompted. This will mean that any other bug fixes will not be implemented in an un-patched game.  Patching is not mandatory to use the module on Roll20 :) That's not what I meant... The patches should be modular in the sense that I can choose what I want to implement. If I want a bugfix for a certain aspect but I have to sacrifice something else for it then this is a failed patch. Point in case is when your patch changes things that players have already put their hand into. It would be really appreciated if you considered the option of breaking down your patch into tokens/statblock/map etc. If part of your module comes broken in certain aspects due to lack of quality checking, I should not have something else shoved down my throat alongside it. Furthermore, what happens when this becomes the norm for future modules? I understand you value your sheet and advanced fog of war dearly, but as with everything, there needs to be a method of opting out of features that one does not use. Having to opt out of EVERYTHING should not be the norm.

What I've done in the past to get around this issue was make a copy of my game, then apply  the patch to the copy. This way I could easily see what would and would not be affected by the patch. If there was something useful in the update, like an updated map, but I wasn't ready to commit to the update on the active game, I would use the Transmogrifier to copy over just the pieces I wanted.  I hope this helps. 

Brother Sharp: We were not prepared for the affect the 2.0 sheet would have on modules. It came as a surprise to all of us, hence the past few months being a work in progress in getting the modules sorted out. Currently there is no way to split up patches into parts, but I will pass along the suggestion to the dev team to see if there's anything that can be done. Thank you for your feedback, you are heard here :) Jonah's suggestion is a very good one, as it allows you to see what gets updated and bring it over to your custom one if desired, without having to possibly have anything changed.

Trivia said: Brother Sharp: We were not prepared for the affect the 2.0 sheet would have on modules. It came as a surprise to all of us, hence the past few months being a work in progress in getting the modules sorted out. Currently there is no way to split up patches into parts, but I will pass along the suggestion to the dev team to see if there's anything that can be done. Thank you for your feedback, you are heard here :) Jonah's suggestion is a very good one, as it allows you to see what gets updated and bring it over to your custom one if desired, without having to possibly have anything changed. Yes, thank you so much for hearing me out! I am currently using Jonah's method, and it starts to get tedious when you have multiples games running but it works for the time being.

Trivia, Any patches planned for release this week?  If not, is there a timeline?

Dev is currently testing a fix this week, I'll update when I have a for sure date of when everything is updated.  In case this was not clear (this is for everyone checking the forum) - All NEWLY CREATED games are updated, it's just patching that has the issue :)

Should I start converting npc's spell lists for tomb of annihilation ? or will the patch do that eventually for me ( and not break other stuff : ). wondering if I should just wait a while or get to work converting npc's so I can use their spells properly.

Tyler T. said: Should I start converting npc's spell lists for tomb of annihilation ? or will the patch do that eventually for me ( and not break other stuff : ). wondering if I should just wait a while or get to work converting npc's so I can use their spells properly. I ended up just doing this. It didn't take terribly long. You would be a waiting a LOT longer for the updates my friend.

Trivia said: Dev is currently testing a fix this week, I'll update when I have a for sure date of when everything is updated.  In case this was not clear (this is for everyone checking the forum) - All NEWLY CREATED games are updated, it's just patching that has the issue :) If we have a paid module game currently on the go. Would you suggest I just wait a little while and the NPCs spells will be updates in a couple weeks. Or should I manually recreate the npcs in the tomb of annihilation that have spells. Or should I create a new game and then use the vault to move characters across ( redo any handouts / map changes ect ).  I must say using roll20 with modules has sped up lots of the DM chores and when using Skype it's really stable. Let me know which of the 3 options is my most pain free way to get the npcs to work again.  PS could you please not update running campaigns again : ) 

Tyler - the NPC's are currently working as intended. For the time being, their spells will need to be rolled out of the depreciating (warning text) section of the sheet. Once the update is done, that area will be replaced with the updated one. The only functionality change will be a switch up of the spell section.

Any ETA on this?

Yeah, this issue has been ongoing for a while, I have distant memories of when the thread started. I ask as when I have used spells from the list they dont always roll the attack dice correctly i.e.the attack roll is always a 1. 

I'm sorry, I know this is a stupid question but without reading through every post I'm just looking to understand what the current situation is with, specifically, the Deathlock? I see the red "this isn't supported" text but I'm not sure what I need to do to fix it. Am I updating an actual template? Will that do something to mess up the current template with the macros I've created? I'm pretty reliant on the Taking20 tutorial (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrbqdkGIa00" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrbqdkGIa00</a>) and not arrogant enough to think I'm incapable of breaking something if I swap out entire templates. That said, if I have to, then I have to. Any guidance would be great. Thanks

Angry Dwarf -&nbsp; The module NPC's and creatures were originally created with a part of the OGL sheet that would be updated (There was an internal miscommunication that led to this) All newly created versions of modules have the latest patch enabled, so that red text is gone. (That unused portion of the sheet turns invisible) The patches to fix the spells on older NPC's are so large that in testing, they just time out and don't complete. The devs have been hard at work on a fix, but I have been hesitant to update just to say "Still working on it! Yep, it's coming!" as I know that's not the news that would make everyone happy.&nbsp; So in short: NPC's and spellcasting creatures in modules have been updated in newly created games. Older games have to use the old version, which still works, but has red warning text that the section is going away. Patch fixes are on their way, but I don't have a date update as it's still in testing.&nbsp; I hope that helps :) Trivia

Trivia, thanks for the update, im actually not too bothered if someone pops on and says we are still working on this. It lets us know that the issue hasn't been forgotten and that we may one day get a solution. I am guessing that my issue with the lack of dice rolling for some of the baddies is actually a different problem, I will have a look into it.

Conrad - Thanks for letting me know :) I check in with dev every week or so to see how we are doing, and I'm excited to get them out so I can go back and do more patches! ;)

And of course, just as I update this forum, I get the news that: Patch updates have gone live! All games should now be patching successfully (and quickly!) and the red text should be gone in all modules.&nbsp; Please let me know if that is not happening for you.&nbsp; Thank you all for your patience as we completely reworked the patching system, a general quality of life increase for all :)

Trivia, well, the hard work is appreciated, I've generally found the CoS module to be well worth the money as it saves me a lot of prep time. I just patched and the spells all seem to be in the correct position with no error message, it has also fixed the issue with the inflict wounds spell on the cult fanatics. Great stuff :)