Abilities vs Macros?

Apologies if this has been answered, I did a search & didn't see quite the Q&A I was seeking. So I've figured out how to make macros, make them appear in macro-bar, and as a token-action. Also, same for Abilities. But - why use one vs the other? Especially since the abilities take up more room due to the token-name precursor.

Simply put, Macros appear on the bottom of the screen and have no connection to your character journal, are only viewable/usable by you (unless a GM made it and intentionally shared it), and are effectively stand-alone. The Abilities show up at the top of the screen whenever the associated token is clicked on. The "Show as Macro" is an optional display for things you'd like to use without having to click your token first. Abilities, however, are linked to your character journal, and thus your token. This allows anyone who can control your token to use those abilities. It also is inherently linked to your character, so you can directly reference attributes on your sheet without having to specify your characters name. Longer-term players often use Abilities over Macros to allow them to more easily refer to their character Attributes and to allow other players to "run their character" if they should miss a session.

I use abilities instead of macros for similar reasons as Mark G mentions: attributes referenced are in the form of @{ATTRIBUTE} instead of @{CHARACTER|ATTRIBUTE} they only show on my screen when I have the token selected the 'token action bar' screenwraps whereas the macrobar does not if I have access to someone else's character I can directly create attributes/abilities whereas I can't do the same with macros, which is important when I'm making macros for other people

Also, if you extend/copy the campaign, the abilities copy. Macros do not and would have to be recreated.

Diana P. said: Also, if you extend/copy the campaign, the abilities copy. Macros do not and would have to be recreated. @Diana, They fixed that, I believe. Macros do copy when you copy/extend a campaign, if you checkmark it. Go on 1 of your campaigns. Click Copy/Extend campaign. On the options for copying you will see a list that you can checkmark: Copy from this Campaign...... Players and Player Settings (Including Macros) Pages Decks Chat Log Journal (Characters & Handouts) Jukebox Playlist Campaign Forums

Huh. Guess I hadn't copied a campaign for purposes other than backup or to fix player doubling (so I had to exclude the players) recently. Good to know! :)

As everyone here has already said, i tend to sum it up as follows: Macros are global . Abilities are local . I use a large amount of global macros for the standard things in my campaign (skill checks, saves etc) as you can set these as token actions also if desired (to add them to top bar when a token is selected). Abilities are superb for those more personalised things , combat for me benefits from this as i could create specifically named abilities that all use the same global macro but tell the player what weapon they are attacking with, dealing damage with instead of a generic #attack1 #damage1 identifier. I also use abilities for special abilities and class skills like sneak attack that needn't be available for all players. Ofcourse i make sure to have all my macros in the list even when set as abilities too, just in case my monsters want to attempt an assassination too ;)

So macros will appear among all characters, but ability-macros will be tied to specific PC/NPCs?

Macros *can* appear among all characters. Abilities are tied to the specific character journal.

Yes, Macros have a setting to reveal them to just select players, or all players. However, you can also leave them open to just the GM(s). If you create an ability it'll be linked specifically to a character sheet, and unless you link it to another character sheet, only that character will be able to use it.

Ziechael said: combat for me benefits from this as i could create specifically named abilities that all use the same global macro but tell the player what weapon they are attacking with, dealing damage with instead of a generic #attack1 #damage1 identifier. I'm learning a lot from this thread from everyone so far! @ Ziechael.. I'm trying to envision how this works, maybe I just need to test it. To be clear I'm coming from a habit of using the Macros only (which I assign to "All Players" or a specific player as-desired). Can you possibly explain one more time, and/or show a screenshot, and/or show the actual macro code for what you're saying? Here's what I'm picturing. I already have an attack Macro for everyone. Mine says, effectively, Attacking with... ?What Weapon?| My Main Weapon /r d20 so the player types in "Sword" and it says "Attacking with Sword! Rolling... 9" So are you saying to set up an Ability called... MyWeapon ... and the value for the player would be Sword ... then change the macro to say... Attacking with #MyWeapon. .. and it would fill in sword ? Would that be the kind of thing you'd do with this?

Here are some reasons to use Abilities over Macros: 1) Abilities can be looked at by anyone able to access the character when you get the macro wrong. Macros cannot be looked by other people. 2) Abilities are connected to the character, Macros are connected to the player. If you are ever accidentally kicked out of the campaign you cannot recover your Macros. 3) If you are a Supporter or Mentor you can transfer your character (and its Abilities) from campaign to campaign via the Character Vault. You cannot transfer Macros this way. 4) A specific character's Abilities only show up on the Token Action bar when you click on the linked token. All Macros (when set) appear on the Token Action bar or Macro bar regardless of which character you may be controlling. In short, you should use Abilities most of the time.

Gold said: Ziechael said: combat for me benefits from this as i could create specifically named abilities that all use the same global macro but tell the player what weapon they are attacking with, dealing damage with instead of a generic #attack1 #damage1 identifier. I'm learning a lot from this thread from everyone so far! @ Ziechael.. I'm trying to envision how this works, maybe I just need to test it. To be clear I'm coming from a habit of using the Macros only (which I assign to "All Players" or a specific player as-desired). Can you possibly explain one more time, and/or show a screenshot, and/or show the actual macro code for what you're saying? Here's what I'm picturing. I already have an attack Macro for everyone. Mine says, effectively, Attacking with... ?What Weapon?| My Main Weapon /r d20 so the player types in "Sword" and it says "Attacking with Sword! Rolling... 9" So are you saying to set up an Ability called... MyWeapon ... and the value for the player would be Sword ... then change the macro to say... Attacking with #MyWeapon. .. and it would fill in sword ? Would that be the kind of thing you'd do with this? It's not quite as clean cut as it sounds but with minimal manual input my players can easily select the attack or damage macro that is appropriate for the weapon they want to use without looking at their character sheet every 5 minutes. For context, i use Diana's 3.5 character sheet which has 6 weapon slots, i always set up 6 as unarmed and the rest are free for the various weapons a brave adventurer might use. I then create abilities for (A) - attack and (D) - damage for each weapon which looks like: Using the following attack and damage macros i can then draw upon the weapons name, identify a target and compare results against AC: Attack: @{selected|token_name} attacks @{target|token_name} with their @{selected|weapon1name} rolling [[1d20cs> 18 ]] + [[d0+@{selected|BAB}[BAB] +@{selected|weapon1stat}[Ability] +@{selected|size}[size] +@{selected|weapon1enh}[Weapon1 Enh] +@{selected|weapon1focus}[Weapon1 Focus] + ?{Flank (1=yes)|0}*2[Flank] +?{Other Att Bonus?|0} ]] (check for crit for @{selected|weapon1critmult}x damage on [[@{target|armorclass}]] or better; confirm crit = [[1d20+@{selected|BAB}[BAB] +@{selected|weapon1stat}[Ability] +@{selected|size}[size] +@{selected|weapon1enh}[Weapon1 Enh] +@{selected|weapon1focus}[Weapon1 Focus] + ?{Flank (1=yes)|0}*2[Flank] +?{Other Att Bonus?|0} ]]) against @{target|token_name}'s armour class of [[@{target|armorclass}]]. Damage: @{selected|token_name} hits for [[1@{selected|weapon1damage} +@{selected|weapon1damagestat}[Weapon1DamageStat] +@{selected|weapon1enh}[Weapon1 Enh] +@{selected|weapon1specialize}[Weapon1 Specialization] +?{Other Damage Bonus?|0}[Other Damage Bonus]]] damage! The only bits I need to change on a character by character and weapon by weapon basis is the name of the ability and the critical threat chance in bold above (i've been too busy with my campaign to play with this but i reckon i could even automate that too). For each weapon slot the macro is the same although each instance of 'weapon1...' becomes 'weapon2...' and so on. Net result is that my players can see this at the top of their screen: And by clicking (A)Rapier, for example only has to select a target and add any other bonus modifiers they may have at that time (Bardic influence etc) to generate an attack roll that shows a hit, a threat, a confirmed crit all compared against AC. The damage roll is much the same, click the button (D)Rapier and add any temp modifiers and get a damage output in chat. Crit damage is set up under a different global macro since it isn't a regular occurrence but could be done in the same way. ps. in the token actions above, fortitude, will, reflex, seach, spot and listen are all globals and initiative is embedded in the character sheet which is why my token actions are out of order, a minor frustration. Until recently all my macros were global but i got fed up of players having to constantly remind themselves which number their weapon was lol. Now when they change weapon i just need to update the ability name and the crit chance :) Hope that helps a bit.