As announced in an earlier newsletter, a major upgrade to DM's Familiar is in the works. This newsletter features another sneak peek at a feature in that upcoming upgrade plus a special offer in honor of GM's Day.
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GM's Day: Special Offer for Book of Eldrtich Might II

THIS SPECIAL OFFER HAS EXPIRED
Did you know that today, March 4th, was GM's Day? Me neither. The websites of some of your favorite gaming companies are offering specials. And since I hate to be left out of any party, I'm offering a special as well! Purchase DM's Familiar today and you'll receive a free copy of The Book of Eldrtich Might II from Malhavoc Press and Monte Cook. Woo-hoo! Free present for buying DM's Familiar! This will be a limited time offer so go buy DMF right now! Yes, you! And, of course, anyone who buys DMF now will receive the major, super-cool, chock full of new features, upgrade as soon as it is released for FREE.

THIS SPECIAL OFFER HAS EXPIRED

Upgrade Sneak Peek: Sabin Attack Form
Last time I hinted that the way attacks are entered into DMF might have changed. This time, I will show you those changes. The new way to enter attacks is fondly known as The Sabin Attack form in honor of Todd Sabin who's idea this was.

The current attack form has a couple problems: Everything is crammed into one line which is hard to read if the attack gets very long and entering special abilities (Flame burst, sneak attack and such) is fairly complicated. The new form solves those problems.

Here's what the Attack tab on a creature might look like.

The top part of the creature shows what I call a "header". Basically, it's just a description of the overall attack. For this creature, he has 2 overall attacks: a 2 bladed sword +2/+1 with flame on one blade and frost on the other (this creature is also a theif so there's a sneak attack entry). The other attack is ranged with a Longbow. So good so far?

The area below that shows the attack "detail". Since the 2 bladed sword is highlighted, it shows the detail for the attack with the 2 bladed sword. Each line shows a description, the frequency of attacks, attack modifier, damage modifier, and any notes you want. If you like, you can type directly into that box to fix or change things.

That detail box is a little cryptic though so we provide a second screen where you can easily enter stuff:

This screen shows a breakdown of the attack the same way as the other creature screen does. For each detail line, it then breaks it all out for you in an easy to read, easy to data enter format. So what you see on this screen is the detail for the attack with the first blade of the 2 bladed sword. Note that the attack field is using the new MAB (melee attack bonus) variable and includes the +2 magic bonus for this blade. The damage field includes the +2 magic bonus as well as the new variable STR for calculating the STR bonus.

The second blade looks pretty much like the first blade. The Flame entry looks like this:

Note that the Attack field is empty since no attack roll is needed! The frost entry would look the same.

The sneak attack entry looks like this:

Note that the frequency field has {BAB#+1}. BAB# is a new variable for "number of melee attacks". So you get a sneak attack for however many melee attacks this creature gets (depending on his bab). I add 1 to this for the sneak attack with the 2nd blade. DMF does all the calculations automatically!

The final result when you make this attack on the combat board looks like this:

Now, keep in mind that this is a really complex example. In the old DMF, you really couldn't even do this. With the new DMF, attacks can be as complicated as you want to make them. Fairly cool, huh?

Also, the upgrade will convert all of your existing creatures into this new attack layout. Additionally, some of the beta testers have been working hard on upgrading all of the attacks for the SRD monsters. Once the upgrade is releaseed, you'll get a complete set of monsters that make use of all of the new variables and special things that DMF can do now.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that all of the fields in the attack detail support DMF's new variables as well as supporting dice rolls. So let's say you want to record that a certain attack has a Will save of based on the WIS of the attaker in the notes field. You can do a note field like: "Will Save DC{10+WIS}". In the output window of the attack you'll get a number calculated for you.

You might use a dice roll in the Frrequency field. Say you had a pit where the hapless victim lands on 1d4 spikes at the bottom. You can enter "1d4" in the Frequency field and DMF will roll the frequency and then make that many damage rolls.

(Did I say traps? Ooops, pay no attention to that.)